The Spare-man Philosophy

[Rousseau 9,427]

David Weir was a marvelous defender, and he'd still read the game well, but would be caught out if playing in our current team. I think it's the John Terry-David Luiz dilemma. Terry is a better defender and better at reading the game, but Luiz would better suit our style, because he's more mobile and good with the ball at his feet. I do think we need to change our outlook, with regards to the type of defender we need.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

The premise of the argument is that we need those full-backs high and wide to play the style we want, so we can't just expect the full-backs to drop deep into a conventional back 4. We then have to tweak the defensive shape to negate the main weakness, i.e. the 2 centre-backs getting exposed. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Bielsa, tend to favour the spare-man philosophy, whereby we would change to a back 3 for certain opposition.

And what do we do when we start playing in Europe again? Play one system domestically and another in Europe? That's not something I want to return to. I don't see us playing this system against Celtic either - it backfired spectacularly against St Johnstone.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

And what do we do when we start playing in Europe again? Play one system domestically and another in Europe? That's not something I want to return to. I don't see us playing this system against Celtic either - it backfired spectacularly against St Johnstone.

 

That's a very fair point. You can only go so far saying , we'll play our way, let the opposition do what they want. If the opposition are better than us, then we have to take their style of play and star men into account or we'll lose all the games 5-4. As our team plays right now, if we went into a ELQ2 game in Azerbaijan, I would fancy a 0-4.

[rbr 1,247]

And what do we do when we start playing in Europe again? Play one system domestically and another in Europe? That's not something I want to return to. I don't see us playing this system against Celtic either - it backfired spectacularly against St Johnstone.

 

But we dont know what players we will have available then , we cant make decisions now on the what if's of the future , for once we have a nmanager who has a system he wants to play and is doing great just now . Can we leave the future till a wee tad later on

[Rousseau 9,427]

And what do we do when we start playing in Europe again? Play one system domestically and another in Europe? That's not something I want to return to. I don't see us playing this system against Celtic either - it backfired spectacularly against St Johnstone.

 

It wouldn't be one system for Europe and one for the League. It'd be a one of either depending on the opposition. If we come up against a European side that plays one striker, we'll need a proper DM; if a European side plays with 2 strikers, perhaps we should play a back 3. Teams regularly play differently depending on the game. Mourinho often had a different formation/game-plan for away and home games with Inter.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

It wouldn't be one system for Europe and one for the League. It'd be a one of either depending on the opposition. If we come up against a European side that plays one striker, we'll need a proper DM; if a European side plays with 2 strikers, perhaps we should play a back 3. Teams regularly play differently depending on the game. Mourinho often had a different formation/game-plan for away and home games with Inter.

 

That was my point earlier In this thread and in the other St Johstone game thread, we need to be adaptable to the threat in any given game. It's not changing our attacking style it's playing an attacking style that is flexible to accommodate the spare man/Pivot dropping back into defence when needed.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

But we dont know what players we will have available then , we cant make decisions now on the what if's of the future , for once we have a nmanager who has a system he wants to play and is doing great just now . Can we leave the future till a wee tad later on

I think we can safely say that we won't be effectively playing only 2 defenders in Europe. I can't think of anyone that does that apart from Barca. Maybe Bayern but then Lahm still contributes a lot defensively.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

It wouldn't be one system for Europe and one for the League. It'd be a one of either depending on the opposition. If we come up against a European side that plays one striker, we'll need a proper DM; if a European side plays with 2 strikers, perhaps we should play a back 3. Teams regularly play differently depending on the game. Mourinho often had a different formation/game-plan for away and home games with Inter.

There's hardly many European sides that play 2 up front! I will repeat - if we play two full backs constantly in the opponent's half in Europe, we will be absolutely decimated!

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I think we can safely say that we won't be effectively playing only 2 defenders in Europe. I can't think of anyone that does that apart from Barca. Maybe Bayern but then Lahm still contributes a lot defensively.

 

Before Buzquets Barcelona had a very tall black player (don't remember his name) who shuttled between midfield and defence depending on the state of play.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Before Buzquets Barcelona had a very tall black player (don't remember his name) who shuttled between midfield and defence depending on the state of play.

Yaya Toure.