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Emulating Lucien Favre's Gladbach: Borussia Barcelona


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On February 14, 2011, Lucien Favre had one job: to keep Gladbach up. The Foals were bottom with only 16 points and needed 7 points to get out of relegation. They stuggled but were able to stay in the Bundesliga by beating Bochum in the relegation playoffs. The year after, Favre lead the Foals to fourth place, securing a Champions League spot. The year after that, they didn't qualify for the Europa League stuggling to replace their sold players (eg. Reus) and settling for 8th. And then the year after that, they finished 3rd in the league. And then this year, they stuggled again...you know the rest :D

Favre stepped down after a string of bad results.

Lucien Favre tactics are very similar to his mentor Jupp Heynckes, who also had his tactics influenced by Arrigo Sacchi. His players plays compact and close to each other. Pressing begins from front to back but instead of a full court press, Favre likes his players to press side-to-side.

http://theinsidechannel.com/lucien-favres-tactics-at-borussia-monchengladbach/

Take a look at this article. Against Bayern, the Foals were a menance in defense. Pep's tiki-taka was negated by the Foals pressing game. Paths were blocked and Bayern only had safer passing options available to them. And so, how do we emulate this in FM??

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I went with a classic 442 formation.

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The Foals were a counterattacking side. When they are not on the counter, they play a possession game. They never play a high line and are usually camped in their own area sitting deep and absorbing pressure.

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Just like Jupp and Sacchi, Favre likes to side to be compact. Also, he is not afraid to let the players express themselves a bit on the attack.

TIs

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Pass Into Space

The Foals had a ton of players good on the ball and not afraid of nicking out a through ball.

Play Out of Defense

The Foals did not have a lot of players that can play hoof ball and much of the play was through the ground. Like the late great Brian Clough once said, "If God wanted us to play football in the sky, he would've put grass there."

Higher Tempo

The Foals played some great soccer. Much of the play was high tempoed.

Whipped Crosses

Players had a lot of pace so they could get on the end of crosses

Play Narrower

Once again, the players were close to each other and compact.

Close Down More/Tighter Marking/Prevent Short GK Distribution

Favre didn't play a full court press. Much of the pressing was side to side with all of the team contributing to the press.

PIs

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Ter Stegen was a diet-Neuer. A Sweeper keeper who has great ball distribution.

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Both of the Foals central defenders were good on the ball. They were not required to do much but be the last line of defense for Foals unless thy name was Dante, who was a sledgehammer when he played for them :)

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Unlike the Atleti fullbacks, both fullbacks at Gladbach are more defensively disciplined in attack.

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Now, this is a tough one. I don't want too many playmakers in midfield. It could be argued that the widemen were playmakers but you could also argue that for the middlemen.

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Favre likes to have two deep playmakers who Dictates the Tempo of the game but can nick a through ball.

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This role emulates the Raffeal role. He is usually the man who tracks back and hassles the DM like he did against Bayern.

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And finally, this role emulates Stindl. He usually likes to hassle the defenders in order to prevent them from distributing out from the back properly.

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You probably adapted the tactic to your squad but as far as I know, the fullbacks do not venture up the field too often.

My interpretation on Favre's tactics (Arango and Reus era) would be:

Mentality: Counter or maybe Standard

Team Shape: I think Fluid could work better.

GK (D)

FB (S), CB (D), CB (D), FB (S), WM (A), DLP/B2B (S), CM (D), WP (S/A), F9 (S), DF (S).

TI: Close Down More, Stick to positions, More disciplined, Higher Tempo, Pass into Space and Narrow, possibly removing one or two TIs as I don't like to over-complicate it.

Of course, in practice it might change. I am not very good with Counter-Attacking tactics to be completely honest, but that's how I thought.

It is similar to Simeone's 4-4-2, but some tweaks like Herrmann is more like a winger and posseses great pace, Arango (LM) was the man to provide great passes, Reus was the main goalscorer and he was dropping deep to get the ball while Hanke was often harrasing the defenders.

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This is not plug n play, man. If you are looking for a magic bean, you came to the wrong place...

Who said anything about a plug and play or magic bean I was simply asking a question, that's what these forums are for right ? Anyway I like the tactic I've had success using it just feel I concede a fair bit

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Who said anything about a plug and play or magic bean I was simply asking a question, that's what these forums are for right ? Anyway I like the tactic I've had success using it just feel I concede a fair bit

What team are you playing as?

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