City’s compact structure

The defensive structure of reigning champions Sydney FC is widely viewed as one of the most critical elements of their success. Last season, they were the most compact team in the competition, defending in a tight block from deep positions.

Against Adelaide United, Warren Joyce’s City set a new benchmark for reducing the space on the pitch, aided by rapidly transitioning between being in and out of possession with relative ease.

City organised themselves defensively in a 4-4-2 shape, with two low banks of four supported by Stefan Mauk and Ross McCormack who were responsible for dictating direction higher up the pitch, as seen below.

City’s highly compact defensive block, with links to two outliers.

From the outset, it became clear that the visitors would be hard to break down. There was virtually no systematically-occurring space between the lines due to the shallowness of the block, and Melbourne’s cover system made it difficult for Adelaide’s players to open space in central areas.

Generally, teams who defend in a 4-4-2 fail to understand the necessary movements that are required for it to properly function, resulting in players getting isolated in 1v1 situations and the inevitable breaking of the midfield line. To combat this, the ball carrier must be pressed when approaching the block.

Without the required balances, the player applying pressure will leave behind too much space, which opens the possibility of forward movement from the opposition into this uncovered area and into central areas. A series of horizontal shifts are required in order to balance the movement off the line, as illustrated below.

Horizontal shifts to maintain structure in the immediate vicinity of the ball.

These horizontal movements allow the team to maintain occupation of the space vacated by the pressuring player, limiting the window of time where the structure is unbalanced.

This meant that space opened up on the opposite side of the midfield line, but this was not exploited by Kurz’s team as every time the ball was switched, the midfield would reset and slide back across.

Melbourne’s man-oriented approach

To further reinforce the central area of the pitch, Melbourne City choose to adopt a man-oriented approach within a zonal framework. Put simply, an individual will man-mark his opposite number whilst he is in his zone of control.

This extends to the covering of runs by midfielders until it reaches the defensive line, when a member of the back four will assume responsibility.

In the image below, it can be seen that every City player has a clear role – one is pressing the player on the ball, one covering a run, one marking and cutting the line of an opposing player, and the other staying in close proximity to the player in his zone of control.

Melbourne’s man-orientation in midfield

There has long been debate about the merits of man-orientation, but in this instance, it clearly worked. Combined with the compactness of the block, Adelaide struggled to engage in any build-up play in central areas, failing to find midfielders with any regularity.

This meant that they were largely confined to wide areas, where the threat they posed was minimal.

Clarity is an important aspect of Warren Joyce’s management and this extends to his football philosophy, evidenced by the intentional positioning of every member of his team - with and without the ball. Adelaide didn’t seem to have an answer to this problem, despite the tactical limitations which exist in man-marking approaches.

This cornerstone of Melbourne City’s defensive approach ensured that the central area was locked down throughout the match, limiting the influence of Adelaide United’s creative midfielders.

Stefan Mauk and Ross McCormack

In addition to the man-orientation and the compact block, there is another element of City’s defensive scheme which limits the access to centrally-positioned players. As was noted during the analysis of the recent Melbourne Derby, Mauk and McCormack play a vital role in dictating the direction of play from their higher positions.

In that game, Victory played with a single holding midfielder – Mark Milligan. Being a key proponent of their build-up play, Stefan Mauk was given a task to block his passing line at every opportunity.

This restricted the access to one of Victory’s most valuable players, with the two higher midfielders being closely marked by City’s two central midfielders. McCormack was responsible for pressing the ball carrier, with the angle of his movement cutting the line to the opposite centre-back.

City’s defensive approach against Melbourne Victory earlier this season.

In the match against Adelaide, Mauk and McCormack were given very similar roles. However, a slight change from the derby was required, as Adelaide played with two holding midfielders as opposed to one.

This subtle difference demanded a different approach, as it was not a realistic proposition to delegate the covering of two separate players to Mauk. As a result, Mauk picked up the closest holding midfielder to the ball, with McCormack angling his run in a manner which cut the passing line to the other deep midfielder.

McCormack and Mauk cooperating to limit access to Adelaide’s holding midfielders.

This cooperation limited access to the holding midfielders substantially, but allowed for clear passing lines between the centre-backs.

This generally wasn’t an issue, but sometimes resulted in one of the holding midfielders getting on the ball if Mauk had not been able to transition across in time.

In most cases however, this did not occur and play was progressed through the wide areas.

Going down to ten men

A real test of a defensive system is when the team goes a man down, allowing their opposition to establish numerical superiority with less collective movement.

It goes without saying that it is easier to defend with eleven players than it is to do so with ten, but City proved that it can still be done after Osama Malik was sent off at the hour mark.

Joyce chose to preserve the structural integrity of the midfield line, and withdrew Stefan Mauk from his higher position in order to do so.

City went down to ten men and Mauk dropped deeper.

Choosing to complement the midfield line meant that it was now improbable that access to both holding midfielders would be limited.

With Mauk now a part of the defensive block, McCormack was left to press the ball carrier and at the same time angle his run to cut the passing line of at least one of the Adelaide holding midfielders.

Invariably, the play would be switched to the opposite side of the field, which then allowed the introduction of a deeper midfielder to attack the defensive block and attempt to isolate players into 1v1 situations.

This led to McCormack dropping deeper to sit in front of the block and act as a screen to protect against overloads. Joyce’s decision to prioritise protection in midfield paid dividends, as Adelaide continued to struggle to break into central areas.

City’s +1 principle at work after going down to ten men.

The +1 principle is considered by some to be a necessary rule to establish the number of defenders in a certain area of the field, and is attributed to coaches such as Juan Manual Lillo and Marcelo Bielsa.

The theory goes deeper than this particular application, but it can be seen expressed in the highlighted area above. Chasing the game and 2-0 down, Marco Kurz changed to a formation which included an extra striker, attempting to equalise the numerical superiority City were benefitting from in front of goal.

Joyce saw this change and raised Kurz a five man defence, allowing for three centre-backs to sit tight against the two Adelaide strikers. In the end, this change from the Reds’ bench didn’t reap any rewards, with the three centre-backs proving to be of sufficient quality to handle the threat being posed.

Adelaide were perhaps better off leaving players in deeper positions to better capitalise on the extra man, and the move to two strikers seemed borne out of desperation than consideration. As in chess, simply moving your pieces to the front doesn’t guarantee success, and this idea certainly seemed to be proven here.

Conclusion

Adelaide United will perhaps feel hard done by to walk away from this match empty handed, having the best opportunities of the match as well as the majority of possession.

A resolute Melbourne City put on one of the best defensive displays of the A-League era, and look to be a better version of the Sydney FC team which broke so many records on the way to the championship last term.

Time will tell, but Warren Joyce looks to have transformed City into a well-oiled machine who are capable of beating anyone.

Nathan Muir is an Australian tactical analyst and coach. You can contact him on Facebook @NathanMuirFootball or on Twitter @NathanKMuir.