Loco Bielsa FM20 Tactics

Hello everyone after almost a year I return to write in this forum and in particular in this section. In fact, I can say that after a year of study, crazy and desperate, I managed to perfectly emulate the patterns of the Loco.

How can I be so sure?
I think after watching Leeds' 48 games in the 2018/2019 season and the 48 games of the 2019/2020 season (and by "seen" I mean losing 1/2 hours of analysis of every single movement, I came to understand at what minute he makes the first changes, who changes and with whom and why).
I've also read any kind of article related to the Loco, from the futil to the most technical and tactical ones, read the report of the lesson given to Coverciano, watched interviews, documentaries entirely in Spanish of each of his collaborators and/or player, seen and analyzed the final that won with the Newell's, ditto for the finals lost with Bilbao.
Well in summary to be able to emulate him I became manic just like him, I came close to the "Locura".

Bielsa Tactics

Now seeing this module you could say, but bielsa uses a 3-3-3-1 or a 4-2-3-1 what does the 4-3-3 center.

Well the truth is that Bielsa uses a "mother" module during the game, which is 4-1-1-3-1 and from this instructs his players to modify it, change it during the game over and over again.
In fact you just need to move a player to a particular position to switch to a 4-2-3-1 or to a 4-1-4-1 or even a 3-3-3-1 or even a 4-4-2 and so on; hence my choice to use the 4-3-3.
In fact, by setting the markings properly this can turn into a 3-3-3-1 with the median climbing in defence and the full-backs rising, or even in a 4-2-3-1 with the CC in support that rises almost until you get to the line of the three-quarters. The choice to use two full-backs both in attack and due to the fact that, Bielsa repeatedly reiterates that in a team 3 are the components that must have a defensive attitude (Por-dif Cen) 1 a balanced attitude between attack and defense (med) the rest of the players must have an offensive attitude and thought.

Another choice that might not be taken for granted is the choice of the Centering role, in fact if you were to take every single striker had from the loco you could define it as a fulcrum of the game or a complete tip, even this very true, but on Fm those roles do not make the movements required by the loco, in fact secting them as a fulcrum or Pco you will never see the attacker go deep and this makes you lose a lot to the tactics and above all you would find yourself no one to have any them in front.



In this action you can see exactly what I explained: the full-backs carry themselves close to the penalty area ready to attack ditto for CC the striker dominates the center of the area ready to put it in, the midfielder is held in the middle of the field and the opposing area and the defenders shortly after the midfield to be able to counter a possible restart.



We use a wide range of play in order to create the spaces necessary for the inclusion of strikers and midfielders and sometimes full-backs, the choice of the "Imbucate" is precisely to emphasize this aspect of vertical play in space, this however does not exclude the overlaps in fact those occur the same and this is due to the fact that the full-backs are set on attack, in fact you often see overlaps both external and internal. I chose not to select the game on the bands and the game in the middle for the simple fact that the team's play takes place fairly in all areas of the field.

The choice of short passes, which seems to conflict with the wide layout was made to encourage players to have many more exchanges between them so they can handle the ball for this reason too the choice to bring the ball into the area. In fact, you will have actions where the team will not find the right spaces and will advance in a reasoned and fast action with tense crosses and difficult to intercept by opponents who will send your players one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

So interpreting broadly what bielsa says in a famous post-match Bilbao (you can find on youtube) "the passages between the players serve to destroy the tactical scheme of the opponent, so there are situations where you have to keep destroying so that you can find the necessary space and situations where it takes 2/3 steps to destroy it" (my interpretation in broad lines).



There is little to explain here, the pressing of Bielsa is famous so it was obvious the setting do pressing all over the field, the other settings come from itself so as to have a team that controls the ball and begins to "destroy" the opposing schemes.



The defense remains standard because otherwise we will lose that situation of 2 () with a defensive mentality and 1 with balanced metal. The pressing line is high to force players to attack opponents just ahead of their penalty area, extreme intensity and aggressive contrasts, derived from a statement by a Barcelona player who defines the players of the bilbao then coached by the loco as "bloodthirsty beasts".

But this is not the way to end the Non-possession in fact this stage is also characterized by the man-marking that the players perform on the opponents.



This is an example of the man-markings that uses the Leeds utd: in black you see Terzini , Ali and midfielders who mark their opponents, in red we have the area defense made by defenders and median and in the end still in red the striker who remains on against two opponents.

Men's markings are the ones that make this tactic the perfect emulation of the Leeds, in fact according to the opposing modules change the markings.

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