Parts one and two of this little tactical series looked at the formation and the team instructions of my Lobanovskiy pressing tactic.
I also have a version that I use when I want to sit deeper and hit teams on the counter-attack. Lobanovskiy would employ such a plan very often away from home. He was one of the first proponents of the idea that winning at home and drawing away would secure the title in most seasons. Most smaller sides would happily accept a draw at home when playing the mighty Kyiv so it became almost mutually beneficial. Eventually, in response to this, the Soviet league introduced a cap on the number of draws that sides were allowed and any draws over this total would not accrue any points.
I did not plan to write about this tactic but I have had a couple of people ask me about it (when I say a couple, I do mean two.) and I am using it more than I thought I might. The formation remains the same with only a couple of role changes that I'll discuss at the end. Similar to my last post, I will take each section of the tactical creator in turn, and outline why I have selected certain options. Unlike my pressing tactic, this time I will be using a blank canvass and customising the tactic from there. First off, I decided to play on a balanced mentality, funnily enough, I felt this gave me the best balance between defending and attacking.
I have watched hours of Kyiv games recently and one that really stood out was their 1975 Cup Winners Cup win against Ferencváros from Hungary. Kyiv played solely on the counter-attack throughout the match, winning 3-0.
In Possession
My Selections - Pass Into Space; Higher Tempo.
Pass Into Space is a no brainer for a counter-attacking tactic, in my opinion. It is the space that our opponents leave in behind their defence, when they attack us, that we are trying to exploit. I did consider increasing the passing directness, but I felt that passing into space, coupled with other elements of the tactic, that I will discuss below, would encourage more direct passing anyway.
Higher Tempo when in possession also fits what I am trying to do with this tactic. Players will make decisions quickly in an attempt to maximise any turnovers we get. We play on at a similar tempo in my pressing tactic so this also helps a little with tactical familiarity.
In Transition
My Selections - Regroup; Counter; Distribute Quickly
If a counter-attacking tactic is to be successful, it will be strong in transition. I have selected Regroup when possession is lost. We need to keep our shape intact as much as possible. There is little point setting up a great defensive tactic then leaving yourself exposed during the defensive transition. Whenever Lobanovskiy played on the counter-attack his players always regrouped very quickly. Below is a screenshot showing three Kyiv forward players all with their back turned on the ball in order to get into position when possession is lost. As clear an example of 'Regroup' as you will see. This would rarely happen in today's game but highlights the importance of the defensive shape to Lobanvoskiy when he played this way.
Regroup in action.
Unsurprisingly counter and distribute quickly are selected. When we win the ball we want to attack and attack quickly. Both these selections are vital to that.
Out Of Possession
My Selections - Lower Line Of Engagement; Lower Defensive Line; More Urgent Pressing; Get Stuck In.
If we look again at footage from the Ferencváros game (below) we see that Kyiv players do not engage their Ferencváros counterparts, in any way, until they reach the halfway line. While the press may not come until halfway line when it comes it is urgent, so I've selected more urgent pressing. The defensive line was set around the 18-yard line in the 1975 final. This is a perfect strategy when you are set up to counter-attack. You are drawing the opposition onto you and encouraging them to leave copious amounts of space in behind for you to exploit. I have also selected Get Stuck In, I am unsure if this is something Lobanovskiy would've instructed players to do so I will keep this under review.
Lower Line of Engagement
Final Tactic
So all this has led to the tactic below. In my mind, it represents, fairly well, how Lobanovskiy set his sides up when he wanted to sit deep and hit the opposition on the counter-attack.
The only changes to the roles I have made are to use Wide Midfielders exclusively and change my wing-backs to full-backs on support. I think this makes us stronger in both offensive and defensive transitions. I have also removed the ball-playing defender 'stopper' and made him a simple ball-playing defender on defend, we are sitting deep and compact, I don't want him charging out of defence when we are likely very close to our own goal. I have also changed the Pressing Forward on support to an Advanced Forward on attack (still not sure about this). I want him to challenge the last man, making early runs in behind the opposition defence that our more direct play should expose. I don't, however, want him to become isolated, this is fine if he is a special player but my strikers at the moment are only a little bit better than me.
Season One (Quick) Review
So I've described these tactics and the next logical question should be, how have they performed?
Apart from a short spell in September things have gone exceptionally well. The promotion rules in the Ukrainian Amateur Leagues (4th tier) are a little odd, to me at least. The division is split into three leagues by region; roughly. The top two teams at the end of the season enter the promotion playoffs, along with the best two third-placed sides. This gives eight teams who are randomly drawn against each other in two-legged knockouts until two teams remain, it is these two sides that are promoted to the Druha Liga (3rd tier). So, theoretically, you could win your division and not be promoted. Where did we finish, I hear you ask.
A 4-1 win against champions MFC Pervomaysk, whilst using my counter-attacking tactic, on the last day, secured 2nd place and a playoff spot. Victoria Mykolaivka joined us as one of the best third-placed teams.
We were drawn to play ODEK, champions from Division A, in the semi-finals of the promotion playoff. They were clear favourites having won 19 of their 20 games all season. The bookies gave us little chance so I used my counter-attacking strategy. We managed to prevail via a penalty shoot-out after both sides won their home leg 2-1.
The winning penalty, what a moment.
We moved onto the final where Dnipro-1-Borysfen were waiting for us. I was sure we were the better side so employed my pressing tactic in the first leg. A 6-1 win set us up for a 9-3 victory over two legs, and promotion to the professional ranks of the Druha Liga was achieved.
Promotion!
Our promotion has come much quicker than I anticipated. The amateur leagues are a bit strange, some teams are pretty good, while others are truly awful and don't seem to do anything to improve. I'm expecting things to be a lot tougher in the professional Druha Liga next season. We have no money, next to no income, and none of my players have a proper contract. I did plan to do a lovely FC Pripyat team DNA piece but to be honest, this season was all about getting enough players to fill the bench. When I first entered the player search screen I had 12 players interested in joining, beggars can't be choosers. In time I hope to implement some sort of team identity, based around Lobanovskiy's core principles of Teamwork, Work-Rate and Physicality, but it will have to wait until we are more established financially.
Summer recruitment is going to be tough, not least as our "real wage budget" is around £2,000 per week. I plan to tie up around eleven players to professional contracts and leave the rest of the squad on rolling pay as you play contracts.
If you have made it this far thanks very much for reading. If you haven’t a clue what is going on you can read earlier posts here.
You can find me on twitter here and I will also be providing sporadic updates about the save and various other things on my slack channel #fmeadster.
Over and out
FMEadster!