In this article, the tactics of Flamengo under Filipe Luís, who are currently the top of the league with two games to play and the finalist of CONMEBOL Libertadores, are going to be analysed in detail.
In Possession
Unlike the other clubs in Brazil, Flamengo is a unique club which integrates elements of positional play. With the balanced structure at the back, they try to play out from the back to drag the opponents out. After that, they attack quickly by playing through or over to exploit the 1v1s up front. This attacking strategy is quite similar to the famous and well-known style of Roberto De Zerbi.
On the other end, however, the attackers up front exemplify the style of relational play. They roam freely without fixed positions and beat the opposition man-to-man defending.
This mixed attacking style is their strength and surprised many football fans at the FIFA Club World Cup in America this summer by beating Chelsea, who eventually became the champions of the world.
Build up from the Back
As it was mentioned, their main strategy is playing out from the back and drawing the opposition pressure out to exploit the space up front quickly. In order to do this, the goalkeeper’s skill on the ball is crucial and Agustín Rossi is just outstanding in playing with the ball.
When the opposition doesn’t press man-to-man, the Argentinian goalkeeper can find a spare player accurately like playing to the fullback. Then, when all teammates at the back or in the midfield are marked by the opposition, he plays into an attacker to beat the opposition pressure, as shown below.
The illustration below shows the goal against Palmeiras at home.
With the split pass from Rossi to Pedro, he held it up and Giorgian de Arrascaeta made a run in behind, beating the opposition goalkeeper to find the back of the net.
Pedro is one of the most important players to make this tactic work. His ability to hold up the ball is vital against tight man-to-man pressing as he can create time for the teammates to move and offer passing lanes in better positions. However, he might miss the final due to a forearm fracture and thigh injury. This would make a huge difference in the most important game against Palmeiras in the final.
Even though Pedro’s impact is significant, the combination among the attackers is also important to beat the opposition markers and this is the characteristic of relational play.
In this situation, the right winger Luiz Araújo moved across the pitch and provided the overload on the ball side, then through the combination of the attackers, they successfully beat the opposition pressure and progressed into the opposition half.
It is often Luiz Araújo on the right or Jorge Carrascal when he plays as a winger, who comes inside to offer an extra option on the ball side. On the other flank, Samuel Lino prefers to keep the width and take on the opposition right fullback. Therefore, it is usually the left side to create an overload for Flamengo, although it is not fixed.
Another notable thing is the ability of the centre backs to play through. The left centre back, Léo Pereira is a quite skillful ball-playing centre back and he can not only play split passes but also carry the ball as he finds space in front of him.
The main right centre back has been Léo Ortiz, who is also a good ball-playing centre back, but he got injured last month. Instead of him, the former Juventus, Man City and Real Madrid player, Danilo or the 18-year old young player, João Victor has played as the right centre back. Victor is a very promising and attacking-minded centre back as he often positions himself higher and carries the ball forward, although he has made some cheap errors in their own half. Still room to improve, but must be wonderful to watch his development in the future.
Middle/Final Third Attacking Structure
In the midfield or final third, one of the defensive midfielders often drops deep into the back line to push the right fullback, Emerson Royal higher as the right winger, Araújo or Carrascal prefers to come inside to keep the width. This is quite positional-minded rotation.
Erick Pulgar tends to drop into the back line more frequently, Jorginho can be more flexible and Saúl Ñíguez is good at dictating the game like a pivot in between the opposition 1st and 2nd line. The right fullback Emerson often moves forward, but on the other side, the left fullback Ayrton Lucas or Alex Sandro initially stays deeper and goes higher in the final third.
In addition to the flexibility at the back, the attackers can move more freely as it was also discussed in the previous chapter and here’s another example.
Similar to when they play out from the back, the attackers tend to overload the ball side. Here, the right winger Carrascal dropped to receive the ball and the right fullback Emerson stepped higher. Then, the left winger Lino came close to the ball side to offer another option to play inside.
Even though they try to create an overload on the ball side, they simply deliver crosses from the outside of the box quite a lot. However, after switching the ball to the other side, there must be a run through the channel.
This automatic movement can be a trigger of flexibility. Thanks to the run through the channel, the opposition centre back or defensive midfielder needs to leave their position to mark the runner, leaving the gap where another player can exploit.
Another example of the combination play is here. This time, Lino was on the left and played a one-two with De Arrascaeta to penetrate into the opposition defensive block and pass the ball to the right winger Carrascal.
Relational football can expose individual qualities and when you watch De Arrascaeta and Pedro, it is easy to notice how good they are and feel typical South American football.
Here, De Arrascaeta received the ball with facing backwards, but turned forward to beat his marker. Then, he carried it forward to draw the attention from both opposition centre backs and Pedro created space for himself by silently moving away from them to receive the ball and score. This detail makes them “good” footballers and this kind of individualism is the necessity component in relational football.
Out of Possession
Flamengo’s out of possession tactics are also different from other clubs in South America. Unlike their man oriented defensive style, they can defend with European style of the 4-4-2 zonal structure. However, it is not strictly zonal, and they still have the memory of high intensity pressing around the ball, which is typical in the continent.
High Pressing
Here’s the example of their orthodox 4-4-2 pressing, which forces the opposition to play outside and locks them in.
Another characteristic which shows their aggressiveness in pressing is that they often push up the fullback to press higher.
Like the illustration above, they tend to get the striker or attacking midfielder to screen the opposition defensive midfielder and let the winger press on the opposition centre back especially against the back three opponents. Therefore, the fullback needs to step higher to press on the opposition deep fullback or wingback to keep the pressure on the ball.
However, due to their aggressiveness in pressing, they often leave space between each line.
In this example, Jorginho pressed on the opposition centre back after pressing on the opposition defensive midfielder, but at the end, this only left space in the middle which the opposition exploited to beat Flamengo’s pressing.
The aggressiveness can be their strength, but can be their weakness. Especially when the opposition managed to switch the ball at the back, they often found the gap in Flamengo’s shape.
Compact Block
The tendency to push the fullback up is still unchanged when they set the compact block in the midfield or their own half. Then, the defenders shuffle across as a line.
This kind of connection between the defenders is rare in South America. The defenders in other teams just stick to their markers, so it is common that the wingers drop into the back line when the opposition fullbacks step higher and the other defenders remain still.
The fact that the back line can slide across as a line shows the team has the basis of the zonal defending, although I’m not saying which one is better than the other. In fact, this tendency of the fullbacks becoming front-footed can leave space in behind.
In the illustration above, Palmeiras managed to exploit the space behind Sandro. This weakness is similar to the one when pressing high.
In possession, it was the main thing for Flamengo to mix positional play and relational play. Similarly, out of possession, the mix of zonal structure and aggressive pressure on the ball is also impressive.
The top of the league. Most goals scored and least goals conceded. +50 goal difference so far. One more win will secure them to become the champions of Brazil. One more win to become the champions of Libertadores. No matter how the season ends, the fact that Flamengo have shown the future of football will remain in history.
