13 minutes ago, dermott said:

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

The way psg play, not a surprise. It is crazy offensive. If we can be clinical, we have a good chance.

I am honestly big fan of the way PSG play. It is crazy fun to watch, much better than Guardiola school of football of no dribbling, fix position, rest defense that we saw many team play.

2 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

The way psg play, not a surprise. It is crazy offensive. If we can be clinical, we have a good chance.

I am honestly big fan of the way PSG play. It is crazy fun to watch, much better than Guardiola school of football of no dribbling, fix position, rest defense that we saw many team play.

Bayern blitzed them early. Not sure blitz is in the Maresca dictionary.

i always question whether i can be arsed to read this thread then i open it to a dissertation littered with pictures and realise that that no i absolutely can't be arsed

3 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

i always question whether i can be arsed to read this thread then i open it to a dissertation littered with pictures and realise that that no i absolutely can't be arsed

I've always favoured the kick and kick tactics: kick a ball or kick an opponent 😇

I finally find an easy app to draw tactic so let's talk Maresca ball. Why was it so effectively early, why was it less effective since then n how do they compare to PSG n Pool.

This days especially in PL, the defending meta is diamond 442.

So how does Maresca 343 cause team problems. Maresca offense is about attacking through the middle all the time. The goal is to find one of the dm/10/9 in the middle and attack through him.

As you can see in this pic it is impossible for red no 6 to defend both our no 4 n 5 so we can straight away attack our opp through he middle.

So to stop us doing this, team will bring one of their player to mark our dm

As you can see now our no 10 is free and we have a Colwill who can zip the ball straight from ccb all the way to that player and we can cook our opp.

What happen if they ask their dm to mark our 10.

Our no 9 Jackson will drop, once again we have a Colwill and we have a 9 who has the ability to spin defender and we will go 3v3

This is what we do again and again. Recycle the ball, move opp around find the free central player and cook opp. The offense is flowing. Everyone is happy, Maresca is a genius.

Then what change? Our opp is not dumb.

Instead of sitting in the middle, the free dm will sit a bit wider which force our 10 to receive the ball in wider area which force the attack wider which is not exactly our strength. Furthermore we lose Jackson for period of time and opp CB is more aggressive in marking and stopping him from turning.

So our offense in 2nd half become get the ball to our winger cross which is not exactly our strengths. Not just because Jackson is not a box threat but except Madueke, none of our winger is good at 1v1.

How do our offense compare to pool n PSG?

The setup is very similar, pretty much everyone play 343/334 however Pool n psg does not predominantly attack through the middle because when you have Barcola, Dembele, Doue, hakimi, kvicha, Salah, Diaz why would you. Get the ball to this elite winger, give them space and support, combine, cook. Furthermore for pool case if you mark everyone they will just kick long ball for salah to chase.

2 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

I finally find an easy app to draw tactic so let's talk Maresca ball. Why was it so effectively early, why was it less effective since then n how do they compare to PSG n Pool.

This days especially in PL, the defending meta is diamond 442.

So how does Maresca 343 cause team problems. Maresca offense is about attacking through the middle all the time. The goal is to find one of the dm/10/9 in the middle and attack through him.

As you can see in this pic it is impossible for red no 6 to defend both our no 4 n 5 so we can straight away attack our opp through he middle.

So to stop us doing this, team will bring one of their player to mark our dm

As you can see now our no 10 is free and we have a Colwill who can zip the ball straight from ccb all the way to that player and we can cook our opp.

What happen if they ask their dm to mark our 10.

Our no 9 Jackson will drop, once again we have a Colwill and we have a 9 who has the ability to spin defender and we will go 3v3

This is what we do again and again. Recycle the ball, move opp around find the free central player and cook opp. The offense is flowing. Everyone is happy, Maresca is a genius.

Then what change? Our opp is not dumb.

Instead of sitting in the middle, the free dm will sit a bit wider which force our 10 to receive the ball in wider area which force the attack wider which is not exactly our strength. Furthermore we lose Jackson for period of time and opp CB is more aggressive in marking and stopping him from turning.

So our offense in 2nd half become get the ball to our winger cross which is not exactly our strengths. Not just because Jackson is not a box threat but except Madueke, none of our winger is good at 1v1.

How do our offense compare to pool n PSG?

The setup is very similar, pretty much everyone play 343/334 however Pool n psg does not predominantly attack through the middle because when you have Barcola, Dembele, Doue, hakimi, kvicha, Salah, Diaz why would you. Get the ball to this elite winger, give them space and support, combine, cook. Furthermore for pool case if you mark everyone they will just kick long ball for salah to chase.

Alright gaffer, loving the tactical diagrams...I am a HUGE fan. But I have a small request on behalf of the colour-blind brigade on this forum....

Any chance we can tweak the colours of the dots? Right now, they all blend together like a Man City press – relentless and indistinguishable. It’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube in the dark after five pints.

Would it be possible to make one set of dots light black and the others dark grey? Those subtle shades stand out much better to some of our users....

Thanks Bob!

I think I have the perfect plan for when we play PSG. We all know PSG press high, circling around our backline like lions.

Our response? Every single player just steams straight through the middle and up the pitch like they’re late for Nico Jacksons leaving do.....

A few too many red markers on this tactics board, but you get the idea - pure genius....

Neto as defensive winger, 3 midifelder with Enzo as 10. Chalobah + Colwill as cb. PSG skechy defending, leaving crazy space. We are pretty good transition team and we were Clinical. Easy win.

Some team it is more difficult to gameplan but this psg strength and weakness is too obvious.

Edited July 14, 20251 yr by Bob stark

Simple analysis on our goal.

1st goal.

Simple long ball, good play by gusto. Dangerous, 3v3 but this is how psg defend, normal stuff.

Palmer free 😂😂😂

2nd goal, just bad decision by psg attacker, counter, brilliant play by Palmer.

3rd goal. Press bait.

Palmer free 😂😂😂

Cole Palmer started high and just step back while the rest of the attacker push up to create space. I have seen us doing this many times last season, it didn't work that well in 2nd half.

Palmer was being man marked and kick around for the whole season, it is unthinkable for him to be this free. Enrique really underestimate Palmer.

Edited July 15, 20251 yr by Bob stark

PSG can be got at in behind, Bayern did it early on, we did it better for longer. Best form of defence is attack is their philosophy. Neto tying up Hakimi, and Gusto, Pedro and Palmer tying up Mendes were keys.

Hakimi and Mendes play like wingers.

You either have Hakimi push on and Mendes drops into a back three or they both push on and Vitinha drops into the LCB role (like the second goal). Having Neto and Gusto willing to exploit the space they left and also be able to track the wing backs and drop into a back 5 won us this game.

Hopefully Maresca has seen the light and is less stubborn with the inverted full backs now.

@SydneyChelsea

I don't want to flood other thread with pic so once again I will just use this thread.

Grey team defend with +1 at the back and - 1 up front. Grey team press, the ball goes to gk.

The freeman is the lb so you want the ball goes the lb which mean your gk need to do chip ball to that lb.

Now opp play man marking. Same sequence.

There is no freeman because of the man marking. So you need to go long either to the st or one of the winger.

Going long or short in this scenario got nothing to do with counter/possession football, the different is the way opp defend.

That is it. Sanchez has been doing this all season, nothing new.

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

@SydneyChelsea

I don't want to flood other thread with pic so once again I will just use this thread.

Grey team defend with +1 at the back and - 1 up front. Grey team press, the ball goes to gk.

The freeman is the lb so you want the ball goes the lb which mean your gk need to do chip ball to that lb.

Now opp play man marking. Same sequence.

There is no freeman because of the man marking. So you need to go long either to the st or one of the winger.

Going long or short in this scenario got nothing to do with counter/possession football, the different is the way opp defend.

That is it. Sanchez has been doing this all season, nothing new.

There's literally news articles with written proof from the managers mouth that he told our GK's to not go long. I honestly don't know how you're still arguing this.

13 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

There's literally news articles with written proof from the managers mouth that he told our GK's to not go long. I honestly don't know how you're still arguing this.

No manager will ask their gk to go short on the 2nd instance.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

No manager will ask their gk to go short on the 2nd instance.

Of course, but that 2nd instance is very rare. In fact what we saw post-December was teams only pressing with one forward and flooding the other two zones, forcing the short pass.

If even I can see that Sanchez is a monster with the long pass but atrocious when he's forced to keep it short, I promise every video analyst in the EPL has already reached the same conclusion.

Looking at the first goal at PSG, Sanchez ignored the free man (James) short and instead hit the long ball to an overlapping fullback. That is a play we have not seen attempted in a very long time.

Edited July 19, 20251 yr by SydneyChelsea

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Of course, but that 2nd instance is very rare. In fact what we saw post-December was teams only pressing with one forward and flooding the other two zones, forcing the short pass.

If even I can see that Sanchez is a monster with the long pass but atrocious when he's forced to keep it short, I promise every video analyst in the EPL has already reached the same conclusion.

Looking at the first goal at PSG, Sanchez ignored the free man (James) short and instead hit the long ball to an overlapping fullback. That is a play we have not seen attempted in a very long time.

PSG is on man to man, if sanchez pass this to james, Maresca will go mental

Let's just use that Twitter clip.

1.

Who is the free man? Cucu, chip ball.

2.

Who is the free man? Also Cucu, but the angle is extremely difficult, punt long.

3.

Who is the free man? Nobody, punt long

11 hours ago, Bob stark said:

No manager will ask their gk to go short on the 2nd instance.

Please just read what Maresca said. This evidence was there for 80% of last season.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Let's just use that Twitter clip.

1.

Who is the free man? Cucu, chip ball.

2.

Who is the free man? Also Cucu, but the angle is extremely difficult, punt long.

3.

Who is the free man? Nobody, punt long

Colwill is the free man in both those first two pictures BTW

Let's talk about our pre season and whether Maresca is doing something new.

The setup is similar to last season with one clear different which is Palmer positioning. Palmer usually played in left/right pocket but in pre season he played mostly in the middle

So it is more of 3133 than 343.

With 3 in the middle, Cucurella now have more license to make lots of run from deep to disrupt opp backline.

This is interesting twist, is this a back 5 buster or a new twist for next season, we have to wait. But I like this, in 2nd of last season teams has pretty much figured out our offense and you have to continue adapting.

15 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Let's talk about our pre season and whether Maresca is doing something new.

The setup is similar to last season with one clear different which is Palmer positioning. Palmer usually played in left/right pocket but in pre season he played mostly in the middle

So it is more of 3133 than 343.

With 3 in the middle, Cucurella now have more license to make lots of run from deep to disrupt opp backline.

This is interesting twist, is this a back 5 buster or a new twist for next season, we have to wait. But I like this, in 2nd of last season teams has pretty much figured out our offense and you have to continue adapting.

In my opinion, this is what Maresca wanted to do last year but he couldn't because we didn't have personnel or required manpower with the ability to perform in this system.

This system thrives on fast transitions and athleticism to make use of the player's technical skills in the final third.

46 minutes ago, Deino said:

In my opinion, this is what Maresca wanted to do last year but he couldn't because we didn't have personnel or required manpower with the ability to perform in this system.

This system thrives on fast transitions and athleticism to make use of the player's technical skills in the final third.

Not really. You replace estevao with Madueke, santos with Enzo and Delap with Jackson and you can play the exact same way.

39 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Not really. You replace estevao with Madueke, santos with Enzo and Delap with Jackson and you can play the exact same way.

You might try and play the exact same way but if the players aren't as good, you won't achieve what you want. It's not rocket science - you replace a poor player like Jackson - you see an improvement.

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Not really. You replace estevao with Madueke, santos with Enzo and Delap with Jackson and you can play the exact same way.

Not true, their decisionmaking are different according to the traits and abilities that they have, even the opponents will respond different.