Beginnings at Porto
In his first season as manager of FC Porto, Andre Villas Boas had statistics of:
Won the Portuguese Super Cup
Won the Portuguese League
Won the Millennium Cup
Won the Europa League
Went the entire season with only FOUR losses, including 2 in the preseason, 1 in the League Cup and 1 in the 1st Leg of the Millennium Cup SF
Undefeated in the league – Pld 30, W: 27, D:3
Scored 136 in all competitions
STYLE OF PLAY
o Under Andre Villas Boas, FC Porto most frequently utilised a 4-3-3, but it was not ‘symmetrical’
o Andre Villas Boas altered the formation to expose opposition weaknesses and ensure the strengths of the squad were used.
o The back four frequently consisted of:
Pereira – Maicon – Rolando – Sapanaru
o FC Porto played a high-line with a high pressing game, which meant GK Helton played as a sweeper keeper.
o The three in midfield consisted of: Fernando – Moutinho – Belluschi
o Fernando played as the ‘pivot’, breaking up play, but more importantly recycling the ball. Moutinho played as the central playmaker, but also dropped in to cover if Fernando ventured forward. Belluschi’s role will be explained more in reference to Hulk.
o The Forward line frequently consisted of: Varela – Falcao – Hulk
o Varela had the role of utilising his pace as an option in behind high lines, but also offered natural width and had the ability to run at defences.
o Falcao played the ‘No. 9’ role as an outlet ball, holding the ball up but also to finish off moves
o Hulk played as an inverted right winger, tucking in and linking with Falcao. This left space wide right where Belluschi overlapped and, alongside the RB, caused an overload on the right.
o An important note on Varela was in his positioning on the left. Due to the overload on the right, if the opposition countered that by shifting across, he was used as an outlet to expose the open space, meaning a team could not stop the right side, as they then opened up the left, Catch 22
o In attack, the fullbacks would push forward to join in, whilst the CB’s would spread and Fernando tucked in to effectively create a 3-4-3 as shown:
This meant FC Porto were very fluid and able to adapt to different situations in both attack and defence
IN CONCLUSION
Andre Villas Boas implemented a fluid attacking 4-3-3 system which could also adjust easily to a 3-4-3. This was met with unprecedented success and ensured he won four trophies in his first and only season at FC Porto. On the next page we look at the problems faced at Chelsea (quick link is below).
Page 2 Quick Link: Problems At Chelsea
Page 3 Quick Link: Why he can Succeed at Liverpool
- Excellent
- Informative
- Awesome
- Good Read
- ok
About the Author
Categories: Chelsea, EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Index Player Profiles, EPL Index Statistical Comparisons, Liverpool
Tags: Andres Villas Boas, Andres Villas Boas Liverpool, Andres Villas Boas New Manager, AVB, AVB at Chelsea, AVB at Liverpool, AVB tactics at Chelsea, AVB Tactics at Liverpool, AVB tactics at Porto, CFC, LFC, Porto
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Excellent article Kate, really enjoyed that. Please do visit Kate’s blog and follow her on Twitter for further articles like these.
Thank you – that was a brill article. I would give VB the job today based on that! Are you planning on an article for Martinez as he seems to have the lead in the job race.
Very interesting read… Well done
Good analysis. You should send it to FSG.
Great artcle,in depth and informative, not some rubbish speculative blog. Agree totally, AVB is young n passionate, had great record wth Porto, coached big club b4, n hav a tatse for young talent. Martinez, Rodgers r like Roy, great for small club. Capello is a bit old school. Thus, owner should pick AVB n stick wth him long term…like wenger at arsenal. (or fergie)B realistic, Pep won’t come here. It will take us at least 2 yrs to get bck to CL.YNWA
Nice article.
AVB has been my first choice since KK left. I hope he gets it but just as importantly given time to implement his philosophy throughout the club from the youth team and up.
Get RAFA!!! He is a tactical Master and the fans will get behind him 100%
Excellent article. Though I still have doubts about AVBs man management skills and experience to manage such a large club at such a young age.
I also have grave reservations about playing such a high line. The defence is too reliant on the centre backs and keeper. A single mistake (David Luiz) will lead to a near certain goal each time. Also if any team plays with 3 up top or on the counter it is far too easy to get through on goal. As seen by us beating Chelsea twice in a week or by the 5 goals they conceded against Arsenal.
You seem to quickly gloss over his inability to establish relationships with players. At least 6 Chelsea players have criticised his communications skills and bad management of players in the press. Chelsea had a good team which he made into a bad team very quickly. An average manager fired from West Brom had them back on track within weeks. All the tactics in the World won’t help if your players don’t want to play for you.
I think the fact that these didn’t seem to fit into his system may have been the problem as Kate has mentioned in the article. Had Chelsea bought Modric/Moutinho it may have been a different story although Terry/Cech would still have struggled with the high line. It will be interesting to see if he gets the Liverpool job because Reina is certainly more suited to this.
Serious and factual article,thumbs up.
then what is FSG waiting for, at least they must gone through his script and are aware of this kind of potential the young lad inherits, give AVB the job backed with a 50m pounds transfer kitty and let Van Gal starts negotiating with the players AVB wants before its to late, cant wait to see things change.
I read this article yesterday on Twitter (on another site) and RT’d it, excellent article that goes into depth analysis instead of blind opinion like you get from most people.
Do you mean on Kate’s site that we have linked in the article?
You’ve convinced me! Bring on AVB! Excellent analysis
haha thats from rawk, can you not create your own article?
Is it? We asked the author’s permission before publishing it here.
Is he good manager? For me, good manager should be able to adapt his tactics to suit the squad. We’ve seen time after time. It happened to LFC in recent years on Woy and KD too.
Rafa showed us in 2005 that he could use anyone and adjust tactics to win CL. Why don’t FSG call him up?
great article. but one point to add is the attack mainly composed of one twos and killer passes, that the striker need to run behind defenders, which is not the strength of Drogba