Bielsa's 3-3-1-3/4-2-1-3 (attemp of) emulation by Bray

bray123

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Hi, i'm a noob tactician and this is the first tactic i upload, i would love some suggestions/testing so i can keep improving ^^)

Bielsa is one of the best coaches of Argentina, i admire his offensive style, no matter what team is he facing, he always plays offensively, even tough it can cost him a loss.
This is an attemp of emulating his high pressing, very wide, and dangerous tactic.

I used it with Barcelona, because it has a squad with addecuate players and it was easy to manage so i can keep tweaking details of the tactic. My objetive was to recreate succesfully the tactic, not to create an invencible tactic that makes your blackpool team win the PL unbeaten in the first season. However i will test it with a weaker team (probably Villareal or Napoli).

I won the league confortably, as expected. also i won the Copa del Rey, but i lost in quarter finals of the Champions League to Tottenham (it was my only home loss of the season:O, later Tottenham were crowned Champions after beating Arsenal in semis and Lyon in the final).

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these were the fixtures
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i had a form gap with a few draws and more goals conceded, because i got ALL my wingbacks (Maxwell, Adriano, Abidal and Dani Alves) with long term injuries, and i ended up playing with Andreu Fontas as Left Back, and Jeffren playing Right Wingback or Marc Bartra playing Right Back.

THE TACTICS:
i made 2 tactics, 3-3-1-3 to play against teams with 2 strikers, and a 4-2-1-3/2-4-1-3 to play teams with 1 striker.

3-3-1-3:
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TEAM INSTRUCTIONS
philosophy: Balanced
Starting Strategy: Attacking
Passing Style: Direct
Creative Freedom: More Expressive
Closing Down: Press More
Tackling: Default
Marking: Zonal
Crossing: Default
Roaming: Stick to position

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the AMC is set as playmaker



PLAYER INSTRUCIONS:
Sweeper Keeper: Defend
Libero: Support
Central Defender: Defend
Limited Defender: Defend
Wingbacks: Automatic
Deep Lying Playmaker: Defend
Att Mid: Attack
Inside Forwards: Attack
Complete Forward: Attack


4-2-1-3/2-4-1-3

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TEAM INSTRUCTIONS
idem 3-3-1-3

PLAYER INSTRUCTIONS
Sweeper Keeper: Defend
Wingbacks: Automatic
Ball Playing Defender: Defend
Limited Defender: Defend
Def Mid: Defend
Deep Lying Playmaker: Support
Att Mid: Attack
Inside Forwards: Attack
Complete Forward: Attack



BOTH TACTICS CAN BE TWEAKED DEPENDING ON YOUR TEAM CARACTERISTICS:
for example if you don't have a Libero or he's injured, you can add another DC and set him as Ball Playing Defender. Another example, my Barsa team has low players, so i set the target man supply to feet, also i set Messi and Villa to swap positions and get them both scoring. Villa got 44 goals in 51 apps, and Messi got 37 goals in 51 apps.

MATCH PREP, TEAM TALKS, OI AND SHOUTS
In pre-season i set the match preparation in Team Blend and Very High workload, until the team achieves fluid familiarity levels with the tactic.
I leave opposition instruction to my *** Man. The team talks are usually handled by the *** Man too, but when i'm leading by 1 goal or drawing i set it to "encourage" or "for the fans", and when i'm leadin by 2 goals or more y set it to "don't get careless"
And finally i ALWAYS use the "get the ball forward" and "work ball into box" shouts, and when i'm losing i set it to Overload and shout "take more risks"


I managed to recreate the high pressing and quick pace of Bielsa's tactics, creating a lot of CCC's per match, i got the most goals converted (90) and the fewest conceded (27), but that's easy to achieve with Barsa.
The only problem of the tactic is that because of the quick tempo, the ball doesn't go to the playmaker and i struggle to keep possesion, i thought about setting the AMC as Target man, so he gets the ball more often, but thats unorthodox. Any suggestions to solve this?

i'll post my results with a weaker team as soon as i finish a season and i'll update the OP, but that may take a while because i take a long time to finish a season :p. If anyone wants to test it too, or at least give it a try, i'll appreciate it.
the tactic must get approved, but if you want it i can upload it to mediafire now.
this OP took me a long time, because English isn't my first language, so if you don't understand something, tell me and i'll try to explain myself better :D



PROVISIONAL LINK TO DOWNLOAD UNTIL THE TACTIC GETS APROVED: http://www.mediafire.com/?oc4ahj3dxupuvqa
ARTICLE EXPLAINING THE BASICS ABOUT BIELSA'S TACTICS:
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/...-2010-tactics/
 
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Looks like you got some decent results there (you can't fault the tactic for a loss against Spurs, we're just that good ;) ). I'm not to familiar with Bielsa's tactics IRL, but they certainly look like they are both very unique and attacking tactics. Once it gets approved, I'd be willing to give it a test and let you know how I get on. Just to be clear, the tactic I use is dictated by how many strikers the other team is playing, right?
 
this is a very good article explaining the basics of Bielsa's tactics http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/08/marcelo-bielsa-chile-world-cup-2010-tactics/

That was a good read. I didn't realize Bielsa was Chile's manager, but now I understand what you are trying to accomplish. Chile were a revelation in South Africa and if this tactic can produce something that resembles the way they played it will be a great success (even if it doesn't get great results). I really look forward to testing it out.

PS. you might consider adding that link somewhere in the OP
 
seem needing good player to play this tactic..anyway, eager to see your result using this tactic with smaller team :D
 
i was between tottenham and napoli, but napoli has 7 wingbacks, so i can avoid another injury crisis lol

i'll add the link to the article in the OP and a mediafire link to download the tactic soon
 
I tried this once, with Napoli. Mixed success. Thing is, three man defence don't completely work perfectly in game, which rather hamstrings it as a tactic. Try it with Napoli, winning the league with Barca doesn't show too much considering your strength relative to the other sides in the league.
 
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