Inverting the Fullbacks
March 28th, 2024 – SASPD 0-2 SASPX
After our game against Dulwich, Coach Jim put extra emphasis on numerical advantage in the midfield. Since Dulwich often had one of their players tuck inside to add a 4th player to their midfield, they had control of the match over us. Our midfield of three players was outplayed in the central third of the pitch, and thus allowed Dulwich to dictate the tempo and pace of the match.
This gave Coach Jim an epiphany. His football philosophy centered around Barcelona’s tiki-take style of football, moving the ball with short passes that slowly progresses it up the pitch. To do this, there must be enough players available during the build-up play to have a numerical advantage over the opponent’s press. Without that advantage, passing around the back becomes risky and leaves the defenders without an option to move the ball forwards. However, since we play a 4-1-4-1, our CDM, Cas Clysner, is often left to do the midfield job alone, becoming the sole connection between the defensive line and the midfield line. With just two players, the opponent can effectively cut out the passing option to Cas, leaving the CBs with no other option than to play it out wide to our fullbacks, which is not optimal as it triggers the opponent’s pressing trap.
Hence, to help Cas with ball progression, Coach Jim spent the whole training session on Tuesday to teach our fullbacks how to invert – to rotate into the midfield. This inversion happens only when the ball is on the wings of the pitch. If the one of the CBs occupies the space of the fullback, then the fullback moves into midfield to provide the CB an option. Thus, the formation morphs into a 3-2-2-3, or the classic “W-M” formation, with one of the wide defenders on the ball.
Although we only practiced this idea for one day, our fullbacks did especially well to adapt. Our RB, Aaron Teng, pulled wide first during the match. Then, as he received the ball, he passes it back to our right CB, Jasper Weng, and cuts diagonally to a right CDM position. This provided Jasper with 5 passing options: back to the GK, left to the other CB, slightly forward-left to Cas, even more forward to Aaron, or directly down the line to our RW Luca Weber. And it paid off; we were able to progress the ball through the central third much more easily compared to the match against Dulwich. The passes were efficient and effective, but then got stuck at the final third. The only big chance we had was when our CM Yuyang Xu improvised a back-heel through-ball to our RW Kaiser Chin, whose shot was saved by the keeper.
This reveals a new problem: creativity in the final third. Without our star player Aidan Liu, our attackers lacked the ability to create chances, and in the end, we only had one shot on target. This stems from two problems: our wingers are scared to take on their fullbacks 1v1, and the timing of our runs and through-balls needs adjusting. In the end, despite the scoreline, this friendly provided valuable insight into what needs to be done before our APAC tournament coming up in two weeks.
