Paisley's 4-4-2 Liverpool // PASS & MOVE

BOB PAISLEY'S PASS AND MOVE TACTIC

Hi guys,
today I decided to emulate Bob Paisley's famous "pass and move" tactic. I tested this tactic with Liverpool in one season without bringing any new players into my team,even if Liverpool current squad does not suit well to a 4-4-2 shape.
Despite of that, I achieved great results with this tactic, winning the English Premier League with 93 points, finishing 14 points above the 2nd club, Tottenham, winning 29 games, drawing 6 and losing only 3 games. I scored 102 goals (best attack with a xg of 2,68 per game) and conceded 30, Salah is the top striker of English Premier League with 30 goals in 35 matches and including all the competitions, he scored 42 goals.

Tactic analysis

Tactically, he set up with a 4-4-2, which also could transition into a 4-4-1-1. Kenny Dalglish's intelligence allowed this to work effectively,

In the image below you can see the tactic overview and the players movements I tried to write with the arrows and the box midfield structure I want to create with this tactic. With a 4-4-2, you can have a ball playing defender who naturally pushes more forward than a central defender paired with a more attacking central midfielder, a mezzala is the role I chose, but you maybe want to use a central midfielder or also a box to box midfielder there. There was always one of the two central midfielders who could break into the opponent's defence lines and pushing forward, acting as a support for the strikers (Mc Dermott was very effective at this). The mezzala role, I believe, is perfect for this. The other central midfielder, (the right one )is more defensive and good at ball distribution so I decided to use a deep-lying playmaker role, and he is paired with a central defender who only focus on defensive duty. This build-up allows more balance to our defense and midfield.




This is how the tactic looks like



The two full-backs stay wider and run wide with the ball, providing width to our team, under Paisley the full-backs were required to support attack too, with overlaps, but usually one full-back was more attacking than the other. I decided not to give our team the overlap instructions and prefer to allow more freedom to our players, who can decide to overlap according to the situation.

Tactic in possession



A slightly narrow attacking width matches with slightly shorter passes because when building-up the play from the back, Liverpool liked to pass the ball through the middle. But this tactic was called "pass and move", and that means all players had to move back and forward a lot and for this reason, I chose a higher tempo here. Work the ball into the box was Liverpool's preferred style, the team tried to create chances through passing the ball rather than trying to cross it as fast as possible to the two forwards. Run into the defense is also another important instruction.

Tactic in transition



In transition, they were a team who liked to press and put pressure on their opponents but even more so if they identified a star-player. For this reason, about the Opposition Instructions, I only mark and press the most dangerous players in the opponent team. For example, against Manchester City, in the opposition instructions tab, I selected Mark tigther and press always only for Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva.
As for the goalkeeper instructions. the goalkeeper of that great Liverpool team was Bruce Grobbelaar. He was very good at distribution, aiding the possession football and giving LFC the ability to play out from the back. And if one of the centre backs were being closed down, they could play it back to the keeper to kill the pressure, though, back then, the keepers could pick up the back pass. That's why I chose for our Alisson (who is perfect for this role) the sweeper-keeper in support role.

Tactic out of possession



In the defensive phase, our team defends with a mid-block and a higher defensive line and press more often. With two forwards, we can also instruct our team to press the opponent's goalie to force him to play long-balls, instead of building the play from the back. I instructed our team to step up to use the off-side trap and to trap outside to trap their opponents into wider areas.


This is all for this tactic, I hope it works for you too