Thread by @AllStatsArentWe

Just a few thoughts about last night’s game versus Cagliari:

Last season, Leeds set up in a 4-1-4-1 that looked something like this:

Formations, though, are fluid things. The 4-1-4-1 was essentially Leeds’ defensive shape. In possession, they moved into a situational 3-3-1-3 like this:

Why do this? Well, Marcelo Bielsa operates by the principle of Positional Play (juego de posicion in Spanish). What this means is that he looks for his teams to use movement to manipulate space and gain dominance through this positional superiority.

If you want to know more about positional play, read this by @NathanAClark:

talkingtottenhamtactics.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/why…

One way Leeds use positional play is to work the ball into wide areas through intricate passing sequences, drawing in opposition players and isolating players on the far side of the pitch. When they isolate these players, they then cross the ball and attack the spaces between the

opposition defence.

In the case of the back four, you have five spaces to attack in between them. With the 3-3-1-3, you have the three forward players, the No. 10 and then the full back pushing forward all attacking these spaces like this:

(NB. there is fluidity here. In this example, the fullback (Ayling in this instance) could invert and Hernardez could work the ball wide.)

Against Cagliari, Bielsa set the team up in the 3-3-1-3 from the off (something confirmed by Adam Forshaw in his post-match interview).

Now, this might seem arbitrary: after all, I’ve just said that Leeds form a situational 3-3-1-3 in possession all the time. There are some important details to mention though.

Firstly, setting up in the 3-3-1-3 against Cagliari, Bielsa played three centre backs: Liam Cooper, Ben White and Gaetano Berardi. White is a ball playing centre back who is said to have impressed Bielsa which could explain this tweak in pre-season.

With three centre backs in place, there is no need for Kalvin Phillips to drop between the two centre backs in a 4-1-4-1 and so he can screen in front of them, adding more coverage. This has a knock-on effect and Klich can play in the 10 role rather than the 8.

As well as this, the three centre backs allow the full backs to become wing backs. On the left side of the midfield, Bielsa fielded Leif Davis - a full back - and allowed him to play as a fairly traditional wing back: overlapping with Costa or inverting and

carrying the ball inside.

On the right, though, he played Adam Forshaw - a central midfielder - who played a completely different role to Davis, coming inside to help Phillips in the build up as well as rotating with Mateusz Klich in the number 10 position.

Interestingly, this was the same sort of role that Arturo Vidal played (albeit on the opposite side) for Chile, balancing of the more traditional wing back Mauricio Isla on the right.

This, in turn, meant that Pablo Hernandez was able to keep playing the sort of insider forward role he played last season, operating down the right flank, helping out in defence when Forshaw inverted and cutting inside onto his left during attacks.

So where does this leave us? Well, if the 4-1-4-1 was used to transition into a 3-3-1-3 in possession, then the 4-1-4-1 indicates the defensive position of the team. Switching to a straight 3-3-1-3 means that Leeds are now no longer defending in a more traditional formation

(which might suit a manager moving into a new league which isn’t always tactically adventurous).

Why would Bielsa do that? There could be any number of reasons. We know it has been his preferred formation with certain teams. He might have been unhappy with the structure the

4-1-4-1 offered last season. He might feel as though it suits certain players more (Forshaw, for example). He might be responding to the problems that the end of last season threw up.

One thing is for certain though. We should expect to see the 3-3-1-3 more this season. Last pre-season, the final match (vs Las Palmas) gave us a good indication of how Bielsa was going to approach the campaign.

The Cagliari game was the last game before next weekend’s Bristol City fixture. It would be weird that he was simply experimenting with a week to go. Watch this space.