Tactical Thoughts Week 6 - Fire @NYCFC

When the Fire go to Yankee Stadium to play on the New York postage stamp of a field, will coach Veljko Paunovic look to put NYC under pressure or will he look to absorb pressure and counter?

As the home team for the fourth game in a row, coach Patrick Vieira has had the advantage of having a month to test and tweak his tactical structure to use his Yankee Stadium field for an actual home field advantage. Their expected first 11 this week against our Fire should start in their 3-2-2-3.

Questions for NYCFC:

1 - Who starts - Mix or Poku?

2 - If David Accam starts on the left for our Fire, can NYC stay on their preferred three back or do they change to four back to widen their defense?

For our Fire, the choices for Paunovic revolve around the choice of pressure - does he choose to put pressure on the back three of NYC or does he absorb pressure and play on the counter?

If we choose to absorb pressure - we start in our 4-2-3-1 from last week:

If we choose to step up and apply pressure to the NYC three back, we start in our 3-4-1-2:

Questions for the Fire:

1. How does the Fire midfield keep pressure on Andrea Pirlo to restrict his time to look up, survey the field, and make the killer pass?

2. How does the Fire back three or four restrict David Villa's ability to receive the ball and turn into space?