Tactics

------------------------ Oblak -------------------------
M.Ginter ----- Stones ----- Varane ----- C.Biraghi
----------------------- Fabinho ------------------------
----------------- Pjanic ----- Pogba ------------------
Mbappe -------------------------------------- Neymar
-------------------- Lewandowski --------------------

Meret, Henrichs, de Jong, Zielinski, Bernardeschi, Kluivert, Rodrigo

Possession football, quick on the break and really pressurise the opposition with an in your face performance from the front, we want to hit them quickly so we need to press them quickly to get the ball, when we defend, Pjanic, Fabinho & Pogba just in front harassing the man with the ball before they get to our back 4 and the front 3 in and around the half way line, Lewandowski slightly higher up, this will congest the midfield and allow Pjanic and Pogba to dictate play, stop them coming forward from the back, however, if they do push forward onto us and we get the ball they will be on the back foot and will really struggle with our front 3/4 with Fullbacks who are always ready to pounce and hit them with pace.

Stones picks up the CF, Varane spare picks up the AM if he gets away from our midfield, keep the forward(s) away from the danger area, get onto them quickly and be strong, take the ball away from them and play it out of defence, look to get it out wide quickly when we have possession, Both are comfortable on the ball so can bring it out when in no danger and look for the pass longer to the forwards to hit them with pace, fullbacks must keep the wingers quiet, stop them and we stop a lot of there attacks They will look to keep them away from shooting areas and stop them becoming dangerous in any position by standing tall against them and keeping them on there 'bad' foot. When they attack, only one at a time this will mostly be Biraghi,as to not let ourselves be exposed, they drive down the line in support of the wingers. the two always make themselves available to the wingers. If Biraghi gets caught up field I want Fabinho to drift to the left and Biraghi to make his way to midfield to cover I want both Varane and Stones to go up for corners, with the fullbacks and Fabinho sitting back.

In the centre of the pitch are Pjanic, Fabinho and Pogba. Fabinho our deepest player sitting just in front of the CB's he will shadow there AM and not allow him to control the game, Pjanic and Pogba must be disciplined and lend a hand to stop them coming through. Fabinho must be aware of all that is around him, be in the right place at the right time and look to cover for defensive players moving forward, he has to impose himself early on the AM to make him wary of holding onto the ball too long, once on the ball look around, head up and pick the pass that will get us moving forward quickly always making himself for a return ball from a deeper angle as he he spreads it from side to side then eventually forward, can be out to the fullbacks or indeed a longer ball to the front three to take the opposition out of it as they are still high up the pitch. Pjanic slightly higher up the pitch, he will stop the run of play quicker to make our defenders jobs a lot easier, make our midfield very difficult to pass through, protect our defence and Fabinho as best as possible and again in possession get it to the front 3 but also look for fullbacks and Pogba as they move into space, keep it simple, he has a very good range of pass. Either pass and move(triangles) into space or look for a piercing through ball to our front three to drive onto.Can move forward to assist and look for balls coming out so he can either, shoot or whip straight back in. Pogba is essential to our style of play, he is the link(alongside Pjanic) between defence and attack, as we break quickly he will look to set up our front three and at times be in a 10 role and look for the Pjanic pass. he will follow his pass and make up the numbers up front. When he doesn't drop deep i.e when the defenders go long, he will look to form a front four as they move around and look to tear the defence apart. All of our midfield three must press the opposition and get to grips with this game very early on.

Our wingers are extremely quick, when we don't have the ball they drop back a bit to make up the numbers as they attack, push into the faces of the opposition to force them into mistakes and hopefully in the end they lose the ball, when they do lose the ball we charge at them and we do it quickly, either a long ball over defenders, go through the cms or out to one of our attacking fullbacks.however, the movement up front between Neymar and Mbappe will cause them problems as they switch around at times, will see us make their defenders move out of position to follow their player, thus allowing Pogba to pick his moment to move into space either as a 10 or out wide. If he does push wide this will allow Mbappe/Neymar to go in central as we will have an attacking fullback up and supporting. Quick passing in triangles that will get us in and beyond their defenders and eventually to Lewandowski who has the power and ability to beat any defender and the other winger who will look to get into space to get a shot off, if there defence is on top then we can always go direct at times and fire early crosses especially from deep from the fullbacks into Lewandowski right on top of the young goalkeeper to put a lot of pressure on him, we must always make sure he is well supported, if he cant get the shot away he will be looking to bring others into the game.

Captain - Varane
Pens - Lewandowski
Corners - Pjanic
Free Kicks - Pjanic

Subs

Losing -
70 Mins - Bernardeschi for Pogba, Mhe goes to RW and Mbappe up front 4-4-2
80 Mins - Kluivert for Biraghi, Ginter to RCB(3 at the back), we go 343 with Kluivert on the left and Neymar to LCF

Winning -
70 Mins - de Jong for Pogba, sits in a tight midfield 3 defensively strong
80 Mins - Bernardeschi for Lewandowski, Mbappe up top deschi to the right
85 Mins - Henrichs for Neymar, sit in a tight mid 5 and lets see this out

Drawing -
70 Mins - Zielinski for Pogba, straight swap fresh legs
80 Mins - Bernardeschi for Lewandowski, he goes RW and Mbappe up top

https://medium.com/@v_maedhros/understanding-roles-in-football-manager-and-real-life-part-2-a889e488a0f0