HACKING PEP

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Pep Guardiola is a Spanish coach who has won titles in every league and team that he's managed. He started his coaching career at the Barca B and got promoted to the first team after Frank Rijkaard departed in 2008. Since that time he's proven to be one of the greatest ever coaches the world has ever seen. He's the modern day protagonist of the tiki taka football which involves building attacks from the defense, through short passes and interchanging positions.

It was during the champions league knockout stages in 2013 immediately after Sir Alex's retirement that my interest was really piqued into Pep Guardiola's footballing system. I watched how my favourite team was tactically dismantled and totally overpowered and outplayed and I really wanted to know what made his team so dominating from defence, through midfield, to attack.

First let's start with his default formation which is the 4-3-3 formation, with 4 defenders, 3 central midfielders and 2 wide attackers flanking a centre forward.

Ordinarily this formation entails a single pivot sitting in front of the back four and acting as the playmaker for the team with two other central midfielders acting as attacking outlets from midfield for the team. But with Pep's system nothing is ordinary.

In reality, what Pep sets his team out to play is a 2-3-2-3 formation. You might wonder how that works, it's very simple but requires tactically intelligent players to implement (which is why Pep is never shy of spending in order to get the right players in). In this system, when the team has the ball, the two fullbacks (both left and right back) drift into midfield to flank the deep lying playmaker to form a midfield trio in front of the 2 CBs. The two CMs then move higher up the pitch to form another 2 leaving the the 2 wide attackers to stay wide and offer width to the team while the CF roams in front of the 2 CMs. This then forms a 2-3-2-3 formation which overcrowds the midfield with 5 central players, has adequate width with the 2 wide attackers and makes it difficult for opposing defense to track the CF as he's constantly roaming in front of the attacking midfielders and exchanging positions with them.

This system also allows the 2 attacking midfielders to drift out wide and support the wide players, and allow the wide player to drift infield while creating an avenue for the fullback to maraud forward and join the attack (when need be) without leaving too much loopholes to be exploited because the single pivot playmaker sits back to cover his channels.

The system also makes it very easy for the tiki taka system to flourish as the players are compacted together and can easily make short passes, as the players form triangles all over the pitch thereby creating infinite passing channels.

This they exploit as the opposition are kept chasing shadows all through the match. But at the same time it doesn't deprive the team of the required width that would make the team susceptible to counter attacks.
It also makes it easy for the full backs to easily drop back into their positions when the team loses the ball and return to a 4-3-3 formation while defending.

The system helps the team build from the back as the goalkeeper and the two CBs have 3 different passing channels in front of them (the 2 FBs and the playmaker), to route their attack.

It should be pointed out that this system can morph into other systems like a 2-3-4-1 system while attacking - with the 2 wide forwards dropping a bit back to be on the same line with the 2 attacking midfielders - and a 5-4-1 system (though rarely), while scrambling back to defend - with the CDM dropping in between the two CBs, the FBs going wide and the CMs and WFs dropping off to form a midfield 4 in front of the defense.

As much as the 2-3-2-3 system has been impeccable and won trophies everywhere Pep has gone (except the UCL), if not implemented to perfection, it can leave the team vulnerable to fast counter attacks. This is why Pep's teams always employ the 'professional foul' tactic whenever they lose the ball.

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