Monaco are currently lighting up Ligue 1 and the Champions League.
Taking a 3-2 lead in the quarter finals away at Borussia Dortmund,
the club has since achieved a semi-final berth in Europe’s premier club competition for the first time since 2004.
Leonardo Jardim has developed his team remarkably since taking over in 2014.
After heavy investment, Monaco realised that the burdens
of FFP meant they needed to concentrate on developing young talent more than big money acquisitions.
This year, that strategy has blossomed, as Monaco have taken on Ligue 1 at whirlwind pace.
They are quick, well-drilled, balanced, and possess scintillating attacking options.
Monaco use a version of the 4-4-2 in Ligue 1 and in most Champions League games, though
they do sometimes use a variant, a 4-2-3-1.
This 4-4-2, though, is very aggressively deployed, resembling a 2-4-4 when Monaco attack.
The full backs push very high, especially Sidibe on the left, while Bernardo Silva cuts
inside from the right wing.
Thomas Lemar is more of an orthodox winger, but Mendy pushes up behind him on the overlap as well.
Kamil Glik and Jemerson push up in defence, with
Fabinho dropping to assist, while Bakayoko is the team’s engine, the quintessential
box-to-box dynamo.
Fabinho is also crucial to the team’s ability to maintain defensive shape despite such an aggressive posture.
The Brazilian played at first as a right-back, and he often drops into the
space vacated by Sidibe on the right if Monaco face a counter-attack.
Otherwise, Monaco defend in quite a familiar way: good shape from two banks of four, high
pressing throughout the side, and as narrowly as possible.
Monaco’s central four centre-backs and central midfielders are content to recycle possession
among themselves, all comfortable on the ball, with Fabinho again dropping in if required.
They wait for the full-backs to free themselves of markers before playing dynamic angled
passes out into the overlapping runs.
Up front, two of Falcao, Mbappe, and Germain play as strikers, with Germain adept at
dropping into space to hold up the ball, Falcao more predatory and less creative, and
Mbappe a striker in the Thierry Henry mould who pops up wherever he fancies to devastating effect.
Behind the two strikers, creativity and goals come from everywhere, but Lemar and Silva stand out.
Monaco’s advanced full-backs give the team a four across midfield but with four ahead of them.
This means that Silva and Lemar can cut inside or go wide with cover and the
potential to create overloads in the half-space or the wide space.
Monaco build centrally but like to attack wide.
If they find the wide space blocked, they are
adept at switching the play rapidly through the two central midfielders out to the opposite
flank, again possible because the full-backs are so high.
The overlapping full-backs also draw defenders, which means that a late arriving
midfielder such as Bakayoko or Silva drifting inwards find space in the box, especially
if the centre forwards drift towards the other flank.
One last thing should be said about this Monaco side, which are less tactical and more statistical.
Monaco are hot, fiery hot, right now.
In Ligue 1 they are scoring 2.8 goals per
game from 13.9 shots per game, a conversion rate of 20.1%.
Bearing in mind that an average team in an average season converts at around
9-10%, Monaco are outperforming what you’d expect at an extraordinary rate.
Indeed, as a recent Statsbomb article pointed out, they are
second in the top ten performing teams for shot conversion in Europe’s big five leagues
since 2010/11, a list that is dominated by Barcelona
and Real Madrid and includes PSG last season with a resplendent Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bayern in 2012/13.
Monaco take a huge proportion of their shots from close and centrally,
but even that doesn’t account for this shot conversion.
While we’ve shown you how they create chances well and attack with verve
and precision, Monaco can’t sustain this rate of scoring.
They might, however, sustain it just long enough to win big this year.
And as Europe’s most exciting attacking side, you couldn’t begrudge them that.