MPFG Draft: R1 - BIG DUNK vs Pat_Mustard

[Physiocrat]

BIG DUNK

Pat_Mustard

BIG DUNK Tactics

A team built around my GOAT, Johan Cruyff, supported by peaches to get the best out of the Dutch genius. We will employ the values taught by Total Football, by Cruyff himself and his disciples like Pep Guardiola.

Key tactical principles:

- FLUIDITY OF POSITIONS (players can interchange positions, whilst maintaining our 4-3-3 shape. My attackers can defend and my defenders can attack. Players of high tactical and technical adaptability were required).
- UTILISATION OF SPACE (make the pitch as big as possible when attacking and as small as possible when defending. Players possessing spatial awareness create space through their movement, off-ball workrate, vertical/horizontal ball switches and positional changes).
- HIGH DEFENSIVE LINE (compress the pitch, making the playing area smaller)
- MOVE THE BALL FORWARD AND FAST (distribute the ball forward with accuracy and pace to Stoichkov-Cruyff-Rep, who have the qualitative advantage to create the best scoring opportunities).
- NUMERICAL ADVANTAGE IN MIDFIELD (when our false #9, Cruyff, drops deep or Hulshoff/Israel advances higher).
- AGGRESSIVE PRESSING (players possessing a high defensive workrate, winning the ball in dangerous areas, cutting passing lanes, forcing the opponent into misplaced passes, wining back possession after losing it. However, this is not the maniacal team press system of the 70s, but a controlled press and possess mentality).
- OVERLOAD INDIVIDUAL POSITIONS WITH MULTIPLE PLAYERS. MOREOVER, OVERLOAD ON ONE FLANK, THEN SWITCH TO THE OPPOSITE WING TO ATTACK (for example, from the left wing, Demyanenko-Cruyff-Stoichkov to Rep on the right flank, who is a lethal finisher).

1 Hans VAN BREUKELEN - superb shot-stopper and one-on-one keeper
2 Antonello CUCCUREDDU - could play every outfield role, here bringing energy and industry on the right wing
3 Rinus ISRAEL - solid and tough-tackling ball-playing sweeper
4 Barry HULSHOFF - physically dominant stopper, also comfortable on the ball
5 Anatoliy DEMYANENKO - complete footballer to man the left flank (overlapping runs)
8 Herbert PROHASKA - Austria’s finest, my deep-lying playmaker, effective in both defensive and build up phases.
6 Arie HAAN - tenacious and versatile defensive midfielder
10 Viktor KOLOTOV - One of Soviet Union’s most complete footballer ever (breaking up play, dribbling, passing and scoring goals)
7 Johnny REP - lethal right wingforward (exceptional off-ball movement and workrate)
9 Johan CRUYFF - genius false #9 (playmaker, goalscorer, leader)
11 Hristo STOICHKOV - dynamic left wingforward (goals, assists, dribbling)

Pat_Mustard Tactics

Formation: Lobanovsky-inspired 4-1-3-2

The team was built to press hard and and play direct, full-throttle football, and we're sticking to the script even against Dunk's formidable attack. No undue emphasis on possession here, just wave after wave of swift attacks whether we win the ball back high up the pitch or further back.

• OG goalkeeper in Beara who looked to have a proactive style and had the confidence to come off his line.
• Stam and Mozer were monsters athletically and both have experience in high line defences - there's few better pairings to defend those big spaces behind them, and deal with 1v1s when we're facing the counter attack.
• Robertson seems an ideal Lobanovsky full-back - tenacious defender, excellent attacking output, and the energy to charge up and down his flank all day. Leandro brings a formidable range of attacking attributes to the table on the other side, not least the capacity to switch the play with a laser-like diagonal that Lobanovsky seemed to love. He's probably the only one I'm unsure of engine-wise in such a demanding system, but then he's got arguably the most freakishly energetic player on the park in Ball as protection.
• Javi's peak was brief but extraordinarily good, and he's got a wealth of experience in demanding high-line, pressing systems under Bielsa and Pep.
• With Martinez as a more or less fixed reference point as the holding player, the other three midfielders have freedom to interchange and surge forward in search of goals. Breitner, the sumptiously gifted dynamo who would pop up all over the pitch, seems ideal for this system. Alan Ball could score goals, carry the ball, pass well, and was comfortable centrally and out wide, but it's his prodigious workrate that really made him a must-pick for me. Before he became an oddball manager, Felix Magath was a gifted attacking midfielder who led Hamburg throughout the most successful era in their history. Another grafter, whose very pronounced preference for operating down the inside and outside left channels makes him a good fit here.
• Double Ballon d'Or winner, thoroughbred athlete, excellent technician and a proper team player: Rummenigge is a potential matchwinner in any company. Factor in that he hit his peak after moving off the flanks into a two-man frontline, and that he's reunited here with his most-celebrated partner in crime Paul Breitner, and his threat is ratcheted up even more.
• It was noted in the Dead Drafters thread regarding Lobanovsky's 70s Dynamo team that they really lacked a ruthless CF to convert their dominance into goals. Ian Rush looks a quality remedy - prolific, extremely fast, and tidy in the build up, he was also willing to run himself into the ground for his team.

 

[Physiocrat]

@Pat_Mustard @BIG DUNK

Game on!

 

[harms]

Lovely stuff from both sides

 

[GodShaveTheQueen]

Excellent teams.

Cruyff would never ever choose Van Breukelen as his goalie though.

 

[Himannv]

I really didn't want to be up against that Big Dunk team. I thought the front three was excellent and the backup was carefully selected. Excellent drafting!

 

[Jim Beam]

With both teams going for a high press shame that one of them didn't just decide to punt it long skipping 5 or 6 players and then battling for the second balls near the penalty area.

 

[Pat_Mustard]

Ian Rush's performance in his maiden FA Cup final vs Everton, where he wins the game for Liverpool with a brace, and is heavily involved in the other goal:


Jimmy Hill on commentary said towards the end that "as the game has gone on Ian Rush and Liverpool have become stronger in their running power, and Gary Lineker and Everton really have faded..." That effectively won the match for Liverpool after they found themselves a goal down and seriously under the cosh in the early stages of the second half. is why I wanted Rush ahead of other more fashionable centre-forwards in draft circles after I'd decided on the system. His deadliness in front of goal shouldn't be underestimated:

but it was his appetite for hard work that really separated him from the pack when it came to fitting into a Lobanovski-style tactic. I think that compilation above does a reasonable job of showing his workrate, and it's something his teammates and fans raved about:

Football is all about scoring goals. You could argue that a midfielder or a full-back is deserving of the accolade, but in my opinion Ian Rush is the best centre-forward of the past 50 years and that makes him the best footballer.

If you compare him with his contemporaries, Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler and Alan Shearer were all capable of scoring 25 goals a season and were no different from Rush in that respect. But he was a prodigiously hard worker, constantly closing down defenders and trying to nick the ball off goalkeepers. When you think he played the majority of his career when keepers could pick up back passes it makes you wonder how many more goals he would have scored in his pomp if they saw him bearing down on them with that phenomenal pace and had to kick the ball.

As a finisher he was clinical and calm, very much like Jimmy Greaves who was a brilliant goalscorer if not as industrious as Rush. In front of goal I think Ian was Jimmy's equal and could poach and score tap-ins as well as anyone, but in every other area Rush was the better player. They say the best finishers are selfish and there's no doubt that Rush had a ruthless streak and could turn it on when the situation demanded, but what characterised him most was his all-round work and his selfless dedication to the team. First and foremost he was a team player, far more so than any other elite centre-forward...

...If anything, when he came back to Liverpool he worked even harder. Look at his record at Leeds and Newcastle and you would think that it showed signs of decline, but there were mitigating circumstances. At Elland Road he played most of the time in midfield and at Newcastle he took the role of second striker, starting much deeper than of old. It was a position he perfected in his latter years at Liverpool to accommodate Robbie Fowler, and I think Robbie appreciates how much his early success was down to playing with Rushie and the work he put in to allow Fowler to flourish.

Ian was the ultimate team player and, ludicrous as it may sound for a man who scored 408 career goals, I cannot think of a less selfish centre-forward in the history of the game. He is my kind of man and was a great, great player.

Ian Rush stands out as my sporting hero. It was an ambition fulfilled to play alongside him for Wales. As a schoolboy I wanted to be a striker...The three I particularly admired were Gary Lineker, Mark Hughes and Ian Rush. But it was Rushy who stood out. When I was an apprentice at Manchester United, Alex Ferguson and Eric Harrison, the youth team coach, used to tell me to watch Liverpool matches and study Rushy's movement, tackling and work-rate. Everybody was well aware of his goalscoring abilities, but he is such an example to young players, with so many other strengths to his game.

Show me any list of strikers and I'd have to put Ian Rush at number one. England might have had their Gary Lineker, but Rushy was always better than him. As well as being a fantastic goalscorer, he always had so many more facets to his game. His work-rate has always been phenomenal.

He would talk to me before every game, telling me the strengths and weaknesses of the defenders we'd be facing. Then, out on the pitch, he would be telling me when and where to make my runs. I suppose it's inevitable that people will compare us, but Rushy's just in a different class from me. His finishing, passing, the way he holds the ball up...everything really.

I admire Ian because he is not just a great scorer. He has a wonderful instinct inside the box, but it is as a team player that he excels. He opens up space for other players, fights hard, and, for a forward, wins an amazing number of balls back.

 

[Pat_Mustard]

Excellent teams.

Cruyff would never ever choose Van Breukelen as his goalie though.

He actually did lobby for the unheralded Ajax keeper at the time to take his place for Holland, even after his Euros heroics

The glasses through which Cruyff looked at goalkeepers were so different that dark conspiracies were constantly suspected. That became clear again in the eighties. Cruyff passionately pleaded for Menzo as a goalie for the Dutch national team. Even after Hans van Breukelen, who was clearly better than his competitor with his hands, had played a major role in winning the European Championship title in 1988 with a stopped penalty kick. For Cruyff, that hardly seemed to matter. He was loyal to the man who, during his time as Ajax coach, was willing to go along with his radical views on the profession of goalkeeper.

In fairness, I don't think either keeper is an absolutely ideal choice for a high line defence, so my only argument as regards to their relative merits is that Beara is a few tiers up in terms of greatness.

It's really Cuccureddu that leaps out to me as a potential misfit in a high line defence. I'm not that familiar with him but as far as I know he's never played in such an aggressive system, and it might run contrary to his experience and instincts. @harms and @Šjor Bepo I think you've both picked him so what do you think?

 

[harms]

It's really Cuccureddu that leaps out to me as a potential misfit in a high line defence. I'm not that familiar with him but as far as I know he's never played in such an aggressive system, and it might run contrary to his experience and instincts. @harms and @Šjor Bepo I think you've both picked him so what do you think?

Generally Juve of the 70’s was obviously quite a defensive-oriented team that used man-marking most of the time, so I don’t think that he has a lot of experience playing in such systems. But then he played in 9 out of 10 outfield positions, I think (or even 10 with the exception of goalkeeper), was pretty good athletically, tactically and in possession.

 

[Pat_Mustard]

Cheers @harms

 

[Pat_Mustard]

fecking UEFA ruin my day again by blocking this on Youtube, but here's Magath's performance for Hamburg vs Juventus in the 1983 European Cup final.

https://sendvid.com/dl5grplj

I strongly encourage people to watch this rather than just writing him off as he's rarely (well, never) picked. Rocketed home one of the best goals ever scored in a EC/CL final, came close with another couple of shots, showed real class and invention with his dribbling and passing, and worked hard defensively. I could easily have added another 5 or 10 minutes to the video just showing him going about his marking and covering as Hamburg protected their lead. My eyes lit up when I saw him pressing none other than the mighty Scirea into a mistake at 2:49, and that wasn't the only time he got the better of him on the night.

In truth, while he was very diligent defensively on the night, Hamburg were mostly content to soak and counter after scoring the early goal, so this wasn't the best showcase of him in a pressing setup, but that excellent Hamburg team was well capable of imposing an impressive pressing game - see the 5-1 win against Real Madrid where Real wilted under their press at times.

 

[GodShaveTheQueen]

He actually did lobby for the unheralded Ajax keeper at the time to take his place for Holland, even after his Euros heroics

Yea, I read about it some time back which is why I said never ever would Cruyff pick him.

 

[Theon]

Great game - like both of these tactical set ups. When I looked at the prices I thought a Cruyff homage looked good value for money, with lots of cheap enablers - there’s actually less Dutch ones than I expected in Big Dunk’s side but it looks great regardless.

 

[Himannv]

fecking UEFA ruin my day again by blocking this on Youtube, but here's Magath's performance for Hamburg vs Juventus in the 1983 European Cup final.

https://sendvid.com/dl5grplj

I strongly encourage people to watch this rather than just writing him off as he's rarely (well, never) picked. Rocketed home one of the best goals ever scored in a EC/CL final, came close with another couple of shots, showed real class and invention with his dribbling and passing, and worked hard defensively. I could easily have added another 5 or 10 minutes to the video just showing him going about his marking and covering as Hamburg protected their lead. My eyes lit up when I saw him pressing none other than the mighty Scirea into a mistake at 2:49, and that wasn't the only time he got the better of him on the night.

In truth, while he was very diligent defensively on the night, Hamburg were mostly content to soak and counter after scoring the early goal, so this wasn't the best showcase of him in a pressing setup, but that excellent Hamburg team was well capable of imposing an impressive pressing game - see the 5-1 win against Real Madrid where Real wilted under their press at times.

I really like your team, mate. I'm not as big a believer of Martinez and Rush, but the rest of it looks good to me. I just thought Big Dunk was one of the teams I immediately wanted to avoid first up. I think it's excellent drafting and those are generally good fits. Like Theon, I expected more Dutch players there, but it really looks like a great Cruyff team for most part.

 

[BIG DUNK]

Great game - like both of these tactical set ups. When I looked at the prices I thought a Cruyff homage looked good value for money, with lots of cheap enablers - there’s actually less Dutch ones than I expected in Big Dunk’s side but it looks great regardless.

Thanks yes, I didn’t want a full Netherlands XI (the drafting would have been less interesting for one ) but found some non-Dutch gems who I felt had the tactical/technical ability to be used in my system and maximise Cruyff’s influence:

CUCCUREDDU – he stood out in his era as he wasn’t a typical sit-deep catenaccio defender. Instead he was very gung-ho, with an amazing match engine and a truly versatile workhorse. Cuccureddu possessed the lungs, football IQ and dynamism to play on the wing or centrally as a box-to-box midfielder, or even a forward whose direct off-ball/dribbling runs would be effective. Offered great balance for the regista's/fantasistas who needed Cuccureddu. He would undoubtedly have great synergy on the right flank with Prohaska and Rep. Certainly not a terzino destro/right back like Burgnich!

KOLOTOV – what a specimen of a complete footballer! I felt a soldier indoctrinated from Lobanovski’s style would translate well into my system. Kolotov has immense influence with the ball and without the ball: he can break up play one moment, then dribble past 3 or 4 players the next. Can help with the dirty work alongside Haan (deep and high), while being a playmaking/passing foil with the roaming Cruyff. Cruyff would also allow Kolotov to maintain his impressive high goal/assist output.

STOICHKOV – a complete left forward who would dovetail perfectly with Cruyff and Rep. Not just a brilliant goalscorer but an excellent teammate too: his workrate and runs would create a lot of spaces and openings for Cruyff and Kolotov. He can occupy spaces in the box too. As a dynamic strike partnership with Rep they have everything.

DEMYANENKO – the one-man flank in his Dynamo Kyiv/Soviet Union teams, Demyanenko was perfect for the left back position. He would supply great width, a solid defender in his day, and offer a great overlapping influence higher up. The Demyanenko-Kolotov-Cruyff-Stoichkov left side was a fantasy come true for me.

PROHASKA – in my head I needed a hybrid Van Hanegem-De Bruyne baller: a playmaker who could build vertical attacks from deep, switch the play quick horizontally, screen in-front of the back four, carry the ball (both box-to-box centrally or down the right wing) and deliver though-balls and crosses to Rep/Stoichkov. I was very surprised he was £30m.

 

[BIG DUNK]

The game would play out to be a great match full of energy and high tempo!

Key points to why I think I have the advantage:

- with the massive spaces behind my opponent's high line I have the superior weapons to take advantage of this: the pace of Stoichkov, Rep and Cruyff getting in behind. More quality and accurate passes from deep who can spring a quick vertical diagonal/direct long ball to the attackers (players like Prohaska/Cruyff/Haan/Israel).

- Both of us are pressing from the front, and have bodies in advanced areas, but I feel my overloads on the respective wings would prove more dangerous. Left wing: Demyanenko-Kolotov/Cruyff-Stoichkov. Right wing: Cuccureddu-Prohaska/Cruyff-Rep. I do feel I have better chemistry/synergy, pace, better appreciation for space and width and movement then my opponent's respective flanks.

- Johan Cruyff versus Javi Martinez

 

[BIG DUNK]

In fairness, I don't think either keeper is an absolutely ideal choice for a high line defence, so my only argument as regards to their relative merits is that Beara is a few tiers up in terms of greatness.

Outside of "greatness", Van Breukelen is certainly better than Beara in our current systems though.

Van Breukelen wasn't a stay-on-your-line keeper. He would charge off his line and sweep for his PSV/NT/Dutch teams with great athleticism and aggression. He doesn't have the on-ball/distribution skill of Alisson/Ederson though.

 

[Synco]

fecking UEFA ruin my day again by blocking this on Youtube, but here's Magath's performance for Hamburg vs Juventus in the 1983 European Cup final.

https://sendvid.com/dl5grplj

I strongly encourage people to watch this rather than just writing him off as he's rarely (well, never) picked. Rocketed home one of the best goals ever scored in a EC/CL final, came close with another couple of shots, showed real class and invention with his dribbling and passing, and worked hard defensively. I could easily have added another 5 or 10 minutes to the video just showing him going about his marking and covering as Hamburg protected their lead. My eyes lit up when I saw him pressing none other than the mighty Scirea into a mistake at 2:49, and that wasn't the only time he got the better of him on the night.

In truth, while he was very diligent defensively on the night, Hamburg were mostly content to soak and counter after scoring the early goal, so this wasn't the best showcase of him in a pressing setup, but that excellent Hamburg team was well capable of imposing an impressive pressing game - see the 5-1 win against Real Madrid where Real wilted under their press at times.

Very good allround performance, including the goal & lots of hard work. Looks a good fit in your Lobanovsky team.

 

[General_Elegancia]

fecking UEFA ruin my day again by blocking this on Youtube, but here's Magath's performance for Hamburg vs Juventus in the 1983 European Cup final.

https://sendvid.com/dl5grplj

I strongly encourage people to watch this rather than just writing him off as he's rarely (well, never) picked. Rocketed home one of the best goals ever scored in a EC/CL final, came close with another couple of shots, showed real class and invention with his dribbling and passing, and worked hard defensively. I could easily have added another 5 or 10 minutes to the video just showing him going about his marking and covering as Hamburg protected their lead. My eyes lit up when I saw him pressing none other than the mighty Scirea into a mistake at 2:49, and that wasn't the only time he got the better of him on the night.

In truth, while he was very diligent defensively on the night, Hamburg were mostly content to soak and counter after scoring the early goal, so this wasn't the best showcase of him in a pressing setup, but that excellent Hamburg team was well capable of imposing an impressive pressing game - see the 5-1 win against Real Madrid where Real wilted under their press at times.

Outside of Magath, another real man of the match was Ernst Happel, who I always rate as high as Ferguson, Guardiola and Michels. His tactical nous is incomparable. He put Rolff on Platini and then Platini became the ghost all the game( couldn't do anything), made Juventus's right-flank almost empty by forcing Gentile to follow Bastrup( he knew Trappatoni's strategy) and a systematic offside trap in which the Juventus players punctually. Such a tactical masterpiece from him.

In this match, it showed Happel's tactical greatness and flexibility, he's a real Italian team's kryptonite( Rocco's Milan, Juventus 78/83), despite he's an admirer of Italian football. He never had a chance to coach the strongest team( club level) but he always made amazing miracles with his team( Hamburg, Feyenoord and Club Brugge).

Platini even said after this match: "We were a team full of champions, Hamburg was a good team but they had a champion on the bench, Ernst Happel ".

Fun fact: I've read from some articles( I couldn't remember that much) that Trap scared Happel's Hamburg and he wanted to add another wing defender but Boniperti( president of Juventus) dissuaded him.

 

[Pat_Mustard]

Good game and hard luck @BIG DUNK . I didn't know the score until the match ended and feared that the Cruyff/Stoichkov connection would do me in here. Tough old draw for both of us as I feel the pressing tactics with two suitable groups of players would have won fairly comfortably against a few of the other teams.

 

[harms]

Kolotov MotM — filling in for Neeskens while simultaneously instructing Breitner on how to play in his role

 

[Pat_Mustard]

I really like your team, mate. I'm not as big a believer of Martinez and Rush, but the rest of it looks good to me. I just thought Big Dunk was one of the teams I immediately wanted to avoid first up. I think it's excellent drafting and those are generally good fits. Like Theon, I expected more Dutch players there, but it really looks like a great Cruyff team for most part.

Dunk drafted extremely well for sure, and I was less than pleased with the draw. He seems to have a knack for putting together really complementary attacks, and Cruyff/Stoichkov/Rep was no exception. Martinez will have to be benched or sold now to accomodate my 12th man Konkov, but I'm inclined to stick with Rush if I keep going with this tactic.

Very good allround performance, including the goal & lots of hard work. Looks a good fit in your Lobanovsky team.

Cheers Synco. I really like what I've seen of him so far, and that really pronounced preference for attacking the left channels suited me here.

 

[Šjor Bepo]

can someone make a compilation for that Kolotov guy, all of the sudden everyone wanks on him
@Joga Bonito @harms @Pat_Mustard

 

[Pat_Mustard]

can someone make a compilation for that Kolotov guy, all of the sudden everyone wanks on him
@Joga Bonito @harms @Pat_Mustard

I'll keep an eye on him but it's all about Konkov if I can motivate my lazy arse to do any more!

 

[harms]

can someone make a compilation for that Kolotov guy, all of the sudden everyone wanks on him
@Joga Bonito @harms @Pat_Mustard

Unfortunately the worst thing that could've happened to Soviet football's history, happened. The rusteam.permian.ru website is no longer working — its owner died some time ago and his son haven't paid for the hosting, so it's going to be harder to find useful info on those players. Ideally I'd take a game where he had scored a goal or two since it's a very important aspect of his game. As an odd bit of trivia, he also played a full game against Standard Liege as a keeper once.

This game by him should be good, sadly, there's only the second half footage.
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5763984

It's a decent opponent, Yugoslavia 72' with Džajić, Holcer, Oblak & Petković, and he scores a great goal as well as being the difference-maker in general.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

There used to be very few extensive game footage of Kolotov with Dynamo kyiv ( or 70s Kyiv in general) i think only the cup winners cup final and the Saint Etienne quarter final loss in 76 were widely available full games with him (though there could be more now, been over a decade since i was involved in trying to find rare games). Most of it was early 70s international games, which can be hit and miss as the team was in a dubiously handled transitional stage; between the end of the 70 WC and Lobanovsky's first attempt to build the NT around Dynamo in 75, there was a revolving circuit of i think 5 or 6 different official head coaches, this had constant lineup changes and no coherent style implemented. Kolotov was one of the leading young players of that time that usually was reported to play well, but it's not an ideal selection of easily available games...somewhat comparable to if 95% of all you had to watch for Scholes or Giggs were a handful of England/Wales games.

Kolotov's career was ruined by injuries after 75, so we never got to fully see the player he would have developed into over the second half of his 20s, and he missed a lot of the big games that would become widely available like the Euro Cup battles with Bayern and Monchengladbach.

Luckily this masterpiece has endured...

 

[BIG DUNK]

Congratulations and good luck Pat_Mustard - excellent drafting and finely constructed team.
Will be great to see Konkov at the #6 in your next game.