Mikel Arteta,the Media Puntas and the False 9s

A month ago,i came across this brilliant article by Phil Ball,on the power and rise of the media puntas.He explains the reasons behind its importance and states that with an abundance of media puntas,Spain can dominate the world in the years to come.
In that article Ball mentioned that,Arsene Wenger was the only manager in England who tried to introduce the media punta and in Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri,Arsenal had two of the best in the business.When they lost them both in the summer,Wenger bought Mikel Arteta from Everton.So can Arteta play between the lines as Fabregas and Nasri before him did?

Arteta about to take a corner for Everton,his former club
against Arsenal,his new club.

A media punta essentially is someone who acts as a link between the midfield and attack,someone who can receive the ball with his back to the defence.This role isn't easy to play and only the players of the highest  technical quality can play this role.Cesc Fabregas was a master,playing behind the strikers,receiving the ball,turning and then providing the killer pass with ease. These players playing in between the lines are the ones who generally create the most chances. So Arsenal had a big gap to fill when they lost both Fabregas and Nasri,they did have Andrei Arshavin who could play that role,but the Russian has been out of form for quite sometime now. So when Arteta arrived at Arsenal,people expected him to fulfill the void left by Fabregas. Arteta is someone who could play between the lines,as he did at Everton

But Arsene Wenger chose to play him in a deeper role,someone who could feed the wingers.For example against Fulham his average position is deeper than Ramsey's and almost at the half way point,clearly showing that he isn't playing the "in between the lines" role anymore.

The below chalkboard shows the difference in roles of Arteta when playing for Everton and for Arsenal.

Chalkboard showing the difference in Arteta's style of play for Arsenal
and for Everton.

So has Arsene Wenger gone back on his philosophy of playing with media puntas,and adopted a more English way of attacking through pacy and skillful wingers?. Maybe,because of the excellent form of Theo Walcott,we may see more of Arsenal's goals created from the right,but Arsenal's main source of goals still comes from a media punta,RVP. 

Robin Van Persie is a different type of media punta,he is a false 9 or a nine and a half. RVP drops back into space to create play,he is one of the few players who can both score and create. This season more and more Premier League teams have started playing a false nine,Rooney,Aguero,Suarez and RVP himself have all both created and scored.

One advantage that the False 9 has over the traditional media punta is that he can either choose to play as a normal stiker and score goals,or if he is not getting enough of the ball,he can then drop between the lines and look to create. Fabregas's move from Arsenal might have made them more solid,as Arteta is a more defensively aware and solid player than Fabregas,Arsenal's midfield has less chance of being overrun. And with RVP(and Ramsey too) playing the creator's role with ease,Fabregas's transfer maybe a blessing in disguise.

All the top Premier League teams have these "between the lines" players. Here Chelsea's case is an interesting one,although Ball points out that Frank Lampard is a media punta,Lampard is more of an attacking midfielder with a good finish.He is someone who does at times play as a media punta,but one can't call him a pure media punta. In Juan Mata they have someone who can play as a media punta,but AVB prefers to start him on the left. Tottenham Hotspur who have a enjoyed a great start to the season,have in Emmanuel Adebayor who has gone from a traditional center forward to someone who drops deep and tries to link up with the midifield

Chalkboard showing the difference in Adebayor's style of play for Tottenham
and for Arsenal .

One can clearly see the change in Adebayor's playing style, here at Tottenham he looks more determined and wants to get involved in the build up play as well. 

Coming back to the situation at Arsenal, Van Persie is someone,as we have seen over the past few seasons who is injury-prone. As Arsenal depend on him a lot to create and score,Wenger needs a back up plan. With Wilshere out with injury,Arsene can either play Arteta or Arshavin in the hole with Chamakh/Park up front.Or Else even a 4-6-0 with Arshavin,Arteta and Ramsey switching the striker's role with each other.

Barcelona have already experimented with the 4-6-0 this season,although it has not been very successful,it does make the game tactically more interesting. The La Liga and the Serie A as always have been more attractive and intriguing for lovers of the tactical side of the beautiful game,i hope the Premier League too comes up with it's share of tactical innovations.

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Is The Future Strikerless For Spain?

When Spain played Scotland last month in Alicante,two goals and an assist from David Silva killed off any hope Scotland had of making the Euros via a playoff. One may say that this was a typical Spain performance and an expected win,it was,but for one important change. Vicente Del Bosque played David Silva as a false 9 against the Scottish and it paid off. With Fernando Torres out of form and Llorente,Negredo and Soldado lacking international experience,can we say that this move is a permanent one?



Another option for Del Bosque is to play Villa up front and bring in Pedro to play wide left, but for quite some time now Villa has been starting out wide left and then cuts in for both club and country.With the number of world class midfielders Spain have got,their best option maybe  is to play one of their midfielders as a withdrawn forward. If Del Bosque was mulling over this option in the past few weeks,he got another reason to implement the strikerless formation,as Pep Guardiola played Fabregas in a similar sort of a role against Bilbao last weekend.

Cesc Fabregas started among the front three in a 4-3-3 ish shape,but was rarely the most forward player for Barcelona.As we can see below his average position is almost at the halfway line.

But more importantly Fabregas got forward at times,and scored a typical striker's goal. So it makes perfect sense for Del Bosque to include another part of Barcelona's successful style of play. His experiment with David Silva against Scotland was certainly a success as Silva stamped his class all over Scotland's defence. This move can make Spain even stronger and it will also result in a better utilization of resources. As Del Bosque prefers playing both Alonso and Busquets as the holding midfielders in a double pivot,that leaves room for only four more attacking players. And as Xaviesta are a must,so there remains only one more midfield slot. With the likes of Villa,Silva,Fabregas,Mata,Cazorla,Pedro,Thiago all competing for that slot, it is a pity that we get to see some of the best talents sitting on the bench. So including an extra midfielder for an out and out striker must be too a great tempation for Del Bosque to resist. If this is the case then there are more dark days for Fernando Torres ahead.

Certainly if  Del Bosque plays Silva in the "Messi Role" against England,then we will know for better whether Spain can play with a false 9 or not. With some of these tactical changes,it takes a lot of game time to adjust,as Manchester United found out with their interpretation of the stikerless formation with Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez. They did manage to attain the understanding and fluency which led them to great success but national managers have far more less time with their team than club managers. So against England(supposedly a better team than Scotland), we will know for sure if this move will work for Spain.

With all of the front four with the ability to play anywhere in the final third,Spain may be moving closer to Johan Cryuff's total football. Certainly with players like Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique who have very good abilty with the ball for defenders, Spain have the talent to emulate the great Dutch team of 70s. Carlos Puyol and Xabi Alonso more traditonal players who play in specific roles are on the wrong side of their 30s and replacing them with players like Javi Martinez and Santi Cazorla will only mean another step in the direction of Total Football.

And it would be a travesty if we don't thank Pep Guardiola and Barcelona for their contribution to Spain's National Football Team. Although Real Madrid fans would hate to admit it,Spain certainly wouldn't be the same without Barcelona. Not only does Barcelona provide majority of the starting line-up,but also the style of play,the tiki-taka which helped Spain become the world champions was perfected first at the Nou Camp. And now if Spain implement the false 9,then the only difference over the past few years of Spain playing and out and out striker and Barca playing with Messi,will also be eliminated. David Silva certainly is no Leo Messi but as a part of a strong 4 man attack,he will be devastating as his second goal against Scotland shows

I would love to see Spain line-up this way

Copa America 2011 Tactical Preview-Argentina

Its been 18 years since Argentina has last won a major trophy and with the world’s best player in its ranks the time is ripe to set the record straight.  On home soil and when all of its attacking players are fit and at the peak of their careers, this is the best chance for Argentina to end their drought at el Monumental.  The Argentinian football association has taken an interesting decision to award cities like Mendoza, Jujuy, San Juan, etc(some of which are home to clubs from the second tier of Argentinian club football) hosting rights for some of the games in this edition of the Copa America.  As most of the National team is based in Europe, the fans from these cities will be relishing the prospect of watching the likes of Messi, Kun Aguero, Di Maria in action and will be certainly turning out in huge numbers to support their team.

The only team which can match Spain for its attacking prowess is the Selección de fútbol de Argentina.Certainly Sergio Batista faces a serious selection head ache when he has to choose from the talents of Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Higuain, Tevez and Lavezzi (Milito sadly missed out on the preliminary list).  In Midfield they have one of the best defensive midfielders in the world in their captain Javier Mascherano and the creative spark is provided by the highly-sought after Javier Pastore.

One of the main problem for Sergio Batista is bringing the best out of Lionel Messi.  The reigning World Player Of The Year has never been the same force for his country as he has been for the Catalans.  In the past, Messi has played a deeper role behind Higuain for Argentina and teams were able to shut him out of the game.  So Maradona tried to give him a free role in the World Cup, but it still didn’t work.

Argentina At The Fifa World Cup 2010

Diego Maradona wasn’t much of a tactician and Argentina’s poor performance at the World Cup was down to some bizarre tactical decisions by Maradona rather than a lack of quality.  He used Messi in a much deeper role presumably so that he is more involved in the game and has the chance to influence and initiate moves.  Messi usually isn’t involved in the initiating process at Barcelona (Although sometimes he can initiate, create and finish all by himself).  Xavi Hernandez is the Midfield General for Barcelona dictating the tempo and picking passes at will as the Catalan wizard allows Messi the freedom to do what he does best: score goals.  Argentina also were playing a flat back four, with all the defenders being natural central defenders which meant they were no runs forwards to support the wingers.  Although on paper Argentina’s formation looked like a 4-4-2, they play very narrow on the pitch.

The downfalls of this system weren’t evident till they played a quality side, as the individual brilliance of some of their players got them through against weaker opponents.  But against Germany in the quarters of the 2010 World Cup, they were horribly exposed.  Philip Lahm was given way too much space, and of course the age old problem of 4-4-2 vs 4-2-3-1 cropped up: being overrun in midfield.

Sergio Batista after being appointed the manager immediately realised this problem and switched to a 4-3-3 with Messi cutting in from the right.  This formation worked wonders in the very first match as Argentina best the world champions Spain 4-1.

Argentina's Formation Against Spain

This system did work well and got Batista the job on a permanent basis.  But it is highly unlikely that Batista will go in with this same system in the Copa America.  After Batista got the job, some of the players including Tevez and Aguero voiced their dissent over the appointment.  Sergio then patched up with Aguero and others, but there is still some concern over his relationship with Tevez, so it is unlikely that Tevez will make the starting line-up.

Another important decision Batista has to make is to which role to assign to Messi.  Lionel Messi has been in stunning form for Barcelona for the last three years or so.  He is the Perfect False Nine in the modern game, if  ever there is one.  Dropping deep and leaving the opposition center backs confused, he has wreaked havoc against some of the best defenses in Europe.  One important point where Argentina are similar to Barcelona are the wingers/inside forwards which each side have.  Di Maria and Aguero are capable of playing the Villa and Pedro roles to perfection if not better.  In Pastore, they have a creative midfielder who is the modern version of the Playmaker unlike Riquelme(Read Here) with quick feet and a good finish.  Mascherano and Cambiasso can play the Double Pivot so essential to the  modern game(Read Here).  Zabaleta has been in good form for City so should play at left back.

Argentina-2011?

These are exciting times for Argentinian football fans; a young exciting side which includes the best player in the world has the potential to knock Spain off its perch(SAF-Style) and rule the world for years to come.  Even though the goalkeeper and the back four are potential Achilles’s Heels, there are some destructive players going forward who can change a game with moments of magic.  All of this of course depends on whether Messi can reproduce the form he has been consistently showing for the L’equip blaugrana in his national colours.  Batista certainly will give the best chance for Messi to do that if he is played as a false nine.

Can Messi lead Argentina to glory?