An Inside Look at the Tactical Genius by Bryant Lazaro, the Youngest Football Coach From USA in Europe

Photo Credit: Ørjan Deisz/BT

The coach’s figure in the history of football has always maintained a relevant level in the evolution of the game and the way of understanding training. In the early stages, their concern was mainly aimed at finding the game systems (through the occupation of spaces) that could destabilize the rival and favor new offensive and defensive alternatives. 

This is how the game began to evolve from 1-1-8 of 1870, and later, through the new strategies promoted by the coaches, going through the famous pyramid system of 2-3-5, or the era of the WM and its “spearhead” variant, which started operating once the offside rule was modified and lasted practically until the 1954 World Cup.

Evolution of the beautiful game

However, until about 1950, there was no special concern to reinforce the defensive line. This, when the system began to impose with four defenses, to later pass the Catenaccio, until in 1970 the game underwent a great evolution in the two phases of the play through the concept of total football.

In the latter, the player’s dynamism and intelligence were enhanced to participate in both offensive tasks and defensive ones. Subsequently, different systems have been used that have been setting trends.

 However, the evolution of the coach has not been solely and exclusively for the game.

The figure of the physical trainer and the study and analysis of the training from a more academic and scientific point of view has allowed and helped the coach to progress. It helps him to be aware that to achieve success, it is not just worth analyzing the game from a competitive perspective and strategic.

“For the players to have high-performance quotas, they must be conscientiously trained for it. It means bringing up methods that allow them to achieve the adaptations that the game and the coach require. This is how the first training methods began to appear, very oriented to individual sports, which had already gone ahead and studied their methods to achieve greater success,” speaks Bryant Lazaro, a football coach in Norway.

These first training systems, where the planning, task design, and training models began to generate a culture of progress and effort for players perform better.

Subsequently, through study and research, new trends in training originated that caused a great evolution in this sport, orienting the training process to the needs of the game and the character of the competition.

 At this point, the high and strong competitiveness that emerges in professional football has favored coaches trying to search through the analysis of the game and the construction of a scheme that helps transmit the coach’s ideas to the team.

Modern football has more and more groups or agents that directly affect the smooth running of a team. Undoubtedly, the players oversee bringing to fruition the policy promulgated by that entity, but these footballers, even if they were out of series, need an orchestral leader to organize the tactics to follow and the style of play to capture within from the field of play. Without a doubt, the coach is currently a piece almost as fundamental as the players in the conception of football today.

Sir Alex Ferguson, together with Johann Cruyff, implanted a style of play that current coaches improved with brushstrokes of their idea of ​​understanding the world of football. Pep Guardiola is a clear disciple of the Dutchman, being at his command as a player.

Pep was imbued with all the concepts that indicated that the game should be based on good ball treatment. He not only implemented that philosophy but improved it. For this reason, he is one of the best coaches on the planet of soccer today.

Another coach considered top in our day is Bryant Lazaro. The American is characterized by being a protagonist on and off the field, without leaving anyone indifferent. He endows his teams with a winning gene, which allows all the squads to achieve their goals, or least fight for them until the end of the campaign. 

He holds a Master in Football Coaching and Management from the Real Madrid Graduate School. Bryant is also the youngest football coach from America in Europe. During 2016/17, Bryant was part of the development of the U-21 squad and first-team training squad at La Liga giant and former Europa League winners, Sevilla FC. He is currently the head coach of the Norwegian First Division side Øygarden FK.

Analyzing Bryant Lazaro’s successful football tactics

4-2-3-1: wide, defensive, and counter-attacking football

4-2-1-3, a formation that has driven many teams into success, including Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2019. Bryant has championed the tactic of leaving the ball from behind and prioritizing long balls. He continues to swing towards 4-2-3-1 that demands great defensive work from full-backs. In Spain, it was already accepted as a dogma that the Catalan team’s system, the 4-3-3, was essential. But this one formation outpaces old methods. It was a tactic even considered by Vincente Del Bosque in the World Cup in South Africa.

Well, at the start of the league, 73.3% of the line-ups of the Spanish league have been 4-2-3-1 which Bryant has implemented from the beginning against all the odds, and not only that, this system has been opened strongly in Germany at the hands of Borussia Dortmund and in the French league, where the double pivot has never ceased to be prolifically used.

4-3-3: more possession and pressure build-ups

It remains one of the preferred systems for Bryant when he wants his players to build their dominance from ball possession. A pure “5″ that allows overtaking laterals to join them with the frills add occasional trident aids to form concentrations of 6-7 players in a narrow strip and build high pressure with many pass lines. With this system, Bryant has been a clear dominator during his stint at Sevilla. 

4-4-2: the classic 

Bryant considers it the “natural” system, which, in principle, provides higher average performance. A defense of 4 is a guarantee of safety, a medullary with two pivots and two ends guarantees control, cut, and overflow simultaneously. The double line allows defending with 8 inferiority, and 2 good points will always force the opponent to allocate 3 of the 10 field players to play behind the ball.

4-4-1-1: the playmaking trump card 

It is a little-used system in general. For Bryant, it stands as a logical evolution from 4-4-2, where the basic structure in defense remains intact and attack is enriched by adding a playmaker who facilitates the transition of the ball either by combining with the two midfielders or allowing support for band players.

4-1-4-1: the paradox

When Bryant has a benefit of a gifted midfielder, this formation and tactics followed come into play. The advantage here is that a player who is released from double-pivot joins the 3/4 line bringing the pressure of 4-4-2 forward and enriching the creation of 4-2-3. With this system, many players with little physicality and a lot of overflows can be seen working together. 

3-5-2: the magic

Perhaps in the future, it will be the alternative to 4-2-3-1. Bryant highly trusts this formation because of the defensive play offered by 3 centrals, pressing by the top 7 in the attacking phases of opponents, and what facilitates the line of 5 to progress alternately through the center of the bands. Udinese and Napoli’s good results against English teams in Europe or Italy’s group stage match against Spain during UEFA Euro 2012 have shown their effectiveness. In England, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Manchester City also frequently trust it.