Pep’s latest tactical masterclass

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Rodri’s ACL

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Just watched this video. Looks like we could be in for a fun season. Initially, I was worried by the lack of defensive cover, but Rodri and Reijnders did a lot defensively vs Juventus, which makes me a lot more satisfied. It’ll be tricky for teams to put a stop to us this season. Makes me wonder how far we could go in the CWC with the new system, nevermind the rest of the season.
 
Rodri’s ACL said:

Just watched this video. Looks like we could be in for a fun season. Initially, I was worried by the lack of defensive cover, but Rodri and Reijnders did a lot defensively vs Juventus, which makes me a lot more satisfied. It’ll be tricky for teams to put a stop to us this season. Makes me wonder how far we could go in the CWC with the new system, nevermind the rest of the season.
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Thanks for posting the video. Love the new interchangeable full backs and wingers.

Full back will start out wide, wingers will come inside and play closer to Haaland then then the switch happens.

This is why I think nunes stays.

Still don’t have a clue who is going to have to go.

Exciting times are back, not that we had to wait very long. Pep will always find a way to tweak. Hopefully no more low block trouble scoring. Still worried about the two CBs on transitions but that’s the risk v reward.
 
wolviedinho said:
Thanks for posting the video. Love the new interchangeable full backs and wingers.

Full back will start out wide, wingers will come inside and play closer to Haaland then then the switch happens.

This is why I think nunes stays.

Still don’t have a clue who is going to have to go.

Exciting times are back, not that we had to wait very long. Pep will always find a way to tweak. Hopefully no more low block trouble scoring. Still worried about the two CBs on transitions but that’s the risk v reward.
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Yeah, I don’t see who can do Nunes’ job going forward (which I think is the primary job of the fullbacks in this setup) and be much better of a defender that warrants spending what could be £50m odd.
 
Rodri’s ACL said:
Yeah, I don’t see who can do Nunes’ job going forward (which I think is the primary job of the fullbacks in this setup) and be much better of a defender that warrants spending what could be £50m odd.
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I can still see the club buying a RB. Akanji can’t do what nunes does going forward, ie running into space.

The system tweak will have a few players realising their playing time maybe up.
 
It’s all well and good pointing to this tournament as “Pep’s new tactics” and believing we have found a way to thwart the low block, but this is not the Prem and teams are happy to sit and wait for a break at the Etihad, whereas this is tournament football where goals are needed.

Our problem going forward is that we often have too little movement of the forward line once we get to the 30 yard line and are looking for the gaps.

The best thing I’ve seen in these games is the number of times we have slipped the ball through the lines in behind the full back and got our rewards. Nunes run for the own goal was exceptional, and Doku took full advantage of RAN’s ball in behind for the opener.

Throw in the number of players we have now who can score from outside the box (we already had the most goals from outside the box in the PL last season) and we should be scaring the opposition defences shitless in their video sessions before the game!!
 
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So as far as I can tell, Pep looks like he's about to break the man to man powerful midfield tactic by completely overrunning the midfield with people who pull you everywhere and then unleashing basically one of about five players once you've dragged their team all over the place. Or rather than trying to a low block out of place you do it further up the field and create space?
 



I thought that was an interesting point, in fact that whole thread is from a tactical standpoint but the Spurs and Brighton games were definitely eye openers where we realised we can't apply a full press and instead force the opponent to one side and the pitch and then strangle them.

This explains it quite well and only a very short video:
 
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