Every Monday, Tom Harrison offers his own slant on Liga MX; Analyzing matches, team tactics, individual performances and the state of the league. Welcome to Zona Tom.

Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti switches to a 3-4-3, and fits in VVG

Following the departure of Guido Pizarro, and arrival of Enner Valencia into an already outstanding front-line, there had been much speculation that Tuca Ferretti would switch to three-at-the-back. This is what we saw on Saturday, the Tigers lined-up in a 3-4-3 system.

At the back, Jorge Torres Nilo and Francisco Meza flanked Juninho, with the midfield consisting of; Javier Aquino on the left, Jurgen Damm on the right, and Israel Jiménez and Lucas Zelarayán in the center.

A fluid system, Jurgen Damm usually dropped deeper than Aquino did, forming a back-four on occasion.

Playing a 3-4-3 gave Tuca the opportunity to field all three of his star forwards; André-Pierre Gignac, Eduardo Vargas and Enner Valencia. The most obvious distribution of this trio would have been Valencia and Vargas either side of Gignac, but Ferretti adopted a different approach. Gignac and Valencia were used as wide strikers, regularly playing in the half-spaces in between the central and wide areas. Meanwhile, Vargas dropped in from the center, in a false-nine role.

The trio thrived. Valencia scored a hat-trick, Vargas bagged two assists and Gignac one. The positioning of the trio made them extremely difficult for Puebla’s defenders to pick up. Vargas was often in between Puebla’s defense and midfield, whilst Valencia and Gignac threatened to get in-behind via the space between full-back and center-back. Puebla struggled with the dilemma of whose job it was to mark each forward.

With their positioning, movement, potential to link-up, and clinical finishing abilities, this Tigers front three is a frightening prospect for the rest of Liga MX.

Defensively, there’s some work to be done to solidify this new tactic. Ferretti will likely be concerned that Puebla was able to complete 90% of his passes on Saturday, and managed eight shots from inside the box. But overall, it was a good start to life in a 3-4-3 formation. We should see it more.

Lucas “Chino” Zelarayán thrives in deeper role

Lucas Zelarayán has often been a victim of Tigres’ outstanding depth in attack. El Chino has produced impressive performances for much of his career, but often finds himself on the bench, perhaps his reputation is not as large as the likes of Eduardo Vargas or Ismael Sosa.

Lucas "Chino" Zelarayán today: 66 passes attempted. 65 passes completed. Phenomenal. #ligamxeng pic.twitter.com/aoyK5K0Sop — Tom Harrison (@tomh_36) July 23, 2017

Earning a place in the Tigers side in attack is extremely difficult for Zelarayán, but perhaps he has a future in a deeper role. The former Belgrano playmaker has been used in central-midfield before, and was absolutely phenomenal there on Saturday.

Zelarayán remarkably completed 65 of his 66 passes against Puebla, including eight long passes and two key passes. Lucas also completed a pair of dribbles, won eight out of twelve duels, made five tackles and scored the superb golazo which started off Tigres’ five-nil victory.

In the modern game, with space becoming more limited the physical advancements increase the capacity for players to press, many creative playmakers have been moved back down the field. Many ‘number tens’ have become ‘number eights’ in their search for time and space, in order to play-make. Zelarayán is another example of this trend.

Tuca Ferretti has Jesus Duenas and Mateus Uribe to bring in, but if El Chino can keep up this performance level, surely no one can displace Zelarayán from the heart of the midfield.

Return of David Cabrera should help

Last season, Pumas conceded the highest number of goals in Liga MX, As They stumbled to a 17 th place finish.

Part of their poor defensive season was due to Abraham Gonzalez, Pumas’ deep-lying playmaker. Abraham is excellent in possession, but did not offer enough cover for his defense when out of possession.

David Cabrera has returned to Pumas, after a rather unsuccessful loan spell in Morelia. On Sunday, Cabrera slotted into that deep-lying playmaker role in Pumas’ 4-2-3-1 formation, shifting Abraham to the right of center, where Javier Cortés used to play.

In the deep-lying playmaker role, Cabrera was able to provide more defensive cover than Abraham did last season. David made three tackles, almost double Abraham’s per game average of 1.6 across the 2016/17 campaign.

Improving defensively was imperative for Francisco “Paco” Palencia this season, and with Cabrera coming back into the side, helping to keep a clean sheet against Pachuca, Paco’s have made a strong start.

The return of David Cabrera has made a difference to Pumas' defensive solidity #ligamxeng pic.twitter.com/mf2cIUkb6O — Tom Harrison (@tomh_36) July 23, 2017

Difficult to learn too much

We were able to pick up clues about how different teams will approach this season, but lessons were limited, due to the large number of backup players that had to be used.

13 of 18 League MX sides are currently without players on international duty at the Gold Cup, and many new signings are not yet ready to start.

As a result, we saw a large number of debutants, youngsters and backup players receiving opportunities. It was great to see some of these younger players, and learn about them. Monterrey’s Jonathan González and Pachuca’s Pablo López were a couple to catch the eye.

However, watching weakened sides does not tell us much about how each team will play and perform this season. A problem with the early season start date.

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