Season 2: Tactics Page; Episode 10: Patterns of play brought to life: Through the Middle and Mixed)

“Nothing is impossible in football, and that is our idea, our philosophy”– Mauricio Pochettino

Howdy Soccermanagerites! As promised, we’ve got another episode explaining the different patterns of play you can expect whilist using a team within Soccermanagager. Today’s focus will be on yet another intriguing pattern of play: Through the Middle and Mixed

This system brings me a lot of joy to write about because it’s quite similar to the D.B.F and Mixed style of play in that it’s way more nuanced than any other system being played within this game. As a brief summary of D.B.F and Mixed, I explained that the players you have within your XI will look to create overloads, one-two’s, and positional rotations with this occurring down both sides on the pitch. A “out and out” No.9 is not neccessary, as well as an “old school” No.10. These same principles are implemented while playing Through the Middle and Mixed but with a slight twist within the approach. For starters, majority of your team’s posession will take place within the central area of the pitch; there will be a lot of rotational movemets happening within the final third but the aim will be to keep it within the central areas; there will also be a huge importance on link up play as your team tries to unlock the opposition’s defence.

Now, let’s talk about the huge difference between D.B.F and Mixed VS T.T.M and Mixed: personnel. Unlike the former, T.T.M and Mixed allows for more flexibility in the type of players you have within your team (especially in the forward line). Your ‘Wingbacks’ are still crucial within this system as they are the primary keepers of width whlist in posession, so you’ll still need to have players that are attack-minded. I would reccommend that you still look to purchase Midfielders with more dynamism, but it is not something that is an aboslute must as these players will already be operating within central areas so there isn’t too much of a need for them to be the most mobile players out there. ‘Wingers’ who are more about dribbling rather than ‘off the ball’ movement and creativity are an absoulte no-no for this system (so think Rodrygo over Vinicius Junior, or Ferran Torres over Raphinha, for example).

The biggest difference is in the forward region. You can play with any type of forward whether it be a ‘Target Man’, ‘Deep-lying Forward’ or ‘General Forward’. A quick note on the use of a ‘Target Man’ or a ‘Finisher’: The beauty about this system is that since majority of the football will be played through the middle, your F(C) does not have to be actively involved in build up play. He’ll just be focused on being in between the width of the goal posts in order to finish off chances, so using F(C)’s like a Lukaku or André Silva to occupy both centre halves thuz giving your creative players more room and space to operate in is something to be considered. If traditional F(C)’s aren’t your thing then there’s also the options of playing a floater like a Mané or a creative Forward like a Kane up top.

For our illustration today, we’ll be taking a look at Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur from the 16/17 season (that finished as runner’s up in the league) where they came up against Arsenal ( who finished…. guess where….. 4th, lol)! in the North London Derby at White Hart Lane: