Not many coaches are afforded the opportunity to become the head coach of their national team. Far fewer are afforded that opportunity without prior experience as a head coach. However, that is the exact position that Robert Moreno found himself in as he took charge of the Spanish national team in March 2019. 

The former long-time assistant of Luis Enrique was thrust into Spain’s head-coach position following Enrique’s resignation due to personal matters. The 42-year-old turned many heads in world football as he guided Spain to EURO 2020 qualification with an undefeated record. 

Moreno was subsequently branded as “disloyal” by Enrique as a falling out between the pair led to Moreno’s resignation from the Spanish national team as Enrique reclaimed his position. However, Moreno’s impressive 77.78% win percentage didn’t go unnoticed. Just a month following his resignation from Spain, Moreno became the new head coach of Monaco. 

The exciting young coach has made an immediate impact at Monaco. He has already impressively guided his new team to a 3-3 draw with PSG at Le Parc des Princes. Monaco’s Cesc Fabregas has spoken out in praise of his new coach stating that the Barcelona-schooled coach has brought “order and a style of play” to Les Monégasques. 

In this tactical analysis, we will analyse some of the key aspects of Robert Moreno’s tactics. We will look at Moreno’s tactics with Spain, as well as the tactics deployed by Moreno in his first few games with his new club. This analysis will break down what Monaco fans can expect from their new head coach.

Positional fluidity

One of the key aspects to Moreno’s style of football thus far has been strong use of positional fluidity. This element of Moreno’s tactics had been clear throughout his tenure in charge of the Spanish national team. Even in the early days of his tenure at Monaco, it is clear that positional fluidity will likely continue to be a key part of Moreno’s tactics going forward. 

In-possession, Moreno allows his players a large degree of positional fluidity. This allows his players to exercise a large amount of their freedom and creativity on the pitch. Throughout his Spain tenure, Moreno’s use of positional fluidity was particularly clear in three particular areas.

Firstly, during the build-up, Moreno’s central-midfielders often ended up occupying wide areas. We can see an example of this in the image above. This image shows us an example of Rodri, Spain’s holding midfielder, vacating his central position. Rodri shifts out wide in this passage of play in order to escape the press of Malta’s centre-forward.

This type of movement in the build-up was a common theme for Moreno’s holding midfielders at Spain. Moreno’s Spain would often vacate the central areas in the build-up in order to get around the opponent’s pressure.