I firstly must apologise for the lateness of this blog post. I was away on holiday the last week and just couldn’t find the time to get this up. I’m aiming to get several posts up this week as an apology.

I must admit, as I sat down to play the four games for this post, I had no idea what to write about. For the first game against Kilmarnock, I just wrote it as a match report, looking at what happened during the game, as well as tactical changes, decisions, and flaws I made. But I wasn’t happy with the end product. To do that four times for the blog would leave this post being completely pointless. In fact, the aim of each post is to focus on one aspect of football manager, rather than a run-of-the-mill regurgitation of each game. After reflecting on what I wrote so far, a clear subject emerged for me to write about. This blog focuses on why I changed to a 4-4-1-1 at half-time in the game against Kilmarnock, and what benefits I saw.

Before the game, the chairman came back with a list of possible affiliate clubs to send youth players on loan to. Being Inver born and bred, it was an easy choice

Aberdeen vs Kilmarnock, Scottish Premier League

Fuck me. I mean really, fuck me.

Unfortunately, no data was available for Kilmarnock as they were yet to play a competitive match, but I did have, at least, a predicted line-up.

For those who follow Scottish football, Kilmarnock’s weakness is obvious. His name is Kirk Broadfoot. Broadfoot is a solid, physical centre-back, but hasn’t been seen running for about 5 years now. Alongside the similarly cumbersome Gordon Greer, the right-hand of Kilmarnock’s defence will be exploitable in behind. GMS is licking his lips. The midfield, too, is slow. Furthermore, they are employing the DLP-BWM partnership, but in my opinion, the wrong way round. Surely it’s more logical to have the BWM running into the midfield, while the DLP screens?

How did I want to exploit these weaknesses? Simple. By moving back our defensive line, we should hopefully encourage the opposition to edge forward themselves, allowing us to break in behind.

The predicted line-up was spot on. Oddly, SPL top scorer Kris Boyd, Team of the year member Jordan Jones, and Scotland international Stephen O’Donnell were all left on the bench.

Unfortunately, due to his assault in the last game, Graeme Shinnie is suspended and therefore could not feature today. I saw this as an opportunity for Dean Campbell to get some game time.

Despite our slightly more conservative positioning, we were able to control the opening half hour. Twice GMS found himself in behind Broadfoot, but missed a glorious opportunity on the first occasion and had his cross blocked on the second. Despite creating little of note, we went ahead after 25 minutes. Christie’s Free-kick was flicked on by McKenna and in by the dangerous Rooney.

Football Manager has a way of betraying you sometimes, though, as Kilmarnock scored with their very first shot of the game, and then from their second. The first came from a Killie goal kick. McKenna got caught under the ball, and as Harvie moved in to cover he left the door open for Eamonn Brophy, who snuck the ball in at Lewis’ front post. The second saw us caught out by a counter-attack of surgical precision. Brophy collected a long ball on the flank vacated by the marauding Harvie, before playing a fantastic pass into Erwin who had too much time and space for my liking to take a touch and pick his spot.

At halftime, I retreated my wingers back to the ML/MR strata to allow them to attack from deep areas. Tansey also came on for Dean Campbell who had done very little at that point. I could easily just copy and paste what I wrote about the second half of the game against PSV, but with a slightly happier ending. Shot after shot rained in on Cammy Bell’s goal, yet the goal seeming wasn’t going to come. With hope lost, Logan played a fantastic cross-field ball into GMS who slammed it in from a tight angle. Blushes saved. A point saved. Something Cammy Bell somehow couldn’t save.

The deep positioning of wide midfielders

The only real structural difference between the 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 is the positioning of the wide midfielders.

Several of the benefits of this change can be seen in the following move, which sees GMS firing wide with the goal at his mercy.

1. Positioning in defensive phase

The 4-4-1-1 allows the stereotypical ‘2 banks of 4’ when defending. This firstly allows a compact shape, preventing the opponents from playing between the lines. The positioning of the wide midfielders also reduces the space between them and the fullbacks. This provides additional cover, especially important when playing with the youngster Harvie on the left, and Kenny on the right, after Logan picked up an injury ruling him out for 3 months. Finally, it prevents the midfield pair from becoming outnumbered and being dragged out of position.

2. Width

A major gripe of mine with attacking wingers in the AML/AMR strata is their seemingly counter-intuitive movement with the ball.

When the ball is in the final third and in a central area, the winger will often drift inside to make himself available for a pass. He then runs diagonally wide to try and deliver a cross from wide. Rarely can I get an attacking winger to actually stay wide, and stretch play. Moving GMS back solved this issue.

As you can see from the original example, GMS’ initial reaction is to move high and wide.

3. Attacking potential

One misconception is that by moving back their wide midfielders, their attacking potential will be lost. This is simply not the case. It’s hard to capture in a screenshot, but as Logan crosses the halfway line, GMS’ attacking duty takes over, causing a burst of acceleration towards the opposition goal. As it will be seen later in this highlight, the more conservative positioning doesn’t prevent them from getting forward.

4. Take advantage of poor defenders and exploit hard-coded positioning

This rather crude diagram shows what I mean. The badly drawn grey area around the opposition right back, number 2, represents his field of vision. With the ball on the right flank, the player is looking at how the events are unfolding in front of him. As a result of this, as well as GMS’ deep positioning a few seconds ago, he has not noticed the danger he possesses. Furthermore, as part of a compact defensive block, the right-back has shifted across to the left alongside his teammates. These factors, in turn, give GMS the opportunity to attack from deep.

5. Space allowed to teammates

In previous games, I was becoming frustrated by the lack of influence our supposed starman, Ryan Christie, was having on the game. I quickly identified that this was because he was unable to receive the ball in space, where he was able to run at the defence, or in this case, play a pass.

The result?

A miss of course! but more importantly, a fantastic opportunity created.

Here’s another example, namely his late equalizer against Kilmarnock:

Starting from a wide position, GMS runs inside as the ball enters the opposition half. He catches the opposition fullback unawares, running behind him to tap Logan’s cross into the empty net.

Furthermore, the wide midfielders provide far more width, as seen below.

As you can see in the screenshot, this affords central players, namely Ryan Christie, far more space.

Compare it to this screenshot, from a pre-season game. It’s all jumbled, players are packed close together, players don’t have enough space, and there’s not enough width.

So those are the basic attacking benefits, but what about the defensive benefits?

Well here’s the second goal we conceded against Kilmarnock, as we’re caught up the pitch. The problem clearly comes from the presence of the left back (21), or lack thereof. Yet, on paper, the role of the wingback hasn’t changed. The benefit of the formation is that the fullbacks don’t have to bomb forward to link up with the winger, as they are positioned far closer. This, therefore, prevents any unnecessary gaps from developing.

While not eye-catching, the results have been fairly good, but the performances have been very encouraging. St Johnstone is another example of us failing to take our chances, and coming up short.

Our early wastefulness sees us already 4 points off the old firm after 4 games. A long way still to go, though.