After an underwhelming first half of the Belgian Pro League season, and with the club languishing in 9th position, only two points above the relegation zone, Standard Liège decided to sack Carl Hoefkens.
His replacement is someone who has both played and managed in Belgium before, with the Belgian side appointing 45-year-old Croatian Ivan Leko.
His previous managerial stops in Belgium were at Club Brugge and Antwerp, where Leko won the league and cup double with the former and the Belgian Cup with the latter.
He now returns to Belgian football for a third time as a manager, following recent managerial stops in China and his native Croatia.
This tactical analysis will take a detailed look at what Standard fans can expect from their side tactically under their new head coach.
It will emphasize the attacking side of things, as Standard Liège really struggled in this area in the first half of the season under Carl Hoefkens.
What formations could Ivan Leko use at Standard Liège?
In his previous managerial stops, Ivan Leko has demonstrated his tactical flexibility.
The Croatian coach often alternates between setting his side up in a back three or a back four.
For example, during his spell in charge of Shanghai Port, Leko tended to set his side up in a back three, usually a 3-5-1-1.
At Hajduk Split, the Croatian started his tenure by using what usually would look like a 3-5-1-1 but switched to a 4-2-3-1 as he began to stamp his style of play more on the side.
Through the first half of the Belgian Pro League season, Hoefkens had a similar philosophy regarding how he set up the side informationally.
The Belgian coach mostly used a 3-5-2, though a 4-4-2 was also employed.
Regarding an early prediction of what Leko may use, a 3-5-1-1 would be the most realistic option, though a back four is also very much a possibility for Leko.
As this analysis progresses, we will examine a few of the fundamental tendencies and tactics to expect from Standard Liège under Ivan Leko.
Ivan Leko’s Heavy emphasis on crossing and creating space out wide
From an attacking perspective, there are a few common trends and tendencies to expect from Ivan Leko’s teams.
One of these is a heavy emphasis on wide play and crossing, whether his side is set up in a back three or back four.
Ivan Lelko’s style of play also likes to build play through the central areas, with fluid attacking rotations helping to create space (which will be covered in more detail later in this football analysis).
The data visualization graphic above shows the progressive passes of Shanghai Port and Hajduk Split (Leko’s most recent clubs) during the Croatian’s tenure in charge.
As we can see from the graphic, they are actually pretty similar.
Both sides use the full width of the pitch and look to send dangerous crosses into the box, often from these areas.
However, they both appeared to have a presence in the central areas, but keeping the width and emphasizing wide play are vital for Leko.
At both of his previous stops, his sides ranked either first or second in the division in total crosses, helping to illustrate how often Leko’s sides will look to play dangerous balls into the opposition’s penalty box from the wide areas.
However, Ivan Leko’s sides have played a wide variety of crosses into these dangerous areas, both in quantity and quality.
At Shanghai Port, their crossing accuracy ranked third in the Chinese top flight.
At the same time, at Hajduk Split, they sat 6th in crossing accuracy, showcasing the quality Leko looks for his wide players, particularly in these crossing zones in the final third.
The next couple of images show how Leko wants his side to attack from the wide areas and how to create space for the ball to reach these zones, then be crossed into the box.
As the image above shows, Lukas Grgić, who played as the deepest of the midfield five for Hajduk Split in this match, currently has the ball.
On the weak side, the right-sided wing-back Dino Mikanović has held the width instead of narrowing off.
The right-sided central midfielder Anthony Kalik has occupied this space instead, giving Mikanović the freedom to hold the width.
This also creates an overload against the opposition defender, something Grgić spots and looks to exploit with a ball over the top into the zone the wing-back is drifting into.
The figure above shows the second phase of this attack from Hajduk, illustrating the runners’ movements into the box and the space Mikanović has on this far side.
Mikanović is offered all this space due to his initial positioning, with the opposition fullback occupied by the more dangerous player who was narrowed off in the previous image.
This allows the wing-back time and space to pick his spot for a cross, while the Hajduk runners make great layered runs and have a numerical advantage inside the 18-yard box.
This cross just misses its spot.
It is aimed for the near post runner, but is intercepted by the opposition centre-back when it is played.
However, this example highlights how Leko looks for his sides to create attacking advantages in these crossing moments and how they look to create space out wide.
The figure above shows a situation similar to the one shown just before.
Hajduk is in possession in a more central area, with the majority of the opposition in this tight zone looking to block the central spaces.
The opposition full-back is caught watching the player who has tucked inside, again allowing the wing-back on the weak side space to drive into from a wider position.
As his passing window gets tighter, midfielder Yassine Benrahou switches the play to the weak-side wing back, Dario Melnjak.
The 31-year-old finds himself in plenty of space to control possession, allowing another overload opportunity to be created, as shown below.
As the second phase of this attacking move shows, Leko’s side’s ability to crowd the central areas with players allows an overload against the opposition fullback once the ball is switched to the weak side wing back.
Striker Marko Livaja is also able to make a run from a deeper lying position into the penalty box unmarked, creating an overload against the defender.
Unfortunately, Melnjak’s pass back inside is not good enough.
The defender gets a toe on it and sends it out for a corner kick.
As this section has illustrated, this is one of the attacking tactics commonly seen in sides managed by Ivan Leko.
He will likely implement it early on at Standard Liège, given the club’s poor position this season in terms of chance creation and goalscoring.
Use of movements and positional rotations to create space for verticality centrally
As this analysis examines how Ivan Leko’s coaching style may improve Standard Liège’s attacking play this season, we must also consider how he likes his central players and forwards to create space in the central areas, especially in Leko’s 3-5-1-1 formation.
While Leko wants to use width and create overloads and space in these zones, he also wants to develop advantages in all areas of the pitch when his sides are attacking.
At both of his recent managerial stops, Leko’s sides either led the league or were near the top in through passes, showing the emphasis he also places on verticality, looking to play forward and break lines centrally, and linking play from his forward players.
In the central areas, Leko will look to overload the opposition, especially in a 3-5-1-1, but also in a 4-2-3-1.
There are also plenty of off-the-ball movements and rotations, as well as the strikers dropping into deep pockets in the midfield or even drifting out wide, something that happened relatively often with Croatian international striker Marko Livaja when Leko was head coach at Hajduk Split.
To summarise, Leko wants to confuse opposition defences in the central areas.
His players look to move into pockets of space and other favourable positions in the same vicinity, essentially playing multiple passes ahead.
The image above shows an attacking phase of play for Shanghai Port under Ivan Leko, illustrating this tendency to use movements and positional rotations to create space in central areas.
In this phase of play above, the Shanghai defensive midfielder Cai Huikang has the ball.
For context, Shanghai were playing a 3-5-1-1 in this match against Beijing Guoan.
The left-sided central midfielder, 26-year-old Argentinian Matías Vargas, flared out to the touchline, with the left-sided centre-back, Li Ang, also advancing into a higher position.
The wing-back is already located in the attacking half for Shanghai, out of the picture.
This creates space for Paulinho, the Shanghai #10, to drop from a much more advanced position into this pocket of space to receive in a more defensive midfield position.
Notably, Shanghai have also managed to create an overload in this zone against the Beijing defenders.
After receiving from Huikang, Paulinho plays a first-time pass out wide to Ang, who ideally would have played a line-breaking pass down the line to Vargas, but plays backwards instead.
This example shows how Leko expects his side always to think multiple passes ahead, using these rotations and movements, as well as quick ball circulation, to catch opposition defences out.
The image above shows another example of these advanced attackers for Leko’s side, their rotations, and how the Croatian coach wants them to drop into deeper pockets in the midfield to receive possession.
In this phase of play above for Hajduk Split, the central striker, Marko Livaja, and the centre-forward/#10, Jan Mlakar, interchange positions.
The Croatian international striker spots the pocket in the midfield and drops into it, luring the centre-back away with him.
As Livaja drops to receive the ball as it is played, Mlakar makes a run beyond him into the space vacated by the central defender, who had man-marked Livaja and followed him.
With the next pass, he finds Mlakar, and the attacker runs beyond the defence to the edge of the penalty box before he is forced to recycle play.
The image above shows a similar example to the previous one, this time when Leko was in charge of Shanghai Port.
In this phase of play above, the Chinese side has possession of the wing-back on the far touchline.
The interesting movement to spot is that of the #10, Paulinho, who drifts wide to drag the Beijing midfielder out of position, opening a clear passing lane to the striker, Cherif Ndiaye.
The ensuing pass is played to Ndiaye, who drops into the space in midfield to receive with his back to goal.
He holds onto possession and allows Shanghai to continue building up play in a more advanced area of the pitch.
As this section has illustrated, Ivan Leko will also likely expect his Standard Liège side to be more proactive and take more chances when progressing the ball from the central areas.
While it will rely on plenty of off-the-ball movements and good work rates from the forwards and attacking midfielders, it could also help provide answers for Standard Liège from an attacking perspective.
Conclusion
As this tactical analysis piece has shown, Ivan Leko seems to fit very well from the surface level with Standard Liège.
The Croatian has previously managed in the Belgian Pro League and has had success elsewhere in his managerial career.
His main task will likely be to fix the Belgian side’s poor attack this season.
The ultimate goal is likely to qualify for the European playoffs in the second half of the season, before fully kicking into gear before the 2024/25 campaign starts.
