Player Centric Tactics

Jordan and the gang have another podcast out, essential listening as usual.

The Jakswans are looking good for promotion to the premiership having risen to 2nd spot, it's possible that we could even secure the title although that looks unlikely. Currently we're half way through the SFA Non Premiership Cup Semi Final (first leg away drew 2-2), and oddly the various youth squads have been over performing, in the FA's competitions we could literally walk away with every single youth trophy.

I decided to run all these youth comps after reading that FA games help youths progress more so regardless of the result the SFA should have strong youth players coming through.

Had an interesting chat with a few managers who read my blog and stated it's like tactics don't matter..... My tactics are very simple, pretty much standard 4-4-2 my outlook on tactics as a whole has been 'player centric'. I like to play 4-4-2, I think it's nice to watch, is balanced and can be adapted easily into something else. Having watched now literally hundreds of games I came to the conclusion that in this formation the most critical position is the DM/MC.

When something breaks down it's more often the DM that is picking up the peices, if a ball is played to a winger and there is nothing on he turns and lays it back to the DM. He then looks to set something else up and move from there. Having a player that is weak in any area in this position is a recipe for disaster and this is this reason why we spent the bulk of our early cash on a mature Scott Parker.

Another example of 'player centric' tactics is the choice of subs or maybe switching players positions currently I have a young 19 year old striker Paulo Roberto who can play right wing and then I have the wonder boy Ashkan Dejagah who can play up front or right wing. Which player to play where is the cause of much pondering, the opposition, their formation, the scoreline, all factor.

Another player in my line up is a young AMC Fidel Martinez, too young for senior football and makes a lot of mistakes but has lots of flair and can occasionally open up a defence like no other, if we're chasing a game he'll often get to see action.

Oddly I seem to enjoy not so much getting it right but sometimes getting it wrong, there just seems to be endless depths in the match engine.