The 4-2-3-1 is a system that Arsenal, Real Madrid, Everton, Bayern Munich and many more professional teams use. The formation can be employed in many different ways depending on the personnel available. It can be used to play a conservative, defensively sound counter-attacking game or opened up for an ultra-offensive approach. The interchanging of positions, room for tactical adjustments, defensive soundness, room for creativity and overall fluidity of the system is what makes the 4-2-3-1 effective. This book will take you through the fundamental roles and responsibilities of each player within the system. It also provides multiple training exercises, explains and demonstrates individual and team movement patterns, covers the strategy of team defending and team attacking in the 4-2-3-1 and a number of ways to modify the system.

A comprehensive look at modern zone formations through the eyes of the author and ten high level professional Italian coaches. Arrigo Sacchi (Milan, Italian National Team), Marcello Lippi (Napoli, Inter, Juventus), Walter Novellino (Venezia, Napoli, Piacenza), Carlo Ancelotti (Parma, Juventus) and Renzo Ulivieri (Parma) are among the impressive list of contributors to this valuable coaching reference. Formations covered: 4:4:2 3:4:2:1 4:3:3 3:4:1:2 4:3:1:2 3:3:4 4:2:3:1 3:4:3

This 4-4-2 Diamond is written for coaches who want to study and teach this attacking formation. It not only provides theory and tactics but it contains ready to use training ground exercises which you can implement with your team right away. The book provides a detailed breakdown of individual player's roles & responsibilities in the formation, a complete tactical breakdown, realistic and specific 4-4-2 diamond training ground exercises/drills, various analyses of 4-4-2 diamond vs. other formations and much more. The information is in-depth and comprehensive, yet presented in a simple easy to follow logical way.

"An outstanding work the [soccer] book of the decade." -- Sunday Business Post Inverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe. Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon. Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invented by Queens Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has been called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or fantasy manager of the beautiful game.

This book is a comprehensive resource for coaching the 3-5-2 formation at all levels. The level of detail and tactical solutions included will help you emulate how top coaches, such as Antonio Conte (Inter) and Nuno Espírito Santo (Wolverhampton Wanderers), use the 3-5-2 to great success. This book goes into great detail to show the movement of all players within the 3-5-2 system of play in various tactical situations and against different formations, in the attacking and defensive phase. This will enable you to optimise your team's tactical awareness and performance. Tactical solutions are provided for all game situations, in relation to how to counteract the opponent's positioning, organisation and decision making. This book will teach you to coordinate and solve specific game situations in a flexible way with many different options and tactical solutions. As a coach, you can train these patterns of play repetitively, so that the players' reading of the game becomes automatic and the team is quickly able to recognise and find the best solutions to solve every conceivable tactical situation. This book includes: Tactical Strengths and Weaknesses of the 3-5-2 Formation 3-5-2 Tactics Against Different Formations (4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-3-1-2, 3-5-2 and 3-4-3) Overcoming the First Line of Pressing (Build-up Play from the Back) Moving the Ball in Between the Opposition's Midfield and Defensive Lines Playing in Behind the Opposition's Defensive Line Defensive Organisation and Pressing Organisation of the Defensive Line 41 Practices and Variations to Apply Tactical Solutions with the 3-5-2 Renato Montagnolo has a UEFA 'B' Coaching Licence and a Patentino Match Analyst Licence. He has been working as a First Team Assistant Manager and Match Analyst for the past few years in Serie C in Italy. With experience of writing books and articles, speaking and teaching, Renato is a respected football tactics expert.

The 3-5-2 is a very dynamic and flexible system; it can be an ultra-attacking formation or solid defensive formation depending on how it is deployed. In attack the 3-5-2 is numerically strong in the midfield and comes with the benefit of two strikers. Creating width in the attack is never a problem with two wingers and strikers that could also run the channels. The formation is naturally set-up to encourage movement off the ball with the interchanging of positions when in possession; the interchanging of positions and movement off the ball allows different players the opportunity to fill different spaces, making the 3-5-2 more dynamic and difficult for the opponent to predict and deal with. In the modern game I personally find many advantages to playing the 3-5-2 formation, due to its fluid attacking potential and less focus on keeping numbers back. The defensive side of the 3-5-2 presents the formations biggest challenges, yet it can also be seen as a strength if the players understand how to form a back four or five in the correct situations. With only three defenders in the back, covering space in deep wide areas must be addressed and dealt with effectively. In order to offset the possible defensive weakness that come with three players not being able to cover the entire width of the field, the coach must choose player personnel and more importantly the formations tactics wisely. In this book I will cover multiple ways the 3-5-2 can be played to maximize its strengths, while turning the formations possible negatives into positives. When breaking down and analyzing any formation, it is important to note that the difference between formations is about 10 yards in player positioning. You can make an argument that most formations are similar and difficult to identify once the game has started. The transition from defending to attacking and attacking to defending creates totally new shapes from the original formation. The game of soccer is a free-flowing game but inside that flow there must be a structure which drives individual and team decisions. The coach is the one who will lay out the important tactical guidelines for the execution of the formation, so it is important to note that the same formation can be carried out in many different ways, depending on the coach. Tactics that will influence the way the formation played include things like setting a line of restraint, establishing a line of confrontation, identifying pressing zones, outlining counter-attacking areas, realizing when to press or drop-off, addressing the overall style of soccer to be played, player personnel, work load, location of the game, weather conditions, field conditions and much more. All these factors will directly influence the way a formation is played.

This book is a comprehensive resource for coaching the 4-3-3 formation at all levels. The level of detail will help you emulate how top coaches, such as Pep Guardiola, Maurizio Sarri and Jürgen Klopp use the 4-3-3 to great success. It will enable you to see all the solutions, in order to optimise your team's tactical awareness and performance.