Hello guys, this is my attempt to create Marcelo Bielsa's tactics.
First of all, let's examine some points which could be debated. I created a 4-3-3 tactic. I guess many of you will ask: " Why a 4-3-3? Bielsa used a 3-3-1 or 3-3-4 in attack!" Well, it's because with a defensive line with 4 defender it's still possible to create the 3+2 structure when the team plays out of defense, the DM drops down between the two central defenders, and the two full backs move forward, in line with the defensive midfielder. In Bielsa's Leeds, the defensive midfielder Philips plays a lot deeper, often as a half-back dropping into a back three (with the full backs then pushing on as wingbacks). Think of Mascherano at Barca. Philips is the same. He rarely ventures over the half way line. I could have set the DM as Half-back but I did not have a player who suits the half back role in Bordeaux squad and I did not want to do any player bargain for the first session (summer 2022) while in January 2023 with a budget of 1M. I could buy only Haaland's cousin, Tjaland. For the same reason, I did not set one of the 2 central midfielders to a mezzala role, I used a midfield with a simple central midfielder on support and a box to box midfielder). In Leeds, Klich is more advanced in midfield. I'd describe him as either B2B or Mezalla. Since Bielas exploit the width in all areas of the pitch to stretch the opposition which creates the space fo the passing, I used the instruction stay wider for the wingers (one as an inside forward- attack and the other as winger-attack) and in this tactic we have lots of crossing from the wingers. About the central forward, I had 3 choices: deep lying forward and complete forward on support to ask the player to drop down to link the play with his teammates and advanced forward, who would instead care only about scoring and create goals but also (as the game itself says), to be the focal point of attacking moves, win possession and chase misplaced balls or clearances from deep, a task that our forward, the Slovenian Vipotnik does very well (Bordeaux bought Vipotnik this month and I used the sortitutsi updated database with most recent transfers). Vipotnik was also one of the reasons I wanted to try Bordeaux, because he is a potential wonderkid and I have never tested him before. Let's analyze team instructions: Positive mentality to avoid to conceed too many goals with an attacking one In possession: width: wide, shorter pass, higher tempo, underlap left and right, pass into space, whipped crosses, work ball into box. In transition: counter-press, counter, distribute to full backs and center backs, take short kicks Out of possession: high press, standard defensive line (with this we conceeed only 27 goals in 38 games), get stuck in, much more often press. In the video you can find Bielsa's marking settings to make the tactic more realistic and stick to Bielsa's philosophy, but it worked better if you set the opponent instructions. If you want to try the one-to-one marking setting please try it and let me know
First of all, let's examine some points which could be debated. I created a 4-3-3 tactic. I guess many of you will ask: " Why a 4-3-3? Bielsa used a 3-3-1 or 3-3-4 in attack!" Well, it's because with a defensive line with 4 defender it's still possible to create the 3+2 structure when the team plays out of defense, the DM drops down between the two central defenders, and the two full backs move forward, in line with the defensive midfielder. In Bielsa's Leeds, the defensive midfielder Philips plays a lot deeper, often as a half-back dropping into a back three (with the full backs then pushing on as wingbacks). Think of Mascherano at Barca. Philips is the same. He rarely ventures over the half way line. I could have set the DM as Half-back but I did not have a player who suits the half back role in Bordeaux squad and I did not want to do any player bargain for the first session (summer 2022) while in January 2023 with a budget of 1M. I could buy only Haaland's cousin, Tjaland. For the same reason, I did not set one of the 2 central midfielders to a mezzala role, I used a midfield with a simple central midfielder on support and a box to box midfielder). In Leeds, Klich is more advanced in midfield. I'd describe him as either B2B or Mezalla. Since Bielas exploit the width in all areas of the pitch to stretch the opposition which creates the space fo the passing, I used the instruction stay wider for the wingers (one as an inside forward- attack and the other as winger-attack) and in this tactic we have lots of crossing from the wingers. About the central forward, I had 3 choices: deep lying forward and complete forward on support to ask the player to drop down to link the play with his teammates and advanced forward, who would instead care only about scoring and create goals but also (as the game itself says), to be the focal point of attacking moves, win possession and chase misplaced balls or clearances from deep, a task that our forward, the Slovenian Vipotnik does very well (Bordeaux bought Vipotnik this month and I used the sortitutsi updated database with most recent transfers). Vipotnik was also one of the reasons I wanted to try Bordeaux, because he is a potential wonderkid and I have never tested him before. Let's analyze team instructions: Positive mentality to avoid to conceed too many goals with an attacking one In possession: width: wide, shorter pass, higher tempo, underlap left and right, pass into space, whipped crosses, work ball into box. In transition: counter-press, counter, distribute to full backs and center backs, take short kicks Out of possession: high press, standard defensive line (with this we conceeed only 27 goals in 38 games), get stuck in, much more often press. In the video you can find Bielsa's marking settings to make the tactic more realistic and stick to Bielsa's philosophy, but it worked better if you set the opponent instructions. If you want to try the one-to-one marking setting please try it and let me know
