Tuchel's Inverted Fullbacks
Tactical Benefits and Implications
Thread ||
Tactical Benefits and Implications
Thread ||
Why this tweak?
This tactical tweak came about after 2 losses, to both Mancity and Juventus both in different ways. we had 2 major issues we struggled with
1. Creating clear cut chances
2. Playing with and Feeding a Focal point no 9(AKA Lukaku)
This tactical tweak came about after 2 losses, to both Mancity and Juventus both in different ways. we had 2 major issues we struggled with
1. Creating clear cut chances
2. Playing with and Feeding a Focal point no 9(AKA Lukaku)
City pinned us in our half and with our 352, we got cut off from Lukaku and Werner and couldn't even do our trademark counters under Tucheland play out. While at Juve we dominated the ball but failed to create clear-cut chances Lukaku's chance that Barkley's invention created.
For the first time ever under TT, we looked like a team bereft of ideas. I like many others noticed this and thought about whether we could have a tactical tweak that makes our dribblers attack opposition defenders more directly than just the inside forward roles allow
, to create space for our strikers/WB's to attack the box. we needed to use more dribbling ability possessed by our wingers to create space for others like City does with Mahrez/Sterling/Grealish/Foden often stay wide and do.
Of course, Tuchel noticed this and did something
Of course, Tuchel noticed this and did something
Inverted Wingbacks, what are they?
Inverted WBs/Fbs are those players that do the opposite of what a Wb/Fb does which is stay wide and stretch the pitch for the team. They instead stay centrally and act as auxiliary CM's and options to progress the ball and attack the halfspaces
Inverted WBs/Fbs are those players that do the opposite of what a Wb/Fb does which is stay wide and stretch the pitch for the team. They instead stay centrally and act as auxiliary CM's and options to progress the ball and attack the halfspaces
Lets see how Pep Guardiola the one that pretty much brought it to England explains it
"It comes from Germany, when they lose the ball they kill you on the counter-attack when our full-backs were wider "
Read the rest Below👇
"It comes from Germany, when they lose the ball they kill you on the counter-attack when our full-backs were wider "
Read the rest Below👇
The aim of using Inverted wingbacks(in our case) is so that there are extra bodies in the build-up in the center of the pitch. This works excellently especially for teams that prefer to build up through the center of the pitch like Tuchel's Chelsea does.
What it does is make the wing-backs come into midfield rather than stay wide during build-up, eliminates the redundancy of just making the WB pass back most times the wide areas are blocked by opposition fullbacks and wingers,
but instead to make them part of a midfield close together in between the lines that can move the ball through more fluidly and still retain the defensive solidity we possess.
This is how the team looks in midfield with the inverted wingers. We can end up having up to 4 players in the midfield. which helps to overload the center of the pitch. Notice how they move from wide positions to the midfield positions in the build-up
Let's see how they move in real-time. Notice the movement of Reece, Azpi, and Chilwell
To allow the wing-backs come inside the Wide CBs in the build up go really wide, then the Wing backs move into the half-spaces in between the midfield and the defence, or in the midfield between the winger and midfielder(Note those in the video above)
We've so far implemented these tweaks since the Southampton game before the intl break. Where Chilwell and Azpi tucked inside and Werner and Hudson Odoi stayed wide.
But the beauty of this is it's not totally static. There are constant rotations between them. We've seen lots of examples where The Wing back can also stay wide for the Inside forward to come inside, and vice versa.
When Chilwell also went inside, you can also see Kovacic or Rudiger cover. Rotations happen to replace other players in their previous positions, so the team can keep the same shape and prevent counters. Chilwell and Callum also did it a bunch of times, v Southampton
This play against Malmo from Chelsea back to front is everything interesting about the inside WBs. Azpi roamed the middle until he went to occupy the Malmo LCB, Kante's blindside run off the CM created space for the 1-2 and a BCC for Havertz even though we were 3v2 in midfield
What this does is it confuses the opposition Fullbacks and makes them try to stick to the wingbacks as they enter the halfspaces. while also trying to mark the winger and that indecision is enough time and space to wreak havoc.
It also creates space for Rudiger's rampaging runs
It also creates space for Rudiger's rampaging runs
This showed in beautiful bits of combination play against Malmo.
As we can see, Azpi spent most of the time roaming the centre of the pitch as a midfielder in the build up. Whenever he did that.
As we can see, Azpi spent most of the time roaming the centre of the pitch as a midfielder in the build up. Whenever he did that.
Kante filled in for him at WB or just widened the pitch more to make himself available for a pass
we also have the benefit of the Wing backs occupying the fullbacks which frees up more space for the 1 v 1 Wingers. Players like CHO/Pulisic will thrive from giving them more space to go direct against a defender.
Apart from staying in halfspaces the WBs also try to get in behind, we see it with City and Cancelo a number of times, like against Club Brugge
Here against Norwich, Chilwell did it a whole couple of times also. Jorginho and Silva tried to pick him out,
Here against Norwich, Chilwell did it a whole couple of times also. Jorginho and Silva tried to pick him out,
sometimes he would even try to run btw the Norwich's back 3 CBs. The ability of Kai to drop deep and pick up the ball(False 9 part) allowed Chilly space to make that run, Defenders aren't used to seeing a WB in those inside positions, so it distracts them from the real forwards
Another benefit of it is making is very easy to counter-press when we lose the ball because of the way we are tightly positioned close to each other. Tuchel has always done this, but having the WB's inside also makes it faster to diffuse the opposition counter
than our CB's stepping up, Since Tuchel came in, our Double sixes step up to Counter press which makes our Center backs, come into midfield, but if our WB's are positioned inside, we managed to stop the counters, foul or not before it got to the Center-backs
Finally, the last benefit is, Tuchel has the wing-backs overload the centre of the pitch during throw ins, notice the throw from Azpi and Chilwell has moved from his position(wider) to a midfield position to have space to receive the ball and break for a counter.
Azpi also does the same thing from a Chilwell throw. from both occasions, we break really fast and with Southampton's press, when we broke it, there was space to attack. It's all about Superiority all around the pitch to outnumber the opposition and play out of the press.
When I get more sample sizes of how we plan to use this against pressing teams and big teams' low blocks(Juventus at home) I will make it more comprehensive.
But the idea of this to counter being outnumbered in midfield and playing through the middle and creating overloads
But the idea of this to counter being outnumbered in midfield and playing through the middle and creating overloads
in different areas of the pitch is really effective and good to watch. It will be really interesting how we use the inverted fullbacks against a proper low block, and even though Newcastle have been more attacking of late and leaving space in behind,
their last game after the sacking of Steve Bruce has them playing a low-block again as Palace had a whopping 75% possession. So expect Chelsea to dominate and Newcastle to sit deep.
Thank you for your time.
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Thank you for your time.
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