Is Mancini adapting his Inter tactics? [Tactics talk]

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And for completeness here's the chalkboards for the rest of the midfield...


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[Deleted member 14625]

Yesterday looked like very very close to 442 with a midfield diamond.

.......................................................hart..............................................
Richards...................Kompany....................Lescott.................Kola......

.................................................Yaya...................................................
.............................Milner............................Barry................................
.................................................Silva...................................................

...................................Dzeko.................Kun........................................

Be interested to know if anyone agrees.

That's exactly what it was if you were to write it on paper (or post it on the Internet).

But for me formations are not all that important throughout a lot of the game. When we have the ball anyone can be anywhere, players interchanging and moving fluidly around the pitch where space opens up. Of course - before anyone says it - I don't mean that Kompany can play up front, I just mean that wherever the space opens up that's what you take advantage of. The formation is only really important when defending or when we first get the ball back. Once we progress possession further up the pitch it doesn't matter were anyone is as long as they get themself into space to be passed the ball in and he has someone to pass to who has also found space and so on and so on. That's all football is about, making the most of the space you can find. If you do that well, football is an easy sport to play.

Rugby league is the same... manipulate space and exploit it, do that and you'll win!

I don't think Barcelona have a formation. They certainly aren't 4-3-3. They are 4-1-5 if anything but even then they aren't that. When they have the ball they are often a 2-3-5 - that could be for 70% of the game, but you'd never get a team line-up described as 2-3-5 even if Barca play like that for almost the whole time they are in posession.
When defending, well I'll rephrase that, when winning the ball back Barca sometimes hunt in packs and people run out of a traditional position. If they didn't win the ball back they'd actually be out of position a lot of the time, so again going against a formation. But fortunately for them, their hunting actually works and thus their players being out of position doesn't matter.

Ferguson has had United playing with different formations during individual games. They might look on paper at the start of the game 4-4-2, for example, but throughout the game they play all sorts of ways.

So formations to me aren't particularly important.

 

[Peteri]

I think somebody said about Milan: 4-2-Fantasia.

That's what I think Mancini is playing as well.

 

[borassic]

Think the previous poster is correct, we seemed to play with the usual 4 at the back with Toure and Barry holding (Barry a little further forward) then there was brilliant fluidity from the front 4 with Dzeko and Aguero tending to stay more central. I noticed from the chalkboards most of our attacks were also down the left (more so second half), maybe Mancini was targeting Bolton's right back.

 

[Outrun]

Is it time for an update.. or should just wait to see who we bring and how they change our formation and tactics?

Certainly!

Re-reading this thread, it's fun to see how many of us got the tactics right. It's also fun to see how many of us got some parts wrong. I see I myself claimed Silva was not at all playing a wide left winger role on page 14, while it has been appareny over the season that he has, even though with a free role. Reading the OP, I'm pleased to see how much De Jong's creativity has evolved over season.

I was going to update this thread anyway after yesterday's match, because it was fun to see Milner in his role. I felt like Milner and Yaya now shared the same role. Over the season, it has seemed like De Jong has been DM, Barry DM/CM and Yaya AM. Yesterday, we seemed to play with De Jong as DM and Milner and Yaya as two CM's. It was more along the path of how Mancini played at Inter:
Zanetti - Cambiasso - Vieira. Two CMs who can cross the ball and play passes, while a DM (Cambiasso/De Jong) in the middle who clean up in front of the defense. (Keep in mind that at Inter, Vieira was much more of a box-to-box midfielder to compared to his aging version here)

Will be interesting to see how Mancini aim when buying players this summer. Will he keep up with the same formation or go with something else?

In my world we seem to lack some things:
*A good left back, or the hope of Kolarov finding a pair of balls this summer.
*A good crossing winger (IF we keep Dzeko) who can compete for places. I'm happy with Silva but Johnson needs a competitor for his spot, SWP isn't good enough in my view. (I expect either Tevez or Balotelli leaving)
*A really creative CM. And by creative, I mean REALLY creative. Must be someone good, otherwise I'm happy to continue playing Yaya - De Jong - Milner, with Barry as back-up.

Anyone got some other suggestions or comments?

like this whole thread, but wanted to bump especially this post with the impending signing of Nasri.

" It was more along the path of how Mancini played at Inter:
Zanetti - Cambiasso - Vieira. Two CMs who can cross the ball and play passes, while a DM (Cambiasso/De Jong) in the middle who clean up in front of the defense."

will we have that now, Yaya and Nasri the two CMs, with De Jong of course the DM?

I guess. At least with Yaya and Milner, not sure where Nasri will be positioned if we get him.

We played very offensively minded yesterday, that obviously won't work against a team with strong wingers and inner midfield. Bolton's central midfield showed no threat at all, they didn't have the quality to do so. Their wingers/side midfielders being poor also allowed Kolarov, but most importantly Richards, to walk in however they liked. We know what Petrov thinks about tracking back.

Barry controlled it well, but most importantly because the Bolton players didn't pass the ball quick enough between them. Barry is good at reading the game but obviously, slow and big. He had a great game defensively (and offensively), but that was because Bolton allowed him to. Put him against a couple of quick, capable passing attackers and it may not be as pleasant. Glad we have De Jong to back him up for those games.

Davies outmanouvered Lescott in the air several times. No biggie for most matches, since Davies is one of the best fighters/headers in the league. But he's not the tallest. What happens when we play in the CL against tall players like Ibra or world class headers? Still, glad to have him.

Loved how we played, we never gave up. Loved that particular thing, that everyone really seemed to want to be there. They showed themselves, they all wanted the ball. That ingridient is what makes United so good. And I believe it's what gives United all those late goals even though they don't play the most beautiful football (like right now against Spurs). Kudos to Milner and Kolarov who I think play so much better football this year than before.

 

[Peteri]

its been posted before.

if nasri signs and mancini wants to play very attacking and creative:

hart
richards-komp-joleon-clichy
de jong
nasri-yaya
silva
dzeko-aguero

4-4-2 diamond narrow

with clichy and richards doing the wing work

or

4-2-2-2:

hart
richards-komp-joleon-clichy
de jong-yaya
nasri-silva
dzeko-aguero

however, i think mancini does best to let the front 4 silva-nasri-dzeko-aguero roam. which i get the impression he is already doing.

width is needed if you can't get through the center. clichy and richards are well equipped to cross the ball. but they should in my opinion be low hard crosses. dzeko is a big guy, but it seems to me he prefers the ball at his feet. and aguero most definitely prefers the ball at his feet. in the game against bolton it took milner a long time (which pissed me off to a high extent) to realize the cross-and-pray-high-balls to the far post didnt work. if we had two carroll´s up top, sure, but not with aguero and dzeko.

imho floating crosses are for teams who dont have the skill to pass the ball through the center. look at barcelona, they almost never cross the ball. we certainly have the skill to pass the ball into the box. so personally i dont think we need width in the form of outright wingers. clichy and richards are more than capable to provide the width needed.

 

[cibaman]

I think the 4-2-2-2 is the nearest representation but it will be fluid.

Silva is too hard to categorise. He come inside too much to be called a wide player, but drifts out wide too often to be described as a CM. I think Nasri will play the same role on the other side of the pitch.

The key will be their movement off the ball. It seems to me that our other midfield players have become much better at filling the gap when Silva roams about. They'll need to be a even better at that when Nasri plays. And Silva and Nasri will also need to be disciplined when they take it in turn to roam about.

Its either a marriage made in heaven or a potential disaster. Hopefully the former

 

[Akira]

The best guess would be employing three attacking midfielders like this:

Silva -- Aguero -- Nasri

Nasri will play the same way as Silva but more central. Silva, as usual comes deep to collect the ball, but drifts wide. Aguero doesn't come down as deep, so he will act more like a second striker to Dzeko.


They will be supported by 2 defensive mids:

NDJ -- Yaya

They will continue to do what they do best, Yaya might revert to a more 'passer' role with the occasional license to steamroll forward.


With the absence of wings, the full backs have the responsibility to come forward often like they have been doing all along.


There, my guess:

NDJ -- Yaya
Silva -- Aguero -- Nasri
Dzeko

 

[the--dud]

The best guess would be employing three attacking midfielders like this:

Silva -- Aguero -- Nasri

Nasri will play the same way as Silva but more central. Silva, as usual comes deep to collect the ball, but drifts wide. Aguero doesn't come down as deep, so he will act more like a second striker to Dzeko.


They will be supported by 2 defensive mids:

NDJ -- Yaya

They will continue to do what they do best, Yaya might revert to a more 'passer' role with the occasional license to steamroll forward.


With the absence of wings, the full backs have the responsibility to come forward often like they have been doing all along.


There, my guess:

NDJ -- Yaya
Silva -- Aguero -- Nasri
Dzeko

This is exactly what I think - quality post :)
Occasionally Barry or Milner might step in for NDJ or Yaya. Balotelli and AJ will sometimes start/sub one of the three attacking midfielders as well.

 

[beautiful_mind]

Interesting discussion indeed !

The formation is not as important as tactical movements. Manchini is starting to exploit Edin's versatility. Just has to be improved to a perfection.

Syncing Edin's movements out of the box(stretching the defense) plus combining that with his perfect passes and Nasri,Silva,Aguero using created space in the box is the key point !!!

Copy Edin's way of playing to Baloteli when he is in and there you have a City signature for the season.