What is the "System" ?

[sportbillyblue]

Telly pundits, bloggers and contributors to the various forums talk about Moyes and the 'system' which Everton play. We have all come to accept that Moyes likes players that can play in many / different positions which seems to be the way it is now anyway throughout the game. But what is this system ?

It's not Barcelona's tippy tappy stuff as supposedly emulated by the likes of Swansea.
We do not constantly lump it to a big fella upfront (despite what SAF may claim).
It's not the 'total football' that I remember ala the Dutch when Cruyff etc played for them.
What is it ?

From what I can see we have a solid back 6 (goalie, 4 defenders and the DCM) who are fairly rigid in formation and an extremely fluid front 5.

I also see something akin to Basketball's transition where the solid back 6 will supplement the front 5 in attack (especially Baines) and the front 5 drop back into the pockets and help out the back 6 when defending.

p.s. I'm not a big basketball fan (watched years ago when I lived in the States) so it is possible my understanding of transition is wrong.

 

[Mogwai]

interesting post.....I look forward to the responses.

 

[bflefc]

Stop trying to turn it into some kind of weird science of formations/tactics a la American Football nonsense.

Moyes' system is this: defend. Try to prevent the opposition from scoring/winning. This isn't always the case, of course - every team has its good days at the office, when everything clicks into place. But sometimes this is only fleeting and it masks the norm. I remember watching England destroy Germany under Sven with some superb, open, flowing football that cut through them with ease. It was then a few years of tedious, "we have what we hold" type of stuff. The same under Capello: Croatia away (4-1, Walcott hat-trick) soon got swamped by negative, defensive football. I fear the same with our start this season, and for one i'm not getting carried away with our impressive start thus far. I've seen enough of Mr Cautious, thank you very much.

Other managers go out to score/win. Attack being the best form of defense etc.

I just hope and pray that Moyes makes me eat my words and has enjoyed some kind of tactical renaissance over the summer. I'd glady nip down to Greggs and buy the hottest, biggest humble pie they've got.

 

[Christiffa25]

I think we're setting up the same as city did last season formation wise, kind of a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1. We're not playing a total passing game like barca, we are mixing it up but deffinately playing great football at times with the front 5 having alot of freedom to interchange.

Seems a very good mix to me. I personally think only barca can play like barca. Arsenal were close a few seasons ago but in truth it cost them titles and trophy's by not being able to mix it up when needed.

Enjoying how we look at the mo.. Hope it continues!

 

[tonka1878]

Rigid and un-passable without the ball, fluid and unstoppable with it.

 

[jartyjones]

I think that with us now being able to call on such players as Pienaar, Jelavic , Naismith and now Mirallas plus the policy of using Fellaini in a more forward position is an indication that Moyes is able to encourage a more attacking formation than he has had in the recent past. This is helped by the emergence of Gibson as a vital cog in the team, the type of player we've not had since Lee Carsley left with the bonus that he's a much more accomplished player than Carsley.

 

[Tree13]

Following Baines breaking into the first team it looks like the "system", if we have one, is one where our wide midfielders look to cut in and create space for overlapping by defenders. Jagielka's cross for Felliani's goal at Villa was a mirror image of what we often see Baines doing on the left, as demonstrated in the same game by Baines feeding Jelavic for the third goal.

I was always understood the term "transition" to refer to a phase of play during which the ball is moved from your own half into the opponent's half, rather than a tactical system.

 

[allen]

Moyes' system is this: defend. Try to prevent the opposition from scoring/winning.

That may have been historically true, but in spells I think we've played some amazing football so far this season.

We played United off the park in the first half. We didn't aim to shut them down, but simply to play our game. There was some real incisive, fluid football straight through the middle of the park, as well as out wide. It was excellent to see.

I still question the way Moyes likes to cling on for the narrow win once we score, but you can't argue that we set out to defend against the likes of United anymore. We took the game to them.

 

[agreen08]

In my opinion Moyes has always built our systems and approach on a solid defence! which in my mind is the only way you can approach the premier league unless you have millions of £££ to spend in the transfer market. We don't have City or Uniteds money to splash on a array of attacking tallent. Moyes has bought very well last Jan and buying Jelevic was a master stroke. As a team we are and always been a side that gets alot of crosses in the box from deep. Thurs why we are are sometime touted as a team that likes to hit the big man. Jelevic's movement when we get into the wide areas is class, second to none and its this movement that alows him too score the majority of his goals with 1 touch. We have for the last few years created alot of chances from wide areas but never had the man to put them away, as good as louis was he is not that kind of striker. Couple that with the fact that our midfield is now rammed full of tchnically good players who like the ball at their feet and aren't scared to ask for it means that we look a lot more fluid in the final third. There also is some special relationships between a few of our players which make up the dynamics of our team. Take Baines and Pienaar. when they are both in the team and playing down that left side they can tear anyone appart. Think back to early last year and baines wasn't in the kind of form he was in post Jan. Also Ossie has stepped up since Arteta left and has become a must have in the team! if he was a little quicker he would have had 50 caps by now, you cannot knock his energy.
The Last point i want to make is that we are a very solid team, at the back and i wouldn't swap our back 4 ofr any other in the prem. Maybe i would like to see coleman used as a full back against some of the lesser teams as i think he could give us what baines gives us on the RH side. Jags, Distin, Heigtinga and Baines are class and Moyes has them playing very well as a unit no matter wich 2 of the 3 center havles play.

 

[Coach]

"I was always understood the term "transition" to refer to a phase of play during which the ball is moved from your own half into the opponent's half, rather than a tactical system. "

I know it as simply the 3-5 seconds period when one team loses the ball. If you are attacking and lose the ball you 'transition' into defence or vice versa. The game is built on these brief moments of chaos and the teams that do it well are very often the successful ones.

Barcelona are known for their tika-taka but equally as important is their ability to win the ball back quickly - which they can do because their short passing game means that they have several players close to the ball when they lose it and so can press very quickly to get it back. Not only this but when Barcelona win it back (high up the pitch usually) the opposition have maybe just switched off a little from a defensive mindset in favour of an attacking one and so are more vulnerable.

“Everybody says that set plays win most games, but I think it is more about transitionsâ€￾ – Jose Mourinho

 

[bluejock]

I think the OP has a pretty good summary of how we play, well in the first two games anyway.

 

[davek]

It's a very good question by the OP. He's been here ten and half years and if someone were to ask me what the Moyes philosophy on football is I'd be stumped, apart from explaining the 5 across the midfield formation with *wide* men that tuck in and a breaking midfielder that gets forward. It's a dogs breakfast of football that, by and large, caters to whatever opposition we play in any one week. I honestly dont see a particular style we stick with. We seem to have always had a collection of individuals (some of whom are technically as good as it gets and have the lions share of dictating our play) imbued with a corp spirit - but who dont play as a unit in a typical style week in, week out. In fact, maybe that's the system: we have no system and react to unfolding events.

 

[Jags..class]

Good thread, with all the talk about liverpool, rodgers football and tika-taka and how Rodgers wants to play like Spain, was wondering about Moyes football

Moyes likes his players to be flexible, play in different positions so the players can move around the midfield for example Naysmith, Osman, Pienaar, Merialles, can all play in diffeent positions and will be able to swap around more freely, he only like one attacking full back in baines and a hard defensive full back on the right to keep the defence steady.

 

[bflefc]

As I say, I'm not getting carried away. We've only played 2 games.

We played some good stuff at times towards the end of last season, with Pienaar and Jelavic in the side plus Fellaini pushed further up in support.

We also served up utter dross. Stoke away springs to mind, plus a few more.

Very much Jekyll and Hyde, which is why I'm not reading too much into 2 games thus far. We might well be just as likely to throw in a horror performance.

 

[ToxtethBlue]

If you where to analyse Moyes' time here then you'd have to say it's percentage football with the odd spell of decent football along the way.

It never lasts though and we usually revert to type and start going direct as soon as we hit a sticky patch or pick up one or two injuries. You can get away with it in the Premier League but it's no surprise how bad we look in the Europa League when teams have a bit of intelligence and nous about them when it comes to controlling a game. We just look like a team with no philosophy and get brushed aside with relative ease, especially away from home.