Benfica 4-1 PSV: overlapping full-backs crucial
The starting line-ups
Benfica will take a commanding lead to Holland next week after a confident performance in Lisbon.
Jorge Jesus was able to bring back Oscar Cardozo and Maxi Pereira after they missed the weekend defeat to Porto, whilst Jardel started at centre-back.
Fred Rutten named an unchanged side from the XI that lost to Twente last Saturday (the teams came into this game off the back of similarly devastating results) in 4-2-3-1 system.
The game was open and exciting throughout – five goals were a fair reflection of an attack-minded contest.
Formations
The match-up in formations was interesting from the start. Benfica played their usual attacking diamond system, a 4-1-3-2. PSV were in their usual 4-2-3-1 – they tended to defend in two banks of four with Otman Bakkal a little further forward, but this meant they had problems coping in the centre of midfield when Eduardo Salvio and Nicolas Gaitan were in central positions, as Benfica were 3 v 2 in that zone.
The slightly unusual nature of Benfica’s carrileros often causes problems for opponents, as the central midfielders and full-backs have to communicate throughout the match and pass the player on as he becomes higher up the pitch. PSV struggled with this in the opening stages.
Pablo Aimar was playing well and caused problems with his movement into deeper positions, allowing Salvio and Gaitan to move forward into that space, whilst Saviola’s movement was also superb – both in build-up play on the edge of the box, and in the penalty area when the ball was wide.
Full-backs
The one problem with Benfica’s front five was that they tended to play too narrow. Gaitan, on the left, was particularly keen to move into the centre of the pitch, and whilst Salvio stayed a little wider, it was essentially the same issue. However, Benfica did well to get their full-backs forward, stretching the play, increasing the gaps in the PSV side, and forcing PSV’s wingers – neither of whom particularly like defending – into their own third.
The roles of the full-backs differed slightly – Fabio Coentrao on the left had plenty of space to break into, with Gaitan cutting inside, so he tended to storm forward on solo runs, or with off-the-ball runs. On the right, Pereira combined well with Salvio, getting past Balazs Dzsudzsak and creating 2 v 1 situations up against Erik Pieters, who had a poor game.
It was down the left that the two first half goals came – both after Coentrao was involved. First, he moved high up the touchline, pulling Stanislav Manolev out of position – the space was exploited by Salvio, who crossed for Aimar. Then, Coentrao got forward to provide the assist himself, for Salvio. Both goals came after Saviola had linked play in very deep positions.
The third strike, after half time, also came after good work from Saviola a long way from goal. He passed to Salvio, who scored a great individual goal.
Throughout the first half, Benfica had pressed PSV intensely, not allowing them to get the ball forward. PSV like to build moves slowly from the back and the centre-backs take an active role in launching these moves, and they were clearly troubled by the lack of time on the ball at the back.
PSV attacks
The away side’s best chances came when Dzsudzsak got the ball and beat Pereira, before crossing the ball into the middle. Benfica’s centre-back partnership is not particularly established and there was a weakness in that zone. Markus Berg received plenty of balls into feet and had a couple of good chances, but his touch was terrible and his poor form continues.
Three things combined to get PSV back in that game. First, Benfica’s full-backs were more reserved, which meant that Dzsudzsak and Jeremain Lens were allowed to work higher up the pitch, in their natural positions. Second, Benfica were unable to keep up their pressing, and stood off, allowing PSV to play football. Third, Berg was replaced by Zakaria Labyad, who emphasised Berg’s woes by scoring with his first touch. He had gone to the right, with Lens through the middle, and PSV were much more fluid.
That looked like the tie was back on, but Benfica reclaimed their three-goal lead in the 94th minute. Again, it was a full-back getting forward to get the assist – Pereira – and Saviola applied the finish. Those two players were excellent, and deserved their part in the final goal.
Conclusion
Few matches this season will be so obviously all about one thing – full-backs getting forward, stretching play and providing overlapping runs. Sometimes they provided assists themselves, sometimes they allowed Benfica’s attackers more space – but either way PSV didn’t work well enough as a unit defensively to stop them.
Benfica 4-1 PSV: overlapping full-backs crucial
I’d like to see how Benfica does against Serie A teams. Gaitan and Salvio should cause problems for most teams.
I don’t know why Berg is the regular starter for PSV, he misses chances my nanny would be able to finish! He’s terrible and should be benched immediately, at least Labyad has potential to fulfill.
Heh, maybe Rutten is a regular reader of this blog, today they lined up with Dzsudzsák, Lens and, surprise-surprise, Labyad as an attacking three. Or maybe I should buy lotto tickets sometime in the near future…
I have a question:
When playing against a diamond formation like Benfica, wouldn’t it be best to move your full-backs higher so they defend directly against the opponents carrileros?
So in the case of PSV, put Pieters direclty on Salvio and Marolev on Gaitan.
What do you think?
YA. and leave huge gaps in your defence. no mate, that wouldn’t be a good idea. if the ball is on the right i would have Engelaar pick up Salvio, Hutchenson pick up Aimar, and then have Lens tuck in and pick up Gaitan. If the ball is on the left i would have Hutchenson pick up Gaitan, Engelaar pick up Aimar, and have Dzsudzak tuck in and pick up Salvio. so basically have PSV’s ‘midfield 4′ slide across towards the side where the ball is and ignore Benfica’s weakside fullback.
also, since PSV’s fullbacks are unoccupied, i would want to show Benfica towards the flanks where PSV would have a man-advantage. so if Coentrao has the ball Lens would show him towards the line, incouraging Coentrao to carry the ball that way. Berg would pick up Jardel, Bakkal would pick up Javi Garcia, Hutchenson would pick up Gaitan, and Engelaar would pick up Aimar, leaving Coentrao with no close passing options and Lens showing him right into an ‘unoccupied’ Manolev.
so Coentrao would have a very bare chance of retaining the ball as PSV are not allowing him to play a short pass and he is being outnumbered 2v1.
You need a top notch poacher like Radamel Falcão, Diego Milito, Villa and you need a good 3 player midfield with loads of resistence and with only one of them with some attacking duties. That’s how you win Jorge Jesus 4-1-3-2.
PSV had no chance, they were lucky they didn’t return home with a 6 or 7 ball defeat. Benfica started the game very strong with very fast transitions from defense to attack, PSV players were just stunned with how fast things were happening and got mesmerized. They weren’t able to play the game until the last 20 minutes, when Benfica shifted to 2nd gear. It always happens, they play 60-70minutes with very high pace, very high pressing and in the last 15-20 minutes the team just goes Pufff, very tired.
The thing about Bnefica’s formation is that those 2 carrileros often play wide and up against the opposing full-backs. That nuance is reflected in the difficulty to define Benfica’s formation. It could be defined as a widwened 4-4-2 diamond or a 4-1-3-2, as both Salvio and Gaitan have less defensive responsabilities than Aimar…
With all that said, one of the keys to this game was definitely how well Pablo Aimar moved from his more rigid defensive position very close to Javi Garcia, and showed up very high up the pitch to link up with Saviola and Cardozo, and in some instances go through the middle of the opposing defense in off the ball runs, receiving long balls from the defense.
Aimar’s ability to move in between the lines, combined with both fullbacks trying to get forward, meant Benfica commited no less than 7 men (!!!!!!!!) on attacking movements.
If one looks at PSV it’s obvious their wingers aren’t really keen to man-mark their opposing fullbacks. That meant that Benfica always had a very simetrical shape across the field, in contrast to PSV’s defensive strategy of overloading one side.
1-2 moves from Benfica’s midfield created lots of chances that could have lead to an even higher score diferential.
why did you do a review for benfica and not for porto?
I only had time to do one game – it wasn’t really a case of “doing Benfica over Porto”, I just had to predict which game would be more interesting, I guessed it would be this one…
It is Manolev instead of Marolev.
Apart from tactics, Benfica looked the better side in every aspect. They looked faster, stronger and more skilled than PSV. Thursday for me was a confirmation of the declining strenght of the Dutch Eredivisie.