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(THREAD) Some observations from Marcelo Bielsa's 2004 Olympic gold medal-winning Argentina team. Loved watching them at the time and have enjoyed watching them again even more so.
The team.
The team.
1. Wide centrebacks using half spaces to find forward passes following switch of play. What @TPiMBW calls in his book ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-Football-Shadows-Marcelo-Bielsa/dp/B01HUNCDGI) the switch and slice.
2. Heinze finding D'Alessandro between the lines following another switch of play.
3. Rotations (always done to free up players) on the left side between Kily and Delgado before a switch of play to unbalance the defence on the weak side. Kily and Lucho would often drop wide to receive the ball and play forward.
4. Another example of how they would change positions. D'Alessandro comes over to try and create overload.
5. Lucho dropping wide on the right-hand side and receiving to play forward with hips facing the opposite corner flag.
6. More rotations...with forward runs to penetrate and create space, and switches of play.
7. Diagonal pass from Coloccini to find D'Alessandro. Space made by Rosales keeping width and making the pitch bigger.
8. Tevez dropping deep, dragging the defender with him and allowing Lucho to exploit the space created.
9. Having width at all times means gaps can be exploited inside.
