Advanced wing-backs are key in Bleiberg’s 2-4-2-2

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By Tony Tannous, 25 Aug 2009 Tony Tannous is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, football, Gold Coast United, Miron Bleiberg

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Gold Coast United FC head coach and director of football, Miron Bleiberg (centre) celebrates with Football Federation Australia (FFA) CEO Ben Buckley (right) and Gold Coast United CEO Clive Mensink (left) at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. The Gold Coast's bid to enter the national A-League competition in 2009/10 was today given the long-awaited approval by the FFA. AAP Image/Dave Hunt

When Fox Sports’ tactical formation caption came up ahead of the Gold Coast United’s A-League opener against Brisbane, you could have been forgiven for thinking Miron Bleiberg had pulled one over the Fox producer. It showed the new club shaping up in a rather outrageous looking 2-4-2-2 in front of Scott Higgins.

It featured stoppers van den Brink and Thwaite in the last line, then a four-pronged third line of Osman, Griffiths, Robson and Piorkowski. In front of them were the two “creators”, Culina and Minniecon, with Smeltz and Porter in the first line.

Seemingly, Bleiberg was using a bit of managerial license by insisting the right and left backs, Osman and Piorkowski, would player higher up the formation.

Surely it was one for the caption, a move designed the paint an impression of an attacking formation.

Surely, when the teams actually shaped up, on the pitch, logic would have Osman and Piorkowski tucked in alongside van den Brink and Thwaite in what ostensibly would be another variation on the 4-4-2.

Certainly, commentator Andy Harper wasn’t convinced Bleiberg was telling Fox the entire truth.

Perhaps it was a lack of understanding from Piorkowski on the left, but there was no real evidence in the first round of how important the fullbacks are to Gold Coast’s template.

Perhaps we should have read more into Culina’s berating of Piorkowski for not being in a more advanced position midway through the first half. You’ll remember he was replaced at the break, with Thwaite shifting out to left back and Rees coming in at centre back.

Even Osman, ostensibly a defensive player, failed to offer any significant forward thrust to suggest Bleiberg was about to transform the way we think about a “back-four”.

But in the past fortnight, with Steve Fitzsimmons and Adama Traore summoned into the right and left wing-back spots respectively, the formation has indeed looked a true 2-4-2-2.

Even at kick-off that is the shape, with Fitzsimmons and Traore advanced of the two central defenders, nowadays van den Brink and Rees.

Indeed, often they are found driving forward beyond this third line, which appears to be the starting point. With Gold Coast controlling games and on the front foot, rarely have the two wing-backs been relied on in a traditional fullback sense.

Instead they have been used to provide the width, to break-forward quickly and link with the likes of Culina, Caravella, Smeltz and Porter.

Traore has been quite the revelation, seeing and playing things early, doing in one touch what it might take others two or three touches to do.

Fitzsimmons, hitherto a bit-part player, has also caught the eye with his ability to jink and link, and on Friday he gave Jamieson his second working over in as many weeks. Not to mention an assist and a goal.

By local standards, this has been quite a revolutionary piece of tactical tinkering from Bleiberg, but even when measured against the world it is cutting-edge.

Even for the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona and Liverpool, known for fielding offensive fullbacks, you will often find the likes of Evra, Bosingwa, Alves and Clichy starting alongside their centre-backs, and often dropping back into that shape when their team coughs up the ball.

Radical? Revolutionary? Crazy?

Perhaps it’s just Bleiberg’s way of keeping up with the Jones’s.

It’s certainly a world-wide trend for fullbacks to be used as the key plank in a team’s penetrative template.

Recently Liverpool spent an outrageous amount on England right back Glen Johnson, but against Stoke, last Thursday morning our time, it was easy to see why.

While he shaped up in a back-four in the pre-game caption, Rafael Benitez essentially used a back three, with Johnson given license to stay as high up the pitch as he liked. He had a blinder, scoring spectacularly, assisting, and all the rest.

Carragher covered the right, Insua bombed on down the left, and Liverpool controlled it all.

Control is certainly a key component of the Gold Coast way, and with Pantelidis and Thwaite providing the muscle and a surprising degree of subtlety on the ball, as well as drive into the box, this team sure looks easy on the eye.

Indeed, in three rounds they have dished up best football yet seen in the A-League’s short history, and I, for one, look forward to getting out and seeing it live.

Tony’s team of round 3 (4-3-3, manager of the week, Ricki Herbert)

———————-Bolton——————

————————————————-

Fitzsimmons—–Keller—-Leijer—-Traore

—————————————————

———————Hutchinson—————

————–Srhoj———–Caravella——

—————————————————

Henrique——————————–Sikora

———————–Porter———————-

Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyTannousTRBA

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The Crowd Says (46) | Page 1 of Comments

albe said | August 25th 2009 @ 4:51am | Report comment

nice write up…
i like coaches who have a set system but also the nous to adapt as the match requires. They’re getting good at shifting from their attacking philosophy to maintain control of matches.
As great as GCU is, whats better is the effect it’ll have on the other clubs to keep up. While they do have a couple of the best players in the league (Culina, Smeltz, etc), many of the players are pick-ups from other clubs and not that far ahead of the rest on talent.
Its their approach from the coaching staff to players thats making the difference. Over to the rest of the league to match it now.

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Gaz said | August 25th 2009 @ 7:08am | Report comment

Good write up, Tony. But OTOH it’s only what Gold Coast have been telling everyone for a long time. Bleiberg’s made no secret of how he wants to play, neither has Culina.

It’s gotta be good for the A-League if other clubs are forced to come out and play attacking football against us. Look at the crowds in Turkey, where attacking is the norm. People love it, and why wouldn’t you?

WARNING: It’s harder than it looks. For starters, you have to be super fit, coz you will be covering a lot of ground. Then you have to know exactly where to be at all times, as the shape of play changes around you. And then you need the technical skills to play one-touch end-to-end, not to mention finishing.

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midfield general said | August 25th 2009 @ 7:59am | Report comment

I think this is how Brazil set their team up, isn’t it

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- sam.gilbert said | September 18th 2009 @ 2:09am | Report comment
  
  yes i believe so, but only one of theyre fulllbacks are given the license to bomb very far forward. usually dani/maicon. they tend to play the 4-2-2-2 system, with two deefensive midfielders and two creative midfielders, out of josue, gilberto silva, felipe melo, hernanes, diego, kaka, robinho, elano blumer and ronaldinho.
  
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Pippinu said | August 25th 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment

To be honest – is there any difference between a wing-back and an attacking full back?

If there is, it’s pretty marginal.

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- Tony Tannous said | August 25th 2009 @ 11:06am | Report comment
  
  In the case of Gold Coast, the subtle difference is their starting position (ie. where they shape up). It is never in the final line.
  
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AndyRoo said | August 25th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment

I agree with Pip, I dont think a wingback going forward really justifys Bleiberg saying he only has 2 defenders

Porter has yet to get on the scoresheet compared to Smeltz with 6 but he is going well. There a great combination to watch.

Porter, Cullina and Smeltz vs Allsop, Thompson and Hernandez is going to be great.

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- DiCanio said | August 25th 2009 @ 1:43pm | Report comment
  
  Henrique, Van Dijk, Miller
  
  Danning, Aloisi, Brosque
  
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Realfootball said | August 25th 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment

The role of GCU’s superb fitness levels has been underrated. They ran Adelaide off the park, quite apart from anything else. Shots of Dodd and Jameson looking exhausted abounded. You can’t kick GCU off the park, though McKinna may strong, because physically they can match it with anyone. There is steel inside that velvet glove. You see it in the tackles right across the park. No team in the League tackles harder or faster than GCU.

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- DiCanio said | August 25th 2009 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
  
  Thats funny cause Im pretty sure Adelaide were running all over them from 60-90 minutes
  
  I think you confuse tactical discipline with fitness
  
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Tony Tannous said | August 25th 2009 @ 11:08am | Report comment

They wonderfully organised Realfootball, and press as a unit.

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Wilba said | August 25th 2009 @ 11:22am | Report comment

Great analysis again Mr T,
At the moment GCU are blowing teams off the park with their early intensity and movement. The width that you are talking about, combined with the way Culina creates an extra man coming out of defence, in the mid-field and in the final third, means that GCU have so much space to play in. There is also a great deal of positional discipline. Then you have some classy finishing and you can see why no team has really pushed them (sorry Roar). On the weekend, by the time AU started to push on it was late in the second half, 2-0 and GCU had closed up shop.

Even as a GCU fan I am interested is seeing a team works out what they are doing and starts to counter it. Mr T. I would be happy to hear how you think that could be done.
I do think they have the steel and versatility to overcome this when it happens.

I have a big MV fan as a boss who reckons that they have just peaked too early (along with a number of other conspiracy theories). I think they are only going to get better.

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Ryan Steele said | August 25th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment

the formations in this season’s A-League are interesting.

As a player (based on experience in all positions, particularly a box-to-box creative midfielder), I prefer what Aurelio Vidmar’s trying to achieve (in a mixture of 4-5-1 and 4-4-2, which looks soon to become a static 4-4-2, and perhaps a 4-4-1-1).

As a coach (who looks to do some weird things, at times), I appreciate and am actually somewhat inspired by Bleiberg’s tactics, which can only be pulled off by the right mix of players, and led by the right captain (Culina looking right the the job, obviously). In reality, the formation is somewhere between six defenders, and six midfielders, or four attackers. Bleiberg’s aim, from what I’ve seen so far, is to have every player on the park adapt to multiple positions, and allow the formation to constantly evolve throughout the game, which is why it’s caused so much havoc.

It can be anything from the claimed 2-4-2-2, to a 4-2-2-2, 0-6-4-0, a classic 4-4-2, or even a 2-4-4. Ideally, with all the movement created by the players, the formation as a whole is actually a 6-6-6, which is what makes it so devastating.

Note: I didn’t think, until after I finished typing that line, that I had typed “666″ and “devastating” in the same sentence. You’ll have to forgive the unintended pun.

Of course, as has already been said by others, Bleiberg’s team requires a great amount of fitness (though perhaps not as much as the team chasing the ball)… but with the likes of Culina setting the pace, it’s not that difficult to have everyone at a certain standard.

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- Tony Tannous said | August 25th 2009 @ 9:37pm | Report comment
  
  What you’re really talking about there is the fluidity of the formation Ryan, and I agree. Plenty of men in forward transition, it all looks seamless.
  
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Wilba said | August 25th 2009 @ 11:48am | Report comment

6-6-6 is a good call Ryan, it must feel like that for the opposition. It is a bit like the Hawthorne’s rolling defensive zone.

Positional disipline becomes really important because you have to trust that the holes will be covered if you push too far forward. I think that this is the best movement I have seen from and A-league team. Happy to be corrected.

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