Quick thread on Andoni Iraola for you Bournemouth and general Premier League fan. Will start with how he likes to set up his teams out of possession as that's his biggest upside as a manager. #afcb
Against pretty much any opposition who play a back four they line up in a 442. They press high on goal kicks, looking to force the opposition to play the pass to one of their CB's. This is the trigger for the below pressing sequence to happen.
The AM will press the centre back receiving whilst the striker covers the pass back to the keeper. The man marking element comes with ball side winger marking the full back, one of the DM's marking the opposition pivot and the other DM pushing onto the ball side midfielder.
The hybrid pressing (as @Jon_Mackenzie would call it) comes in the form of ball far winger. He has the responsibility of marking the spare midfielder whilst also keeping an eye on the full back. Iraola is happy to give the disadvantage up horizontally rather than vertically.
If the press is broke or the opposition go long, they will quickly recover into a 442 mid block. The aim being to stay compact, stop central space and force the ball wide.
From here they can look to win the ball back and counter or force the opposition to play backwards and then move their defensive line further up the field. The general trigger to restart their aggressive press is when the opposition play from one CB to another.
In possession their 442 is more of a 433. Iraola to date hasn't really been a possession based coach or one that focuses on building out from the back. If they aren't pressed, they will build up via their full backs. They are a side who play long a lot, especially their CB's.
His Rayo side were very direct but not in a traditional sense of playing long passes to a target man. They targeted the space in behind the full backs, particularly on the left, utilising the pace they have on that side.
From here they look to score directly (as seen in the above tweet), keep possession or create a pressing opportunity. Achieving this is done due to the spacing of their players, always stretching the opposition both vertically and horizontally.
In settle possession, they look to recycle possession, get the ball wide where they create wide triangles/diamonds and play quick combinations. His sides chance creation comes mainly from crosses or cut backs.
Rayo's goal against Real Madrid last season is probably a goal that best sums up how he wants his sides to play when they have the ball.
Anyway, hope this was useful/insightful. Really looking forward to seeing how Andoni Iraola gets on at Bournemouth and I'm totally not jealous that he's not managing Leeds.
Quickly threw this together so apologies if it reads a bit shit. Tried to keep it simple.
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