How Heynckes Worked Against Dortmund's Pressing: Limiting Effectiveness then Taking Advantage

Pressing, the latest tactical trend in football, is becoming increasingly popular following the success of teams such as Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The idea of counterpressing, is that as soon as you lose the ball in attack, the forwards work mercilessly to retain possession for a short period of time (Barcelona: 5 seconds). This allows the team to put great amounts of pressure upon a team's defence, and as we saw in the opening 30 minutes of the Champions League Final, stops them from getting a foot in the game.

In said final however, we saw how Jupp Heynckes' Bayern Munich dealt with the intense pressing of Die Schwarzgelben which lead the BundesLIGA champions to redeeming themselves after last year's final.

West Ham 2 - 2 Manchester United: Statistical and Tactical Analysis

Sir Alex Ferguson's side went into this match with one hand on the Premier League trophy, however they still had to battle a West Ham side who played well against the league leaders.

Essentially it was a battle of two 4-2-3-1s with Jarvis, Nolan and Vaz Te making up the home side's '3' which worked excellently on the break, up against a very threatening '3' of Kagawa, Rooney and Valencia behind RVP.

3 Points on Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Juventus: Width, Pressing and Mandzukic

The odds of progressing into the final 4 are largely in favour of Bayern after their brilliant display against a strong Juventus side, who were never allowed a moment's rest by Ribery and Mandzukic. The Bavarian's lucky start with Alaba's deflected goal played a large role in their domination however, as they practically started on fifth gear.

The home side fielded their expected 4-2-3-1, with Gustavo replacing Javi Martinez alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger behind Toni Kroos, who early on was replaced by Robben due to the German international picking up a groin injury.

The Old Lady also started out in their standard 3-5-2 system, with Matri and Quagliarella leading the line as Vucinic was too ill to start. Peluso and Lichtsteiner flanked the midfield of Marchisio, Pirlo and Vidal.

Wayne Rooney: Attack or Midfield?

Over the past few seasons, there has been much talk over the Manchester United player's current, and future position, as to whether the 27 year old is most effective up front, or deeper, as an aggressive midfielder. In my opinion, Rooney is by far the most effective in a supporting role, and probably has had the most success playing just deeper than the main striker, but as he ages and his fitness worsens, might the midfield role be best?

The Effect of Gareth Bale's Central Move

Gareth Bale's new position in the centre has brought him great success in the six matches he has featured there so far, averaging a rating of 8.59. AVB's decision to move the once-winger into a position behind the striker is very similar to Guardiola's over Messi when he took over in 2008, where he made the transition from inside forward to false 9.

Stopping Gareth Bale

Just how do you stop an in form player? When everything just goes right for them, every shot placed perfectly out of the 'keeper's reach, every turn making the defenders looking more and more foolish. Sometimes they make you wonder if it is even possible, when they produce moments of pure brilliance to win the match in the 90th minute.

An Update

As you all will have noticed, the frequency of articles on my blog has dropped significantly since November for a few reasons; but predominantly that I lacked the motivation to write articles. This was due to my quality of content dropping, lacking ideas and also, as it takes me around 3 hours to go through the whole process of writing an article, it is impossible to have any free time due to school and revision for exams.

I'd love to start posting consistently again, but it may need to be less consistent at maybe once a fortnight - a shadow of my previous intensity but it's something.

If you have any requests please tell me through any means of contact, since without any ideas myself, I'm almost certainly going to fulfil them!

Cheers,
Tom

Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea: The Gunners fail to Recover After a Dire First Half

I'm finally back! Firstly, apologies for the lack of articles, and without writing for over a month I might be a bit rusty, so if this article isn't great, tell me in the comments but keep that in mind, cheers.