Christmas holidays!

Well Christmas holidays have arrived and so Tactic Addict is going to cease posting articles until 7th January. Hope we'll be back with even more creativeness and even better tactical battles! I wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy new year and i'll see you soon again in about two weeks!

Bayern Munich's superior wing-play

Bayern are the main favourites to top their domestic league and cup as well as play a vital role in the Champions League. This year they have everything: a magnificent goalkeeper, two trustworhty centre backs, two excellent full backs with both attacking and defensive qualities (especially Lahm), a great midfield duo (playmaker Schweinsteiger and tackler Luiz Gustavo), a striker with superb goalscoring ability but most importantly they have (probably) the best winger pair in the world, the "Robbery". Ribery and Robben are simply unstoppable when in form. They are extremely fast, with amazing dribbling skills and a variety of ways to threat any opposition. They are players to be feared by any full back in the world and at their best (and being together) they can win their matches alone. To be honest many teams in the world are jealous of Bayern because of this. Of course other factors come in at times: Robben is a regular injury prone and Ribery is extremely short-tempered sometimes. But their quality and contribution is unquestionable. Either inverted with primary plan to score themselves or set in a traditional wing-play position to mostly assist particularly from crossing (also excellent at doing so) they can harm any defence and there's no reason to deny that Bayern's big weapon this year is them and the difference they make against their opponents can be a decisive factor of any match in the german club's campaign.

Contest is now on!

In a try to spark our blog into life and get some readers, i'm setting up a contest. The first five people who will become members of our blog and also comment on at least one article will be the nominees to be choosed as the subject chooser of our next article. The nominee with the best contribution and most interesting view of the issues demonstrated will be the winner. The subject he/she will choose can be about a team, player, manager, formation, tactical advances-evolutions, football philosophy, legend, match (recently played or even a classical one), player roles, positions etc. Any pick is acceptable as long as it is relative and interesting. The winner can send his pick at this email eftychios10omonoia@hotmail.gr and he/she shall get a reply about accepting or rejecting his/her suggestion.

Man Utd's need for a passer in the midfield

For the first tactical article of our blog i'd like to demonstrate one of the major upsets and issues of world football the last few weeks. Man Utd being eliminated from the Champions League group stage losing to one of the tournaments regular "group losers" Basel in a group that in the summer looked way too easy for the english club. Taking progress for granted would be a rational answer but it's kind of stupid to say that Man Utd failed only due to that. Big clubs don't fall so easily and the teams anticipated weren't much of a threat even under such conditions. Watching the Reds struggle to beat weak romanian side Otelul Galati was actually the warning alarm. The other factor is psychology. Man Utd seem unable to surpass that 1-6 thrashing by Man City. Their form is still boldly marked by this low point. But once more this isn't quite of an answer to all this downfall the last couple of months. The true problem here is Man Utd lacking a creative spark in the middle of midfield. A passer to keep possession and provide good passes forward to build up attacks. The departure of Scholes meant that Man Utd suddenly ran out of players able to create and orchestrate the game. How could this be functioned? Well, it's pathetic to depend on your wingers or forwards to create their own chances and take them. Firstly, because it's simply not their responsibility and more importantly, they don't always have the ability or energy to utilise all of their deployments 100% of the times successfully. The question is who can make up for this empty spot? Fletcher and Carrick are not so creative and a lot more defensive minded. Anderson is good but still unproven at top level for his ball retention and vision. The only good answer is Cleverley who had impressed in the beginning but now remaining "silent" and proving that he indeed needs more time as a youngster to evolve. So what can Man Utd do? The best move possible is a transfer as soon as possible. Sneijder scenarios are slightly unsuitable (Sneijder is a great player able to utilise this role but still in average form, extremely expensive and not so the perfect model of a Premierleague passing midfielder) plus the fact that it's a risky move (Sneijder isn't the only good solution and although being the most fancied one, he remains less assured at this particular spot covering than other options like Modric or Pirlo). If Ferguson chooses wisely enough he should get the answer he pursues to get the Reds back into form and go for the title decisively just as the start of the season-it's just all about how he will decide to construct his team around this particular player. Besides, 4-4-2 formations and wrong player-roles picks are clearly an effect of the huge lack of creativity. Ferguson knows that and he can fix it with such an addition.

Tactic Addict Begins!

And finally I'm happy to demonstrate my new blog about football tactics, formations, matches and players where I'll analyse the top issues concerning global football and you will have the oppurtunity to read them and comment them with your own oppinion and information. I'm open to any good comment or debate and top commenters that I judge to be suitable for this blog they'll have the chance to be writers themselves. That's for now and soon expect for the first tactical article of our blog.