As Ange Postecoglou popularised 4-3-3 in his first full season in charge at Brisbane, the A-League’s tactical evolution has snowballed.
This is seemingly because the ten-team competition doesn’t allow for ‘big clubs’ such as the Paris Saint-Germains and Chelseas of the world, and the playing standard across the league has become fairly standardised.
The use of two wingers and a lone striker has won the last few grand finals.
Brisbane have utilised the 4-3-3, noticeably with fast wingers such as Tommy Oar, in the past but have shown willingness to use attacking midfielders, such as Thomas Broich, in the role as well.
The use of Besart Berisha as the lone striker has become the standard for the league, with almost all teams adopting a very similar number nine.
Postecoglou’s Melbourne Victory have attempted to use the false nine and a half, which didn’t work too well last year and Marcos Flores soon found himself in Gosford.
It has seen an improvement this year, with a noticeable all-round approach to attacking – Mitch Nichols, Archie Thompson, Connor Pain and James Troisi all find themselves with the onus to score the goals.
Arnold’s Central Coast never had the financial ability to play the free flowing 4-3-3, with the flair of Broich and Berisha having to replicated with players from their youth team.
Thus we soon found teams employing a more defensive 4-2-3-1, still emphasising passes to feet and triangles, without the flair that Brisbane taunted teams with.
Taken up by Western Sydney, the 4-2-3-1 overtook Postecoglou’s favoured formation because of a few simple reasons.
It employed two holding midfielders, a position that doesn’t require the expensive technical ability as the traditional centre midfielder because attacking qualities were not required.
It also gave teams six defenders, which became an insurmountable wall to some last year.
The attacking play revolved around the number ten, which Tom Rogic and Shinji Ono played to great effect at the Mariners and Wanderers respectively.
It allows for interplay between the striker and attacking midfielder and while not as innovative as the 4-3-3, Flores’ pass to Duke in Round 1 showed it is still highly effective when the two players are on form.
Adelaide have looked to play the more traditional Barca-esaque 4-3-3, using overlapping runs from players without the ball into the box causing havoc for the opposition.
It relies on whipped-in crosses, which is interesting because Adelaide don’t seem to have anyone who stands out in the air.
It worked against Perth Glory and Melbourne, however the Mariners game showed that a heavily compact defence can easily isolated the striker, pressure the winger to deliver a poor delivery and ultimately lead to many crosses that were overhit, off-target or masqueraded as shots on goal.
Perth Glory under Edwards have completely changed their game plan from past seasons.
Once rivalling Western Australia for steel, Glory’s midfield is now more reliant on short passes and supplementing the attack, rather than fouling the opponent, hitting Smeltz and hoping for a goal or penalty.
There have been whispers that Jamie McLaren, whose played admirably with all the expectation of him, to move to the number ten, allowing Smeltz to slot in as a number nine. With the subtraction of Sydney FC’s lack of ability, that should equal three points.
Melbourne Victory’s use of through balls in behind for the Pain and Thompson to waste the chance, has been a highlight and a benchmark for the other teams wingers.
Glory have gone with Ryo Nagai and Sidnei Scola on the wing, and with fast feet, look to play a similar role to Pain and Thompson.
However, one exception being that Sidnei looked last week to run directly at defenders – well, at Jason Hoffman, the term ‘defender’ is relative.
This has meant Glory do not have to rely on the final ball played, because he usually ends up with a shot on goal himself, defenders permitting.
Glory have slowly developed their passing game, and it will be interesting to see how they compare to Victory, Brisbane and Adelaide at the end of the year.
Edwards has developed a strong style, which should bring more goals, penalties and excited remarks from Craig Foster.
However, for every evolution, there’s the denier in the background shouting down the process.
Melbourne Heart moved into the league adopting Dutch colours, a Dutch coach and the odd Dutch player.
Aloisi insisted to Scott Munn that Aloisi is Greek, not Dutch, and similar to the Greek economy, Heart will go into every game with the expectation that any result that doesn’t lead to a deeper recession as a success.
To be fair to Aloisi, Heart have some of the fastest attackers in the league – Golgol Mehbratu, David Williams, Iain Ramsay and Mate Dugandzic have pace that begs for balls to played in front of them to chase on to.
Thus, the inverse of Perth, Heart have switched from pass-to-feet to a counter attacking strategy.
They still look to attempt to pass the ball out from the back, so Aloisi hasn’t completely changed Hearts identity.
Heart look to play 4-3-3, using David Williams in behind the striker, changing to a defensive 4-2-3-1 without the ball.
Whether Heart’s mix and match strategy wins games has yet to be seen, however, by adopting the Wanderers and Mariners defensive approach, they will hope to gain more points away from Green Seat Land than last year.
Only three rounds in, so the observations aren’t concrete, however it is an indicator of what to expect.
Despite having a heavily Anglo-Saxon heritage, the A-League has looked to adopt Dutch, Spanish and South American approaches, ignoring the tactics of the English.
This has meant many teams are replicating strong teams from Europe which will only speed the progress of the league.
However, I think the A-League is the perfect league to experiment with new tactics, as opposed to the World Cup or UEFA Champions League.
Southampton have a relatively new manager in Mauricio Pochettino, who is a student of the exciting Argentine manager Marcelo Bielsa.
Biesla has been described as a ‘genius’ by Fernando Llorente and “the best manager in the world” by Pep Guardiola. Pep himself has adopted tactics used by Bielsa’s teams.
Bielsa might sound familiar, as he was touted as a possible Socceroos coach. Before that, he managed Athletic Bilbao to a Europa League run that included a win over Manchester United, and prior to that, was head coach of the Chilean national team during the 2010 World Cup.
Bielsa has tactics that I really enjoy. Basically,the formation reads as 3-3-1-3, which sounds insane, but is quite innovative.
It employs a really high press, hoping for one of the four attackers to gain possession from the opposition in the attacking half.
His tactics mean that the possession game is played inside their attacking half, rather than the defensive half which Adelaide utilise.
The seven players should always have a teammateto pass to, as the entire front four are constantly changing positions, similar to how Victory play.
The result is, that goals are scored with seven attackers in the opposition’s box which overloads the attacking third and outnumbers the defence.
The critique to the tactic is that it relies heavily on the technical ability of the players to not lose the ball as the back three is prone to fast counter attacks.
The high press also means that players have to have a strong physical side to maintain the game plan.
Southampton, who are currently fifth in the EPL use very similar tactics, so if you’re not sure who to watch, try to watch the Southampton game, because I sure you, the tactic is incredibly offensive based.
I hope soon we’ll see a variation of Bielsa’s genius in the league soon, maybe that’s how Melbourne Heart can differ from the Victory, or Sydney can re-brand themselves.
The days of 4-4-2 are over, 4-3-3 is a favourite wine, but being undercut by the $12 per litre cask – 4-2-3-1, however the Jaegar Bomb that is 3-3-1-3 is yet to be tested in the league.
What do you think Roarers, how will the A League tactical evolution unfold?
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