RELATIONISM- A TACTICAL EVOLUTION

In the 60's 2 great minds came toghether at Ajax and created a style of play that would go on to dominate modern football. Yes, I'm talking about Rinus Michels and Johan Cryuff who brought about Total Football. Various additions were made by Sacchi, Lobanovskyi and other but the final perfection was made by Guardiola.

His Barcelona team with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets etc conquered every trophy there was to win and inspired many modern generation coaches to the same style of play.

Modern iterations of Position play (the tactics used by Pep) are used by Arteta, De Zerbi, Sarri most famously. But recently coaches have developed counter-tactics to tackle this positional play from the coaches and only teams with the highest level of quality reach the top.

Recently led by a small revolution in Brazil by Fluminese coach Diniz, a tactical approach used extensively by South American teams is slowly finding it's way back to fashion. People have labelled this approach as Relationism.

This is also the tactics used by Scaloni at the 2022 World Cup to win Argentina the world Cup.

I have read various articles and videos (which I will cite below) and here is my understanding of this different style of play
WHAT IS POSITIONAL PLAY

Positional play is all about structure and players given designated zones. Each players movement has some purpouse with levels to the whole team.

Guardiola for example has divided his entire team into different zones and has assigned each position to each player. His rule is that no more than 3 players can be in horizontal zones and 2 players in each vertical zones.

For Guardiola he does not care who takes which position but he wants these positions to be occupied. This means that there is always a structure in place and that teammates will know where the players will be and there it helps in improving the accuracy of their style of play.

This style of play is like a game of chess. They know which space is vacant and which space is occupied. This makes this style of play extremely automated and rigorous because players are not allowed to stay out of the prescribed position. It is a very scripted style of play.

ANTICIPATING GROUP F: MILAN'S GROUP OF DEATH

The 2023/24 UEFA Champions League saw Milan in the group of death with Paris Saint Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle United. With almost all 4 teams having the firepower to progress to the next round, Milan will have a tough run given how they are also trying to hit heights in the league as well.
Anyways for our reference, I have prepared a short notes on what is the playing style of each team in our Group. Hope you will enjoy it

TACTICAL ANALYSIS- XABI ALONSO

One of the newest yet promising managers on the bloc is Xabi Alonso. One of the finest players to have played during his time, Xabi used to combine technical excellence alongside physical ability.

Once he hung up his boots for good, Alonso decided to foray into the world of coaching with a variety of influences like Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez.

Here is an analysis of his coaching style at Bayer Leverkusen
BACKGROUND

At the beginning of 2022/23 season, Leverkusen, they faced defeats in Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League totalling 7 defeats in 11 games and a humiliating first round exit to SV Elversberg in the DFB Pokal. With the club stooped in relegation places, Bayer Leverkusen sacked their coach Gerardo Seoane.

The club took a bold decision of appointing Xabi Alonso who thus far had no experience in top flight football.

With this appointment Bayer finished 6th in the league, scoring 57 goals while outscoring their xG. They also reached the semi-finals of the Europa League eventually getting knocked out by Jose's AS Roma.

So what were the changes and the tactical ideas brought forward by Alonso for these impressive results ? Let's take a look

INVERTED FULL BACKS- A THREAD

Recently we have seen some changes in how Pioli uses his full backs when they come inside when Milan have the ball. This is what is called as an "Inverted Full Back" which I attempt to explain using this 🧵

What is an Inverted Full Back ? It is a… https://t.co/lvaw5OoXXwtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
WHEN THE TEAM HAS THE BALL

- One of the main purpouse of having an Inverted Full Back is to outnumber the opposition in the center of the pitch.
- This in turn makes the play a passing option especially for the center-backs while passing the ball our from the back or while… https://t.co/sCiRXJxargtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

AJAX ACADEMY- THE TALENT PRODUCING MACHINE: A THREAD

A 4 time UEFA Champions League winner, Ajax Amsterdam is known to be one of the greatest talent producers even to the casual football fan. Ajax over the years have produced some of the greatest players and coaches such as Johan Cryuff, Marco Van Basten, Clarence Seedorf, Rinus Michels, Frank Rjikaard etc

Milan fans were barely celebrating their victory over Bologna when Di Marzio broke news that Milan had completed their transfer of Malick Thiaw from Schalke after chasing the player since last January. Very little is known about the player among the fanbase except that he is very highly rated in the German cirlces and Maldini wanted the boy very much at Milan chasing him for the second window in a row.

ADLI vs CDK: A THREAD

Much has been discussed, even debated whether Adli and CDK play the sam position and could step on each other's toes. 2 brilliant young footballers who can be the future of the club. Using data and stats, I tried to analyse their style of play a little. Here are some interesting things I found:

CHARLES DE KETELEARE

Finally it's Charles #DeKetelaere day and after a rather mentally exhausting saga, Milan's persistence along with the players will to play for Milan broke the Brugge wall and with medicals scheduled for Tuesday he is close to being a Milan player. The big question among Milan Fans were, what position is CDK compatible for. The answer to that question will be at the end of the thread.

BRENTFORD- A MODERN CLUB

Despite a rich influx of cash into the English Premier League, the trickle down of the riches into the lower leagues has not happened. One such club was Brentford, a team that has been in doldrums of League 1 and the Championship. The last time Brentford even played in the Premier League was in 1949, exactly 72 years ago. And unlike other promoted team they were not in relegation fights and finished comfortably mid-table

MILAN SEASON REVIEW- MATCHDAY 12 (SERIE A)
Serie A has broken for the International break after Matchday 12 and Milan has had an electric start to the Serie A campaign. 12 Matches played, 10 Wins, 2 Draws and 0 Losses. Milan were unbeaten last season in their first 12 games of the season but had drew more matches than the current campaign (4 matches) making Milan’s point tally better than it was last season. Of course not much has changed from last season