Tattica: Where would Forlán fit in at Toronto FC?
The week has started off with a bang for Toronto FC via The Globe and Mail, reporting the club is in the verge of signing Uruguayan striker Diego Forlán. Despite the fact he’s 34-year-old, Forlan is still one of the best worldwide attackers and he could still be a top player in MLS.
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The report makes mention of his time at Manchester United, which was seen by some as too much too soon, but it was his years after where he established himself as a top shelf European goal scorer. Moving from Manchester United to Villareal in 2005, he would spend three seasons playing for The Yellow Submarine and scored 54 goals before being bought by Athletico Madrid for 21 million Euros.
In Spain's capital, he was able to take his tally to another level, with 2008-09 being a year he scored 32 league goals. For the last two years he's been playing for Internacional in Brazil where he's still been successful in scoring, but all the while has remained an integral part of the Uruguay National Team both at the 2010 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup where he was part of a potent attack supporting Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.
If Forlán does in fact come to TFC, the question then falls to Ryan Nelsen of how the TFC manager will utilize him on his team? The answer is not that straightforward, as Forlán has shown to be able to play as a convincing linking player rather than an out and out striker as some might expect.
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Uruguay’s manager Oscar Tabarez started the competition with a 3-5-2 formation then switched to a 4-3-1-2 with Diego Forlán playing behind Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.
As the FIFA technical report on the 2010 World Cup pointed out, the position occupied by Diego Forlán merits further examination. Although he was in principle a striker, he mostly played in an advanced midfield position, behind the team’s main striker, Luis Suarez.
In effect, Forlán had a free role and was always looking to keep play moving before pushing forward.” During this summer's Confederations Cup, Tabarez brought back Diego Forlán into his starting XI after he left him out in the opener against Spain and lined up him as left forward in a three-man offense. But against Brazil, Tabarez utilized Forlán centrally, very deep, far from Brazil’s centre-backs and much more closer to their holding midfielders.
This turned Forlán the linking player between midfield and attack and made him more involved in the build-up play, such as he did when was employed like a trequartista, giving him more freedom and a more central role.
Considering Toronto are having trouble in consistently creating scoring chances, Nielsen could mimic Tabarez by lining up Forlán deeper as attacking midfielder behind Robert Earnshaw and Danny Koevermans.
Toronto has lacked creativity so Forlán’s impressive link-up play could help in terms of creativity and build up. Due to the Uruguayan’s versatility, TFC head coach could even utilize a 4-3-3 pattern, pairing a third central midfielder alongside Jeremy Hall and Matias Laba and moving Forlán up front.
Add to this that, despite his penalty kick mistake against Brazil, Forlán showed good ability on free-kicks and corner-kicks and he can help on those situations.
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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