One thing I've noticed with Liverpool and teams playing in similar styles to the Gegenpress is that those operating as a 4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3) use wingbacks instead of fullbacks, and rely on them much less in their defensive half. A lot of the time, these 4-3-3s are starting to look like the modern 2-3-5, and it's been fascinating to see that shape make this unsung comeback
very much so, and it is still sound defensively, currently the 3-6-1 is on its way to being the meta, it’s dominating currently in italy and pep is starting to use it himself, it’s a beautiful formation and in the attack gets you into a 2-1-2-5 and is extremely dangerous against a 4-3-3
Brazil was actually playing 4-2-4 since 1958, also winning 1962 world cup with this formation. This includes the use of Djalma Santos and Nilton Santos as attacking fullbacks, the greates tactical innovation of brazilian football. Also, Pelé kind of invented the number 10 position, the "ponta de lança", an attacker that was so good that you couldn't let him not touch the ball, he creates and also scores. I wish we could change the Meta today as we did before.
Most Effective Tactics Available is an interesting retroacronym, because usually what we call the 'meta' stems from the metagame which was initially received as 'a game beyond the game', which is a game of anticipation pertaining to the strength and weaknesses of the tactics your opponent will use. It's true that in today's context, the way we conceive the meta has moved past mere 'anticipation' to become a matter of optimization. But it's the first time I've seen an acronym to describe it.
The word meta is an old word that has been used in many context for centuries so the acronym (even in the new context of videogames) was definitely tacked on later
I think we will see a switch back to a more total football, with all players needing to have the technical ability no matter the size, thinking of Vandyck (a center back who is good with the ball). I am personally excited to see where football is going, it is truly becoming a combination of skill and brains in all positions including the keepers (thinking of Enderson's ability to start quick counter attacks from a goal kick). As coach for youth it poses lots of challenges of coaching the importance of understanding the basic principles of the game and developing the technical skill set to meet the challenges presented to a individual athlete. Thank you for your videos they posses lots of great information.
I concur. The problem with total football is that it requires a high amount of football IQ/pitch awareness as well as team synchronicity. Luckily, I think that youth academies such as Ajax and Bayern have refined their programs to the point in which they have more or less come up with a highly reliable and mostly optimized method to best develop the technical skills and body conditioning in youth players as much as their genetics and lack of time on this earth will allow. I believe that the best aspect for these academies to improve/develop upon now is optimizing a method to instill near-perfect football IQ/pitch awareness akin to Modric, Pirlo, Xavi, and Iniesta.
As Brazilian we normally talk about how strong the national team was in 58 and 62 as we won two world cups...the 4-2-4 was already real, in both teams, not only in 70 as you said, so I'd consider as a deserved mention...the 3-5-2 was very strong during the 2000's taking advantage of a strong midfield as META, and where the wing backs provided more balance attacking more than an usual Left/Right Back as the distance to cover was smaller. For the future, I believe regardless the tatics, a more intelligent game in sense of reading the enemy and exploiting their weaknesses like for eg: a very talented and Tiki taka (Barça) won several times Real Madrid and mourinho started to analyze how to counter it, after a few matches, Real Madrid won several games because they understood how to play against tiki taka, which was a very vertical game, very intense defending and long balls to stretch the lines of a compact Barcelona. That duels were amazing and worth seeing as they set a benchmark in reading the game match by match.
Yeah you're right, I think looking back at this video there were more tactics and teams I should have highlighted, but it leaves room for future videos I suppose!
I'm not sure (please correct me if I'm wrong!) that Wenger's Arsenal brought much change in the tactics. It was still 4-4-2, with the two forwards more likely to drift to the 10 position or wings. Having said that, no one can dispute the greatness of that Arsenal team, until they lost arguably their most irreplacable player - Patrick Viera.
I think Wenger's importance as an influence was more in the area of football culture and general level than a specific tactical philosophy. He made a scientific approach to fitness and the importance of tactical finesse (as opposed to just gumption, "wanting it more", etc) to be seen with more respect in the Premier League. The fact is that his tactics were not at all innovative compared to the European continental mainstream, it's just that when he came to Arsenal English football was about two decades behind the continent. Wenger simply made Arsenal catch up with the times without really innovating in an absolute sense.
@@ghostroc Wenger tactically had the same formation but brought a whole new style of football never seen before in England. I think Wenger coming to Premier league was the turning point for the quality, competition and marketability of the Premier league
In Brazil in the 50s/60s the most common formation was the 4-2-4. Zagallo, two-time champion in 1958/62 and coach of the 1970 national team, became famous for being a winger who returned to close the midfield.
"Most effective tactics available" is not what a meta is. That's a backronym and folk etymology based on imperfect knowledge of where the expression comes from. Meta is short for metagame which is the game beyond the game i.e. how tactics and counter tactics evolve to beat the currently preferred choices.
Also when people say X meta in games refer to the most common used tactics instead of the tactics of the best players. It would be like saying we had a Messi meta in 2012.
A little history. Meta basically means "after" or "beyond" because some dude wrote a book on physics, and then another after that on everything beyond physics.
The root of the word does not affect what it means now, sorry to break it to you, meta is common for the most effective tactic at current time, that’s it
@@Chester-mz2ep actually the origin of the word does affect its meaning. Why do you think the first person started using it in regards to videogames? Because its meaning was applicable. And people retrofitting the meaning to "most effective tactic available" doesnt change that.
My grandpa had told me that in the past they used to play with very few defenders and everyone would just try to score and the scorecards were really high. This is the first place I see a mention of this.
im surprised you didnt talk for another 5 minutes at the end about how the tactics and formations of the mid 2000s to today are just rehashes of earlier formations but with minor tweaks. i mean what is chelseas 4-3-3 or liverpools attacking fullbacks if not a return to the WW? the biggest tactical changes were realising that a dedicated sweeper wasnt necessary when your goalkeeper was able to come out and play the ball with his feet and playing two strikers wasnt necessary when you had fast wingers to come in from out wide. also surprised you didnt talk about the transition from 4-4-2 wide midfielders, crossing the ball in for tall strikers to 4-3-3 wingers cutting in on the opposite foot to score. arjen robben and cristiano ronaldo turning from LM and RM to RW and LW respectively after leaving the premier league for bayern and madrid. otherwise good video :)
Agreed. Liverpool's high pressing line is only working because of the strength of the center backs ability to compensate for the right back's defensive weaknesses, BTW, thus the his virtual uselessness on the England World Cup squad.
Totally agree, I think no other manager has utilized a W-W formation more than Guardiola in the modern day but they all pretty much tend to shape into this in attack. But with Guardiola it's especially obvious, with the way his FBs are undercutting and not overlapping, they also need to be comfortable playing like defensive midfielders, one of the reasons imo why Kimmich was so great for Guardiola at Bayern in the right FB position and why Cancelo is working so well on the left for him despite being right footed.
Ronaldo played as one of 3 attackers at United… he didn’t start doing that at Madrid? Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo is known as one of the greatest attacks ever even though it didn’t last very long.
Man, I was loving the video until the 90's, when you said Premier League began their tactical reign (that would be a lie, because everybody knows the 90's belonged to italian teams, which mostly used 4-1-2-1-2 instead of 4-4-2) and hey, I get it, you're British and you love the Premier League but...if there's been one turning point in the history of the game in the last 20 years, that's the spanish football team. "What a surprise", you might be thinking, "a spanish guy praising it's national team". Well, no. Trust me, I'm not a patriot, I'm just a nerd. "Offensive" tiki-taka, the one that's about positional play, high pressure and playing in one-two touches to catch the opposite defense off-guard, was a tremendous innovation. The thing is, that can be countered. That kind of play depends on being technically and physically excelent, up to the point of playing both ridiculously fast (doing lots of off-the-ball runs) and accurate near the opposite box to 1) create a clear chance against defensive walls and 2) not losing the ball in a compromising situation, with all your team up in the second half of the pitch, that could leave you completely exposed to counter-attacks. Because that's the irony of the game, you need to attack to win. And if you are constantly, relentlessly attacking without achieving anything, eventually you'll lose your composure and will make mistakes. Ironically, the only man who was ever able to come out victorious against peak offensive tiki-taka (that's Barça prime, no matter what City ever does, sorry) was Mourinho, and he did it with two different clubs (Inter and Real Madrid). And he achieved that by allowing his players to feel they were the underdogs by making them play unapologetically defensive. As in, you don't need to attack to win, trust your lungs and not your feet, so, relax guys. And that's why spanish national team changed the game like no other team has done since the 80's (Sacchi). Because they learnt to not to feel the need to attack. Let me explain. When they were in the qualifying rounds, they would play offensively, but in the tournaments, they got painfully defensive. I watched every tournament match Spain played between 2010 and 2012 (I don't count the Euro 2008 because that was a different style of play entirely). Until the first 2010 WC match, they played fully aggresive, mirroring Barça's tiki-taka, but with their limitations (Silva was great, but not Messi, and the rest of the attacking front were technically great but apart from Torres -who played the whole WC injured- we didn't have really fast strikers). And they lost the first Game against SWITZERLAND. Because they just did that. They played a brick wall in front of their keeper, resisted for a hour, waited for us to grow impatient, had one counter-attack, won. And that made Del Bosque change his mind. In a "f*ck everything, I'm just going to win this thing whether you like to watch It or not" kind of way. And he started to play with three defensive midfielders, Iniesta as a classic n°10, Villa as a false winger and a one-legged Torres as a decoy. The midfielders changed their heart. They didn't pass the ball to create spaces between rival players, but to keep it. They played in a way that made sure very, very few things happened during the match. They just played a game called "Let's just pass the ball for 80 minutes and wait until the rivals' mental health completely collapses. Meanwhile, let them think Torres is the real danger here even if he can barely walk and let's hope Villa catches a loose ball inside the box." And that stupid tactic made Spain reach the semifinals for the first time ever. There they played offensively for the first time since Match 1 (because they knew that Germany, the 2010 neutral-watcher-favorite, were too proud to play defensively) and won. And in the final, they were the only team actually trying to play football (Netherlands were trying to play MMA that night) and they won. And even if they won, it's like they felt they had already had enough strong emotions for a lifetime. for the next tournament, the Euro 2012, they doubled that idea of boredom to the point of being absurd. They made sure NOTHING ever happened during their matches. Six midfielders, three of them still defensive, nothing resembling a striker, and the only player actually trying to run towards the opposite goal was the left-back. The only team that ever posed a threat was Portugal, and they almost played Pepe as a midfielder and had the advantage that many of their players were in the spanish league. Result: top-scoring team, winning the final 4-0. Because all they did was passing horizontally so they would keep possession for the sake of keeping it. Seriously, they barely did any shots per match. The thing is, they had such confidence at that point that they shot once, they scored. I'm spanish and I can honestly say, they were painful to watch. You could tell that what they were doing was remarkable AF, historical stuff, a great achievement, but they were the food equivalent to eating Lego bricks. Consequences? Two consecutive tournaments (again, only counting 2010-12) without conceding a single goal during the KO stages. Two consecutive major victories. More consequences? Almost ten years of counter-attack based teams. Physically strong, tactically brilliant, high pressure teams that made sure things actually happened during their matches (and by this I don't mean necesarilly offensive teams). The renaissance of Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid reaching the Champions League final twice, 2018 France and 2019 Liverpool using pressing midfielders and fast attacking players, the rise of the 3 centerbacks and the offensive fullbacks. Hell, England was dominating the Euro2020 final against Italy until Southgate decided to take out Trippier and Rice (right fullback and defensive midfielder) and Guardiola lost the 2021 Champions League final because he thought he could defeat Kanté, Jorginho and a 5-man defensive line without an extra midfielder. Now, defensive tiki-taka is not a magic recipe. That was a historical, ridiculous combination of highly-skilled players at their absolut best nurtured by a fierce rivalry between two of the greatest clubs in the world. Damn, the irony is that even Real Madrid 2016-2018 used defensive tiki-taka (with a static, pasive 3-man midfield, Benzema and Marcelo playing as extra midfielders, and the Big Difference being those slightly fast nobodies called Ronaldo and Bale playing up-front). I'm sorry about such a long text but I felt personally attacked by you not including that mention to 1990's Serie A lol. JK, great video anyway :)
Idk, very few teams could adopt tikitaka formation. Some other formations mentioned in this video was so effective, it could even be adopted by small teams. Regarding 90's Manu, ppl should realize that ManU back then was a B-class team. Their players were not some superstars, they only relied on local graduates. Coming from their initial place to winning treble was a proof of how effective their tactic was.
Poch utilized the 4-2-3-1 well, he would push the full backs up high then use the deeper midfielder as a kind of 3rd centre back in a 3-4-3 with Walker and Rose playing almost as wingers and Eriksen and Ali tucking in behind Kane
I think one major reason for certain developments are changes to the Laws Of The Game eg no keeper back pass, constant evolution of offside rule. Additionally, fitness equipment, the ball itself and playing surfaces have had a major impact as new ways to play, previously not practical, became viable. Generally the Laws have developed in favour of attacking football which again is a major influence over tactics.
You could have titled the video "How the Meta in ENGLISH Football Has Evolved". By the way, it is widely known that catenaccio wasn't developed by Herrera, but Rappan (Switzerland) and most notably Viani and Rocco, who introduced the sweeper. Also, the 4-2-3-1 was very popular in the early 2000s, used amongst the others by the star-studded Real Madrid of Los Galacticos. I believe it would have deserved a mention, as well as the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 which characterised highly successful teams like 1990s Ajax, Cruijff's Barcellona, and 2010s Juventus amongst the others.
He also pretty much ignored Brazil from the 50's and early 60's. In fact, when he says brazil didnt invent the 424, they were the most successful to use it, he completely forgets to mention that 424 was invented by the same brazil, 12 years earlier.
If he was doing how the English game evolved surely you’d have to mention the 66 squad Ramseys Wingless Wonders as they were nicknamed through his use of the 442 meaning that although you had wide midfielders you didn’t have wingers in the tradition sense
Well researched, tho I think leaving out tiki-taka of spain and barcelona in the 2000s is not doing this era of football diligence, especially when considering how many titles were won by this style vrs mourinho especially
Agree: Meta is emergent. If the current main tactic is X, then the Meta becomes Y in response to X to trump it as such and thus we come to the root of the word "Beyond/Above". :-) Aka: "I know that you know that I know..." :-) In response to the last question for what the next Meta- will be: I believe the area of the pitch where Jorginho plays or Busquets or Kante and before him (Makalele or Lothar Matthäus before him!) will become ever more pivotal. Personally would have loved to have seen Yaya Toure become a maestro in this role/position or even Virgil Van Dyke play here more. Looking at the diagrams in this video: A lot of the key action happens here either starting or finishing.
I really think total football will be the ultimate of tactics. In basketball we are starting to have the unicorns where forwards and centers can playmake and have guard skills. To further transform football there will be more and more swtiching and versatility will be valued even more.
To an extent, but it's not like we will see attackers play defenders and stuff like that. But we already see this kind of stuff at the highest level. We have seen Guardiola play everyone as a striker, and we have seen him convert wide players into midfield (B Silva) and vice versa (Foden and maybe Grealish). I think the "end game" in football will be WM (we are already seeing), where the WM will be interchangeable, and every attacker will be able to play every attacking position, and ditto for defenders (to a lesser extent imo)
I think the biggest change to tactics in the 21st century has actually came from the officiating of games making defensive football less effective and tackling less relevant to games. This is probably because the open free flowing game is more appealing to the markets which football has struggled to crack.
The funniest thing of the England v Hungary clip is the goalkeeper not diving but instead chasing after the ball like it’s his nephew he’s agreed to watch that just learned about to walk/run
Please do a video that shows "what was so special of "Wernger's Arsenal" during their invincible season that made it difficult for opponent teams to win.
Argentina’s tactics in their recent success at the World Cup appeared to adapt depending on the opposition - with the goal of giving Lionel Messi as much space as possible to weave chaos.
What about Herbert Chapman who's invented the stopper center half, and radically changed the game in the 1920's and 30's. He won the equivalent of the premier league SIX times with two different teams.
I think 3 back systems with ball playing center backs will be the meta. See the most recent Man City v Leeds. Midfielders going wider to open up forward drives from CBs.
One thing I've not noticed is any discussion of the changes to boots, the ball and the playing surfaces. It would be interesting to hear from those who have played at the top level with leather boots, with nailed on studs and blocks of wood in the toes as well as more modern athletic boots; not to mention dubbined leather balls with laces as well as light multipanel fully stitched balls. I'm pretty sure the types of passes and shots have expanded greatly over the time period under discussion. And who can forget the flooded mud baths of pitches which froze solid in winter, or the artificial surfaces so critical to the successful periods of Luton and QPR in the UK. Add/remove heavy cotton / wool clothing soaked in rainwater / mud to the mix for impact on the META. Wednesday night in February at Stoke stuff.
Been watchin ⚽️ for only since 2018 wc and my take is the next meta is having a tall goalie that is confident enough to come out consistently and be a CB in possession just for an outlet pass or a big clear. Obviously he’s still gettin back and making all the saves but for the buildup he would be part of the passing three in the back to give the team more space up the court.
Although the 2-3-5 formation was popular before the W-M, the inside forwards were already dropping back, so it was very much a W-W formation, albeit less fluid than the Hungarians in the 1950s who sometimes had both wingers on the same wing, an early example of overload.
Across the 70s and the 80s Liverpool were by far the most dominant team with their pass and move philosophy. They won 11 league titles and 4 European cups. In the same period, the two teams you claim dominated the 70s and 80s respectively, Ajax and AC Milan won 9 league titles and 3 European cups and 2 league titles and 2 European Cups with both Milan's European Cup wins coming only after all English teams had been banned after completely dominating European football for the last decade. To talk about META tactics and not mention Liverpool's achievements both on the field and off with their famous bootroom philosophy seems remiss.
I think that the meta will be the Diamond 4-4-2 cause we've senn that winning teams often had more midfielders than theirs opponents to control the ball. This and the advantage of having a 10/false 9 to give some space to the strikers/wingers could be deadly in the next years
If i knew the META for future football i wouldn't be on here looking at your (rather interesting) analysis...great video, shame about the background music...✌🏻
Meta has never been an abbreviation. It's short for metagame, meaning the game above the game. It's a term used to describe the game of picking strategies to combat the most effective strategies of other players or teams.
Some form of Total Football is likely to come back. The game is getting increasingly more demanding on players' stamina and even with increased contingencies for substitutions, there will be a breaking point. Someone who can figure out how to rest a few players at a time while the others go full throttle. This would require players to be able to play in both the "resting" positions (generally speaking in the back) and the mobile positions. Alternatively, a way of conserving energy while letting your opponent run in a sort of war of attrition might also be something to consider. At times it felt like France tried that against Morocco - giving them the ball and letting them attack. However, given that they barely won against a much weaker opponent on paper, this doesn't sound too promising yet.
For the next decade, the max formation would be 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. In this there won't be much wingers, rather there will be wing backs who will push up and down depending on attack and defence. And the fiwards will be inside with a focal number 9.
Don't know about anyone else, but doing the formations down-up so the defenders where at the bottom and the attackers at the top, instead of the conventional top down made this seriously hard to follow 😅 very informative though, and a great video just some personal feedback 🙂
I would love to see successful World Cup Team analogous META analysis ahead of Qatar, with the unique timing and preparation taken into consideration of this WC vs others?
@@FootballMeta catenaccio or high intensity football, I think that ther will be if we will see catenaccio again, with zonal defending and something that reminds sacchi
The next meta will be versatillity. teams with players capable of change the intire structure of the tatics without change anyone. Players like Fabinho, that can play as cb, rb, dm and others positions, and do it well, will be the key. or CR7, that can play as lw, mc, false 9, striker... if these two are in the same team, they can chage the tatic of the team to adapt to what the adversary is doing in seconds.
The biggest change for me is the lack of creativity and death of the number 10. The magicians have had their magic coached out of them.. You’d think this may be replaced by an increase in dynamic box to box midfielders like Keane, Viera, Gerrard but that’s not happened either. Wonder the going rate would be for one of them or a Hagi, Hoddle, Platini, Scholes. Hard to think of many outstanding footballers in this age of the identikit player.
The coming meta has already arrived, wingers and target men. Play a high line like everyone else? Wingers will spring it constantly. Sit deep in your own box and try to grind out a counter? Good luck beating the next Jan Koller in the air. The next step is apparently the 1970s. You've already seen the start of this with every major team looking for a bigger and more physical forward (going from Aguero and Jesus to Haaland is the most blatant change you'll ever see) and it took people long enough, considering Bielsa was doing it with Bilbao back in 2011, then again with Marseille shortly after. Saw the same at Roma with Dzeko. Erreala went all out on this idea the last two years with Sorloth and Sadiq, and there's a reason Giroud has moved around big clubs ever since winning Ligue 1. An unselfish, consistent, link-up forward who also happens to be 6'4 is in very high demand.
If the attacking team cannot pass the ball behind the line of the center, as they say, the game will be a lot better with the ball going going only at the front. I am very curious for the tactics that going to be used...
High line defencing will cause defensive errors in Liverpool team and that what happened against Manchester United,Crystal Palace,RB Leipzig,RB Salzburg this in Pre-Season Friendly games we can see Liverpool have Same old problem. Liverpool could not break past a well disciplined defensive team, let alone against teams playing with park-the-bus system! This should be Klopp's very first priority! Still Klopp hasn't got the solution for the same problem after all these years! No point having 80-90% possession every game if you cannot score a goal .i mean by defensive errors for example when Trent Arnold step forward couldn't get back to his position to defend .Actually We mean all Liverpool defenders when we talk about High line defencing errors but here i would like to take Arnold as example because . Arnold we need him to evolve his game and be defensively near to his world class skills as a playmaker not any other thing ,I like the eleven players of Liverpool who started in second half certainly from minutes 60 up to the end of the match vs RB Leipzig they were intense,energetic i like more (Stefan Bajcetic) he looks great like his father when was playing for Serbia International Team.So still improvements needed .there are great expectations on Luke Chambers,Isaac Mabaya,Sepp Van Berg,Morton,Leighton Clarkson,James Norris,Melaka Frauendorf,Thomas Hill,Bobby Clark,(Jones .Carvalho).
You didn't mention the single biggest change. This is fitness. Of many new tactics, high pressing for example was impossible with the players who had day jobs, smoked, drank five pints before a game, were addicted to cocaine and otherwise were simply incapable of such things.
![[#2024MAMA] BIGBANG (빅뱅) - 뱅뱅뱅 (BANG BANG BANG) + FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EQsYfiPR9uM/mqdefault.jpg)
One thing I've noticed with Liverpool and teams playing in similar styles to the Gegenpress is that those operating as a 4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3) use wingbacks instead of fullbacks, and rely on them much less in their defensive half. A lot of the time, these 4-3-3s are starting to look like the modern 2-3-5, and it's been fascinating to see that shape make this unsung comeback
very much so, and it is still sound defensively, currently the 3-6-1 is on its way to being the meta, it’s dominating currently in italy and pep is starting to use it himself, it’s a beautiful formation and in the attack gets you into a 2-1-2-5 and is extremely dangerous against a 4-3-3
Brazil was actually playing 4-2-4 since 1958, also winning 1962 world cup with this formation. This includes the use of Djalma Santos and Nilton Santos as attacking fullbacks, the greates tactical innovation of brazilian football. Also, Pelé kind of invented the number 10 position, the "ponta de lança", an attacker that was so good that you couldn't let him not touch the ball, he creates and also scores. I wish we could change the Meta today as we did before.
Well researched and quite informative. I just got this recommended to me, i’m hooked. Great content. Keep it up bro
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it
England: *invents football*
Scotland: let me teach you how to play football *with Scottish accent*
Hence why the first ever Liverpool team was all Scottish and thus birthed Liverpool’s passing game that has been prevalent until klopp took over
@@StoutProper Brazil: Hold my caipirinha...
@@PROPAROXITONO Well yes but not in the 1920s or whenever it was. And Barcelona and Spain have arguably had a sangria or two held since then
Most Effective Tactics Available is an interesting retroacronym, because usually what we call the 'meta' stems from the metagame which was initially received as 'a game beyond the game', which is a game of anticipation pertaining to the strength and weaknesses of the tactics your opponent will use. It's true that in today's context, the way we conceive the meta has moved past mere 'anticipation' to become a matter of optimization. But it's the first time I've seen an acronym to describe it.
The word meta is an old word that has been used in many context for centuries so the acronym (even in the new context of videogames) was definitely tacked on later
I think we will see a switch back to a more total football, with all players needing to have the technical ability no matter the size, thinking of Vandyck (a center back who is good with the ball). I am personally excited to see where football is going, it is truly becoming a combination of skill and brains in all positions including the keepers (thinking of Enderson's ability to start quick counter attacks from a goal kick). As coach for youth it poses lots of challenges of coaching the importance of understanding the basic principles of the game and developing the technical skill set to meet the challenges presented to a individual athlete. Thank you for your videos they posses lots of great information.
I concur. The problem with total football is that it requires a high amount of football IQ/pitch awareness as well as team synchronicity. Luckily, I think that youth academies such as Ajax and Bayern have refined their programs to the point in which they have more or less come up with a highly reliable and mostly optimized method to best develop the technical skills and body conditioning in youth players as much as their genetics and lack of time on this earth will allow. I believe that the best aspect for these academies to improve/develop upon now is optimizing a method to instill near-perfect football IQ/pitch awareness akin to Modric, Pirlo, Xavi, and Iniesta.
Who is Vandyck?
@@LLANTALOBOTOMIK prolly meant van dijk of liverpool
As Brazilian we normally talk about how strong the national team was in 58 and 62 as we won two world cups...the 4-2-4 was already real, in both teams, not only in 70 as you said, so I'd consider as a deserved mention...the 3-5-2 was very strong during the 2000's taking advantage of a strong midfield as META, and where the wing backs provided more balance attacking more than an usual Left/Right Back as the distance to cover was smaller. For the future, I believe regardless the tatics, a more intelligent game in sense of reading the enemy and exploiting their weaknesses like for eg: a very talented and Tiki taka (Barça) won several times Real Madrid and mourinho started to analyze how to counter it, after a few matches, Real Madrid won several games because they understood how to play against tiki taka, which was a very vertical game, very intense defending and long balls to stretch the lines of a compact Barcelona. That duels were amazing and worth seeing as they set a benchmark in reading the game match by match.
You forgot Arsene Wenger man,he changed the English football,the drinking culture,fitness regime, philosophy everything
Yeah you're right, I think looking back at this video there were more tactics and teams I should have highlighted, but it leaves room for future videos I suppose!
I'm not sure (please correct me if I'm wrong!) that Wenger's Arsenal brought much change in the tactics. It was still 4-4-2, with the two forwards more likely to drift to the 10 position or wings.
Having said that, no one can dispute the greatness of that Arsenal team, until they lost arguably their most irreplacable player - Patrick Viera.
I think Wenger's importance as an influence was more in the area of football culture and general level than a specific tactical philosophy. He made a scientific approach to fitness and the importance of tactical finesse (as opposed to just gumption, "wanting it more", etc) to be seen with more respect in the Premier League. The fact is that his tactics were not at all innovative compared to the European continental mainstream, it's just that when he came to Arsenal English football was about two decades behind the continent. Wenger simply made Arsenal catch up with the times without really innovating in an absolute sense.
@@ghostroc Wenger tactically had the same formation but brought a whole new style of football never seen before in England. I think Wenger coming to Premier league was the turning point for the quality, competition and marketability of the Premier league
This video is focussed more on football tactics...man.
In Brazil in the 50s/60s the most common formation was the 4-2-4.
Zagallo, two-time champion in 1958/62 and coach of the 1970 national team, became famous for being a winger who returned to close the midfield.
"Most effective tactics available" is not what a meta is. That's a backronym and folk etymology based on imperfect knowledge of where the expression comes from. Meta is short for metagame which is the game beyond the game i.e. how tactics and counter tactics evolve to beat the currently preferred choices.
Also when people say X meta in games refer to the most common used tactics instead of the tactics of the best players. It would be like saying we had a Messi meta in 2012.
Just go easy with the words you're using no need to flex your english
A little history. Meta basically means "after" or "beyond" because some dude wrote a book on physics, and then another after that on everything beyond physics.
The root of the word does not affect what it means now, sorry to break it to you, meta is common for the most effective tactic at current time, that’s it
@@Chester-mz2ep actually the origin of the word does affect its meaning. Why do you think the first person started using it in regards to videogames? Because its meaning was applicable. And people retrofitting the meaning to "most effective tactic available" doesnt change that.
My grandpa had told me that in the past they used to play with very few defenders and everyone would just try to score and the scorecards were really high. This is the first place I see a mention of this.
541 and 343 may be the next meta. Great defence and high energy counterattack.
im surprised you didnt talk for another 5 minutes at the end about how the tactics and formations of the mid 2000s to today are just rehashes of earlier formations but with minor tweaks. i mean what is chelseas 4-3-3 or liverpools attacking fullbacks if not a return to the WW? the biggest tactical changes were realising that a dedicated sweeper wasnt necessary when your goalkeeper was able to come out and play the ball with his feet and playing two strikers wasnt necessary when you had fast wingers to come in from out wide. also surprised you didnt talk about the transition from 4-4-2 wide midfielders, crossing the ball in for tall strikers to 4-3-3 wingers cutting in on the opposite foot to score. arjen robben and cristiano ronaldo turning from LM and RM to RW and LW respectively after leaving the premier league for bayern and madrid. otherwise good video :)
Agreed. Liverpool's high pressing line is only working because of the strength of the center backs ability to compensate for the right back's defensive weaknesses, BTW, thus the his virtual uselessness on the England World Cup squad.
Totally agree, I think no other manager has utilized a W-W formation more than Guardiola in the modern day but they all pretty much tend to shape into this in attack. But with Guardiola it's especially obvious, with the way his FBs are undercutting and not overlapping, they also need to be comfortable playing like defensive midfielders, one of the reasons imo why Kimmich was so great for Guardiola at Bayern in the right FB position and why Cancelo is working so well on the left for him despite being right footed.
Ronaldo played as one of 3 attackers at United… he didn’t start doing that at Madrid?
Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo is known as one of the greatest attacks ever even though it didn’t last very long.
He's not that smart, bro. He just read inverting the pyramid the day before recording this.
You forgot Allardyce's 10-0 formation
This is, by far, the most informative TH-cam video about football I have ever seen, and probably will see
I would be very interested in a more in-depth breakdown per decade/time period!
this kind of content makes me feel lucky to be alive in this time and space
Man, I was loving the video until the 90's, when you said Premier League began their tactical reign (that would be a lie, because everybody knows the 90's belonged to italian teams, which mostly used 4-1-2-1-2 instead of 4-4-2) and hey, I get it, you're British and you love the Premier League but...if there's been one turning point in the history of the game in the last 20 years, that's the spanish football team.
"What a surprise", you might be thinking, "a spanish guy praising it's national team". Well, no. Trust me, I'm not a patriot, I'm just a nerd.
"Offensive" tiki-taka, the one that's about positional play, high pressure and playing in one-two touches to catch the opposite defense off-guard, was a tremendous innovation. The thing is, that can be countered. That kind of play depends on being technically and physically excelent, up to the point of playing both ridiculously fast (doing lots of off-the-ball runs) and accurate near the opposite box to 1) create a clear chance against defensive walls and 2) not losing the ball in a compromising situation, with all your team up in the second half of the pitch, that could leave you completely exposed to counter-attacks. Because that's the irony of the game, you need to attack to win. And if you are constantly, relentlessly attacking without achieving anything, eventually you'll lose your composure and will make mistakes. Ironically, the only man who was ever able to come out victorious against peak offensive tiki-taka (that's Barça prime, no matter what City ever does, sorry) was Mourinho, and he did it with two different clubs (Inter and Real Madrid). And he achieved that by allowing his players to feel they were the underdogs by making them play unapologetically defensive. As in, you don't need to attack to win, trust your lungs and not your feet, so, relax guys.
And that's why spanish national team changed the game like no other team has done since the 80's (Sacchi). Because they learnt to not to feel the need to attack.
Let me explain. When they were in the qualifying rounds, they would play offensively, but in the tournaments, they got painfully defensive. I watched every tournament match Spain played between 2010 and 2012 (I don't count the Euro 2008 because that was a different style of play entirely). Until the first 2010 WC match, they played fully aggresive, mirroring Barça's tiki-taka, but with their limitations (Silva was great, but not Messi, and the rest of the attacking front were technically great but apart from Torres -who played the whole WC injured- we didn't have really fast strikers). And they lost the first Game against SWITZERLAND. Because they just did that. They played a brick wall in front of their keeper, resisted for a hour, waited for us to grow impatient, had one counter-attack, won.
And that made Del Bosque change his mind. In a "f*ck everything, I'm just going to win this thing whether you like to watch It or not" kind of way.
And he started to play with three defensive midfielders, Iniesta as a classic n°10, Villa as a false winger and a one-legged Torres as a decoy. The midfielders changed their heart. They didn't pass the ball to create spaces between rival players, but to keep it. They played in a way that made sure very, very few things happened during the match. They just played a game called "Let's just pass the ball for 80 minutes and wait until the rivals' mental health completely collapses. Meanwhile, let them think Torres is the real danger here even if he can barely walk and let's hope Villa catches a loose ball inside the box."
And that stupid tactic made Spain reach the semifinals for the first time ever. There they played offensively for the first time since Match 1 (because they knew that Germany, the 2010 neutral-watcher-favorite, were too proud to play defensively) and won. And in the final, they were the only team actually trying to play football (Netherlands were trying to play MMA that night) and they won.
And even if they won, it's like they felt they had already had enough strong emotions for a lifetime. for the next tournament, the Euro 2012, they doubled that idea of boredom to the point of being absurd. They made sure NOTHING ever happened during their matches.
Six midfielders, three of them still defensive, nothing resembling a striker, and the only player actually trying to run towards the opposite goal was the left-back. The only team that ever posed a threat was Portugal, and they almost played Pepe as a midfielder and had the advantage that many of their players were in the spanish league.
Result: top-scoring team, winning the final 4-0.
Because all they did was passing horizontally so they would keep possession for the sake of keeping it. Seriously, they barely did any shots per match. The thing is, they had such confidence at that point that they shot once, they scored. I'm spanish and I can honestly say, they were painful to watch. You could tell that what they were doing was remarkable AF, historical stuff, a great achievement, but they were the food equivalent to eating Lego bricks.
Consequences?
Two consecutive tournaments (again, only counting 2010-12) without conceding a single goal during the KO stages. Two consecutive major victories.
More consequences?
Almost ten years of counter-attack based teams. Physically strong, tactically brilliant, high pressure teams that made sure things actually happened during their matches (and by this I don't mean necesarilly offensive teams). The renaissance of Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid reaching the Champions League final twice, 2018 France and 2019 Liverpool using pressing midfielders and fast attacking players, the rise of the 3 centerbacks and the offensive fullbacks. Hell, England was dominating the Euro2020 final against Italy until Southgate decided to take out Trippier and Rice (right fullback and defensive midfielder) and Guardiola lost the 2021 Champions League final because he thought he could defeat Kanté, Jorginho and a 5-man defensive line without an extra midfielder.
Now, defensive tiki-taka is not a magic recipe. That was a historical, ridiculous combination of highly-skilled players at their absolut best nurtured by a fierce rivalry between two of the greatest clubs in the world. Damn, the irony is that even Real Madrid 2016-2018 used defensive tiki-taka (with a static, pasive 3-man midfield, Benzema and Marcelo playing as extra midfielders, and the Big Difference being those slightly fast nobodies called Ronaldo and Bale playing up-front).
I'm sorry about such a long text but I felt personally attacked by you not including that mention to 1990's Serie A lol. JK, great video anyway :)
Idk, very few teams could adopt tikitaka formation. Some other formations mentioned in this video was so effective, it could even be adopted by small teams.
Regarding 90's Manu, ppl should realize that ManU back then was a B-class team. Their players were not some superstars, they only relied on local graduates. Coming from their initial place to winning treble was a proof of how effective their tactic was.
Wow, what an analysis! 👌🏻
Holy shit
This comment is so well written that I've actually read the whole thing.
THANK YOU FOR UR IN DEPTH ANALYTIC. I APPRECIATE THIS INFO .
3:09 name a more icon duo than England and cockiness
😂😂
French and arrogance, German and efficiency, Polish and racism
@@NeilMalthus Guinness doesn't hang about
Poch utilized the 4-2-3-1 well, he would push the full backs up high then use the deeper midfielder as a kind of 3rd centre back in a 3-4-3 with Walker and Rose playing almost as wingers and Eriksen and Ali tucking in behind Kane
I think one major reason for certain developments are changes to the Laws Of The Game eg no keeper back pass, constant evolution of offside rule. Additionally, fitness equipment, the ball itself and playing surfaces have had a major impact as new ways to play, previously not practical, became viable. Generally the Laws have developed in favour of attacking football which again is a major influence over tactics.
This was pretty cool.
A nice introductory vid about the major tactical innovations of this beautiful sport.
This channel deserves more likes... Well researched and professionally done!
You could have titled the video "How the Meta in ENGLISH Football Has Evolved". By the way, it is widely known that catenaccio wasn't developed by Herrera, but Rappan (Switzerland) and most notably Viani and Rocco, who introduced the sweeper. Also, the 4-2-3-1 was very popular in the early 2000s, used amongst the others by the star-studded Real Madrid of Los Galacticos. I believe it would have deserved a mention, as well as the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 which characterised highly successful teams like 1990s Ajax, Cruijff's Barcellona, and 2010s Juventus amongst the others.
He also pretty much ignored Brazil from the 50's and early 60's. In fact, when he says brazil didnt invent the 424, they were the most successful to use it, he completely forgets to mention that 424 was invented by the same brazil, 12 years earlier.
cope
True, hate when people make videos and assume that football = English football
If he was doing how the English game evolved surely you’d have to mention the 66 squad
Ramseys Wingless Wonders as they were nicknamed through his use of the 442 meaning that although you had wide midfielders you didn’t have wingers in the tradition sense
Wouldn't be a comment section without a bitter comment from an italian
Well researched, tho I think leaving out tiki-taka of spain and barcelona in the 2000s is not doing this era of football diligence, especially when considering how many titles were won by this style vrs mourinho especially
A summary of Inverting The Pyramid book talking about the history of tactics. Brilliant
Meta is not an abbreviation. It comes from Greek meaning after or beyond, and is a prefix meaning more comprehensive or transcending.
Agree: Meta is emergent. If the current main tactic is X, then the Meta becomes Y in response to X to trump it as such and thus we come to the root of the word "Beyond/Above". :-)
Aka: "I know that you know that I know..." :-)
In response to the last question for what the next Meta- will be: I believe the area of the pitch where Jorginho plays or Busquets or Kante and before him (Makalele or Lothar Matthäus before him!) will become ever more pivotal.
Personally would have loved to have seen Yaya Toure become a maestro in this role/position or even Virgil Van Dyke play here more.
Looking at the diagrams in this video: A lot of the key action happens here either starting or finishing.
This was extremely well researched and explained. Probably the best layman's breakdown of soccer ("football") I've ever seen
Bro, you are the best! I think you can come up with the new META
I really think total football will be the ultimate of tactics. In basketball we are starting to have the unicorns where forwards and centers can playmake and have guard skills. To further transform football there will be more and more swtiching and versatility will be valued even more.
To an extent, but it's not like we will see attackers play defenders and stuff like that. But we already see this kind of stuff at the highest level. We have seen Guardiola play everyone as a striker, and we have seen him convert wide players into midfield (B Silva) and vice versa (Foden and maybe Grealish). I think the "end game" in football will be WM (we are already seeing), where the WM will be interchangeable, and every attacker will be able to play every attacking position, and ditto for defenders (to a lesser extent imo)
I think the biggest change to tactics in the 21st century has actually came from the officiating of games making defensive football less effective and tackling less relevant to games. This is probably because the open free flowing game is more appealing to the markets which football has struggled to crack.
Also just more enjoyable to watch and play I assume
6:58 that amazing offside tactics by AC Milan defense (Baresi, Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta)
442 is "synonymous" with the offside trap, not unanimous. A unanimous decision is one where everyone agrees.
The funniest thing of the England v Hungary clip is the goalkeeper not diving but instead chasing after the ball like it’s his nephew he’s agreed to watch that just learned about to walk/run
Accurate and useful, great job, thanks! 👏👌
Thank you glad you liked it!
Strong urge to become manager now. Lately very intrigued by the deep tactical and training part of football.
Please do a video that shows "what was so special of "Wernger's Arsenal" during their invincible season that made it difficult for opponent teams to win.
Good suggestion, I'll add it to the list 💪🏻 thanks!
Argentina’s tactics in their recent success at the World Cup appeared to adapt depending on the opposition - with the goal of giving Lionel Messi as much space as possible to weave chaos.
What about Herbert Chapman who's invented the stopper center half, and radically changed the game in the 1920's and 30's. He won the equivalent of the premier league SIX times with two different teams.
W-M and no mention of Hebert Chapman and Arsenal in the 30s!
New system->teams get used to it->teams expose it->new system
The meta will be teams that can change formations effectively during the game
Very good point
I think 3 back systems with ball playing center backs will be the meta. See the most recent Man City v Leeds. Midfielders going wider to open up forward drives from CBs.
One thing I've not noticed is any discussion of the changes to boots, the ball and the playing surfaces. It would be interesting to hear from those who have played at the top level with leather boots, with nailed on studs and blocks of wood in the toes as well as more modern athletic boots; not to mention dubbined leather balls with laces as well as light multipanel fully stitched balls. I'm pretty sure the types of passes and shots have expanded greatly over the time period under discussion. And who can forget the flooded mud baths of pitches which froze solid in winter, or the artificial surfaces so critical to the successful periods of Luton and QPR in the UK. Add/remove heavy cotton / wool clothing soaked in rainwater / mud to the mix for impact on the META. Wednesday night in February at Stoke stuff.
4-2-4 was invented in the early 50s and became extremely popular worldwide by the early 60s.
Been watchin ⚽️ for only since 2018 wc and my take is the next meta is having a tall goalie that is confident enough to come out consistently and be a CB in possession just for an outlet pass or a big clear. Obviously he’s still gettin back and making all the saves but for the buildup he would be part of the passing three in the back to give the team more space up the court.
seems like the trend is only rotating with different interpretations of tactics.. so maybe kick and rush with tall target men will be back
Fantastic information,just what i needed♥️
Cool breakdown. I think u need legends tho when referencing which team is which, especially if switching them around on the board
Perhaps a striker that is strong, fast, and can playmake as well as bring extreme defensive pressure towards the frontlines will change the meta.
Very informative technically.
Although the 2-3-5 formation was popular before the W-M, the inside forwards were already dropping back, so it was very much a W-W formation, albeit less fluid than the Hungarians in the 1950s who sometimes had both wingers on the same wing, an early example of overload.
Across the 70s and the 80s Liverpool were by far the most dominant team with their pass and move philosophy. They won 11 league titles and 4 European cups. In the same period, the two teams you claim dominated the 70s and 80s respectively, Ajax and AC Milan won 9 league titles and 3 European cups and 2 league titles and 2 European Cups with both Milan's European Cup wins coming only after all English teams had been banned after completely dominating European football for the last decade. To talk about META tactics and not mention Liverpool's achievements both on the field and off with their famous bootroom philosophy seems remiss.
I think that the meta will be the Diamond 4-4-2 cause we've senn that winning teams often had more midfielders than theirs opponents to control the ball. This and the advantage of having a 10/false 9 to give some space to the strikers/wingers could be deadly in the next years
If i knew the META for future football i wouldn't be on here looking at your (rather interesting) analysis...great video, shame about the background music...✌🏻
Meta has never been an abbreviation. It's short for metagame, meaning the game above the game. It's a term used to describe the game of picking strategies to combat the most effective strategies of other players or teams.
No mention on Cruyff's dream team?
Bring back the original "knock it long to the big man" style
the M-W formation really took shape in the premier league this season(22/23)
Thanks for this. another unique tactic in the recent 5 years is sacking of club managers
😂😂
Well done.
Some form of Total Football is likely to come back. The game is getting increasingly more demanding on players' stamina and even with increased contingencies for substitutions, there will be a breaking point. Someone who can figure out how to rest a few players at a time while the others go full throttle. This would require players to be able to play in both the "resting" positions (generally speaking in the back) and the mobile positions.
Alternatively, a way of conserving energy while letting your opponent run in a sort of war of attrition might also be something to consider. At times it felt like France tried that against Morocco - giving them the ball and letting them attack. However, given that they barely won against a much weaker opponent on paper, this doesn't sound too promising yet.
Great video ! ♥
Why not just say how strategy has evolved?
For the next decade, the max formation would be 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. In this there won't be much wingers, rather there will be wing backs who will push up and down depending on attack and defence. And the fiwards will be inside with a focal number 9.
Yeah. Since attacking fullbacksa and high pressing leave so much space on the wing, hence 3-4-3 becoming more popular.
@@efanferdiantowibowo9610 ah following in Conte and Tuchel’s path
4-2-3-1or 4-2-1-3 is still most use formation in recent years
high pressing central/high block with 3 strikers, 2 wingbacks, 1 defensive pivot that plays narrowly.
Don't know about anyone else, but doing the formations down-up so the defenders where at the bottom and the attackers at the top, instead of the conventional top down made this seriously hard to follow 😅 very informative though, and a great video just some personal feedback 🙂
G'job bullet!
Amazing content
Wenger's phenomenal influence completely missing. 💀
Fantastic video!
The future of tactics is the use of asymmetrical formations, better opposition scouting, and inverted fullbacks
welp. Pep ditched inverted fullbacks for aggressive defenders out wide while using a CB to help possession in midfield instead
@@jaend6924 fair play. He stacks the midfield with his W/M box, the bottom of W and top of M, leaving 4 players in decent space to play
Amazing👍👍
Thanks this os so good
I would love to see successful World Cup Team analogous META analysis ahead of Qatar, with the unique timing and preparation taken into consideration of this WC vs others?
England losing at Wembley will never go out of style
A chameleon manager like Mancini or Allegri next
3-5-2, 3-4-3, and 5-2-3 are the new meta in football
4-2-3-1 is still out there too
Yeah, good wing backs are super important nowadays
Why you didn't talk about Italian football in the 90's and 2000's???
Without Pep football is incomplete
Klopp already used the High Pressing tactic in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund, he didn`t started it with Liverpool.
I think that we will come back to see in the next meta the reintroduction of catenaccio but a bit more modern
How do you think It will be modernised?
@@FootballMeta catenaccio or high intensity football, I think that ther will be if we will see catenaccio again, with zonal defending and something that reminds sacchi
@@FootballMeta did you see morocco at the world cup?
The next meta will be versatillity. teams with players capable of change the intire structure of the tatics without change anyone. Players like Fabinho, that can play as cb, rb, dm and others positions, and do it well, will be the key. or CR7, that can play as lw, mc, false 9, striker... if these two are in the same team, they can chage the tatic of the team to adapt to what the adversary is doing in seconds.
Total football bro
The biggest change for me is the lack of creativity and death of the number 10. The magicians have had their magic coached out of them.. You’d think this may be replaced by an increase in dynamic box to box midfielders like Keane, Viera, Gerrard but that’s not happened either.
Wonder the going rate would be for one of them or a Hagi, Hoddle, Platini, Scholes. Hard to think of many outstanding footballers in this age of the identikit player.
Who/when was the goal @9:22? Superhuman.
7:02 “4-4-2 was unanimous with the off-side trap” I think you meant synonymous.
Bro what’s the ost playing in the background?? @7:17 (and the others too)
The 2-3-2-3 (defensive)/2-1-4-3.(attacking)
1:47 Heeeeeeeeeeeeey, it's Jurgen Klopp's favorite formation!
interesting video - Mourinho's line up is basically another W W then?
W M looks like 343 to me, probably morphs into a 532 without the ball
I think we will see that 1-1-8 come back when someone is down 3 in the 88th minute and is absolutely desperate to score
The coming meta has already arrived, wingers and target men. Play a high line like everyone else? Wingers will spring it constantly. Sit deep in your own box and try to grind out a counter? Good luck beating the next Jan Koller in the air. The next step is apparently the 1970s. You've already seen the start of this with every major team looking for a bigger and more physical forward (going from Aguero and Jesus to Haaland is the most blatant change you'll ever see) and it took people long enough, considering Bielsa was doing it with Bilbao back in 2011, then again with Marseille shortly after. Saw the same at Roma with Dzeko. Erreala went all out on this idea the last two years with Sorloth and Sadiq, and there's a reason Giroud has moved around big clubs ever since winning Ligue 1. An unselfish, consistent, link-up forward who also happens to be 6'4 is in very high demand.
Stil like kick and rush.. 😊
thanks
This video is quality
If the attacking team cannot pass the ball behind the line of the center, as they say, the game will be a lot better with the ball going going only at the front. I am very curious for the tactics that going to be used...
Match of the Week? Match of the Day, you mean!
High line defencing will cause defensive errors in Liverpool team and that what happened against Manchester United,Crystal Palace,RB Leipzig,RB Salzburg this in Pre-Season Friendly games we can see Liverpool have Same old problem. Liverpool could not break past a well disciplined defensive team, let alone against teams playing with park-the-bus system! This should be Klopp's very first priority! Still Klopp hasn't got the solution for the same problem after all these years! No point having 80-90% possession every game if you cannot score a goal .i mean by defensive errors for example when Trent Arnold step forward couldn't get back to his position to defend .Actually We mean all Liverpool defenders when we talk about High line defencing errors but here i would like to take Arnold as example because . Arnold we need him to evolve his game and be defensively near to his world class skills as a playmaker not any other thing ,I like the eleven players of Liverpool who started in second half certainly from minutes 60 up to the end of the match vs RB Leipzig they were intense,energetic i like more (Stefan Bajcetic) he looks great like his father when was playing for Serbia International Team.So still improvements needed .there are great expectations on Luke Chambers,Isaac Mabaya,Sepp Van Berg,Morton,Leighton Clarkson,James Norris,Melaka Frauendorf,Thomas Hill,Bobby Clark,(Jones .Carvalho).
Most of this switchs were made by necessity... some teams have diferent charactetistc players that give the game another shape.
You didn't mention the single biggest change. This is fitness. Of many new tactics, high pressing for example was impossible with the players who had day jobs, smoked, drank five pints before a game, were addicted to cocaine and otherwise were simply incapable of such things.