It is time to write about Maresca ball. I am going to use some screen shot from this video. (It is a strange video)

This is Marescaball basic setup, 343 with inverted fb. This is a very common setup that is used everywhere. 

The key different between Maresca setup and some other setup is that marescaball is all about building through the middle aka central overload. So the player that will drop are the two 10 (sometimes also the 9) with the two winger stay high all the time.

Some team like city or us last season will rotate between their winger and 10. 

The benefit of building through the middle is that as the video said it is easy to get the ball to go left, right and middle because the distance between the ball and your other player is closer. The drawback is that if you lose the ball through the middle, it is also easier for your opp to go left right and middle. 

(btw mccgin job is to mark Palmer when he drop so villa lcm doesn't vacate the middle). 

The video continue with the ball goes to neto on the sideline. There is no advantage whatsoever here. Villa is in perfectly good shaped defensively. 

Jackson is marked by two CB. There is a villa player close to Palmer.  Villa has 3v2 on the right hand side with their rcm ready to help to double neto. 

All of this just is standard stuff. 

The more interesting play from Maresca ball is this. 

This is a screenshot from servette game.

Again similar 343 buildup this time KDH drop deep and Nkunku stays high. The ball get to Veiga, you can see Guiu drop pulling one of the cb with him. We saw many times where Jackson get the ball here and turn his marker, and if you can turn the CB, it is over because you have 3 v 2 in the middle. This is a massive tactical advantage. Now what happen if you have massive advantage but you have raw player? Servette actually scored from this play because Guiu lose the ball. 

I think everyone will agree that maresca is doing a very good job. His gameplan and tactic have been solid and effective (offensively, defensively I have more question) but as I said in Maresca thread, injury will be key because in the end of the day player execution is the one who decide the game not tactic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah yes, the same Sherwood that said Maresca took over a basketcase of a squad but now calling our players world class. 

11 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Ah yes, the same Sherwood that said Maresca took over a basketcase of a squad but now calling our players world class. 

When he said mcggin is confused what to do, I am like 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

You were a PL manager. 

A simple analysis of how Everton stifle our high powered attack :

As I posted above, Maresca offense is  all about outnumbering opp in the middle with the two 10 dropping

So Sean Dyche countered this by playing narrow 4141. 

As you can see above Everton has 4 player in the middle all the time which mean our two dm, two 10 are marked. The most interesting to see here is Everton two winger positioning. Both are playing very narrow, you can see harisson in 2nd pic marking Palmer as if he is a cm. 

This is a very interesting idea, it is better than 442/541 that team has used against us because against those system if we recycle the ball we can get a free man in the middle but with winger tuck in to create 4 in midifeld, it is very difficult. I can see smaller team copying Dyche idea against us.

 

Brighton 1st goal.

WC touch by Mitoma and Chalobah should have cleared it.

But Mitoma was Gusto man, I have to rewatch the replay a few times to make sure what is going on. It look like Gusto was ready to close Lamptey and that is scary. It was 4 v 4 at the back

Edited February 18, 20251 yr by Bob stark

This time simple analysis vs Villa.

Let's talk about defense first. I won't talk about the two goals that we conceded, it was quite obvious what was happening.

However let's talk about how we defended especially a new trend that many manager used this season which is full man to man defense.

This picture of encapsulate this new trend. You have your dm (Reece) pressing very high in opp box. You have your lb (Cucu) press up and you have your rw (Palmer) dropping to cover opp lb (Maatsen) and you have your cb parallel with your dm. If you show this pic to manager 10 years ago, they will think that you are crazy but you see more and more this in pl.

The benefit of this is pretty clear, no free guy and you can stop opp build up. The drawback is also clear.

One simple pass, late closed down and a flick and Villa get 3 v 2 with acre of space.

This is not a one time thing, we see this time and time again. This the reality of modern defending, your midfield and backline need to be very athletic so they can close down quickly and cover big ground. This is why player like Fofana who is lightning quick is so crucial for us and why Managers talked about ability to cover ground quickly in midfield is so important while defending.

Edited March 5, 20251 yr by Bob stark

On 05/03/2025 at 14:18, Bob stark said:

This time simple analysis vs Villa.

Let's talk about defense first. I won't talk about the two goals that we conceded, it was quite obvious what was happening.

However let's talk about how we defended especially a new trend that many manager used this season which is full man to man defense.

This picture of encapsulate this new trend. You have your dm (Reece) pressing very high in opp box. You have your lb (Cucu) press up and you have your rw (Palmer) dropping to cover opp lb (Maatsen) and you have your cb parallel with your dm. If you show this pic to manager 10 years ago, they will think that you are crazy but you see more and more this in pl.

The benefit of this is pretty clear, no free guy and you can stop opp build up. The drawback is also clear.

One simple pass, late closed down and a flick and Villa get 3 v 2 with acre of space.

This is not a one time thing, we see this time and time again. This the reality of modern defending, your midfield and backline need to be very athletic so they can close down quickly and cover big ground. This is why player like Fofana who is lightning quick is so crucial for us and why Managers talked about ability to cover ground quickly in midfield is so important while defending.

On the first picture above - I thought Maresca's "box midfield" was supposed to counter that exact issue. Instead we have a 4v4 in defence which simply becomes a 3v2 as you show later.

Also I thought they were supposed to be defending in a 4-5-1 shape, but this is more a useless 4-2-2-2 because they dont get back quickly enough?

15 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

On the first picture above - I thought Maresca's "box midfield" was supposed to counter that exact issue. Instead we have a 4v4 in defence which simply becomes a 3v2 as you show later.

Also I thought they were supposed to be defending in a 4-5-1 shape, but this is more a useless 4-2-2-2 because they dont get back quickly enough?

Box midfield is attacking shape.This is our off the ball shape and it is basically man to man.

4 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Box midfield is attacking shape.This is our off the ball shape and it is basically man to man.

Right. So it is simply that our man to man marking is too slow to react. I remember Maresca criticising this from pre-season, but it looks like little has changed 9 months on. In the end though, that particular play was pretty well defended, resulting only in a shot from a narrow angle.

Edited March 7, 20251 yr by SydneyChelsea

Simple analysis on the two goals that we conceded vs Ipswich.

It started with this. Maresca said in his pres that enzo going long in this instance is not a good idea, he is right but it is not the end of the world.

Ipswich cleared the ball, good back to goal play herst

But you can see a bizzare situation here. Cucurella turned his head and sprint back when the ball carrier is maybe just 1m in front of him. It confused Caicedo.

But this is one of the problem with inverted fb. Because Cucu is a dm and fb, he need to decide when to switch role defensively and in this instance he made wrong decision.

We all know what next. Cucu need to stop the cross and we have two 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 cb failing to mark Enciso.

2nd goal

Long goal kick, our cb alignment are a bit strange. Not sure why Chalobah is in the middle

Few flick and we got everybody in awkward position because there is giant space on the right side

Good cross by Enciso, not sure about Colwill positioning here, cucu should have done better but aerial battle is not his strengh.

Edited April 14, 20251 yr by Bob stark

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

Simple analysis on the two goals that we conceded vs Ipswich.

It started with this. Maresca said in his pres that enzo going long in this instance is not a good idea, he is right but it is not the end of the world.

Ipswich cleared the ball, good back to goal play herst

But you can see a bizzare situation here. Cucurella turned his head and sprint back when the ball carrier is maybe just 1m in front of him. It confused Caicedo.

But this is one of the problem with inverted fb. Because Cucu is a dm and fb, he need to decide when to switch role defensively and in this instance he made wrong decision.

We all know what next. Cucu need to stop the cross and we have two 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 cb failing to mark Enciso.

2nd goal

Long goal kick, our cb alignment are a bit strange. Not sure why Chalobah is in the middle

Few flick and we got everybody in awkward position because there is giant space on the right side

Good cross by Enciso, not sure about Colwill positioning here, cucu should have done better but aerial battle is not his strengh.

These things will always happen, in any system. Players are human and all systems have downsides.

The issue is not these specific times when something goes wrong - but instead, the overall nature and style of our play.

Generally speaking, we play slow, unprogressive, risk averse and predictable football. We are easy to play against. We don’t create many clear chances.

The manager needs to get the players playing faster, closing down faster, worrying less about possession for the sake of possession, but instead doing something with the ball when we have it.

He needs to stop the passing between cbs. Stop the slow build up play. Stop the endless backwards and sideways passing. A little less sleep inducing middle of the road podcast, a little more high octane rock and roll.

If he does that, gets the team playing with a high octane tempo, we will create problems for the other team, and not need to worry so much about these inevitable times during a game when something isn’t 100% correct (in Maresca eyes). He really shouldn’t be worrying about going long, and instead worry more about the general lethargy of our game.

Boring football when your keeper and defenders touch the ball and make more passes than the attacking unit. What happened to dictating play from midfield?

Edited April 16, 20251 yr by KonaKai Blue

Think that question got answered with the two Real vs Arsenal games

10 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

Think that question got answered with the two Real vs Arsenal games

There are always exceptions - but generally speaking you need both good tactics/system and the players to pull it off.

We won the champions league and got to within a slip of another one, having Avram and Robbie steering the ship….neither tactical geniuses. It is widely accepted that it was the players who got us there.

There are also times when we have seen awesome teams, get ruined by dodgy tactics (AVB and big phil spring to mind).

This current team has average to good players - but an awful manager/tactic/style/ststem. They are on a hiding to nothing….

Another post about Maresca defensive setup and how Howe gave it a problem. Newcastle played a suprise 343 system with Livramento and Murphy as wb.

So how do Maresca setup to defend against it. Once gain, it is man to man.

3 cb v Madueke - jackson - Palmer

Cucu on Murphy,neto on Livramento.

The key here is Murphy vs cucu. As you can see cucu is late jumping on Murphy (this is not a mistake by Cucu, it is difficult for Cucu to jump from lb to Murphy, this is just a very good tactic by howe).

You will also see Colwill now is man to man vs Barnes. I had a debate here about CB covering wide area. I am completely wrong. In Maresca setup cb need to absolutely defend wide area (I can't imagine how Silva will fare in this setup).

Another screenshot, that is your lb jumping close to opp box.Btw this is not the reason why we lose. Newcastle got into many good situations through this but they didn't score.

Stupid decision by Jackson, Lavia/Chalobah mistake on the ball + Caicedo being late to go back to correct position was more the reason we lose.

Edited May 13, 20251 yr by Bob stark

Many talked about Maresca changing his tactic in the 2nd half of last season which stiffle our offense. But tactically, what really changes?

This is villa "1st leg"

This is "2nd leg"

You don't need to be a pro manager to see the difference.

Edited June 18, 20251 yr by Bob stark

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Many talked about Maresca changing his tactic in the 2nd half of last season which stiffle our offense. But tactically, what really changes?

This is villa "1st leg"

This is "2nd leg"

You don't need to be a pro manager to see the difference.

Bob - what you seem to consistently ignore is the slow, stagnant, sideways passing - the uninventive, unimaginative and predictable way we have played for so often under Maresca.

It does not matter if you play 3, 4 or 5 at the back, or inverted wb's or any variety of the formation - if the instructions are for us to go out and play in his manner - it really doesn't matter.

As Cole Palmer said in the Conference league final - he had had enough of passing the ball backwards - and took it upon himself to go against the managers instructions. That won us the game. Not Marescas boring and predictable set up

14 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Bob - what you seem to consistently ignore is the slow, stagnant, sideways passing - the uninventive, unimaginative and predictable way we have played for so often under Maresca.

It does not matter if you play 3, 4 or 5 at the back, or inverted wb's or any variety of the formation - if the instructions are for us to go out and play in his manner - it really doesn't matter.

As Cole Palmer said in the Conference league final - he had had enough of passing the ball backwards - and took it upon himself to go against the managers instructions. That won us the game. Not Marescas boring and predictable set up

It looks like you don't get my post. The way we played when we were blitzing team for fun in the 1st half vs when everything looked like a grind is actually the same.

The one that change is how opp defend against Maresca central overload

On 18/06/2025 at 22:25, nonotnowjim said:

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

It looks like you don't get my post. The way we played when we were blitzing team for fun in the 1st half vs when everything looked like a grind is actually the same.

The one that change is how opp defend against Maresca central overload

I did get your point - but it's short-sighted to ignore the fact that opposition teams will always adapt. That’s the nature of top-level football. It’s not enough to stick rigidly to one idea and hope it keeps working. Whether it’s formation or structure, it’s irrelevant if the overall style remains slow, stagnant, and predictable. What catches teams out once won’t keep working. Maresca needs to show adaptability - otherwise, we’ll keep running into the same wall.

I dont care if its the same system/formation, or a different system/formation. What needs to change is the mentality. The risk averse, sideways/backwards dross has to go. Just because the system/formation was the same early on in the season doesnt change that....

3 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Maresca needs to show adaptability - otherwise, we’ll keep running into the same wall.

This is the biggest area of observation coming into this next season.

Simple conclusion is that Maresca needs 2 styles of play if he wants to be successful. One against sides that will press us (which he has done) and one against sides that will be more conservative and clog their own half (which he is still struggling to do).

On 20/06/2025 at 18:37, Sconnie Blue said:

This is the biggest area of observation coming into this next season.

Simple conclusion is that Maresca needs 2 styles of play if he wants to be successful. One against sides that will press us (which he has done) and one against sides that will be more conservative and clog their own half (which he is still struggling to do).

I don't think playstyle is the problem.

Basically in the 1st half of the season, team has problem finding good solution to stop Maresca central progression. It was so easy for us to feed central player who will carry the ball forward get 2 v 1 and feed winger in acre of space.

2nd half of the season, team adapted and even if we move the ball around, it is harder for us to find easy ball through the middle. So our winger or sometimes Palmer has to drop in lb/rb zone to pick up the ball which mean everything become slower.

Just a quick reply on the topic: I think in general when you have a ton of new and especially young players and a new manager in a new league you need to concentrate much more on tactics and be repetitive in most aspects of the game.

If you don't you have no fallback on where the players can lean onto when the gut or the instinct is overshadowed by tiredness or an experienced opponent who wants to stifle your football and creativity, you will lose those games and start to slide. I think this is something that happened with Lampard after a brilliant stretch of games in the season where he was sacked.

When Di Matteo took over from that Portuguese whose name I always forget he said the idea was just to keep the spirits up which he did brilliantly. AVB!

The squad was so experienced and knew exactly what to do no matter who the coach really was. Not to take anything away from Robbie of course.

Just an example which might not be perfect but if you let Palmer slide on defensive duties in this squad Madueke starts asking the gaffer why doesn't he have to defend and so on. Some coaches could do that but I think Enzo is from the Italian School of coaches where team comes first. Always much trickier with young lads in that sense.

On 20/06/2025 at 14:37, nonotnowjim said:

I did get your point - but it's short-sighted to ignore the fact that opposition teams will always adapt. That’s the nature of top-level football. It’s not enough to stick rigidly to one idea and hope it keeps working. Whether it’s formation or structure, it’s irrelevant if the overall style remains slow, stagnant, and predictable. What catches teams out once won’t keep working. Maresca needs to show adaptability - otherwise, we’ll keep running into the same wall.

I dont care if its the same system/formation, or a different system/formation. What needs to change is the mentality. The risk averse, sideways/backwards dross has to go. Just because the system/formation was the same early on in the season doesnt change that....

The question is why Maresca doesn't allow our player to run forward more, make riskier pass, move more?

I want to do a simple analysis on our upcoming opp, PSG.

How they attack, how they defend.

Let's start with build up phase.

They build in 334 shape but it is very flexible. The one who stay back making back 3 can be one of the dm or the lb.

Hakimi will go inside outside depending on the same with Doue. The other winger, kvicha usually stay wide all the time.However the one who will support kvicha is quite flexible, it can be either one of the lb or one of the midifelder.

Fabian ruiz will go left and right and Dembele will float everywhere.

The right hand side of PSG with hakimi and Doue is definitely PSG "stronger" side but it is still kvicha. Long story shot we need gusto to be on his A game against kvicha. A fully fit Reece will be my pick but fully fit is the key word here.

On the right hand side. Neto/Madueke will need to go full man to man with hakimi if hakimi stay wide and if Doue go outside we need Cucu on his A game.

But the danger does not just stop there. With Dembele floating, PSG like to overload one side. This is Madrid in low block.

3 man game with Dembele overloading and Doue playing as dm.

The next action, Doue going up and helping in attack which turn this into 4 man game. He flicked the ball for hakimi who cross the ball finding Mendes (PSG lb) which forced good save by courtois.

Imo we need to play 3 midfielder, or probably the best system will be 343 with two defensive 10 (If we still have our CL final team, I am probably will be quite confident playing this PSG team). The three midfielder need to be disciplined, otherwise it can be over very quickly. PSG could be 2-0 up after 5 min in this game with real playing 3 midfielders.

To put it simply, PSG offense is just very flexible, fast with lots of skill player and extremely offensive. Unlike many team who want to keep 3-2 / 3-1 behind the ball all the time, PSG will go all out.

Defense

Honestly I don't have to write how PSG play defense because if you play football this offensive you will be very vurnerable in transition and there is only one way for you to play defense. It is super high press and PSG use 433/451.

Lavia ability to beat press will be good here (injured) and delap ability to win header will be helpful if we are forced to go long however we also want speed in transition, maybe Joao Pedro will be the better option or we can loan Haaland from city.

Imo if we defend well and clinical in transition I think we have a very good chance in this game. Am I confident? We are pretty good transition team but defense is a big question mark.

Edited July 10, 20251 yr by Bob stark

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

I want to do a simple analysis on our upcoming opp, PSG.

How they attack, how they defend.

Let's start with build up phase.

They build in 334 shape but it is very flexible. The one who stay back making back 3 can be one of the dm or the lb.

Hakimi will go inside outside depending on the same with Doue. The other winger, kvicha usually stay wide all the time.However the one who will support kvicha is quite flexible, it can be either one of the lb or one of the midifelder.

Fabian ruiz will go left and right and Dembele will float everywhere.

The right hand side of PSG with hakimi and Doue is definitely PSG "stronger" side but it is still kvicha. Long story shot we need gusto to be on his A game against kvicha. A fully fit Reece will be my pick but fully fit is the key word here.

On the right hand side. Neto/Madueke will need to go full man to man with hakimi if hakimi stay wide and if Doue go outside we need Cucu on his A game.

But the danger does not just stop there. With Dembele floating, PSG like to overload one side. This is Madrid in low block.

3 man game with Dembele overloading and Doue playing as dm.

The next action, Doue going up and helping in attack which turn this into 4 man game. He flicked the ball for hakimi who cross the ball finding Mendes (PSG lb) which forced good save by courtois.

Imo we need to play 3 midfielder, or probably the best system will be 343 with two defensive 10 (If we still have our CL final team, I am probably will be quite confident playing this PSG team). The three midfielder need to be disciplined, otherwise it can be over very quickly. PSG could be 2-0 up after 5 min in this game with real playing 3 midfielders.

To put it simply, PSG offense is just very flexible, fast with lots of skill player and extremely offensive. Unlike many team who want to keep 3-2 / 3-1 behind the ball all the time, PSG will go all out.

Defense

Honestly I don't have to write how PSG play defense because if you play football this offensive you will be very vurnerable in transition and there is only one way for you to play defense. It is super high press and PSG use 433/451.

Lavia ability to beat press will be good here (injured) and delap ability to win header will be helpful if we are forced to go long however we also want speed in transition, maybe Joao Pedro will be the better option or we can loan Haaland from city.

Imo if we defend well and clinical in transition I think we have a very good chance in this game. Am I confident? We are pretty good transition team but defense is a big question mark.

They were all over the shop defensively early against Bayern. Bayern could and should have been a couple up.