Quote:
Originally Posted by Grover
Mario, what can you tell us about Stale Sobakken, who is rumored to be the next Wolves manager. I saw he won a bunch of Danish league titles, but got fired from Cologne... what's he like to do tactically?
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I havenīt watched a ton of Cologne matches, so this is propably not entirely accurate, but iīll try it :
- I think he prefers to play 4-4-2 (2 DMs and 2 offensive minded wide midfielders/wingers), but played 4-2-3-1 later in the season due to injuries (and simply having to try sth else with their record)
-He has a very "modern" and somewhat radical approach defensively with lots of zonal marking and not just a mix of zonal and man but true zonal marking. For example he want the weak side defenders to stay on the weak side as much as possible to avoid matchup problems inside, doesnīt encourage double teaming by defenders but lays that responsibility on the DMs almost entirely.
-Has his defense play far up the pitch and the back-4 and the midfield stay close and compact.
-Pressure is there but not allways but in spurts.
-Worked well with Copenhagen (saw a couple of their games when he was there) but failed miserably with Cologne as they conceded 75 goals in 34 matches (11 more than any other Bundesliga team). And their goal keeper was pretty much universally regarded as their best player during the season...
-Simply put, the players never really bought into the concept and also werenīt very good to begin with.
I think his tactics are very advanced and can be very successfull, but wonīt work if the players donīt commit to them. It is not a style of defending that can work playing half-assed.
-Did not show a lot of talent dealing with the media and made some very weird decicions. For example his first ever decicion was to strip Podolski of the captaincy to "balance the responsibilities" (as Podolski aparently was to busy being the folk hero and best player) which immdiately had the media in a frenzy, Podolski pissed and the team confused.
Hope that gives you an idea
