AMAZING Neil Warnock Tactic

Neil Warnock is an iconic football manager whose career is marked by his charismatic personality and his no-nonsense style. Born in December 1948, Warnock's influence on the game is undeniable, and his flamboyant approach has led many teams to new heights.

Warnock holds an extraordinary record within English football, boasting the most promotions in history with an impressive eight. Additionally, he has managed a record 1626 professional games, surpassing the previous record of 1601 set by Dario Gradi. Or so the books say.

As a player, Warnock was a dynamic winger, leaving his mark at clubs like Chesterfield, Rotherham United, Hartlepool, Scunthorpe United, Aldershot and others.

Over his career, he scored 36 goals in 327 league appearances before retiring from league football in 1979 at the age of 30 due to injuries. He briefly continued in non-league football with Burton Albion, where he later transitioned into management.

Warnock's managerial journey spans five decades and sixteen different clubs, showcasing his passion and commitment to the sport.

His managerial journey began with non-League Gainsborough Trinity (1980–1981), and he rapidly made a name for himself in the football world. Moving on to Burton Albion (1981–1986) and Scarborough (1986–1989), he achieved remarkable success by winning promotion to the Football League with Scarborough in 1987.

His career continued to soar as he led Notts County (1989–1993) from the Third Division to the First Division in back-to-back seasons, earning admiration for his leadership, although his tenure ended with the club's relegation just before the First Division became the Premier League.

His next adventure took him to Torquay United briefly in 1993 before he moved to Huddersfield Town (1993–1995), where his tactical prowess secured them the promotion to the new First Division. After resigning, he joined Plymouth Argyle (1995–1997) and guided them to the Second Division, though he faced dismissal afterward.

In 1999, Warnock's passion for the game brought him to his boyhood club, Sheffield United. Under his management, the team reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and FA Cup in 2003 and earned promotion to the Premier League in 2006.

Despite his resignation following the club's relegation in 2007, his legacy at Sheffield United remained strong.

He spent the following six seasons managing both Crystal palace and Queens Park Rangers. And after a brief hiatus, he returned to Crystal Palace in the Premier League in August 2014, only to be sacked in December 2014 after a poor start.

Warnock's undying spirit saw him take on a caretaker role at Queens Park Rangers before moving to Rotherham United in February 2016, where he once again showcased his managerial talent.

In October 2016, he took the reins at Cardiff City and led them to Premier League promotion during the 2017–18 season.

Although his journey didn’t end there and he continued to work his magic at clubs like Middlesborough or Huddersfield, we are more interested in his time at Cardiff City.

When he took over the Welsh club, they were in the Championship and with him at the helm, they finished in 12th place in the league. A timid start, I would say.

It took them a bit, but in May 2018 Neil Warnock led them to Premier League promotion, ending the season with a 0-0 draw against Reading. On a personal level, that promotion helped him became the first manager to win eight promotions in the professional leagues.

At that time, both in the Championship and the Premier League, Cardiff City’s style of play defied the expectations. Sol Bamba said at the time “"People expect us to park the bus. We didn’t. We tried to play good football and go forward and score a few goals.”

And for their standards, they did score a lot of goals in the promotion season, with 69. And they conceded the fewest goals in the league, with 39.

Cardiff City changed formations during the 2017-2018 promotion season, going for 5-2-3, 4-4-1-1 or a 4-3-3. These changes were done to adapt to the opposition faced. During the Premier League season, they predominantly used the 4-4-1-1 as they needed more cover against bigger teams.

But we will focus on the dynamic 4-3-3 formation. I went with a sweeper keeper on defend duty in goal, to adapt a bit to more modern times. This will help the team keep the flow of the game should the opposition press us too much.

The back four is a weird one. We have a full back on support, a central defender on defend, a ball playing defender on defend and an inverted wing back on defend.

Hear me out. The left back had frequent runs in towards the centre of the pitch rather than on the flanks, thus I went with the inverted wing back role. However, if that deviates too much from the original formation, then I think a full or wing back on support would work, adding the cut inside with the ball player instruction if needed.

The ball playing defender role was chosen as Sol Bamba frequently took matters into his own hands when he had possession of the ball. Or stayed a bit up the pitch, to help with the passing game.

The central defender on defend is the cover role. This player’s main concern is to defend the goal and recycle the ball as fast and as safe as possible.

And I kept the right back as a full back role on support as in the game, it is more defence oriented. The player here will help with the possession game, but compared to the wing back, his main priority is defending the goal.

I asked him to dribble less as I wanted him to pass the ball as soon as the chances appeared.

The midfield trio is the heartbeat of the team. Joe Ralls is Cardiff City. An academy player who, even though had spells away from the club, managed to earn 384 appearances for the club so far, being there since 2011.

He is a central midfielder with a playing style close to a box-to-box role, however, for this tactic I chose a defensive midfielder role on defend for him. During the promotion season, Callum Paterson was moved in the midfield area, this pushing Ralls slightly to a more defensive role.

Craig Bryson is a self-described box-to-box midfielder, but I chose a central midfielder role on support for him. However, you can interchange these two roles, just make sure to keep the tactic balanced overall.

As player instructions, I asked all three of them to mark tighter and the central midfielder to play more direct passes.

And the front trio are two wingers on support and one advanced forward. I always saw Junior Hoilett as a pure winger, focused on working his flank and putting the ball in the box through crosses or through balls. But if you have a different view, go for it.

On the other side, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing played as a winger also, working the ball in the box as best as he could.

And up front, Kenneth Zohore is a striker who developed as he played, his best season being the promotion one with the Welsh club, when he scored 12 goals.

All three players are asked to mark tighter. This player instruction is meant to push the players to close down their opponents and try to cut short their build up play through individual pressing, given that Cardiff City were an aggressive team in this sense during that season.

I chose positive as mentality.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Slightly or standard shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And play for set pieces.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the centre backs through short kicks.

And out of possession a high press and a standard defensive line. Trigger press more often and I also chose prevent the goalkeeper ball distribution, but you can tick it off if you want.

Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City played a direct style of play, even in the Premier League, after the promotion. And I tried to emulate that direct style of play as much as possible.

It’s true that other formations and tactical styles were used and you may emulate the one you think was the best one.

In my building a nation save in Romania, I played with FCSB in a modified database, trying to give the teams some financial advantage. We finished the season as champions, almost unbeaten in the league. Scoring 97 goals and conceding 22 in the league.

In Europe, we were knocked out of the Champions League but played in the Europa League league phase where we were eliminated.

This tactic is dynamic and may surprise the opposition, even if you manage a smaller team. Neil Warnock is a great manager who deserves the success he had, in my opinion. He may be a pundit now, but we will always have his teams to look back and enjoy.