Monaco have had a remarkable season, currently leading Ligue 1 and with the advantage heading into their Champions League quarterfinal second leg. How have they done it?
The French League leaders look to be on the way to the domestic title and a Champions League semifinal, despite averaging less than 10,000 fans in attendance for their home games and featuring a team where the most recognizable name is a Colombian striker attempting a third comeback after as many major knee injuries.
So how are Monaco running roughshod through European back lines and scoring at an unfathomable rate of almost three goals per game?
Monaco line up in a very conventional 4-4-2, but just like all the successful teams of the moment, they undergo an instant transformation to a different, and more potent formation depending on the phase of the game they find themselves.
Once they get the ball, Monaco switch to a 2-4-4, with the full backs pushing high up and the outside midfielders Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar becoming de facto forwards, looking for space up the field and taking an opposing outside back out of the play. By occupying the opposing outside backs, Silva and Lemar create space behind them for the fullback to attack.
As a direct result, Radamel Falcao and the new teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe are left one on one with the center-backs. This allows either one of them to drop deeper, creating space in behind them, while the other forward remains man-marked.
As a result, the through ball is on in the space left behind, while the center back marking the deep man has the difficult task of dealing with the pace of a Mbappe, Germain or Falcao with his back to the goal and no help from the other center-back or outside backs. Each of Monaco’s forwards are lethal finishers who only need but inches of space to find the back of the net.
They’re both highly efficient, quick poachers comfortable in tight spaces, not needing much space to create their own chances and extremely well suited to take full advantage of limited time and space in the box. The 110 goals Monaco have scored this season, more than any other European team, speak volumes.
An approach unique and directly responsible for Monaco’s prodigious goalscoring is the lack of a true holding midfielder, a position that is almost taken as a given in modern soccer — the no-nonsense physical player tasked to cover the space left behind the outside midfielders or wing-backs and distribute the ball.
Both Monaco’s central midfielders, Fabinho and Tiemoue Bakayoko, are box-to-box players eager to join in the offensive, constructive facet of the game and overwhelm the opponents’ defensive setup with strength in numbers.
This doesn’t mean Monaco attack with eight players. However, in Leonardo Jardim’s system both central midfielders are just as comfortable penetrating forward as they are providing cover once the other central midfielder pushes up the field. Fabinho and Bakayoko are both tall and quick footed, a deadly combination, giving them superior aerial prowess as well as the ability to cover a lot of ground.
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As in any successful system, central midfield provides both the spark plug and the motor. In Monaco’s case, the approach is such that both center mids always look for the direct vertical route, as quickly as possible, as opposed to spreading the ball wide, resetting the play and letting the outside wing backs or attacking midfielders do the heavy lifting on offense.
With all to play for in the remaining six weeks of the season, Monaco are in a great position to show that an innovative system with well-suited pieces in place who respect the tactical plan can overcome the big clubs that are more often than not built on enormous transfer fees rather than tactical prowess.