Has Pep Guardiola invented a new formation?

Pep Guardiola has invented somewhat of a new formation, that sees his goalkeeper become part of the back line. Confused? JJ Bull explains.

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[Epsyln]

Turns out Boehly was actually a tactical genius suggesting a 4-4-3 to Tuchel

[kevinhanandi]

Finally, a formation that utilized 11 players instead of 10

[maxteraform]

So, it's like an improved version of utilising the sweeper keeper role?

[ucbrowser]

Maybe we were all too hard on Todd Boehly

[jamesvictor]

He commonly used this 'formation' against teams whom the head coaches were his 'Students' /worked together i.e: Arteta-Arsenal, Kompany - Burnley, Ten Hag - Man utd (they had a brief stint when Pep was the coach in Bayern)

[Smith]

Pep once buttered his bread, mindboggling stuff from the tactical genius.

[sskmanentsa]

Rene Higuita would be perfect for this system.
Pep is a student of the game, like all of us are right now. He can't invent anything because they already invented this stuff long ago. Fillol, the Argentine keeper from 1978 WC, played like this. Even the Dutch Keeper from the World cups of 74 and 78 was used so except they used the backpass a lot in those days.

[MNA]

You will soon see formations cease to exist outside of the starting lineup. I’m not kidding.

[kendrick]

It's not really a new formation, it's just a tweak to the pre-existing formation that he gets to make because his goalkeeper is good enough on the ball to allow him to. I see it more as reintroducing the libero of catenaccio by making the goalkeeper the extra libero defender in line with the 3 central defenders. I wouldn't call it a truly "new" formation since it still uses the W-M base formation but has an added temporary tweak in possession if pressed. For example in a 433 if the pivot drops between the centre backs and the fullbacks go high and wide, you wouldn't say he's now playing a 343, because it's only a transitional state rather than the base shape.

[UNITED]

I wouldn’t be surprised if pep thinks two seasons ahead. Use a formation that everyone else will copy and one that he knows he can beat and then create a formation to beat it the season after when everyone else is a season behind. What a tactical genius he is

[vietdang]

Yeah, 4-2-5 is indeed a new and revolutionary formation that no one has the answer to counter 🧐

[jajaafrica]

Teams have been doing in this for a while now, even the box midfield is not invented or even popularised by Pep, Tuchel used it the season before. Not sure why Pep gets credit for everything

[natoslayer]

I first used this formation in FIFA 19. Pep stole my whole flow and won a Champions League with it🥶 i want my royalties.

[samuelkings]

If not that it didn't quite work for Graham Potter, that's the more reason this credit is being given to Pep Guardiola. Potter was the first prem manager to do crazy experiments like this with his goalkeepers. The main reason that saw the downfall of Edu Mendy. His attackers just couldn't score to save their own lives

[Elayaass]

well if you think about it it's kinda ridiculous that we still have mostly stationary goalies, after all the evolution of the game until now. it takes balls to try tho, since it can obvioustly compromise your defensive abilities if the goalie is not a good enough outfield player

[_MrMoney]

I feel like Pep will advance so much in tactic's he'll eventually just cycle back to playing a 1-1-8 like in the 1800s

[quangtrungbui]

suddenly Pep made 11v11 football match an 11v11 futsal game

[laminelson]

Didn't Thiago Motta start this?

By "this" I mean using the goalkeeper as an outfield player.
I remember seeing it used by him for the PSG reserve team if I'm not mistaken.

[jakeogorman]

It's 2027 and a 34 year old Ederson is the league's top goalscorer with Pep's revolutionary tactics of using the keeper as a shadow striker.

[vitorananias]

From a catenaccio and defensive football fan, Guardiola is someone GENIUS, damn