The Art of the Half-Space: The Gladbach System

[LPQR]

Hello everyone and welcome to another FM17 project. This time the spotlight falls onto Borussia Mönchengladbach: a historic team for German Football, 'Die Fohlen' have enjoyed their most successful spell in the 70's and are widely regarded as one of the best footballing institutions in Europe. Having developed players like Marko Reus, Andre-Ter-Stegen in modern times or Herbert Wimmer, Berti Vogts and Günter Netzer in the golden decade of 70-80' that saw them win eight trophies and make a series of appearances in European finals, BMG's legacy is tied to several pillars of traditional German football philosophy: youth development, coaching excellence and tactical innovation.

 

The nickname 'Die Fohlen' (i.e. the foals, the young horses) isn't incidental either, in that respect. Hennes Weisweiler, the coach that kick-started BMG's golden decade, developed a style of football based on fielding highly energetic young players and employing an offensive-minded philosophy and powerful play that attracted fans from all over Germany. From the fans' point of view there's no doubt towards the visual relevance their tactical style had in that regard. Young, aggressive, quick, physical, hard-working and hungry - a horde of foals indeed.

The club has experienced a resurgence in their performances as much as their identity since appointing Lucien Favre as coach back in 2011. Prior to that, there were relegation battles, disjointed performances and a complete lack of vision that ultimately drove the club as low as the second division (98' and 07'). Under Favre, the team re-discovered their emphasis on youth development as well as a tactical style that integrated elements of counter-pressing or 'Gegenpressing' with work-ethic and compact defensive displays.

A good article on the particularities of Favre's style can be found here. Since the Swiss took over in 2011, BMG enjoyed 3rd and 4th placed finishes in the league and Favre's tactical approach meant The Foals were once more amongst Germany's elite. Players like Raffael, Xhaka and particularly young sensation Marco Reus have propelled the club to a mini-renaissance, however even that would prove to be short-lived. We are in 2017, Reus has long left for BVB, where he made his mark as one of the most efficient attacking players in the Bundesliga, Favre has left BMG after a dispute with the club's board and The Foals found themselves ending the current campaign with a 9th placed finish.

I've taken it upon myself to 're-invent' this club, maintaining elements of their core identity and pushing them to the next step in terms of domestic and maybe even European Success. The principles will be simple:

1. Have a strong presence of young players (preferably German) in the squad and gradually build them into first-team performers.
2. Develop a style of play that doesn't venture far from 'Die Fohlen DNA'. In terms of FM, here's how I see it:

• hard-working players and system relying on player's determination, bravery, work-rate and stamina
• a football style based on collective feats rather than individual brilliance
• intelligent tactical strategy that seeks to exploit team's strengths and minimise weakness

You don't need to know a lot about BMG to know they're probably the most hard-working, aggressive squad in the Bundesliga. The stats do that justice:

 

I'm looking to build on these core foundations of the team as much as the legacy of the above-mentioned Favre. Perhaps what he was most famous for was his narrow shaped 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 that allowed wide players to use space centrally in intelligent ways as well as maintain a robust tactical shape. This refers to one of those terms I keep mentioning a lot when talking about tactics, and in no way is that by coincidence:

 

The Half-Space

 

 

Increasingly popular in modern football discourse, the half-space is a key strategic concept that has often been overlooked in traditional football thinking. Of course, there are a number of ways of interpreting space on a football pitch, however the most common markers of formation based interpretations usually exclude this term from the conversation. There a are plenty of reasons why understanding how the half-spaces can be best used can be extremely beneficial. 

"Theoretically, one could even argue that the half-space is superior to the middle. From the half-space, both the middle and the wing are options. But from the midfield there are only the two identical half-spaces, which both have the same end product and a clear path to goal."

The quote is 'stolen' from a fantastic article on Spielverlagerung which goes into great detail in analysing the particularities and interpretations of this spacial concept. Find the full article here, I strongly recommend you read it. For a short summary, though, we have the several points to guide our thought process:

1. Using the half-spaces allows for the 'surprise element' against the most common/traditional formations (4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3), which all emphasise either the middle or the wings, leaving gaps in the horizontal third quarter. Agglomerating the half-space usually results in opposition players being drawn out of position and an increased variety in the way space is manipulated.

2. Correct interpretation of the half-space allows for great flexibility in space coverage, be it defensive/attacking transitions or compactness of shape in rigid situations. 

3. The geometrical applications of the half-space allow players positioned in that area to be better connected to various aspects of play as well as for players to have a better visual perspective on the situation on the pitch.

 

Part One: The System

 

I will start from the fact that if half-space theory is understood correctly then one quickly draws conclusions about the style of play that would enable a team to reap the full benefits of employing the half-space as the main tool for space-manipulation. Be it in defence or attack, elements of pressure and pass geometry are much more efficient if there is more than one player exploiting the half-space, or if the strategy of play revolves around a collective application to exploiting the half-spaces.

There are many formations that can be employed to illustrate a style of play like that, however I will go for the 3-4-3 as my big goal for FM17 was understanding this formation in as many applications as possible. So here are my key considerations for employing a 3-4-3 that will make its' aim to exploit the Half-Space.

 

1. The BMG squad possesses a good mix of technically gifted players with good movement off the ball and vision as well as hard working defensive-minded players.

2. The application of the system will seek to exploit the intelligence and movement of the front three whilst relying on the work-rate and defensive know-how of the rest in a combined fashion. 

3. A general characteristic of the 3-4-3 is that its' main advantage (the wings) are also its' main disadvantage. Correct allocation of roles and team shape set-up can help smother the disadvantage, as much as particular attributes for key position such as the wide centre-backs and the wide players.

 

Shape / Formation / Mentality

 

The Reasoning behind the Team Instructions

 

I can already hear you saying 'but... but.. it's not a 3-4-3!'    And before you do go on, I should say that I pay as little attention to formation cliches as much as I do to how much sugar I've got in my coffee. If you've read any of my previous stuff, you should find decent enough reasoning to my thought process there. All in all, what the FM tactics screen shows is about 5% of what really matters, as you'll see in the upcoming analysis.

A very fluid set-up for the collective style of play mentioned earlier on, a standard mentality that allows me to neutralise the 'generic approach' and dissect the players that attack and defend via duties/roles and instructions. Whilst that might sound contradictory at first, the idea is to channel team efforts collectively towards space coverage via fluidity and balance the risk via mentality.

- a system that aims to manipulate space, hence 'pass into space': this instruction will exploit complex player movement and will take advantage from either the two deep passing options finding a player into space with a long ball or the attacking mids with a shorter pass

- even though I want my lines close to each other, I do not want my players too close to each other horizontally, given how many numbers we have in midfield. I've chosen a wider team shape to help stretch us out in that sense

- I have two deep passing options: one molding with the back three and the other a bit more advanced and creative, hence I ticked 'play out of defence', in order to exploit their functionality

- the tempo has been left at 'normal', as well as the passing at 'mixed' as I trust the players to choose between a long ball/short pass according to the situation (key note: our squad features some of the best decision-makers in the league) 

- I want to work the ball in the box, given the front three are instructed to roam and create space via movement

- Even though I employ a 'normal' defensive line, I've instructed the team to close down more, so that we feature elements of high pressing in our style of play. I also use 'prevent short GK distribution' sometimes, when I feel we could benefit from additional pressing from the front three.
 

A juxtaposition that should explain better why I chose the current set-up:

You can see how high the number of players 'concentrated' in the half-spaces is, as well as having wide players that are instructed to 'sit narrow'. Apart from the pressure on the half-spaces, we create a central 'circle' shape that will aim to circulate possession and maintain possession-based pressing.

Analysis of play

 

attacking shape

in our most attacking form, we become a 3-2-5 that shows good coverage of width and two deep passing options - the HB and the DLP, each prepared to offer support either side of the pitch, or create additional pressure in the left or right half-space. With the help of the DF who is instructed to 'hold up the ball', our wingers and attacking mids are much more involved in the final third

the two attacking mids have instructions to roam from position and will often drift from the centre to the flanks, or in other words, agglomerating the half-space  here is a prime example of that in action:

in the next screenshot notice Hazard (AM) drifting away from Barcelona's marking all the way to the flank where he offers himself as a potential passing option:

 

in the same move, after about 3 seconds whilst the ball is circulated between the HB and the defenders, Hazard moves back to the centre and receives the ball:

 

 

 

 

defensive shape

 

our initial shape from a goal-kick. notice how wide the LCB and RCB are and the DLP & HB offering passing options to help build-up from deep 

 

 

the high press defensive shape. hard working player for the left winger sees him maintain good coverage of potential attacking threat on the flank. the front three (AM,SS,DF) press aggressively :

 

 

the deep press: wide players track back to almost 'wingback' thanks to high work-rate and high fluidity

  

 

pressing trap

one of the key elements of 'half-space defending' in this system is the pressing trap achieved through numerical superiority and positional flexibility. Given the fact the our two axis formed by the DLP+AM and the HB+SS in the centre of the pitch can drift either centrally or towards the wing, we manage to create numerical superiority in most situations of play. This helps us put pressure on the opposition either through the passing triangles that these movements create, or defensively, where we have 4 players pressing wings and 6 pressing the centre of the pitch  Key elements here? High Fluidity + Player mobility/workrate. Here is an example:

we are being hit on the break by Barcelona and Suarez has the ball in an advanced position. Our HB and DLP are cutting passing lanes towards the middle of the pitch, where Suarez has the most passing options. The next passing option he has is towards the wing where we have Hermann (RWM) outrunning the opposition player. In the meantime, we have the CB, HB and the DLP all applying physical pressure on Suarez.

 

Two seconds later, Suarez is being succesfully tackled by our CB and Hermann (no 7 ) drifts inside and picks up the ball to initiate a counter-attack. 

 

 

Key players for the system:

 

- hard working & fast wingers

 

self explanatory, absolutely key requirement for any 3-4-3

 

  
 

 

- mobile & fast LCD and RCD

 

the flexibility of the back-line is a key element of this system: the wide CB's are responsible for covering both wide and central areas, so they need the attributes to pull that off

 

   

 

 

- intelligent attacking midfielders 

 

the two indispensable tools of the system: they are responsible for key elements in maintaining possession and attacking space. High stats for technical and mental attributes are very important here. 

 

  

 

 

With the help of three key signings, Van de Beek (DLP/HB), Lucas Alario (DF) and Matthijs De Ligt (CD), we have pulled of a clean swipe in our very first season:

 

 

I will focus a bit more on issues of squad building in the next post  

 

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Leave your thoughts if you liked what you've read and as per usual... no download available

 

 

[LPQR]

(reserved)

[warlock]

Tried this with Man Utd - not the best squad for the tactic - and it didn't work. It looked good at defending the ball, but there was a lot of passing back and it was poor at breaking down defensive sides. After 10 games, we lost four, won five, drew 1 and for me that's not good enough. Obviously, there might be some PIs that I didn't have from the original post, but given a team like MU i'd expect to do better than we did.

[Barbosa04]

Wow. That's some delicious looking set-up. Coincidentally I was looking into something similar for my next experiment. Now I can take a back seat and watch another manager fulfill my dreams. Great work. Keep it up.

[Armistice]

This is a very good read, but don't you think that Roam from Position actually mean that the players leave their position more often to overload other areas? I thought that move into channels is basically moving into halfspace.

[LPQR]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

Tried this with Man Utd - not the best squad for the tactic - and it didn't work. It looked good at defending the ball, but there was a lot of passing back and it was poor at breaking down defensive sides. After 10 games, we lost four, won five, drew 1 and for me that's not good enough. Obviously, there might be some PIs that I didn't have from the original post, but given a team like MU i'd expect to do better than we did.

I did not include the PI's, might update the OP with them later on. There's quite a few of them and it could be important, afterall I've won promotion with Dynamo Dresden in the first season (predicted last in Buli2) with the same system

 

1 hour ago, nightwalker22 said:

This is a very good read, but don't you think that Roam from Position actually mean that the players leave their position more often to overload other areas? I thought that move into channels is basically moving into halfspace.

 

the way I see it, moving into channels gives more incisive, attack-minded movement compared to 'roam from position'. the latter is more about finding 'pockets of space', if we are to use FM terminology. the half-spaces can be interpreted through both, really, there's no reason why a player shouldn't perform either type of movement occasionally 

[Rashidi]

4 hours ago, nightwalker22 said:

This is a very good read, but don't you think that Roam from Position actually mean that the players leave their position more often to overload other areas? I thought that move into channels is basically moving into halfspace.

Roam from position is a shout that encourages a player to move more from his starting position to make himself available for passes. Move into channels is a specific instruction to move to a specific location. Both shouts can be used in conjunction. People see "move into channels" and immediately assume this is an instruction for exploiting halfspaces, when in reality, controlling half spaces comes from the right use of roles and duties. For example, a 442 finds it almost impossible to control half spaces without a lot of PIs, a 4231 on the other hand naturally targets half spaces through the right role duty selection. a 532 is defensively more solid than a 4312 because the 5 at the back allows them to defend the half space pockets more effectively. Its the reason why most people find it easier to control half spaces with narrow tactics, but narrow systems have their own issues - exploiting the spaces.  The OP has opted for two roles and duties in the AM strata to attack the half spaces, he also has two WMs to control the half spaces as well. The challenge he will find isn't in attack, but in defending his own half spaces.

Me and Cleon don't walk around with knowledge of every under the hood instruction, we just happen to have more than 20 years knowledge playing the game. So it makes things easier for us when we need to spot things quickly. My only advice to most people is to try things out.

[westy8chimp]

Nice write up and good tactic. Excellent achievement with BMG

My only caveat is that it is in danger of being a glossy cover up of one of this years FM flaws.

It's a very narrow formation, overloading the AMC area, which seems a fool proof way of winning.

i.e.

drop the DF s to an Enganche or AP ... drop the WMs for inverted wingbacks, change the two dms to CMD ... you'll get just as much success and similar football.

or have 41230 with full backs on attack... cms on defend and 3amcs or SSs and you get the same 325 attack as in your screen shot.

It's not really exploiting the half space through passing channels or good off the ball runs... it's simply overloading the half space.

[blackdevil]

This is a nicely presented post that explains the ideas behind it well.  I've only recently been experimenting with two DM's whilst trying to replicate Man Utd's 07-09 side so it's something I'm new to and finding I like in the way they operate.  Whilst I've had one set as the DLPs I'd not tried the HB until this post when I loaded a Gladback save to see how this plays out and I like how the HB and DLP operate.   It demonstrates similarities with how the Utd team played during the period 07-09.

I've tried it with Man Utd and it highlights the deficiencies within the starting Man Utd squad.  Most notably the lack of pace and poor decision making in many of the players.  And in the forwards the lack of work rate.  However it does show many things I like with the movement and positioning.

[davehibb]

@LPQR wonderful stuff as always mate.

I often wonder how an offset HB positions himself when in the defensive phase, how the back three fan out and position themselves and if they actually become a back four. It's not something I've tried... Yet.

How do you find it plays out for you?

EDIT: Looking at the pics, it seems the HB shields in front of the back three as opposed to joining it.

[enigmatic]

To a large extent I agree with westy, which is possibly a first  

Looks like it plays quite similarly to my narrow wingback 5-2-3-0 (which I'm also overachieving with in Germany) though obviously allows you to select different players. Compared with 4-2-3-1s or even FM16 4-4-1-1s I find the football quite ugly but it dominates possession and eventually ends up sliding an onrushing player through on goal when a defender gets tight on one player and leaves a little bit too much space for another. I do wonder whether it defends differently in transition though: your BMG wide midfielders get forward early and presumably rely on the DMs or widest DC to move to intercept or close down if the opposition clear it to their wide players, whereas my "sit narrow" wingbacks on support tend to sit in this area and support the midfield and make very late runs forward. I've found fullbacks that sit narrow to be massively more effective than ones which hug the touchline, but always assumed that was mostly down to how they helped win the ball back in midfield in transition stages rather than the direction of their forward runs.

Bit perplexed by your choice of half-back rather than Anchor Man since he's positioned off centre in front of a three so he doesn't seem to do the dropping into the back line the role was designed for. Does it make him sit deeper, or are there other reasons for picking that role? Is it making the central defenders spread even wider than usual?

[westy8chimp]

31 minutes ago, enigmatic said:

Bit perplexed by your choice of half-back rather than Anchor Man since he's positioned off centre in front of a three so he doesn't seem to do the dropping into the back line the role was designed for

Precisely, but as the HB mechanism doesn't work with a back 3... he has, in essence, got an Anchor man.

This is disgusting use of a back 3 with HB/DLP   The DLP starts tracking iniesta, who then receives the ball and the DLP changes his mind and goes and stands in a straight vertical line with the HB, giving iniesta complete control of the halfspace.

If the AI had a modicum of sense and could select relevant TI/PIs they would smash this apart...i.e. pass into space, more direct & risky passes from front 3 .. get further forward on a CM.

 

[LPQR]

On 2017-6-26 at 10:05, westy8chimp said:

Nice write up and good tactic. Excellent achievement with BMG

My only caveat is that it is in danger of being a glossy cover up of one of this years FM flaws.

It's a very narrow formation, overloading the AMC area, which seems a fool proof way of winning.

i.e.

drop the DF s to an Enganche or AP ... drop the WMs for inverted wingbacks, change the two dms to CMD ... you'll get just as much success and similar football.

or have 41230 with full backs on attack... cms on defend and 3amcs or SSs and you get the same 325 attack as in your screen shot.

It's not really exploiting the half space through passing channels or good off the ball runs... it's simply overloading the half space.

I'll admit to not explaining things in as much detail as I relied on a bit of common sense towards the following issues:

1. tactic is not designed to be an exploit, it's designed to play in a certain way, which is the aim of the project. yes, I could have similar or better success using another system that employs similar space coverage and yes, there are a number of set-ups that are going to get you similar shapes in transition, but that wasn't the point of this thread.

2. overloading the half spaces is the key aspect of defensive transitioning. exploiting them through good passing and off the ball runs is the aim of the two AMC's and the WM's, which they do very well. The two being mutually beneficial are the whole point of this set-up.

1 hour ago, westy8chimp said:

Precisely, but as the HB mechanism doesn't work with a back 3... he has, in essence, got an Anchor man.

This is disgusting use of a back 3 with HB/DLP   The DLP starts tracking iniesta, who then receives the ball and the DLP changes his mind and goes and stands in a straight vertical line with the HB, giving iniesta complete control of the halfspace.

If the AI had a modicum of sense and could select relevant TI/PIs they would smash this apart...i.e. pass into space, more direct & risky passes from front 3 .. get further forward on a CM.

 

In this particular scenario you can see the HB moving as he does because he's instructed to tackle harder and the whole team is instructed to close down more + mark tighter, thus you get a lot of pressure from the DLP + HB on the man with the ball. Yes, I agree, this isn't perfect positioning but this is because the whole team is running back from a failed free-kick high up the pitch. 

 

1 hour ago, enigmatic said:

Bit perplexed by your choice of half-back rather than Anchor Man since he's positioned off centre in front of a three so he doesn't seem to do the dropping into the back line the role was designed for. Does it make him sit deeper, or are there other reasons for picking that role? Is it making the central defenders spread even wider than usual?

 

3 hours ago, davehibb said:

Looking at the pics, it seems the HB shields in front of the back three as opposed to joining it.

the HB DOES DROP BETWEEN THE CB's  He mostly does so in the build up play and is hugely efficient in that respect. I haven't included a screenshot when we're defending properly deep, he even drops behind the back three.  he's not supposed to stay there in possession, he's supposed to press higher up the pitch given our team instructions, which he does. 

@enigmatic yes, correct, a key reason why I chose the HB is because he DOES split the CB's wide and offers extra pressure on the .... half spaces in various phases of play. This is very important for creating additional passing options out wide and diagonal runs from the side CB's which help in intercepting the ball high up the pitch. 

@westy8chimp I understand you're disgusted, so why bother posting? If you have valid questions, I'll do my best to answer, but if it's only meant to discredit my work and is based on limited assumptions then I won't really bother

[davehibb]

@LPQR thanks for clarifying the HB's positioning.

The 'formation' seems to resemble that of a very famous VfB Stuttgart team, as I remember.

Looking forward to your squad building follow up. 

[westy8chimp]

Apologies it was mild criticism and this is the tactics discussion not good tactics guide/blog section  but I don't mean to discredit.

I think you can overload the 'half spaces' and 'golden zone' without such a complicated defensive setup.

I'll be interested to see how it works as your team reputation builds and sides play deeper, counter football where they will move the ball very quickly in attack and punish you if you allow that space.

 

 

 

[Generation-Next]

Will you be updating with PI's 

[nampuk]

It is nice how well this system clicked with my current Juventus squad.

I'm really interested to hear what the PIs are and what difference they will make with the performance of my team (which is already performing ideally).

[acmilano112000]

Interesting post. Might be helpful to mention the similarities to the oft-copied Chelsea 3-4-3. This set up is pretty identical to my attempt at creating the Conte Chelsea 3-4-3. Same shape. I didn't use a HB, and I believe I had the striker as a CF(s), but basically identical after that. I may also have experimented with shifting the DLP to a DM and having the only "playmaker" be an AP(A) trying to mimic what Hazard does. Eden, not Thorgan . 

The crucial part for me was having both attacking mids have individual roaming from position on so that they can overload space where they see fit. Sometimes, as I saw when watching Chelsea IRL, both Pedro and Hazard would be on the same side of the pitch along with the wing-back looking to overload. Which freed the opposing wing back to sort of float into the box opposite them and try to get on the end of a cross or second ball if Costa missed it. 

I also used WM's instead of players in the Wing Back spots because I just liked where they positioned themselves better. 

May we see some screen shots of your average positioning during matches?

I have a soft spot for Gladbach and love playing as them for the reasons you describe in the beginning. Nice stadium too. Unfortunately I'm still plugging on with my Torino Fm16 side these days as I have some regens whose careers I'm very invested in. You know how it goes...

[saihtam]

Could u updated with PI? Or send tactics by message?

Interesting tactic, but seems to be one when been managing for while and got all the players with right stats, especially work rate