The three central defenders are popular in the Club World Cup, and Real Madrid and Riyadh are transforming smoothly. Why are Manchester United stumbling?

In the current top 8 of the Club World Cup, Brazilian team Frumenense, Saudi team Riyadh Crescent, and La Liga team Real Madrid are all teams that focus on three central defenders. Among the teams that were eliminated in 16-8 games, Inter Milan and Juventus are also teams that focus on three central defenders. The three central defenders are very popular in the Club World Cup, and perhaps this will also become one of the mainstream tactics in the football world.

Among them, Riyadh Crescent's head coach Inzaghi and Real Madrid's head coach Alonso have just taken over the team. Why did their three-center-back system take over so smoothly, while Manchester United in the Premier League's change to play as a three-center-back seems so stumbling? Perhaps it has a lot to do with tactical discipline and middle-lane personnel configuration.

Dragged dealer: A 40-year-old Brazilian veteran Thiago Silva is still playing football. He plays as the drag role of the third central defender in Fruminense and is also the captain of Fruminense. The 40-year-old veteran can still play the whole game and eliminate Inter Milan, which also plays three central defenders. The core problem is that the two full-time central defenders have great mobility and protect Thiago Silva. Fruminense uses Thiago Silva's backcourt scheduling ability.

Inzagi As the new head coach of the third central defender, he just took over the Riyadh Crescent. To transform such a team that originally focused on the four-guard system, he also needs to clarify the core of the goal shot in the backcourt. So the method used by Inzaghi is to let veteran Ruben Neves play the role of dragging the back center back, and to protect Kulibali, who has strong ability to fight.

So what about Real Madrid? Real Madrid did not use the back-drag centre-back to deal cards, but instead used the front and midfielders to deal cards. Guerre was originally a player who mainly played for the midfielder. His personal skills and passing skills were good, but his competitiveness in the four-back system was not as good as Bellingham, who had strong back-and-trip ability. In the system of the three central defenders, he showed a different role. He has been the back midfielder under the Alonso system for a long time, while Alonso puts the original back midfielder Joan Améni in the center and protects the space behind the club.

Three central defender system, you either have a dealer role in the midfielder position and have the protection of the central defender behind you, or your central defender has the ability to pass the ball forward. Amorin currently plans to take the front and midfielder behind and let B Fei play the role of the back organization. Who will provide protection behind B Fei is a huge question.

wing configuration: The key to offensive and defensive balance

Alonso's wing configuration at Real Madrid is very interesting. On the right is Arnold, known as Route 66, and the space behind him has always been the favorite space for Premier League wingers. In Alonso's system, Arnold is more like a winger, like Flynnon during the Leverkusen era.

However, Flynnon is more of a dribbling ball, while Arnold is more of a long pass, cross, and pulling width. So what should I do with the space behind Arnold? During Liverpool, he arranged for midfielder to fill up the position, while Alonso's arrangement was to use Rudiger. Plus Bellingham on the right flew up and down at No. 8 to provide protection.

So what about the left configuration? Vinicius serves as the winger, left wingback Fran Garcia provides balance, and central defender Heysen is responsible for dispatching. In Real Madrid's 1-0 Juventus game, left-wing guard Heisen provided the most confrontation times in the entire game. He protected Vinicius behind him and provided assisted defense in front of him.

How did Inzaghi transform Riyadh Crescent's 4th defender into 3 central defender? Cancelo + Malcolm was used on the right. Cancelo is good at passing and scheduling, Malcolm has good ability to fly up and down and attack. In Riyadh Crescent 4-3 Manchester City match, Milinkovic + Kulibaly blocked the space behind them.

Did you find it? Inzaji and Alonso landed in the three central defenders, whether on the left, middle and right, they could find characters with someone taking the ball, someone dispatching, and someone protecting them. Manchester United's left side Lima + Dorgu can play a similar role, but there is a missing winger who can get the ball; Yoro + Diallo on the right side can play a similar effect, but the candidate for the right midfielder is a problem, and the core problem is in the middle, and Manchester United's middle configuration is not smooth.

Front court offense: How to combine the sides and the middle?

Alonso chose the centers in these games, Garcia, who did not touch many times. In Real Madrid's 1-0 Juventus game, Garcia played 68 minutes of the game, 15 touches and 5 losses in the ball, and 5 confrontations. His role is to disrupt the situation and confront Vinicius in the middle, and get the ball for Vinicius. Vinicius is a player whose long passes are second only to Guerre. He is responsible for passing the ball to Arnold at the far end. Arnold is in an open position on the side and directly passes after getting the ball, so Arnold is the player with the most crosses from Real Madrid. The same is true for Inzaghi. In the three-center-back system of the two young coaches, the configuration of the forward trident is the same: a center forward restrains in the middle, a winger attacks on the wing (Vinicius, Malcolm), and a front midfielder flies up and down to control the ball to get the ball (Berlingham, Milinkovic). The same is true for the configuration of

wingbacks, one wingback is more pressing on the offense, and one side provides more offensive and defensive balance. It pays more attention to the use of widths and the running position of the depth space. In Real Madrid's 1-0 Juventus game, Real Madrid had only 57% possession rate and got 21 shots, while Juventus had 43% possession rate but only 6 shots. Why? Because Real Madrid has a fast pace and does not pursue control of the ball, but pays attention to a larger scope of scheduling. Real Madrid's long passes and crosses far exceeds Juventus.

Long passes in the backcourt, there is a ball control point in the frontcourt to hold the ball, someone attacks forward on the side and there are players responsible for large-scale dispatch behind them, frequent long passes to find open spaces, to put it bluntly, it requires very strong tactical execution, players' understanding of tactics, and more importantly, the trust between teammates is needed.

And Manchester United seems to be lacking in this regard. The core problem of Manchester United is that your large-scale scheduling is different from the running direction of your teammates. Manchester United is not good at running in the frontcourt, and there are more scenes of standing and waiting for the ball. In addition, there is a lack of a point in the frontcourt that can attract firepower, which leads to Manchester United's pace being very slow and not fast at all.