Tactics

The Johan Cruijff Foundation: The 3-4-3 Diamond (Part II)

As mentioned in the previous article, Johan Cruijff has always been a huge inspiration for a lot of Dutch football fans. He’s the godfather of football in the Netherlands, and he has left a legacy which will be carried on in our hearts forever.

And even though I am a massive fan of PSV Eindhoven, I do have to say that sometimes I wished that Cruijff has touched our club with some of his magic. But PSV has had her legends such as Romario and Ronaldo. But what if the scenario described above, has happened. What if Johan Cruijff touched PSV for a little while and our club has taken over some of his visions, combined with our own identity, would this bring a Champions League shortly?

To find out, we’re going to implement his tactical vision into our team. Attacking, sexy football, which without the position changed could be described as “Total Football”. Would it actually at all be possible to play Cruijffs’ “Total Football” in Football Manager 2019?

Johan Cruijff was all about developing young football talents, creating a formidable team of home-grown players which could play attacking football to entertain the fans. The first stop was recreating his 3-4-3 Diamond, and after a lot of experimentation, I have developed a system which I am really enjoying to watch. and became the foundation of the success for the upcoming years.

By Dave Valkenburg, ago

The Johan Cruijff Foundation: Introduction (Part I)

Ever since I was a little boy, there was this admiration of Johan Cruijff all around me. Who else was, as a Dutch guy, we’re all injected with the Cruijff-virus at a young age. For some the best football player ever, for others the person who gave FC Barcelona the status they have today, and for another person, it’s merely a man who doesn’t make any logical sentences when he was analysing a game of football. But what we can’t disagree on is that he was mainly responsible for putting the Netherlands on the world map of football.

By Dave Valkenburg, ago

Urban Warriors – Tactical Review

In the previous article I talked you through my new ‘VW’ tactic based on the car brands logo and my decision to play 2 strikers in my second season with Ajax Cape Town.
In this article I will analyse the formation & roles to discuss their movement & give examples via videos & screenshots.

By Mark Rennolds, ago

Urban Warriors – The Tactic

Tactic Construction
When i start to put together a tactic I always start with the bookends of the formation – defenders & strikers. Once I’ve decided on the number of players I want in these 2 zones then I structure the rest of the team to both protect & feed these key roles. In this series I have also introduced another factor into my tactic construction process – the logo challenge.

By Mark Rennolds, ago

The Gaucho Tactical Setup; Introduction

Over the past few years, I have written numerous tactical articles. Most of these articles finished on the end product, the downloadable tactic. Some of these tactical articles focussed on specific aspects of the tactic. I even had a brief series of articles on how to edit and tweak them. While I am still content with the quality of the material, the nagging feeling that I could have done better still remains. This series of articles is my attempt to do better, to show you how I created the tactic, what I had in mind and how I tweaked it to work as intended.

By Guido, ago

Urban Warriors – Part 5

Off We Go!!
So after all the discussions and planning stages, it’s time to put it all into action. The main goals were to get promotion out of the 2nd tier at the first attempt whilst stabilising the club financially. Squad wise we were very heavy which meant we were haemorrhaging money, so the first thing to do was pass the reins to Guido to be ruthless and sort the squad out.

By Mark Rennolds, ago

The Accidental Set Piece Routine

Some scientific discoveries come about after painstaking, goal-oriented lab work finally yields the result that a researcher is trying to find. But many of the most incredible discoveries in the world came about when someone found something they were not looking for. In some cases, these are the result of a true accident. Lucky accidents have allowed people to discover unexpected but useful side effects. That is certainly the case for my new corner routine.

By Guido, ago