Goal machine - Unai Emery Tactic

Strong defense, deceiving midfielders, and dangerous attackers. Long balls, intricate passes, wide playmakers.

Dangerous counterattacks, possession game and tactical masterclass. All from a standard-looking     4-4-2 formation.

But what you need to know is that this…is hardly a 4-4-2 formation.

Unai Emery uses a so-called box midfield to trap the opposition and break on counterattacks. It’s a trend emerging in the past few years, and it’s used by Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Brighton. But Unai Emery’s shape is different.

As said, the formation is a 4-4-2 on paper. But it transforms in a 4-2-2-2, with the two wingers coming inside in possession.

We start with a sweeper keeper on attack duty. This is important as the goalkeeper is the last line of defense.

The player you choose here must be able to sweep up loose balls and not be prone to errors.

More so, he must be able to receive and pass the ball around under pressure circumstances.

On the wings of the defence, we have two wing-backs on support duty.

They are the outliers to help escape the opposition’s press. Unay Emery’s team invites press – baiting the opposition.

You need smart players here, who can read the game well, as they need to either recycle the ball or play a long ball into the midfield area, to evade the press.

The central defenders are ball playing ones, as they must offer the first passing option when playing from the back.

In the midfield, we have 4 players that have a very important mission. To create the box midfield and break the shape of the opposition’s press.

The box midfield became a staple in the Premier League. Being used as a way of keeping the players in proximity and keeping possession of the ball through quick passes.

This shape is meant to attract pressure and break it using either the wingers or the attackers.

On the right side we have an inverted winger. He is required to start wider but come in deeper as the possession game starts.

Being an inverted winger, we also aim to emulate the Tielemans and Baily rotation, which can get the inverted winger into scoring positions from time to time.

Two box-to-box midfielders make up the central area. Their role is to provide support when playing out from the back and picking up the best passing play moving forward.

They are going to be most pressed players in the midfield. So, these players must be very composed, to pick up the best passes and join the attack later on.

On the left side, we have a wide playmaker. This player does not need to be a natural winger. This role is usually taken by John McGinn, who played mostly in the left inside channel this season.

This player is required to cut inside when his team is in possession and aid the passing game.

He could later on either be released on the counter or he can pick up a pass that would put his attacking teammates in scoring positions.

And this is the way in which Unai Emery aims to create his midfield box. Granted, in the game it doesn’t always turn out to be as expected. But when it does, the opposition doesn’t really know how to handle.

Leaving spaces that can be exploited.

The strikers are a pressing forward and advanced one. The pressing forward is told to start from a wider position, to try and recreate Bailey’s forward movement, rotating with the striker.

The roles are setup this way, as Unai Emery has devised his tactic to form a box in the midfield, when in possession.

As mentality, I mostly used Attacking this season. As my team is the best in the league, we can go with Attacking. But Positive works as well. It all depends on the level of the team you manage and your opposition.

In possession, fairly wide, shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. Mixed crosses and run at defence.

We aim to avoid the pressing and create swift attacks.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute quickly to the central defenders.

Out of possession, mid-block, higher denfesive line, trigger press much more often, prevent goalkeeper short distribution, step up more and trap outside.

Unai Emery is mainly a defensive manager. And this is seen in his team’s defensive approach and output.

With this setup, we aim to press but not to the point of breaking our defensive shape. And our defense must be compact, to force the opposition to play on the wings, where they can be isolated better.

This setup has generated 3 goals scored and 0.9 conceded per game in the league, in my building a nation save in Romania, with FC Voluntari. Helping us score 124 goals in total.

In other competitions, we have scored 13 goals in the Champions League league phase alone, against teams like Chelsea and PSG among others.

While we have dominated the domestic cup with 29 goals scored and 9 conceded.

Of course, glitches happened and the worst of them was the defeat against Bayern München. Yeah…

But this tactic has been very dominant for us this season. And helped us win the domestic treble for the first time in this save.

Many tactics provide a great output, but this one has provided the greatest output yet.