Osorio's Atlético Nacional goes conservative in La Plata

  The 3-3-4 formation which the Atlético Nacional de Medellín boss, Juan Carlos Osorio, deployed for the home match against Ecuadorean Barcelona de Guayaquil was indisputably the main factor behind the most vibrant Libertadores match so far. Atlético Nacional had thrown punch after punch, worked both the inside and the outside of the pitch to attack, showed energy and courage. And, at the end, nevertheless, the Ecuadoreans took the best out of the tactical imbalance of the Colombians and collected the three points with a 3-2 victory that uncovered the ugly face of Osorio's romanticism.

That ugly face was almost crystal-clear: those who should have been the wing-backs within a traditional 3-4-3, Venezuelan wingers Alejandro Guerra and Jonathan Copete, were pushed so high up that, while both helped to connect with the forward partnership of Pablo Zeballos and Luis Ruiz through their mobility and dribbling (Guerra was unstoppable on the right), the three-man defensive line and the holding midfield duo were left alone against Barcelona's 4-2-3-1. Sometimes, Atlético Nacional had a spare man on the back and often that wasn't enough as the opposition's attackers were faster on the counter. Therefore, it was easy for the Ecuadorean side to harm Atlético Nacional with simple transitions.

The romantic mistake was not to be repeated yesterday in the away game at La Plata versus former Valencia CF manager Mauricio Pellegrino's Estudiantes. Osorio moderated his approach, although 'moderate' might sound euphemistical if one considers that Atlético Nacional only managed to make one shot on target -the winner by Jonathan Mejía- during 90 minutes. Indeed, he went conservative by reverting to a typical 4-2-3-1 shape with four natural centre-backs (Murillo, Henríquez, Peralta and Nájera) in the back line. Osorio also dropped Zeballos and lined up Ruiz as the lone forward whereas Alejandro Guerra was fielded on the right wing and Mejía in the number ten role behind Ruiz himself.

Osorio's caution is illustrated in the above image: despite the fact that the eleven players of Estudiantes appear in a defensive 5-3-2 shape on their own half, just eight field players of Atlético Nacional appear in the offensive phase of the 4-2-3-1. That is, the centre-back pairing, Peralta and Henríquez, are on their own half with no one to mark and thus the system is quite cautious                      

Tellingly enough, the only goal of the match came from a quick counterattack in which Estudiantes' own wing-backs (Rosales and Álvaro Pereira) didn't track back with enough speed and hence the centre-back trio of Seba Domínguez, Jonathan Schunke and Leandro Desábato was exposed by the mobility of Ruiz making a great decoy run. And the lone Estudiantes holding midfielder, Gastón Gil, was easily beaten by Mejía as well as by Guerra a few minutes later for another dangerous Colombian attack.

What one can draw from Osorio's counterattacking strategy against Pellegrino is his faithfulness to the tactical textbook of conventional wisdom. When the opposition lines a centre-back trio, the textbook says, a lone striker is to be flanked by wingers on either side so they can drop to help in the midfield battle and this makes one of the enemy three centre-backs redundant. The opposition may have possession but will be vulnerable to counterattacks at pace as the wingers can surge and create one-on-one situations: exactly the same that Barcelona de Guayaquil did to Atlético Nacional in Colombia.

In order to equalize, Pellegrino also attempted to play textbook strategies by switching constantly to the many variants of 4-4-2 after half time, but his tactical shifts were frankly confusing. For instance, he deployed Seba Domínguez, a heavy defender now on his 34, on the right full-back spot to no offensive avail. Having observed Domínguez's situation, Pellegrino subbed him off for a classic Argentine trequartista, Román Martínez, and thus placed an otherwise young forward, Carlos Auzqui, on the void left by Domínguez's departure. Confusing and chaotic. Dominant but unable to penetrate.

By the final whistle, Osorio celebrated effusively, for his tactical and strategic shifts towards conservatism proved fruitful. This Colombian coach, who in other scenarios likes to make risky bets and produce enthralling football, is learning quick how to play round-robin tournaments with caution and patience.