What we saw against Everton was Bielsa's methods being perfected. He hasn't rushed things because he must have realised not to try and throw too much at the players at once. And I suppose the Championship didn't lend itself to quite the level of tactical flexibility as we saw yesterday.
The game just showed how little formation really matters to us. It's the philosophy and movement that means everything. Both on and off the ball.
We set up to play the majority of the game 4-4-2. Dallas at Left back. Alioski Left Mid. And Harrison along side Bamford up top. Raphinha then swapped with Harrison.
Man Marking Roles;
Ayling - Richarlison
Koch - DCL
Cooper - Free Man (Centre Halves generally swap roles throughout)
Dallas - James
Phillips - Doucoure
Klich - Allan
Alioski - Davies
Raphinha - Iwobi
Harrison - Godfrey (Raphinha/Harrison swap after about 15 mins)
Bamford - Holgate/Keane
As soon as James dropped deeper Dallas followed and that meant we transition to 3 at the back. It was so seamless it's incredible. Davies on the right was drifting in field, and James slotted in on the right. Or James would drop deeper in the middle with Davies outside him overlapping. This is why it was so hard to understand which position Dallas & Alioski were playing at times. This is possible the biggest reason why Man to Man marking is so rarely used. For it to work you have to almost forget formation but understand the system so well that you don't leave huge gaps as well. The free man in defence is key to that.
In possession (assume talking about Raphinha in the 2 and Harrison Right Wing) Harrison was watching Raphinha's movement all game. Raphinha had a pretty free licence and used it brilliantly. We always look to stretch the pitch as wide as possible and Raphinha did this brilliantly drifting right out to the touchline. As soon as he did this Harrison would push much higher and Alioski would drop inside. Meaning we were often more like a 4-3-3 on the ball.
Once Delph entered the pitch at 60 mins. Everton went 4-4-2. James moved to the left wing. James continued to be Dallas' man though. And we switched to 3-4-3. With Ayling, Koch, Cooper at the back. Dallas, Klich, Phillips, Alioski in the midfield. (Both right to left)
Once Bernard comes on it's very difficult to understand what was going on tbh. I might watch that again and try to work it out.
The key point is that the system is so flexible and so second nature now that it doesn't matter what formation we are playing. We set up to Man Mark out of possession. And in possession the movement and positioning is intertwined with the movement and positioning of the rest of team. The players probably don't even realised they are doing it because Bielsa drills these details into them with so much repetition.
This is what I read about and saw the videos of when looking into Bielsa when he first go the job. It's the reason behind his famous 3-3-3-1 'formation' Because its the shape that can become anything else so easily. This is also why he values adaptability above almost any other quality in a player. Hence Dallas being effective well beyond his technical ability. Despite reading about these methods, and seeing them before his first game we haven't really had the chance to see them used in full until now. I don't think we have seen us anywhere near our peak with this group of players too often. It's amazing to think how far they have come already.
The think to look out for with this improvement, is whether or not it will make the difference we need against counter attacking teams. To make us less susceptible to the counter. I really hope so.
To me it looks like Bielsa has managed to squeeze another few percent out of the group and the system. It really is amazing what he's done and has completely changed my understanding of the sport.
Set up v Everton
posted on 29/11/20
Great article, Have Faith. I spent the first half trying to work out our formation, seemed like we had 3 leftbacks at times, but you've summed it up really well. Was Alioski marking Bernard at the end? Would explain why he ended up over on the right.
I honestly don't remember us man marking to this extent last season or the season before, with players popping up all over the pitch. Shows the standard of punditry for the Championship because I don't think this was either analysed or mentioned on Sky until Carragher talking about it this season after the Liverpool game.
posted on 29/11/20
comment by NJS (U8272)
posted 30 minutes ago
I don't think I've ever looked on teletext for a score in my life!
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Not a real fan if, back in the day, having missed Final Score you didn't put the TV on the minute you come through the door just to check Ceefax for the result.
posted on 29/11/20
comment by Best Fans - ¡Leeds Carajo! (U2196)
posted 17 minutes ago
Great article, Have Faith. I spent the first half trying to work out our formation, seemed like we had 3 leftbacks at times, but you've summed it up really well. Was Alioski marking Bernard at the end? Would explain why he ended up over on the right.
I honestly don't remember us man marking to this extent last season or the season before, with players popping up all over the pitch. Shows the standard of punditry for the Championship because I don't think this was either analysed or mentioned on Sky until Carragher talking about it this season after the Liverpool game.
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I have rewatched the game this morning to make sense of it. I watched the game live how I normally do. On edge, pacing, drinking, shouting etc. Just enjoying it. So I couldn't really work out what was going on down the left hand side. It looked like we kept rotation positions. But on a proper watch I don't think they were. The cause of the confusing roles between Alioski & Dallas was James (and to a lesser extent Davies). His freer role is what moved Dallas around so much and created the confusion of the positions of him and Alioski.
And yes the standard of punditry is really really poor. There are a handful of good ones. Carragher, Neville and Alex Scott for me.
Before the Wolves game the commentator spoke about how good a job Shackleton did in the Phillips role against Villa once he came on for Struijk. Which was complete rubbish. Klich played that role and the commentator clearly hadn't even seen the game.
posted on 29/11/20
comment by HaveFaithInLeeds (U8688)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by Best Fans - ¡Leeds Carajo! (U2196)
posted 17 minutes ago
Great article, Have Faith. I spent the first half trying to work out our formation, seemed like we had 3 leftbacks at times, but you've summed it up really well. Was Alioski marking Bernard at the end? Would explain why he ended up over on the right.
I honestly don't remember us man marking to this extent last season or the season before, with players popping up all over the pitch. Shows the standard of punditry for the Championship because I don't think this was either analysed or mentioned on Sky until Carragher talking about it this season after the Liverpool game.
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I have rewatched the game this morning to make sense of it. I watched the game live how I normally do. On edge, pacing, drinking, shouting etc. Just enjoying it. So I couldn't really work out what was going on down the left hand side. It looked like we kept rotation positions. But on a proper watch I don't think they were. The cause of the confusing roles between Alioski & Dallas was James (and to a lesser extent Davies). His freer role is what moved Dallas around so much and created the confusion of the positions of him and Alioski.
And yes the standard of punditry is really really poor. There are a handful of good ones. Carragher, Neville and Alex Scott for me.
Before the Wolves game the commentator spoke about how good a job Shackleton did in the Phillips role against Villa once he came on for Struijk. Which was complete rubbish. Klich played that role and the commentator clearly hadn't even seen the game.
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I think the standard of punditry on sky is excellent and Souness in my opinion is excellent....his comments on Phillips were good, sound and observant on him getting more forward to try a shot, he's a good striker!
posted on 29/11/20
comment by HaveFaithInLeeds (U8688)
posted 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
comment by NJS (U8272)
posted 42 seconds ago
You should read back your comments!
I don't know what the confusion ref Souness about Phillips....he said he was a good striker of the ball, full of compliments , he suggested that because of the amount of possession Leeds had in games he could well try for more goals, he's a striker (meaning he's a good striker of the ball) is that clear enough for you?
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Are you saying that you think Phillips needs to score more goals or not?
I'm saying that his ball striking ability is irrelevant when it comes to scoring goals because he doesn't get into the positions required to strike at goal. And that's because he is told not to. And he certainly should not be getting into those positions when his primary role is to protect the defence. Does that clear up the confusion?
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the team needs to score more as a whole
posted on 29/11/20
The more free kicks we get the better, he struck a beauty not to long back!..
The way Phillips is played stops him getting into positions to score how we know he can, maybe he should try a few long shots, it he does he has the sort of shot that he'll score or the keeper could spill!..
Enough runners in the team to worry keepers if they do spill!..
posted on 30/11/20
I think Kalvin scoring more goals is about No 27 on Bielsa’s priority list.
posted on 30/11/20
From what we know of Bielsa I bet he’s got a lot more than 27things on his mind. I doubt Kalvin Phillips scoring more gets in the top 1000
posted on 30/11/20
That being said. I’m not really sure why this thread turned into a conversation about Phillips scoring more goals when the article had nothing to do with it.
posted on 30/11/20
comment by HaveFaithInLeeds (U8688)
posted 1 hour, 11 minutes ago
That being said. I’m not really sure why this thread turned into a conversation about Phillips scoring more goals when the article had nothing to do with it.
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I do ......... it's called contributing on JA606 Leeds boards .... never a dull moment