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Tattica: Bernier the key
to Schallibaum's 4-1-4-1
Whether it’s a surprise to many or not, the Montreal Impact are now 3-0 after their first three games of the 2013 season. With 20 returning players, and 31-year-old midfielder Andrea Pisanu the only real addition from last year’s inaugural season, the Impact came back from their west coast trip with the scalps of Seattle and Portland before improving their record in holding off Toronto FC 2-1.
See also: Can Solá's 3-5-2 work in MLS?
You must give credit to 50-year-old Marco Schallibaum. Appointed in January, followed with a huge dose of skepticism, the new Swiss head coach changed the way that team played from last season under former manager Jesse Marsch. Schallibaum so far has kept it simple.
With a good coaching resume in Switzerland under his belt, he has installed a reactive playing style dependant on counter-attacks. He lined up Marco Di Vaio as the lone forward, with a handful of supporting midfielders behind him.
In a 4-1-4-1 formation, you need to bring on players with the duty to go toward helping the lone forward. They can be either the flankers, the central midfielders, or both, in a strong offensive mode. In this 4-1-4-1 formation, Davy Arnaud and Felipe Martins, as attacking midfielders, are the favoured choices to help Di Vaio up top, while Di Vaio’s former teammate at Bologna, Pisanu, is assigned to playing on the flanks.
Coming out of a season in which he scored 5 times in 17 games, Di Vaio could benefit from the new attacking package. Schallibaum has entrusted Patrice Bernier as the holding midfielder, letting him play almost as a midfield’s sweeper. It’s possible Bernier isn't happy about that, having less chances to join the attack, but he remains a key figure into Montreal’s line up, being the man responsible for starting off each attack.
That’s the way he played against Toronto FC, when he was not even pursued by TFC’s players, as the penalty action showed. MLS’ chalkboard revealed the Impact’s midfielder played mostly in his own half of the pitch, distributing many balls laterally, where Montreal played the majority of it’s passes.
In fact, from that observation, Montreal demonstrated an offensive gameplan based on long, diagonal balls played toward the flanks finding the wingers, in the way to change the attacking third and to open up the area in and around Toronto's 18 yard box.Long balls, often toward Di Vaio, were also an option when Montreal was pressured high up.
The Impact are finding ways to win games this season with these tactics. We will see if opponents will be able to make adjustments to Schallibaum's approach as the season continues.
Michele Tossani is a football tactician with a Ph.D. in History. Michele resides in Florence, Italy and is a tactical analyst for Futbol-Tactico.com
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