2023-02-05, 09:52 AM - Word count:
Wingers. What do wingers have to do about a series of "attacking defenders"? The thing is that to get to the point where I illustrate how a pressing forward can be used as a strikerless striker I think its important to groud things with a few words about the wrench that wingers throw into any tactic that involves pressing.
The biggest weakness to a pressing system is a team that decides to play on the outside thirds of the pitch. Having wingers that have speed and technical ability to receive the ball means that a team focused on pressing has to make a compromise somewhere. Either they gas out their team constantly moving side to side or they make their pressing attack irrelevant. This strategy has its own difficulties in actually scoring but the advantage in possession and physical requirements make it an extremely economical tactic for the modern age. You don't need to then have fast wingers for this tactic, slow weak wingers with fantastic technical and mental abilities are cheap.
This ties into the hardest part of football manager, the need to be flexible and adjustable to meet different opposition. Being a specialist will outperform other players in your role and position, but having utility to be used in multiple different ways will always be better value to your team.
Next week we start talking about how to manipulate pressing in a way that simeone wish's he could do at Athletico.
The biggest weakness to a pressing system is a team that decides to play on the outside thirds of the pitch. Having wingers that have speed and technical ability to receive the ball means that a team focused on pressing has to make a compromise somewhere. Either they gas out their team constantly moving side to side or they make their pressing attack irrelevant. This strategy has its own difficulties in actually scoring but the advantage in possession and physical requirements make it an extremely economical tactic for the modern age. You don't need to then have fast wingers for this tactic, slow weak wingers with fantastic technical and mental abilities are cheap.
This ties into the hardest part of football manager, the need to be flexible and adjustable to meet different opposition. Being a specialist will outperform other players in your role and position, but having utility to be used in multiple different ways will always be better value to your team.
Next week we start talking about how to manipulate pressing in a way that simeone wish's he could do at Athletico.
