ISMAIL KARTAL’S FENERBAHCE TACTIC

To be able to answer this question, we must first get to know Ismail Kartal. His tactic was suggested by two of our fellow community members so without further ado…

Ismail Kartal is a Turkish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Süper Lig Fenerbahçe.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he played eleven seasons in the Turkish Süper Lig. He won two national league titles with Fenerbahce in the 1984–85 and 1988–89 seasons.

He played for Denizlispor and Adanaspor at the end of his football player career. Kartal made six appearances for the senior Turkey national football team from 1982 through to 1985.

After he retired, he started his management career and managed several clubs, including Karabükspor, Sivasspor, Mardinspor, Altay among others.

He led Sivasspor to win the Turkish Second Division league title for the first time in club's history.

Between 1997 and 1999 and 2010 to 2014, he was the assistant coach at Fenerbahce. After Ersun Yanal's resignation, he took over as the club’s manager.

He left the club at the end of the 2014-15 season and he would not manage for the next season.

But, in 2018, he led Ankaragücü to win Turkish Second Division league title.

In January 2022, following the departure of Vitor Pereira, Ismail Kartal signed with Fenerbahçe for the rest of the season.

At the end of the season, the club finished in second place, by eight points behind Trabzonspor, one of their rivals. Kartal finished with a record of twelve wins, five draws and four losses in 21 matches.

In June 2023, Kartal signed a one-year contract with Fenerbahçe for his third managerial spell at the club and led the club to achieve an incredible 99 points result in the Süper Lig, but they still finished second behind their rivals Galatasaray, who earned 102 points.

Upon the conclusion of the season, he left the club in May 2024.

As a tactical setup, we will focus on Ismail Kartal’s last season at the club. He seemed to have preferred a 4-2-3-1 formation during that 99 points season. The formation seemed to be flexible in attack, but quite structured or rigid in defence.

The tactics flexibility was translated in the 99 goals the team scored during that season, the highest in the league and conceded only 31 goals, the second lowest after Galatasaray.

As the wingers seemed to be asked to cut inside, the wing backs were asked to go further up the pitch, when the game moments allowed them to.

In the midfield I was unsure what kind of roles were used in the central area, but considering Fenerbahce’s squad at that time, I went with a defensive midfielder and a central midfielder.

The central midfielder seemed to be the passing hub of the teams at times, linking up play with the four attacking players.

In my building a nation save in Malta, with FC Valletta, this tactic helped us win the league title in a quite dominant fashion. We scored 88 goals and conceded 34, on that note, pretty close to Fenerbahce.

In Europe, we reached as far as the Europa League league phase, after being knocked-out in the UEFA Champions League playoff by Red Star Belgrade.

And domestically, we still haven’t managed to win the Maltese Cup. But we did win the Maltese Supercup.

In goal, I went with a sweeper keeper on support duty. The back four is made of two wing backs and two central defenders on defend duty.

The wing backs are one on attack duty and one on support. The reason being keeping the balance of the formation. If both were on attack, then they would sprint forward as soon as the team gains possession of the ball, so they would not be passing options anymore.

The same kind of setup is mirrored for the wingers.

The left-sided wing backs is told to stay wider.

In the central midfield area, as mentioned earlier, one defensive midfielder on support duty and one deep lying playmaker on support were used.

The defensive midfielder can be on defend duty, but the team being Fenerbahce, who should dominate most of the matches they play, I went with the support one, asking this player to be part of the possession game when possible.

The deep-lying playmaker is asked to dribble less, to make the player here focus only on the passing game.

The wingers are one inside forward on attack duty on the right-side and an inverted winger on support on the left one.

At times it seemed like the right-sided winger would cut inside often and attack the goal, so that’s the reason for the inside forward role being preferred.

On the left side, Dusan Tadic played most of the matches there. I know that Dusan Tadic has a strong left foot, which would recommend him being played as a winger rather than an inverted one. But in game, this player is asked to dribble more and cut inside with the ball, so he will not stick to the flank.

Alternatively, a trequartista role could be used here, if you have a Dusan Tadic-like player in your squad.

And an attacking midfielder on support and an advanced forward make up the rest of the formation.

The attacking midfielder has no player instructions, so the player traits will dictate how the player moves and plays in game. So, beware of this.

As mentality, I chose positive.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo.

Low crosses and work the ball into the box were preferred, as Fenerbahce seemed to be pushing the attack into the opposition’s box, forcing the mistake and looking for goalscoring opportunities.

Play for set-pieces was selected, but not required. It just adds another attacking layer to the setup.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the central defenders through shot kicks.

And out of possession a high press and a standard defensive line. Trigger press more often, step up more and trap outside.

Beware that to use the step up more efficiently, you need fast center backs, otherwise you run the risk of your team being caught on the counterattack often.

So, is this a standard looking 4-2-3-1 or not?

I will let you decide. As in my opinion, earning 99 points with Fenerbahce, at the third time of asking, using a similar formation and setup it’s an achievement. Even without winning the league title.