Counter Like Kurban Berdyev’s Teams

Do you remember the battle of Camp Nou? Me neither. But this is how the newspaper Marca has described Rubin Kazan’s victory at Camp Nou, on the 20th of October 2009.

That FC Barcelona team was none other than Pep Guardiola’s, packed with players like Lionel Messi, Xavi or Andres Iniesta among others. You might have heard of them.

Kurban Berdyev’s Rubin Kazan stunned them 2-1 on that day.

Recently, I received a message asking me to look at Kurban Berdyev’s tactical principles and try to recreate them in Football Manager 2024.

I was ashamed, I first Googled Kurban Berdyev. No worries, you will find out soon enough, too.

The funny thing is that I watched some of the matches the teams managed by him played in Europe, against teams like FC Barcelona, Ajax or Bayern but I never stopped to think about who the manager was.

 I accepted trying to recreate the tactic in the game and our hero, Shikajin, sent me a few articles for research.

So, I started to try to recreate the tactic in Football Manager 2024.

Once I recreated the tactic in the game, I implemented two versions of it – one at Manchester City and one at Southampton. The best team in Premier League in the past decade and arguably the worst team in this season’s Premier League.

Two versions were needed as I needed to see a more attacking tactical version and a more defensive one.

And this was the result. But before I reveal it, let’s talk a bit about Kurban Berdyev.

Kurban Berdyev is a Turkmen-Russian football manager, and a former Soviet footballer who is currently in charge of the Azerbaijani club Turan Tovuz. For reference, Turan Tovuz sit 4th in the Azerbaijani Premier League. Ahead of clubs like Neftci Baku or Sumqaiyt, who regularly make it to European football in my FM saves.

In 2017 Berdyev was included among top 50 managers in the world by fourfourtwo.com, at the 36th place, ahead of Brendan Rodgers.

Kurban Berdyev started his footballing career with FK Köpetdag Aşgabat, a club in Turkmenistan. He joined their professional team in 1971.

By 1985, when he retired, he moved clubs a bit and earned 396 senior appearances, scoring 60 goals.

He started his managerial career in 1986 and moved clubs a lot before having a breakthrough with Rubin Kazan.

He managed Rubin for 15 years, the first time for 13 years and the second spell for 2 years. It was the first spell that helped him make a name for himself as a manager.

In between his two spells with Rubin Kazan, Kurban Berdyev managed FC Rostov, a club he took from the relegation battle straight to the UEFA Champions League.

Actually, both teams earned surprise results both in their country and in Europe.

Rubin Kazan’s premier Division titles at the time are owed to Kurban Berdyev’s masterful tactical principles and club management.

Even though he took over the club in 2001, it was in 2008 and 2009 when his team won the Premier Division, alongside a domestic cup and a domestic super cup between 2011 – 2012.

Amazingly, in 2013 he was dismissed from Rubin, which gave him the opportunity to shine with FC Rostov.

He took over the club while they were battling in the relegation zone and moved them as high as UEFA Champions League places in the span of a season, finishing 2nd in the league.

While managing FC Rostov, Kurban Berdyev guided the club to stunning performances against Ajax and Bayern Munich.

His tactical approach is what makes his teams’ football so special. It looks simple but in reality, it is really hard to implement. I would imagine in real life, too, but in the game for sure.

When you go to his Football Manager 2024 profile, you notice a 5-3-2 formation cited as his preferred one. And the tendencies listed on his profile describe his tactical principles best.

A few people tried to recreate his tactic in the game, and I will leave the links in the description, for reference and support.

The 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 formation helps the team sit deep, actively waiting for the moment to recover the ball and spring on the counter.

Managing underdog teams, especially between 2011 – 2017, helped Berdyev’s team to take full advantage of the counterattack style. However, having fitting players for this style is crucial.

The counterattack can start from wherever on the pitch, it is very important that when the ball is recovered, to move fast up the pitch and try to score the goal as soon as possible.

A solid defence is needed for this playing style to be successful. The back three are thought to be either three central defenders on defend duty, a wide center back and two central defenders or a ball playing defender and two central defenders.

All three options could work in the game. The important thing is to place the ball playing defender in the middle of the defense, so the central defenders would also focus on covering for the wing backs that would go up the pitch when the team is in possession.

The wing backs are a bit more complicated to assign roles to in the game. For example, for FC Rostov, Fyodor Kudryashov on the left side often operated as a more defensive wing-back, going up the pitch in the rhythm of play. This points to a standard wing back on support duty.

However, there were times when he cut inside to the midfield areas, so this points to an inverted wing back.

To make sure you cover both options, you could ask the player here to cut inside with the ball or train him to develop a player trait for cutting inside.

On the right side, the player seems to have had more freedom to move up the pitch, which points to a wing back on attack or if you have a player fit for the role, a complete wing back.

But if you manage an FC Rostov type of team, I would not recommend a complete wing back, as in the match engine this role tends to regroup slowly, so it might disrupt the defensive shape.

As a defensive midfielder, you need a Gennaro Gattuso type of player. And the role for it might be a ball winning midfielder one, as I used for Southampton or a half back, as I used for Manchester City.

Nevertheless, you need a player and a role capable of disrupting the opposition’s build up play, recovering the ball efficiently and passing it to the teammates as soon as possible.

The right-sided central midfielder seemed to be the passing hub of the FC Rostov team. Recycling the ball and finding his teammates with pinpoint passes. A fitting role for this would be the deep lying playmaker on support duty.

You could use the regista as well, but I compared the two in the match engine and the deep lying playmaker seems to be the most efficient one, putting in practice what you require from this position.

As the left-sided central midfielder, I went with a box-to-box midfielder. This player will be a passing option when the team builds-up play and will go up in attack as the ball progresses, arriving late in the opposition’s area.

And the forward duo, at least in this game’s edition, for me, cannot have other roles assigned than a deep lying forward on support duty and an advanced forward.

Of course, there are multiple role combinations that could be done here. The important thing, in my opinion, is to ask one of the strikers to come deep and collect the ball and the other one to stretch the defence and move into channels. This way, disrupting the opposition’s defensive shape.

 As mentality I chose positive, in the Manchester City version of the tactic. If you are a team that sits closer to the relegation zone that the European places, it might be worth starting with a cautious mentality and move up to positive as the match progresses.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and pass into space. Play out of defence, though this is not really required. It’s a way to keep possession of the ball more in the game.

Shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And run at defence if you are the dominating team. If not, tick this off and the team will do it if the opportunity is there.

In transition, counter and distribute the ball quickly.

And out of possession, mid block and a standard defensive line. Trigger press slightly more often, get stuck in and trap outside.

This helps the team actively stick to the opposition’s players when they build up and press when the opportunity arises. Be careful that the get stuck in option helps your players recover the ball often, but it also increases the chances of them being booked. So, if you have an aggressive team, it might be worth ticking this off.

As mentioned, I simulated a season with both Manchester City and Southampton to see how different versions of the tactic play in the game.

The results were good and with more time and engagement, they could be better.

I like counterattacking football, especially when it’s executed correctly in the game. These two versions of the tactic might not be perfect, but they get close to Kurban Berdyev’s playing style at times.

And there are fellow Football Manager enthusiasts out there that try to find ways to make it work better.

Thank you again, Shikajin, for your engagement and patience.

Kurban Berdyev may have been unknown to me until recently, but his teams and playing style weren’t. And I hope more football managers will adopt and develop this style of play in the future.