Phelan's View: Tactics
We come closer and closer to the beginning of the nPower Championship season and there is one thing I have been working on all preseason. It is the thing that makes a team tick, and can be the difference between relegation, and glory. Tactics.
I have only armed myself with one at this stage, and hopefully I don't need any. This tactic alone is pretty versatile. I like to call it a 4-2-2-2, with two wingers, central midfielders and strikers. Each position is very versatile so we need players with high adaptibility. I can chop and change this tactic if I want, which is good, too.
Up forward, I will be relying on Keogh and Morison upfront to combine for a solid partnership. If we have a target man and a poacher upfront it means we will have one chasing the knock downs. If Keogh's positioning and off the ball stats are good, this could be useful. Steve Morison will also need high strength, positioning and heading stats because target men need these qualities.
In the middle there is two departments. With wingers on the sides, I have set their role to winger. This requires high crossing, speed, acceleration and passing. I will be relying on the two men down the flanks for crosses into Morison or Keogh, or even a central midfielder arriving late in the box.
In central midfielder, we have two players there each with different roles. I have put one deep-lying playmaker in there. His job is too craft out passes from the middle of the park. He can be the conductor of our orchestra. He must have high passing, vision, creativity and decisions skills and needs composure if he is ever under pressure. The box-to-box midfielder is a tirless player who runs all day. Stamina and strength are vital for this role and this player could be essential for us.
The defence is pretty straight forward. Both full backs have been set to support the wingers in attack. They still need all defensive qualities like positioning, tackling and heading but they also need crossing if they can be counted as 'complete'. Both centre-backs are normal centre-backs, one is set to cover the other one, who who go out and try to intercept passes and smother attack before it is made. He needs anticipation, positioning and tackling stats for these.
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That is my only tactic so far, hopefully this is enough to get us a mid-table position which the board expects. It has worked well in preseason and should hold off Southend. Then it is the proper football!