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  • When observing the evolution of football tactics, there s always a constant shift from one philosophy

  • to another.

  • The unpredictability of the WM formation made for some beautiful offensive football in the

  • 1950s, before meeting its match with the rise of the extremely defensive mentality of the

  • Catenaccio in the 1960.

  • The Focus shifted once again in the 70s with Dutch total football, that was able to easily

  • exploit spaces left by these outdated systems.

  • But as teams grew wary of these intricate movements, it in turn led to the development

  • of zonal marking, with managers such as Arrigo sacchi taking AC Milan to new highs in the

  • 1980s, ensuring that dangerous spaces were covered, meaning all these fancy rotations

  • couldn t easily create gaps.

  • The constant back and forth from offensive to defensive tactics has shaped the game for

  • all its existence, and there s reason to believe we might be at a tipping point in the next

  • few years.

  • The past decade has been dominated by possession football, with managers such as pep Guardiola

  • being regarded as one of the greatest ever with his heavy inspiration on Cruyffs total

  • football, Taking it to new levels with constant possession and intricate passing moves to

  • disrupt the opposition.

  • But if the Qatar world cup has shown us anything, its that a well organised defensive system

  • can make any team incredibly dangerous, and there s no better example than Regragui s

  • Morocco.

  • Morocco may not have made the world cup final, but their run into the semifinal was nothing

  • short of spectacular, knocking out Belgium, Spain and Portugal, before putting up and

  • incredibly entertaining display against France.

  • But what important to note is that they made it that far with only 32% possession and while

  • conceding only 1 goal (excluding semifinal), the second lowest in the competition behind

  • costa rica.

  • So how can a team that never has the ball be so dangerous?

  • And what does this tell us about how tactics could be shifting.

  • Lets take a look.

  • To understand how Morocco play, it s important to understand how they defend.

  • Their starting formation is a 433, however the team rarely resembles this shape, and

  • the vast majority of the time is spent in a 4-1-4-1.

  • Given the modern offensive playstyle of occupying dangerous spaces, with loosely fixed positions,

  • morocco s answer to this was to not allow teams to move the ball into these positions.

  • Areas such as the half spaces were difficult to penetrate given the extremely tight lines,

  • meaning any player in this position could instantly be surrounded.

  • The central area infront of the defence was excellently patrolled by Fiorentina s Amrabat,

  • constantly shifting from side to side, boxing in opponents and linking defence with midfield.

  • While being tight between the lines, Morocco are also very narrow, leaving space out wide

  • which is their way of luring the opposition into a trap.

  • But not only were these spaces in front of the defence incredibly difficult to penetrate,

  • Morocco made even the first pass as difficult for the opposition as possible.

  • Seville Striker En Nesyri wouldn t man mark the oppositions holding midfielder, but would

  • constantly shift to ensure the centrabacks couldn t easily pass the ball forward, and

  • if by chance they were able to move it forward, the two midfielders were always correctly

  • positioned to force a pass backwards.

  • This structure would force the opposition to immediately play the ball out wide or attempt

  • harder to execute plays such as long switches in play, but all this did was play into moroccos

  • favour, with the team having their most dynamic and aggressive players in zyech and hakimi

  • on the right, and mazroui and boufal on the left, ready to close down the opposition,

  • and if winning the ball back had the pace and technical ability to instantly create

  • dangerous counter attacks.

  • Now its also important to note that while Morocco certainly played with a defence first

  • mentality, it was far from what is commonly referred to as parking the bus.

  • The defensive line wasn t too deep, and the midfield was quick to close down any player

  • in the centre.

  • In the quarter final, Portugal would often shift into a 3-2 build-up pattern, with moroccos

  • midfielders adapting to this change and man marking the the double pivot, again forcing

  • play out wide.

  • Given this Compact central block, the opposition would often struggle to get their key players

  • on the ball, leading a rather interesting effect.

  • Lets take their Quarterfinal clash as an example.

  • Portugals main playstile involved getting their creative players such as Bruno fernandes

  • and Bernardo silva on the ball between the lines, forcing the oppositions defenders to

  • make a choice and eventually trying to free up space for Felix, Ramos or Dalot on the

  • overlap.

  • However their inability to do so given morocco s defensive discipline, led to frustration

  • for the midfielders who are used to setting the tempo for their team, and, in attempt

  • to be more useful, would find themselves dropping deeper and deeper to receive the ball from

  • the centrebacks, at times ending up with 5 players behind the ball.

  • While this is a good way of getting key players on the ball, it completely limits a teams

  • attacking power, as now they can t easily outnumber the defence, meaning Morocco don

  • t have to make a choice on which space to cover.

  • And also results in the opposition being completely disjointed, resorting to long balls over the

  • midfield hoping to win any knockdowns, again playing into morocco s favour as now they

  • have the space to attack forward.

  • And pick out their more dangerous players.

  • The clash of new vs old was at its peak in the last 16 clash against spain, with Morocco

  • winning the game on penalties.

  • The 2010 World champions ended the game with 76.8% possession and twice the amount of shots

  • compared to Morocco, but the quality of chances tells a lot, with spain averaging an xG of

  • only .5 compared to moroccos .4, showing moroccos ability to limit oppositions chances to a

  • few pot shots from low risk areas.

  • The semifinal against France allowed us to see a different side to Morocco, as they found

  • themselves 1-0 down early on and were forced to play more aggressive offensive football

  • compared to what we are used to seeing.

  • And while they weren t able to find a net, they had France on the back foot for long

  • periods of the match and played some beautiful quick football that we were yet to witness

  • this world cup.

  • Eventually, the individual quality on display proved to much for the first African semifinalists,

  • but have certainly left their mark on football tactics.

  • While modern offensive minded managers have been largely inspired by offensive tactics

  • from the 50s and 70s, Morocco and Regragui have proven that the same can be applied to

  • defensive tactics, taking elements from the catenaccio in the 60s, and zonal marking from

  • the 80s to create a modern twist on the defensive block, sprinkled in with trending tactics

  • such as a higher defensive line and offensive fullbacks on attack.

  • So, while They might not have won the world cup, Morocco certainly entertained everyone

  • who watched them play, and there s reason to believe that this could spark a new trend

  • in tactics, showing that any well organised team can put even the best footballing nations

  • into tricky situations.

  • And now let me know what you think.

  • What did you make of moroccos world cup run, and do you think a change in tactics is on

  • its way?

  • Let me know in the comments down below.

  • So in this video we took a brief look at the evolution of tactics, if you haven t seen

  • it yet, you should check out my first ever video on how football tactics have evolved

  • over the past century and how each generation has added their own twist to football tactics.

  • As always if you enjoy this content then please leave a like and subscribe for more, thanks

  • for watching!

When observing the evolution of football tactics, there s always a constant shift from one philosophy

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