Analysis: Pocognoli’s 4-4-2 diamond and Biereth’s brilliance key to AS Monaco’s win vs Auxerre

AS Monaco returned to winning ways with a valuable 1-2 victory over AJ Auxerre to kick off their Coupe de France adventure in fine style.

In a match filled with many talking points, there was no doubt two of the main ones were Sébastien Pocognoli implementing a 4-4-2 diamond system and Mika Biereth’s sensational return to form.

Diamond shape

Seeing as Monaco had multiple players unavailable due to AFCON and injury, it was fascinating to see Pocognoli opt for a 4-4-2 diamond formation. And this tactically interesting selection by the Belgian coach showed many signs of promise.

Allowing his side to generate a 4v3 overload in midfield, this worked nicely to ensure ASM regularly beat the press to progress upfield.

Causing constant dilemmas for AJA and drawing out their structure, Denis Zakaria, Takumi Minamino, Maghnes Akliouche and Aleksandr Golovin were a serious handful for Christophe Pélissier’s men.

Giving ASM’s players the conditions to thrive, Akliouche took the nominal 10 role, Zakaria operated at the base and Minamino and Golovin roamed as the 8s, as their fluidity and variations ensured Monaco were tough to keep tabs on.

Moreover, with one of Auxerre’s central midfielders often stepping to a Monaco full-back and the strikers doing an outstanding job of pinning opponents, this helped create space for the away team to exploit in the middle and down the channels, which the 8s routinely targeted.

In addition, if AJA had Monaco’s three most advanced midfielders covered, Zakaria was frequently on hand to form a 3v2 overload with the central defenders to bypass Auxerre’s first wave of pressure. This would consequently force an Auxerre midfielder to push up to mark Zakaria, which, in turn, opened up the likes of Akliouche, Minamino or Golovin to be the spare man.

Remaining patient and circulating possession coherently while waiting for a weakness to emerge in the Auxerre block, this animation provided a solid foundation for ASM to dictate proceedings and control large chunks of the opening stanza.

Indeed, a testament to the effectiveness of this diamond shape arose for the opener, where Zakaria was found as the free man to set the wheels in motion for the move that culminated in Akliouche masterfully finding Biereth to score.

When asked about his decision to go with this constellation, the 38-year-old manager’s words were full of insight, stating: “For me, Mika is more comfortable in a two-man attack, that’s for sure. The idea behind the line-up was ambitious and bold, and I think it was the right time to do it with Jordan (Teze) suspended and Lamine (Camara) unavailable. We had two options: either replace players like-for-like or add an extra attacking threat somewhere on the pitch, so I decided to play it higher up the pitch. It worked well from the start, with plenty of chances, even though we were more exposed on the counter-attack. But we dealt with those situations well enough.

“Today, we decided to switch to a back four, with a very clear game plan, so that means I know how to find solutions with the players I have available. I’d like to have more consistency in the starting eleven, but again, we’re always trying to find the best formula. You might ask me why we didn’t opt ​​for this one against Paris or Marseille, but I repeat, it depends on the players available. And also, given the absences on the AJ Auxerre side, we wanted to try something more attacking.”

Once again displaying his tactical flexibility and adaptability, which he’s already illustrated many times during his short spell at the helm of ASM, it’ll be interesting to observe what else Pocognoli has up his sleeve as the season rolls on.

Brilliant Biereth

Having struggled immensely this season after his fast beginning to life at Monaco, it was terrific to see Biereth rediscover his form by bagging a tremendous brace vs Auxerre.

Having taken France by storm by hitting 11 goals in nine league games when he arrived last January, he’d only managed two goals this term, as he’s cut a frustrated figure so far this crusade. But doubling his tally on the campaign in one clash was an ideal bounce-back for the Danish international.

Showing brilliant awareness, movement and finishing for both of his goals, it was a joy to watch him flex his muscles in this regard.

His first saw him smartly capitalise on the gap between two defenders, meaning he was perfectly placed to expertly head home Akliouche’s pinpoint cross. Then, for his second, how he held his run as Francisco Sierralta was drawn towards the ball, which allowed him to gain the separation he desired to fire in his wicked first-time strike following Mamadou Coulibaly’s slaloming surge, was equally impressive.

While his instinctive and clinical finishes were pure class and underlined his goalscoring prowess, how he supplemented this with clever drops deep to link play and elevated his threat with crafty bursts in behind added to his menace.

Wreaking havoc alongside Folarin Balogun up front with their physicality, athleticism and positional nous, much upside could be extracted from their partnership, where they served as excellent targets, outlets and reference points for their team.

The ASM boss spoke positively on his commanding efforts and how his faith has never waned in the talented forward. “I never doubted him, quite honestly. We tried many approaches to get him back on track, both in terms of playing style and even in his daily work. He went through a rough patch in his young career, but that can happen, especially after an exceptional first six months. Sometimes you need to come down from those moments of euphoria. I hope that playing with two strikers can help him get back on track; in any case, we got some good responses today. This will give us more options for the future,” Pocognoli insisted.

Following this superb outing, Biereth will now be determined this is the catalyst to give him a massive confidence boost and put his woes in the past and enjoy a far more fruitful second part of the campaign.

Tactical graphics created using the JLA Tactics Board