German football is about possession. But unlike Spanish football, in Germany the most popular tactic is 4-2-3-1. Or, actually, a mix of 4-2-3-1 and 4-2-3-1 Deep. They are all about fluidity while remaining disciplined as German people are famous for. It's about precision. It's about making your team play as naturally as possible on the pitch, each player in their natural role and position and duty. Striker should score, winger on the right should cross, and winger on the left should cut inside. As most players are right footed, that's very natural. The player in AMC position is usally the creative one, often physically weak, the player in DM position is a tough robust player that is not afraid to tackle, and the player in MC position is a box to box player, connecting defense and offense, the link between ball wining DM and creative AMC. It doesn't come more natural than that, and that is why it is so successfull.
Jupp "Osram" Heynckess copied Dortmund style to some degree, and won everything he could, but his players were far better than Dortmund has at it's disposal. In case of Dortmund acquiring such good players in the future, I can predict Dortmund wining just about everything.
I take pride in making flawless tactics, and always work to see if I did something wrong, and I keep improving my skills, so this is definately not the last tactic or the change I make. I haven't touched player instructions, as it is my beleif at the moment they do not need any. They should only be used if you want the player to do something "unnatural" to him, and that is not the case here. I also haven't changed any set pieces, and while they are good as it is, they could probably use some work if you want to target a specific opponent weakness. In my expereince, that usually works good against some, and works very bad against other teams.
Also, I wont play the whole season to prove a point, as players that tactic is based upon do get injured or banned, so it is really not a measure of how good the tactic is.
So, long story short, we are bent on pressing. Pressing is played by playing it narrow and pushing high up. That way, our players are always close enough to opposition to close them down soon or at least interfere with their passing. That means we need to play agressively. I have ordered them to stay on feet, so that we do not leave our defence exposed by sliding in, but that means a lot of duels, tussles and fouls, luckily far away from our goal. Playing it narrow means we will stay close to each other, so we play a short passing game. Since we are good at pressing, that means we will have most of the ball and play in opposition half, so there really isn't much room to run at defence, so we play through defence instead and work ball into box playing a lower tempo and often retaining possession to control the game.
Jupp "Osram" Heynckess copied Dortmund style to some degree, and won everything he could, but his players were far better than Dortmund has at it's disposal. In case of Dortmund acquiring such good players in the future, I can predict Dortmund wining just about everything.
I take pride in making flawless tactics, and always work to see if I did something wrong, and I keep improving my skills, so this is definately not the last tactic or the change I make. I haven't touched player instructions, as it is my beleif at the moment they do not need any. They should only be used if you want the player to do something "unnatural" to him, and that is not the case here. I also haven't changed any set pieces, and while they are good as it is, they could probably use some work if you want to target a specific opponent weakness. In my expereince, that usually works good against some, and works very bad against other teams.
Also, I wont play the whole season to prove a point, as players that tactic is based upon do get injured or banned, so it is really not a measure of how good the tactic is.
So, long story short, we are bent on pressing. Pressing is played by playing it narrow and pushing high up. That way, our players are always close enough to opposition to close them down soon or at least interfere with their passing. That means we need to play agressively. I have ordered them to stay on feet, so that we do not leave our defence exposed by sliding in, but that means a lot of duels, tussles and fouls, luckily far away from our goal. Playing it narrow means we will stay close to each other, so we play a short passing game. Since we are good at pressing, that means we will have most of the ball and play in opposition half, so there really isn't much room to run at defence, so we play through defence instead and work ball into box playing a lower tempo and often retaining possession to control the game.