Tactical Analysis: Mark Krikorian’s Florida State Seminoles

Florida State University have consistently had one of the strongest programs over recent years in NCAA women’s soccer and once again this past season Head Coach Mark Krikorian put together another truly outstanding side.

This tactical analysis gives an in-depth analysis of the tactics used by Mark Krikorian by looking at some of their final games of the 2020 season and discussing the tactical tendencies evident in these fixtures.

Formation

One of FSU’s major strengths comes from their consistency in how they set up. This past season they displayed a settled starting XI, and a clear and understood game model. Krikorian built a side that were calm and purposeful in their build-up, whilst using a compact and competitive defensive shape to frustrate the opposition and dominate the second ball.

FSU favoured using a back four and a midfield three. They would either opt to play with a double or single pivot, but Jaelin Howell is such an impressive talent in the “6” that she can comfortably play as a single pivot and allow FSU to push the rest of their midfield further forward. In fact, against Notre Dame, FSU played with a really interesting back three/four hybrid where Howell was given the freedom to drop in as a centre-back for periods of the game, and drive the ball forward as she saw fit. 

Howell was fully deserving of her international call-up for the recent She Believes Cup, and looks destined for a long and fruitful career.

The rest of the line-up depends on how far forward their wingers are used, whether they’re used as just that, or as wide forwards. However, generally FSU’s formation lies somewhere between a 4-5-1 and a 4-3-3. Their attacking shape will vary between the aforementioned two formations and in defence they might initially press in a 4-3-3, but will generally fall back into a 4-5-1 as they drop deeper.

Stretching the opposition

As soon as FSU gain possession it instantly becomes clear they wish to make the pitch as wide as possible. They defend in an overly narrow, compact shape, which I will detail later, but they transition so quickly into a very wide shape.

The full-backs immediately push out to hit the touchline on either side and this creates an easy pass option out of the crowded central channel, but also stretches the opposition too.

By stretching the pitch horizontally and making the opposition less compact it opens up forward passing lanes for FSU to exploit. It creates space for them to play directly into the front line, or behind the opposition defence, or simply to just play forward into the midfield. 

With the defence stretched they will look to hit the gaps in between and they have the speed up front or from the wings to hurt teams with these balls in behind. The centre-backs, Emily Madril and Malia Berkely, along with Jaelin Howell in the pivot, all showed the ability to hit accurate longer passes, whether with diagonal switches of play, or with these searching through passes. Berkely was particularly outstanding in this aspect, and as a result she is now playing against the likes of Lyon and PSG on a weekly basis thanks to her move to Bordeaux.