I was saying Bobby was a great mental nd emotional Coach but criticized his gameplan. Now, after the Spurs game i m impressed. Here s my explation why.
The Team came with a very unorthodox system, a 4-2-2-2. The Wingers acted at the center rather than classical 10s. Although, they often drifted to the outside, but mostly they was active at the half left and half right positions - like double 10s. While the fullbacks Zabaleta and Clichy acted very aggressively and procured the necessary width. Edin played schematically a little higher than Sergio. Toure and Barry formed our double six.
From the start we was stronger and offered to Tottenham rarely space. We were physically and technically superior to the game and played absolutely sovereign. Tottenham tried with two skilled game makers to act on the double six, but this attempt failed badly. I think in the modern Football, space in front of the back four is a death sentence. The lack of
balance at the double six rans into a humiliation. Kranjcar could never really secure Modric and his positional play was poor. He played more or less on a parallel line with Modric and left too much space between the lines, what Nasri and Silva mercilessly exploited.
Mancinis newest Coup -
Double Playmakers. This principle of two Playmakers could be seen side by side in a different form than the 4-1-4-1. Supported and protected by a double-six, from forwards nd agile fullbacks, Nasri and Silva
had a free role. The two sprang up everywhere on the pitch and controlled the pace of the game together. Due to the loose arrangement on central positions, they didnt ave to deal with Tottenhams D6 that much. They key here was Yaya Toure in combo with Barry. Hes now slowly but surely pushed back into the role of sixes, which he perform excellently. Yaya has limited his trips into the box. He serves mainly as a safe pass station? on the offensive and did high Pressing on the ball leaders. Yaya took a little break at the 63 - 70 mins and Spurs intermediatly won more room nd control. Gareth made our System flexible. Extra praise to Barry who played many good opening passes.
Bobby - Honorem ei, qui meritur. To came up with such an extremely complex and effective formation in such a short time is BRILLIANT. Another point for the double 10s is also the decrease at creative duties for Sergio. He can concentrate purely on the box, benefit will be more goals.
Dzekos role as the complete striker - A very interesting point. In the last game the role - or rather the evolution of Edin. Our bosnian Diamond has strongly developed on the fixed scoring striker to a complete striker, who participated in the building game, and managed to win fights, incredibly, even without loss of quality in front of goal.
As you can see, Dzeko is found all over the place. Falling in combination play with world-class skilled technicians like Nasri, Silva, Aguero , but, with hes strenght coupled with physical superiority he offers an safe option. He makes it easy in possessions for the whole Team. Dzeko played very many successful passes in the second third of the pitch. While he also moved his opponent Kaboul out of their defensive. Impressive stat, Edin had more contacts with the ball in Midfield as his partner Sergio. Mancini has discovered the possibilities of Dzeko (which are very complex - hes not a striker who just waits for the ball) and use him very well now. Edin deliberately in certain situations makes few more steps back, so he can participate in the development of the game. Another point, Mancini let them do positions chaning. So Dzeko falls down nd automaticly fits into Silvas Position, same with Aguero at left with Nasri. However i didn t noticed that at the Defence, there was moments where out Player completly forget that. Richards (my view) is a better Player for chaning the Position with Vinnie. Lescott nd Clichly/Kolarov have a big space to improve at this point.
Conclusion - In a wonderful football game Mancini managed to make a setup which put our strong performance, individually and collectively, on the upper hand. Deserved 5-1 away win. Our Team had from the beginning the game under control and took at the end 59% ball possession,the advantage of Spurs offesive Double Six. @arry, in case you missed it, that was Robertos Response. On the pitch.
