Rationale
First thing we recognized was Elkjaer's all round game and the multi faceted threat that he posed, and how best to fully utilise it.
1) Elkjaer was very much a marauding, ravenous and an explosive forward who played various roles within a match in itself - functioning as the battering ram in the box, holding up the ball and being a pest in general, whilst frequently dropping deep and onto the flanks, creating openings in the process, before making his trademark runs from deep. He had a variety of finishes and moves in his arsenal and our opinion required a
varied service and personnel to fully take advantage of the skillset that he possessed.
2) A phenomenal threat from counter attacks too or making runs from deep.
3) During possession he frequently linked up with players, looking to play those one-twos, those quirky one touch passes or went on one of his crazy runs with all those eccentric Elkjaer turns or just blasting forward with defenders bouncing off him
@Chesterlestreet should like this style of presentation
1.00 (Makes a cracking run from deep and should have won a peno)
1.28 (Makes yet another incisve run from deep but finish lets him down)
2.40 (A great run off the ball during possession, should have won a peno again)
8.15 (Drops deep and plays off of Bastrup to take a shot from a deeper position)
@antohan won't like this though
0.18 Makes a great run off the ball off the shoulder of the last defender and scores a poacher-esque goal
2.05 (Positions himself perfectly in the pen box and scores a target man-esque goal from the cross)
2.25 (Very nearly scores a poacher's goal from the rebound)
2.43 (Drags defender out wide and makes a great run down the flanks, opening up space for runners, before putting in a great cross which results in a goal for Lerby (Robson))
7.40 (scores a poachers goal after a great run by Laudrup)
8.20 (burst forward from a deep position to almost score a target man-esque header after a nice cross)
9.22 (scores a fantastic counter-attacking goal that CR7 would be proud from the half line)
10.15 (drops to the right, links up brilliantly, goes past the left back before putting in a pearler of a cross for the sixth goal of the game)
As you can see he takes up a variety of positions, very much being an ubiquitous presence and offers a varied threat - being the focal point, target man inside the box, dropping deep or wide and creating openings, being a destructive force capable of tearing apart defenses with his sheer movement and dribbling or being a more subtle creative or facilitative presence capable of being a provider (via his movement of crossing/link-up play).
Team's Playing Style - Straight off the bat, this was fairly simple, a direct and an explosive style with plenty of dynamism to boot. Plenty of runners, players to link-up with and of course some great wing threat too.
The formation - A 4-3-3 with two wing forwards or creative wide players seemed a bit too reductionist and we didn't want to make Elkjaer too Benzema-ish playing a role too centred towards facilitating other dominant goalscorer(s).
A 3-5-2 made a lot of sense as it would give Elkjaer the room to make those runs and also feed off others if necessary, when he drops deep. Also capitalise on his tendency to drop onto the wings and make those fantastic runs inward. Also fully exploit and take advantage of link-up play.
Will expand on the the playing personnel in the next post
