England Premier Soccer League
Tottenham Hotspur on Matchday 10
Visiting Brighton
Home Amex Stadium.One of the more unexpected pregame surprises was pregame skipper
Antonio Conte has abandoned his usual 3-4-3 and has come up with a 3-5-2 for the first time this season. But it's not a surprise at all, as Conte's usual 3-5-2 was the one he used during his time at Inter, and it's just a return to his old ways for the Italian coach.
Compared to the last game in the Champions League
Against Frankfurt's lineup, Conte rotated Davies, Sessengnon & Lenglet, Perisic, and Richarlison off the bench to set up Brighton for this game.
Old man Yves Bissouma formed the third midfielder and Emerson Royal's red card suspension was replaced by Doherty.
Before the match, when I saw the 3-5-2 in the starting lineup, I had two thoughts in my mind: one was purely a lineup rotation, and the other was a targeted tactical deployment. After watching the whole match, I think these factors are actually half and half, which will be explained in the following paragraphs.
The author has previously targeted Tottenham Hotspur though
The 3-4-3 system is written as an article, and is still briefly and briefly described here in a focused manner, to make it easier to differentiate it from the 3-5-2 formation that will be introduced later.
1, pulling the very wide three center backs, coupled with rotating back to assist in the organization of the double midfield, in the face of pressing space for time to cope with.
2. The right and left halfbacks and wingbacks move forward significantly. Left and right center backs moving forward may cause the defense to be unclear or misplaced for a short period of time. As for the wingbacks to position themselves close to the penalty area, it is a common configuration in modern soccer, increasing the number of people in front of the attack, the defense can also be returned to form a five backs to stabilize the defense.
3, Conte has always emphasized defensive counterattacks and the team's defensive discipline, so it will require the two wingers must be highly involved in the defense, forming a 5-4-1 formation.
The tactical principle of 3-5-2 is not much different from the usual 3-4-3. The three center backs also make good use of the width of the pitch to prevent the opponents from pressing when organizing the ball. The wingbacks (Sessengnon and Doherty) have also moved up the pitch, even more so than in the past, and when Focus is organizing the ball in the backfield, he can see that they are almost on the same level as the two strikers (Kane and Son).
A 3-5-2 as opposed to a 3-4-3 formation, whether it's a defensive counter-attack or a positional battle, this game saw Tottenham Hotspur
In the offense, there is more aggressiveness and threat. As mentioned in the previous section, not only the wingbacks, but also the left and right center backs will move forward to elevate their position on the pitch. As you can see in the picture below, while stabilizing and consolidating the ball, the left and right center backs Romero and Davies are lined up side by side with the three central midfielders, along with Sessengnon and Doherty who are based in front of the attacking midfield, creating a dynamic 1-5-4.
In front of goal, Sessengnon and Doherty were stationed high up on the left and right sides of the pitch and could be seen as wingers when attacking, while Kane and Son were the twin arrows of the attack. In a 1-5-4 attacking formation, Son and Kane narrow to the center, while Sessengnon and Doherty remain on the far sides of the pitch. In this way, a Pacific space is left empty between the twin arrows and the two wingbacks, allowing the twin midfielders of Hojbjerg and Bentancur to rotate forward in this vast Halfspace, posing no small threat.
The defense's formation, by conventional thinking, would have been two wingbacks backed into the back five in a 5-3-2 formation, and for the most part Spurs
The defense follows this as well, and the coordination and discipline between the defensive line is kind of maintained pretty well overall under Conte's tutelage.
However, the defensive tactics have a more targeted flavor compared to the offensive side. In the above article, I have mentioned that the space between the midfield line and the back four will be compressed as much as possible to avoid the opposing team's creative players to hold the ball here, and it seems that Conte has instructed the midfield line and the double arrows to be closer to each other before the match. The reason for this is very simple, Brighton's core attacking organization is handled by Mac Allister and Caicedo, and they must be prevented from being able to hold the ball comfortably.
