TEAM P-NUT (Chris Wilder)
Chris Wilder portrait
Chris Wilders journey to the premier league.
Wilder before this season was a manager not known to many, but that was creating something special in the lower leagues of English football.
He started his managerial career at Alfreton Town, he was only there for 27 weeks, but managed to secure 4 trophies during his short stint (the Northern Counties - East League Premier Division, the League Cup, the President's Cup and the Derbyshire Senior Cup)
Next he moved on to Halifax, just after they had been relegated to the conference. He stayed for more than 300 games, until the club went into liquidation.
After a short stint at Bury as assistant manager he took the managers job at Oxford in December. In his first half season he took them to the cusp of the playoffs, narrowly missing out. In his first full season he took Oxford back to the football league via the playoffs and began stabilising them as a football league club finishing 12th, 9th, 12th and 8th, narrowly missing out on the playoffs on 2 occasions despite their tiny budget.
Wilder then moved to Northampton Town strangely, as they were in the relegation zone when he took over. In his first season he managed to avoid the drop, 2nd season cemented them mid table, before winning the league in his 3rd season with 99 points, despite financial troubles meaning players went unpaid during October and November 15.
His time at Northampton earned him his shot at Sheffield were things really took off for him. In his first season the club got off to a poor start, securing 1 point from their opening 4 games, and sitting bottom of the table. This proved to be the turning point though and Sheff Utd would end up running away with the league on 100 points.
In his first season in the championship he guided his team to the top half, finishing 10th, just 6 points shy of the playoffs, before the run at the title the following year, when they gained promotion for the 2nd time in 3 years and began life in the Premier league.
Wilder has managed 3 promotions in the last 4 seasons, and so far this season has Sheffield United sat comfortably in the top half and looking to secure European football for the first time in their history.
But where did his tactics come from?
The brain child of Wilder and his assistant Alan Knill, the overlapping centre backs Sheffield are famed for today came about early in the 18/19 season after a poor start to the campaign.
Struggling with breaking down teams sat behind the ball, the idea was to unleash the centre backs from their defensive duties and allow them to create overlaps out wide with their respective wing backs. This change, whilst still possessing a 3 man midfield meant teams became overwhelmed defensively and allowed Sheffield to control the game.
In game and during attack the formation can be called a 244 with Norwood dropping back to help his central defender, whilst the 2 side defenders push up and take up the positions you'd expect to find a traditional winger in.
Is the sort of shape we usually see them in during attacking phases of the game, which demonstrates the amount of strain they can put on the defensive teams back line.
Wilder before this season was a manager not known to many, but that was creating something special in the lower leagues of English football.
He started his managerial career at Alfreton Town, he was only there for 27 weeks, but managed to secure 4 trophies during his short stint (the Northern Counties - East League Premier Division, the League Cup, the President's Cup and the Derbyshire Senior Cup)
Next he moved on to Halifax, just after they had been relegated to the conference. He stayed for more than 300 games, until the club went into liquidation.
After a short stint at Bury as assistant manager he took the managers job at Oxford in December. In his first half season he took them to the cusp of the playoffs, narrowly missing out. In his first full season he took Oxford back to the football league via the playoffs and began stabilising them as a football league club finishing 12th, 9th, 12th and 8th, narrowly missing out on the playoffs on 2 occasions despite their tiny budget.
Wilder then moved to Northampton Town strangely, as they were in the relegation zone when he took over. In his first season he managed to avoid the drop, 2nd season cemented them mid table, before winning the league in his 3rd season with 99 points, despite financial troubles meaning players went unpaid during October and November 15.
His time at Northampton earned him his shot at Sheffield were things really took off for him. In his first season the club got off to a poor start, securing 1 point from their opening 4 games, and sitting bottom of the table. This proved to be the turning point though and Sheff Utd would end up running away with the league on 100 points.
In his first season in the championship he guided his team to the top half, finishing 10th, just 6 points shy of the playoffs, before the run at the title the following year, when they gained promotion for the 2nd time in 3 years and began life in the Premier league.
Wilder has managed 3 promotions in the last 4 seasons, and so far this season has Sheffield United sat comfortably in the top half and looking to secure European football for the first time in their history.
But where did his tactics come from?
The brain child of Wilder and his assistant Alan Knill, the overlapping centre backs Sheffield are famed for today came about early in the 18/19 season after a poor start to the campaign.
Struggling with breaking down teams sat behind the ball, the idea was to unleash the centre backs from their defensive duties and allow them to create overlaps out wide with their respective wing backs. This change, whilst still possessing a 3 man midfield meant teams became overwhelmed defensively and allowed Sheffield to control the game.
In game and during attack the formation can be called a 244 with Norwood dropping back to help his central defender, whilst the 2 side defenders push up and take up the positions you'd expect to find a traditional winger in.
Is the sort of shape we usually see them in during attacking phases of the game, which demonstrates the amount of strain they can put on the defensive teams back line.
Inspiration
Sheff Utd 19/20
Formation
3-5-2
Playing style, tactics
Hard working, fluid attacking shape.
Player roles
GK: VDS (06-09) - Excellent shot Stopper, needed a synergy with the back line to organise due to the changing of positions with the fluid attacking tactics.
RWB: Zanetti (04-07) - Wingbacks that are willing to come inside rather than hugging the touchline. Capable with the ball at their feet to play intricate passes.
RCB: S. Ramos (08-11) - The overlapping fullbacks that are key to Wilders side. Ramos has experience in his Sevilla days at RB to enable him to add width in attack.
CB: Campbell (02-05) - A quick mobile centre back that is efficient in the air.
LCB: Passarella (85-88) - One of the most attacking centre backs to play the game. A license to get forward here would be music to his ears.
LWB: Alaba (13-16) - See Zanetti explanation
CDM: Rijkaard (88-91) - The player that runs the game. Ability to drop into centre back when the two wide centre backs get caught high up the pitch. Also needed a great passing range to dictate the game, and there is no one that could perform the role better in the history of the game.
RCM: Modric (15-18) - Keep the game ticking over and add some technical guise in and around the penalty area, when we have controlled possession.
LCM: L.S. Miramontes (62-65) - Same as Modric. Needed creative ability combined with a workrate most creative players don't possess.
CF: Villa (08-11) - Capable of drifting to either side to create those renowned overloads, Villa is the perfect support striker.
ST: Law (64-67) - The main source of goals up top. Mobile and clinical, and not afraid of a bit of hard work. Law slots in seamelessly here.
Alterations from the original
I've tried to stay as true as possible to how Sheff have played this season.
Their wing backs usually take up attacking midfield roles, with the CMs dictating from a bit deeper, or arriving in the box late.
Here the wing backs will drop into the CM spot, allowing Suarez and Modric to push further on and use their creativity closer to the opposition penalty area.
TEAM SJOR (Tomislav Ivić)
Tomislav Ivić Portrait
Why Tomislav Ivic?
Because he is probably the greatest manager you’ve never heard of. Master strategist who is credited with developing the modern style of the game, and with having won eight league titles in six different countries.
At each post that he took on, the scrupulous Croatian instilled his high work ethic and used his boundless football knowledge. His quirks were what made him both iconic and incomparable. He had a strange habit of writing down everything he knew, and could be often seen in the dugout, arms outstretched, with a pen stuck to his hand like a cigar.
Journalists revealed stories on how he would rearrange chairs in their office to explain the Makélélé role. An acquaintance of mine told me how he was once on the same flight as Ivić: within minutes of introducing himself to the coach, he was presented with diagrams drawn on a piece of paper to explain how England should play if they wanted to have a chance of winning Euro 2004. To him, football tactics increasingly became something like a set of problems and equations which could be solved by proper analysis — something that can and needs to be mended. When, due to his deteriorating health, doctors instructed him to retire from coaching, he was always filling up his notebooks with tactical diagrams and new ideas on a daily basis. Even when he was admitted to hospital and banned from watching football on TV, he still drew his diagrams, straight from his head.
The trophy harvest also inspired José Mourinho, one of the three greats who have come closest to matching his feat, winning four — albeit stronger — national competitions (the other two are Ernst Happel and Giovanni Trapattoni). He first met Ivić back in 1988.
“José was a student of sports science and he’d often come to watch my training sessions in Porto,” Ivić revealed in an interview with the Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list. Six years later, Ivić’s second term at the club came to an end as he was replaced by Bobby Robson and Mourinho, his interpreter. Another decade later, the two men met at the Stamford Bridge after Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League. Ivić was there as a pundit for Croatian television and, after the Special One had given him a signed copy of his biography, he showed it to the journalists. The inscription read, in Portuguese, “To the greatest coach of them all — I hope one day to win as much as you.”
He was also often accused of playing defensive football. This probably had something to do with his methodology. “It’s much easier to learn how to defend than how to attack,” he used to say. “It also takes less time.” Once he’d managed to fortify the defence, his teams would grow steadily and become more and more efficient in attack as well. In 1977-78, his Ajax team scored 23 goals more than in the previous season. But for various reasons, including his adventurous nature and in some cases money, he hardly ever stuck around in one place long enough to gain true recognition.
There is also a funny anecdote about him that i know from first hand:
Nearly after he retired he was on vacation in Portugal with his wife, at some point he says he must go to a certain game so wife went with him in the middle of vacation and they went to Amsterdam to see Ajax play a home game against someone. After 5 minutes Ivic says to his wife that they can leave, she was fuming as you would expect because they fecked up a vacation for a game where they only stay 5 minutes but legend said how he came to see one specific action and after he saw it he was ready to go!
Because he is probably the greatest manager you’ve never heard of. Master strategist who is credited with developing the modern style of the game, and with having won eight league titles in six different countries.
At each post that he took on, the scrupulous Croatian instilled his high work ethic and used his boundless football knowledge. His quirks were what made him both iconic and incomparable. He had a strange habit of writing down everything he knew, and could be often seen in the dugout, arms outstretched, with a pen stuck to his hand like a cigar.
Journalists revealed stories on how he would rearrange chairs in their office to explain the Makélélé role. An acquaintance of mine told me how he was once on the same flight as Ivić: within minutes of introducing himself to the coach, he was presented with diagrams drawn on a piece of paper to explain how England should play if they wanted to have a chance of winning Euro 2004. To him, football tactics increasingly became something like a set of problems and equations which could be solved by proper analysis — something that can and needs to be mended. When, due to his deteriorating health, doctors instructed him to retire from coaching, he was always filling up his notebooks with tactical diagrams and new ideas on a daily basis. Even when he was admitted to hospital and banned from watching football on TV, he still drew his diagrams, straight from his head.
The trophy harvest also inspired José Mourinho, one of the three greats who have come closest to matching his feat, winning four — albeit stronger — national competitions (the other two are Ernst Happel and Giovanni Trapattoni). He first met Ivić back in 1988.
“José was a student of sports science and he’d often come to watch my training sessions in Porto,” Ivić revealed in an interview with the Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list. Six years later, Ivić’s second term at the club came to an end as he was replaced by Bobby Robson and Mourinho, his interpreter. Another decade later, the two men met at the Stamford Bridge after Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League. Ivić was there as a pundit for Croatian television and, after the Special One had given him a signed copy of his biography, he showed it to the journalists. The inscription read, in Portuguese, “To the greatest coach of them all — I hope one day to win as much as you.”
He was also often accused of playing defensive football. This probably had something to do with his methodology. “It’s much easier to learn how to defend than how to attack,” he used to say. “It also takes less time.” Once he’d managed to fortify the defence, his teams would grow steadily and become more and more efficient in attack as well. In 1977-78, his Ajax team scored 23 goals more than in the previous season. But for various reasons, including his adventurous nature and in some cases money, he hardly ever stuck around in one place long enough to gain true recognition.
There is also a funny anecdote about him that i know from first hand:
Nearly after he retired he was on vacation in Portugal with his wife, at some point he says he must go to a certain game so wife went with him in the middle of vacation and they went to Amsterdam to see Ajax play a home game against someone. After 5 minutes Ivic says to his wife that they can leave, she was fuming as you would expect because they fecked up a vacation for a game where they only stay 5 minutes but legend said how he came to see one specific action and after he saw it he was ready to go!
Inspiration
Hajduk Split 1980
Formation
4-3-3
While this team was a blueprint as Ivic himself says that was a perfect presentation of his football, i took all the principles of play from it but didnt go toe to toe in terms of replicating same roles/players.
Tactics
High press, high tempo, quick transition
- High line, offside trap: Dražen Mužinić, a long-serving Hajduk player in the 70s, admitted he became so infected by the habits he had learned that he began “catching people in offside traps” when talking to them in the street. “I couldn’t help it,” he explained. “It was a reflex action for me.” When Mužinić was transferred to Norwich City in 1980, he was so useless that Justin Fashanu remarked, “I don’t think we got Mužinić. I reckon they sent his milkman instead.” Besides not speaking a word of English, the player was immersed in Ivić’s logic and found it too hard to function outside it. When Norwich cancelled his contract, he retired aged 29
- High press: Although his idea of playing football was all about modernity, Ivić drew great pride from the fact that he was a part of this historical line. Himself a Kaliterna disciple — like pretty much every football coach that emerged from Split up until the 1970s — he often quoted his master’s grains of ancient wisdom, like ‘See everything, look at nothing’ or ‘The play, not the player, scores goals.’ Whenever asked about his biggest influences, he’d always put Kaliterna first, then usually Rinus Michels and Hennes Weisweiler. Ivić said that Michels had chosen him as his successor because the way his Hajduk played suited the ideals of Total Football. That may not be entirely so — while he did use the 4-3-3 formation, interchanging positions and intensive pressing, his football was never quite so easy on the eye or as attacking. In part that was down to a lack of extraordinary individuals but Ivić favoured automatism and a great deal of running, so his teams weren’t as playful as the Ajax that conquered Europe. His was a more physical game.
- Overlaps: Key feature in his game but interestingly they rarely involved fullbacks, they were mostly done by side central midfielders and wide forwards
- Offensive patterns: outside of overlaps and quick counter-attacks his dream tactic would be something similar to Rinus Mitchels and he was often stating how the HSV game at Poljud was a perfect game of football - Hajduk flew all over the pitch: they played one-touch football and swapped positions so quickly that it was hard even for the fans to keep track, let alone Hajduk’s opponents. They moved in unison, contracted and expanded, as though all were controlled by some invisible brain or joystick. And they pressed the ball for the full 90 minutes.
This was avant-garde football but it wasnt to be as the player who had been the most reliable for Ivić let him down, former Arsene Wenger AM Boro Primorac. To summarize, the offensive game was a mixed bag, and when i think about it its almost like Jurgen Klopps BVB and Liverpool sides combined into one as you had a lot of direct, quick transitions through combination play like BVB and very big influence of exploiting the wide channels to create space for a quality cross while keeping sides under constant pressure like his Liverpool side.
GK - Manuel Neuer - Keeper sweeper, most likely best ever in that role and this days its very hard to imagine a top team without it and most if not a lot of this teams have a lot of touching points with Ivic teams
CBs - Alessandro Costacurta and Jaap Stam, not only they both have all the qualities you need from a defender in a high line they also excelled in those systems
FBs - Ashley Cole and Philipp Lahm. Needed two balanced fullbacks that were intelligent in possession and are top defenders.
DM - Uli Stielike - had a lot of freedom here tbh, decided on Uli as i wanted a player that is comfortable anywhere on the pitch, can defend and is also very fluid in possession.
CMs - Thomas Hassler and Wim Van Hanegem. Both proper grafters used to a pressing system, both more then comfortable in wide areas, great footballers and most importantly given the character of both can see both utilizing the overlap function to the fullest.
FWs - Ruud Gullit and Oleg Blokhin, honestly cant find better players/fits for the roles(only Stoichkov would be in their company)
ST - Henrik Larsson - one of the most underrated strikers in drafts, hard working striker with a very good all-around play and even better goal-scoring ability. Given the various sources of potential deliveries(through combination play, high balls/crosses, balls into channels, behind the defence) and his ability with back to goal the decision to have him as my striker was made very early in the draft, not even me getting Preben Elkjaer of who im a fanboy of the highest order didnt made me think about my decision twice.
Alterations from the original
see above (Formation)
