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Tiki-Taka draws on this by hoarding the ball for 60-70% of the game and controlling the pace of play.
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Both Barcelona and Spain have adopted this style, with great results, winning league titles, European cup’s and international tournaments.ĭefined by short, intricate passing and fluid movement between every player on the field, the key to its success is overloading the midfield area with technically skilful players who can retain possession of the soccer for large periods of the game adding intelligent, nimble attackers who are able to create space and drag the opposition out of position.Ī popular soccer idiom says that “if the opposition haven't got the ball, they can't score”. They had all the ingredients required: two of the best wingers in a business, a strike partnership that knew where the back of the net was, and two busy central midfielders who could attack and defend.Īnyone who has watched European fsoccer over the past ten years will have witnessed the rise of Tiki-Taka soccer. When playing 4-4-2 then, it's imperative you select tireless central midfielders who are comfortable when both creating and defending.Ī fine example of Classic 4-4-2 is the treble winning Manchester United side of the late 90s. In modern soccer, it's more fashionable to have at least three players operating in and around the centre of the pitch, leaving a two-man central midfield short of bodies. The weakness of the 4-4-2 formation is the rigidity and amount of work expected of the two central midfield players. Often, these strikers compliment each other by having a different set of skills – for example a tall striker who is good in the air and a smaller, more agile forward who can feed off any knocked down balls.
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What it results in is plenty of service for your two strikers, who should always be lurking in the box sniffing out a chance at goal. To help them, full-backs look to overlap to provide an extra attacking option. The wide midfielders are often skilful, with pace to burn and a deadly accurate cross. The two strikers, midfield pairing and full-back and wingers each need to have to have a telepathic understanding of their role on the pitch. Despite going out of fashion in recent years, 4-4-2 has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence, mainly thanks to Leicester City in the Premier League and Atletico Madrid in La Liga. This is one of the oldest formations in soccer. Here, we give a coach's guide to the most common, what you'll need to make a success of it, and an example of a team you could study to get it's best version. There are many formations and tactics being employed by various soccer teams, with hundreds of subtle distinctions branching off from them. It's the job of the manager to mould the way a team plays, and you only have to take one look at the Elite end of the sport to see differences in the way team’s set-up and play soccer. The great thing about soccer is there are a million different ways to play it.
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