🆕 Fulham secured an immediate return to the Premier League after beating rivals Brentford in the Championship play-off final. Here's our analysis from the game...
🔍 Brentford’s most effective attacking build came from the left, where Rico Henry advanced from left-back; Saïd Benrahma also probed around Fulham’s double pivot (1/8)
🔍 The numerical overload Fulham had in central midfield forced Brentford’s midfielders to adopt narrow positions, creating spaces for Fulham in wide areas (2/8)
🔍 Brentford posed more of a transitional threat towards the right than the left, owing to their pursuit of the spaces vacated by the advancing Joe Bryan (3/8)
🔍 They defended with a more reserved 4-1-4-1 block, and the press applied by Joshua Dasilva and Mathias Jensen helped Ollie Watkins to discourage Fulham from advancing through midfield (4/8)
🔍 They mostly defended with a 4-2-2-2, in which their wider midfielders and full-backs worked to negate the threat Brentford were attempting to pose in wide areas (6/8)
🔍 When they were defending with a deeper block Fulham adopted a 4-2-3-1 with which they continued to offer numbers in central areas, and applied an intense press in midfield (8/8)
Spain used a 4-3-3 structure and built play patiently from the back, despite Germany pressing aggressively from their 4-2-3-1. They moved the ball around the back line to isolate Thomas Müller, before a centre-back stepped out with the ball into midfield... 🧐🧵
Olmo continued to move inside and Asensio dropped deep, in the process pulling Süle out of his position in Germany’s back line. This helped Spain to build out from the back and get around Germany’s increasingly effective high press... 🧐🧵
Traditionally, full-backs are the widest players in a back four, and as a result they attack and defend mostly in the wide areas. However, full-backs who move inside into central spaces are known as ‘inverted full-backs’. This movement adds an extra presence centrally... ↩️🧐
Although Pep Guardiola is the coach most associated with the inverted full-back, Johan Cruyff used them with Barcelona many years before. Then, he often converted the 4-3-3 into a 3-4-3 diamond, with one full-back inverting into central midfield... ↩️🧐
Manchester United were set up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, but Fred pushed forward from the double pivot to become a number 8 and give them a stronger attacking presence in central midfield. Bruno Fernandes then adapted his positioning, moving into the left inside channel... 🧐🧵
The hosts eventually pushed both full-backs higher, primarily working around the outside of Tottenham’s wing-backs. United’s wingers then came inside, with the freedom to rotate with Fred and Fernandes, as long as both inside channels were always occupied... 🧐🧵
Barcelona were set up in a 4-3-3, against a Madrid 4-4-2 defensive block. Torres moved inside to support centre-forward Aubameyang. De Jong and Pedri widened to support through the inside channels, with Busquets left as the single pivot ahead of the two centre-backs... 🧐🧵
Busquets dropped into defence to draw one of Madrid’s central midfielders up, and Pedri drifted wider to drag the other out. This often left De Jong as the free man to receive in the inside channel when Barcelona’s back line could access him... 🧐🧵
4-4-2 is made up of three distinct lines. The back four including two centre-backs and two full-backs. Ahead of them, a midfield four features two players in the middle and one on each side. Then the front two in attack who provide both height and goalscoring threat... 4️⃣4️⃣2️⃣🧵
In the 1950s, Viktor Maslov developed another variation of the 4-2-4, in which the two wingers dropped back alongside the two central midfielders. So originated the 4-4-2, which worked to overload opposition midfields with traditionally fewer numbers... 4️⃣4️⃣2️⃣🧵