The management that is done in the Boot Room and not on a blackboard. And after I my previous less than stellar attempt with Real Sociedad (we were very good defensively but not so good at winning titles but more on that later), I am itching to emulate this type of less stressful, free-form way of managing. In a way, he would have been the Football Manager player that collects all the best wonderkids, puts them in their best roles in a simple formation and wreaks havoc on the league. Recruitment and nurturing talent were Paisley's strengths. He was a true players' manager and not an armchair tactician in a sense that like Shankly before him he gave his players freedom to play the way they were best at. While my inspiration to turn to 4-4-2 has been largely due to the influence of Bob Paisley, as I wrote earlier he was probably one of the last of the school of English "non-tactician" coaches, and therefore it is really hard to find detailed descriptions of how his Liverpool 4-4-2 played. In a period when the European Cup (current Champions League) was immeasurably harder to win than it is now (with only actual league winners gaining qualification as it should be in a cup called "Champions" League!), Paisley became the first manager in history to win the trophy three times, with only Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane matching that feat since. It's not something that many other managers have been able to beat or even equal since. One could also mention what Liverpool accomplished during Paisley's nine-year tenure for years. A tactical development that was still rather fresh in late 1970s as you can remember it was not that long from the innovative Dutch teams of 1970s with their own innovative 4-3-3 centered by a False 9 Johan Cruyff. It was Kenny's subtle creativity and ability to read the game which allowed Paisley's 4-4-2 to shift into a 4-4-1-1 with ease. It was the signing (for a British record fee of £440,000 at the time) of the creative Deep-lying Forward Dalglish that was the final piece in the Liverpool success puzzle. All veritable legends of English football. Paisley's genius was in taking a much more hands-on approach to recruitment, and bringing in Ian Rush, Bruce Grobbelaar, Mark Lawrenson and, most notably, "King" Kenny Dalglish. And 4-4-2 formation proved to be a great drawing board for this. In short, Bob Paisley was a great innate football manager because he would not get hung up in the specifics and technicalities of tactics but instead had an amazing ability to bring all of his players skills and abilities and allow them to create something much greater together. Of course King Kenny scored his fair share of goals too but that's a story for another time. Or in other words Paisley would let Kenny Dalglish do his thing while Ian Rush did what he did best, that is score goals. Let creative strikers be creative and finishers be clinical. Meaning that if 11 players fit the basic 4-4-2 system and were intelligent enough to read the game themselves, then tactical coaching should be kept to a minimum. Instead, Paisley was heavily influenced in his coaching approach by his predecessor and mentor Bill Shankly. He based his management around his knack to evaluate the ability of each player. In fact, he did not view himself as a tactician at all. I believe that six 1st Division titles and three Champions League trophies (European Cups at the time) don't lie.īob Paisley was a very modest manager and did not really see himself as some sort of "Special One" or a tactical genius. I find there is a distinct lack of good old 4-4-2 Simple English football discussion and I plan to rectify thisīy "Good old simple English 4-4-2" I really mean the fluid "pass-and-move" football style implemented by Bob Paisley at Liverpool during the club's undeniably most successful era from 1975 to 1983. I also find it's surprising that with a sport that ultimately has its origins on the island of Albion, and a computer game which probably has a huge chunk of its fanbase in England, the classic English school of football has not been more prominently featured here on this forum. I like a good 433 as much as anyone does, but I also get bored easily which is another reason why you see me switch tactics and teams so often. For every Pep Guardiola's Man City's inspired thread there is another generic 4231 or 433 thread. As much as I love writing about Dutch Total Football, or Brazilian Jogo Bonito or Mourinho-inspired Pragmatic style of football (my recent Defence-First thread), I feel like there has been a lot of tactical discussion about those styles and tactics.
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