Riviera 3.1

The final update to the tactic involved making some small tweaks to maximize our attacking threat and our pressing in the defensive phase.

The only change I made here was making the Raumdeuter to an inside forward, I just felt the Raumdeuter didn't get involved as much as I would like in both the attacking and defensive phases.

I also set about retraining Gravenberch for the regista role, Ziyech for false 9 and Neres as the inside forward. Not only that I also tried to develop player traits such as mark tighter for the CB's Dictate tempo for the regista. Get forward for the CM's, Cut inside for the inside forward, come deep to get the ball for the false 9 and the complete forward to play one-twos.

Results

The results were fantastic the team dominated the league scoring 84 goals and only conceding 16, finishing 15 points ahead of PSV which is impressive even for Ajax. The team won the Dutch cup as well and made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The impressive possession numbers achieved with Bilbao were replicated as well, the average possession over the season was 58% which was second in the league.

You can see from the match stats that the team creates plenty of chances and doesn't just shoot for the sake of it, preferring to create more clear cut chances.

The shape of the team almost resembles a 4-3-3 in possession with plenty of options for the man on the ball to pass too. The inside forward takes up a position to enable him to exploit the space created by the false 9, which often resulted in a cut back for the late-arriving false 9 to tap in or the complete forward.

Without the ball, the formation almost becomes something like a 4-4-1-1 with the inside dropping alongside the midfield 3. The inside forward is key as he is much more inclined to work hard defensively compared to the Raumdeuter.

This tactic was hugely successful and had the right blend of solid defence through our ability to recover the ball outright high up the pitch or force teams to pump it long and win the turnovers. This coupled with an ability to keep the ball and play with flair and imagination in the final 3rd fulfilled the objectives and philosophy outlined.

If you want more from your centre midfield pair I would recommend changing one of the roles from support to attack and you could also make one of them a mezzala, or both which is more traditional in Italy when using a regista.

The aim was to continue being strong in defence and improve in the attacking and possession phases of our game. In order to do this, I made some fairly big changes.

The changes made were reverting the midfielders back to standard CM's on support they were instructed to get forward and go wider to help screen the regista allowing him time on the ball to dictate the tempo of the game.

The CAM has been moved into a False 9 role so he will look to come deep from the advanced position rather than starting and holding as a standard CAM. This will help to drag out defenders creating gaps for CM's to run into as well as opening the spaces for the Raumdeuter. The centre forward is now on attack as the false 9 will drop deeper to link the play, this allows our centre forward to play higher up and be more of a goal threat. He still has the freedom to roam and find space as he sees fit though.

Results

As you can see attacking wise there was a big improvement from Roma scoring 71 goals 12 more than Roma managed. The defence did well only conceding 29 goals with a team expected to finish 6th. The team had the highest average possession in the league with 58% which is an achievement in a league with Barcelona.

You can see the shape of the team with and without the ball. With the ball, you can see the wingbacks push forward and wider. The regista pushes up and makes it a midfield 3 and the Raumdeuter takes up a position which creates a front 3.

Out of possession, we can see how narrow the team becomes forcing opponents to play wide, preventing quick counters through the centre. The team becomes very compact making it difficult for teams to play through, the fullbacks tuck in and the midfield limits the space between the defence. The forwards look to pressure the ball and force a turnover.

After the success of the previous versions with Monaco and Arsenal particularly in attack, I decided to be more adventurous with the changes to this version in an effort to really tighten the defence and replicate the possession with Monaco.

The GK is now on support not defend. The full-backs are split the left-back is in the more natural position whereas the right-back is now pushed further forward as a wingback. Unlike with Arsenal, both are now on support rather than attack.

The midfield now consists of a mezzala and BWM both on support. The mezzala is deployed on the same side as our RWB as he will drift into space helping to link up and support in the wide areas as the wing-back will be overlapping. The BWM is on support and he is used to help cover for the lack of defensive work and support from the Raumdeuter.

The CAM is now just purely an attacking midfielder on support helping to link the midfield with attack. He will look to play killer balls to our Complete forward and Raumdeuter. The Raumdeuter will look to exploit the spaces often drifting in and out of the game not really getting involved in the build-up. To make up for this the complete forward will be on support and therefore he will drop into spaces dragging out defenders to create the space for the Raumdeuter.

Results

Roma was able to win the Seria A, this was especially surprising given the low number of goals they scored. As you can see the title win was built on defence rather than attack. The team averaged 54% possession over the season which was better than Arsenal but worse than Monaco. The Raumdeuter did not have the desired impact only scoring 9 goals over the season.

The tactic performed well defensively but was underwhelming in attack.

After the success with Monaco, I decided to tweak the tactic in an attempt to tighten up the defence without negatively impacting the attack.

The changes made were dropping the wingbacks into a more natural back 4, however, they would now be deployed on attack to overlap when attacking providing an out ball and more importantly width. The next change was setting both centre backs on defend to help with the offside trap.

Both centre midfielders are on support with the aim of providing runs from deep for the regista, but more importantly, they will be able to cover defensively for the enganche who has a free role defensively and will sit in the hole in attack. He will act as our pivot in the attacking 3rd looking to play balls for midfield runners and our strikers.

The DLF has been converted into a complete forward on support again this is to provide the lateral movement provided previously by the Trequartista and to help make up defensively for the engance.

Results

As you can see the defence did better than Monaco only conceding 33 compared to 43, attacking wise 86 goals were scored 5 less than Monaco, but still topped the scoring charts with an average of 2.3 goals a game. The average possession was 50% over the season this was probably down to the enganche being a much more static role and therefore easier to mark, also Arsenal don't have a recognisable player to play the regista role.

Overall it was a successful season as the team finished 3rd 8 points from champions Liverpool. The FA cup saw the team lose to Leicester in the quarter-final after beating Man City in the previous round. The team lost in semi-finals of the Europa convincingly to Wolves.