Tactical Trends of 2012-13

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Simon Smith reflects on some of the tactical trends from last season…

The summer of speculation is fully underway as gossip, exclusives, breaking nonsense and rumours replace the reflections team of the year lists and player reviews. It can only mean one thing: enough time has passed for us to properly look at the last year from a few steps back and assess a season that wasn’t quite.

In entertainment terms that is. In tactical terms, quietly and under the radar, there were some big changes taking place. Perhaps the biggest season in four or five years in terms of the changes to playing style at the highest level, 2012-13 won’t be remembered as a classic but certainly will be remembered as the year tiki taka lost its sheen. The event of the season for the purist must surely be Bayern Munich’s demolition of the much heralded Barcelona in the Champion’s League, an outcome some had predicted but executed in so brutal and total a manner as to surprise world football in general.  The death of tiki taka was the talk of the internet, but it was clearly premature.  What we can say with more clarity is that the dominance of tiki taka is over, and even if nothing as coherent and successful has come along to replace it, the one system hegemony of the Xaviesta era is probably over now. Continue reading

Jose Mourinho, Chelsea and the Cult of Brian Clough

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As the press go wild for Jose Mourinho’s reinstatement as Chelsea manager, Greg Johnson ponders the source of England’s love affair with the Special One and the interrupted quest for domestic domination he will look to now reassume…

The all-encompassing British football manager is perhaps the most revered piece of dogma in this island’s footballing belief system. Arguably no one has typified this ceremonial role of idol, patriarch and high priest as much as Brian Clough, who continues to influence popular tastes on the sort of perfect, omnipotent higher-being fans should desire to run their football club to this day.

It is this cult of the archetype head coach that led the English media to first be seduced and later fall in love with Jose Mourinho: their messianic, romantic saviour. But back to Brian Clough.

“Old big head”, he was called: the most arrogant, quotable and brilliant manager of his age, and Clough’s achievements remain legendary. Continue reading

Going, Götze, Gone

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It’s the football transfer that has shocked the world. Paddy Spicer Ward laments the departure of Mario Götze to FC Hollywood…

I have become somewhat disillusioned by the world of modern football. I am referring to the announcement that Mario Götze is to leave Borussia Dortmund this summer and join Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich.

The move by Munich to trigger Götze’s minimum fee release clause of €37m will make him the most expensive German footballer ever. I am however really trying to find a logical reason for Götze to want to leave Dortmund, that isn’t motivated my money. I can’t find one, and this has started to trouble me.  Continue reading

Is this the Year of Bayern Munich?

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The False Nine‘s David Dodds previews the Champions League clash between Bayern Munich and Juventus, with a focus on the formidable German side…

It’s the 87th minute, and you’re level with the only team who have beaten you in the league this season. The 1-1 scoreline doesn’t look like it’s going to budge. Then, a stroke of genius. Not a sudden moment of inspiration by a striker, not a visionary defence-splitting pass by a playmaker, and not an unexpected and overdue header from a goal-shy tall and gritty centre back. In fact, if we’re to believe Bastian Schweinsteiger, then the genius was cultivated off the field. Continue reading

Has England’s Bundesliga Romance Gone Too Far?

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The False Nine’s David Dodds believes that the superiority of the Bundesliga’s financial model should be a point of discussion, not accepted wisdom…

As Pep Guardiola prepares to take over from Jupp Heynckes at Bayern Munich in the summer, Bayern’s fellow Munich club TSV 1860 Munich are also welcoming new coaching staff, or at least trying to. Continue reading

Di Matteo the Victim of His Own Success

Roberto Di Matteo cuts an isolated figure after the 3-0 defeat in Turin

Following another shift in managerial direction at Chelsea, False Nine editor James Dutton sifts through the one remaining constant throughout…

Perpetual disarray and disorder is the order of the day once again in SW6. Rafael Benitez enters the fray as the latest victim of a Russian oligarch’s obsession with perfection, the ninth entrant to the melting pot of managerial casualties that has perpetuated the nine years of the Abramovich era in West London. Continue reading

The Ballon d’Or 2012 – The False Nine’s Verdict

This week Fifa released the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or 2012. The False Nine team share their thoughts on some interesting nominations and omissions…

The Manager’s Shortlist: The Ones Who Got Away

Ole Gunnar Solskjær Continue reading