Lucien Favre’s OGC Nice side met PSG in a top 3 clash in Ligue 1.

Nice’s defensive block

The key tactical feature in this game was the manner in which Nice played against PSG’s possession game. PSG ended the game with 67% possession, with Nice spending large parts of the game in Favre’s trademark position-oriented mid/low block, in which the main reference point for a player when defending is the positioning of their teammates in order to maintain the shape of the team.

An important aspect of the system was the horizontal compactness in their block. The small distances between the midfield four in particular made it very difficult for PSG to penetrate the midfield line. The wide midfielders stayed around the halfspaces, ensuring control of the more strategically important zones, and guiding PSG towards the wings.

Also important in forcing PSG to the wings was the staggering of the ball-near winger with the ball near central midfielder. The ball near central-midfielder would move slightly forward towards the ball, using his body positioning to show PSG towards the wing. The ball-near Nice winger, standing slightly deeper, would leave the PSG fullback (or winger) open to invite the ‘easy’ pass into the wide area, which was preferable from Nice’s perspective than a pass into the centre.

Of course, the ball-near central midfielder stepping out like that leaves space behind, and despite the horizontal compactness, spatial compactness (the spaces within a team’s shape) could’ve become an issue. This was neutralised by deeper position of the ball-near winger, meaning the distance he needed to cover if PSG were to find a pass into the space behind the central midfielder was fairly short, and he could immediately pressure the receiver.

The vertical compactness in Nice’s structure wasn’t quite as strong as on the horizontal axis. Indeed PSG did try to exploit this at times, but often failed to execute the line-breaking pass. One of the problems here was the lack of support around the player receiving between the lines. Often a player receiving between the lines won’t have the best field of view to progress the play further, so the third man becomes important, as he should be the player with a goal-facing field of view, meaning he is best placed to pick the next pass. Such support was often lacking for PSG, and the player receiving between lines was often trying to dribble forward under the backwards pressing of the Nice midfielders, which was again strengthened by the horizontal compactness, meaning the wide players had less distance to travel in order to put pressure on the ball. Also important was the anticipatory movements of Nice’s central midfielders in maintaining a defensive connection and blocking central passing options. Their control of space in the centre of the pitch meant that although there may have been spaces between the lines, this space was not usable for the opposition due to the lack of passing lanes.

Counter-attacking game

The main route of attack for Nice in their game against PSG was the counter attack, through which Nice scored their first two goals. An interesting aspect of their counter-attacking game was the use of the ball-far full back as an outlet.

Upon winning the ball in their own half, Nice would attempt to evade any PSG counterpress by quickly shifting the ball to the opposite side. Crucial to this was firstly the individual press resistance of players such as Seri and Koziello against PSG’s counterpress which allowed them to wait for the appropriate timing for the pass to the ball-far fullback.

As well as this individual press resistance, Nice’s compact and position oriented structure offered them a collective press resistance upon attacking transition. The close proximity of Nice players upon a turnover gave passing options for the new ball-carrier in order to help escape pressure with quick one-touch passes (another signature of Favre teams). The short passes also serve to provoke the PSG press further, which creates more space for the full-back upon the eventual switch.

When receiving such a pass, the full-back not only finds himself with a lot of space, but also has a dynamic advantage against the defender who faces him as he should already be running at pace when the ball comes to him. This is a better situation for a counter-attack than a winger receiving the ball standing in an advanced position but having to face a defender from a standing or slow-moving start i.e. lacking dynamic advantage.

Conclusion

The victory for Nice over PSG shows what a strong team Favre has helped them to become.