![]() ![]() I often used players well suited to being a ball winning midfielder in this role to get even more protection when the situation demanded it. This will allow us to recover the ball when the opposition clear it, or he can tackle/harass the opposition when they counter us. ![]() ![]() Hold Position - This is an important one, I need him to occupy the space outside the penalty area when we are attacking, especially given the right wing back is on attack. Shoot Less Often - As above he will generally have runners ahead of him so I don’t want him spaffing shots over all the time. Take more risks - As he will often have four or five runners ahead of him, I want him to have the freedom to play a risky pass. So, I decided to add some player instructions to my center midfielder on support to get the best of both roles. I used a deep lying playmaker initially, but our play became too predictable by going through one single player all the time. I ruled out the center midfielder on defend as being too conservative in positioning and in possession. I found that a center midfielder on support could also get caught ahead of the ball, especially one with attacking traits, so I felt I needed to modify the role or potentially use a different role entirely. ![]() Having the right player in here can see you launch wave after wave of attacks, rather than hiding behind the sofa every time the opposition clear the ball. With this in mind it is important to have someone occupying the space in midfield in case the opposition launches a counter attack, or makes a clearance. During defensive transitions, with this tactic, it is not uncommon for us to have five or six players in the opposition’s final third. His partner in center midfield is a standard center midfielder on support. A few desirable attacking traits would also be welcome such as “arrives late in opposition box” or “gets forward whenever possible”. You need a player in here that you can rely on to get up and down the pitch for the whole ninety minutes. He will link up with our supporting left wing back in build up, before making runs into the opposition box as the play progresses forwards. In Midfield we have a box to box midfielder on the left side. My left wing back is on support, and he will commonly be involved in the build up play with the midfielders, helping us to retain possession, and providing cover in defensive transitions. For this to be effective, however, he will need good vision, decisions, passing and technique (I used Rivaldo Coetzee in this position). Our left center back of the three is a Ball Playing Defender who likes to switch play to the opposite flank, by giving him the freedom to play more risky passes I am content for him to play longer balls to the attacking right wing back. The inset image shows assist locations for our opposition, you can see that we do not concede anymore goals from the right side, than we do from the left, despite using an attacking wing back on the right side. If our attacking wing back runs into trouble the wide center back is always available to recycle possession and keep the attack moving. This gives us some cover on the flank for the attacking wing back, but it also allows us to create an overload on the right side. As you can see in the image below, Abdul-Salaam (WCB) moves slightly wider and further forward than a normal center back. Our left side is a little more conservative with a wing back on support beside the ball playing defender. Our wide center back on defend can offer some cover in transition to the right side wing back who is on attack, which gives him the freedom to get to the byline when possession has been built up. Our back three features the new wide center back role on defend, a standard center back on cover, and a ball playing defender on defend. Defensively we start with a standard Goalkeeper on defend, I don’t need anything fancy from him other than stopping the ball going into our goal and kicking it to our center backs. ![]()
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