Okan Buruk‘s Galatasaray is playing some of Europe’s finest attacking and high-octane football, managing over 90 goals in the last 3 league-winning campaigns. After 6 games in the 25/26 Champions League, they are ranked 2nd behind Sporting for teams outside the top-5 leagues, defeating the likes of Liverpool and Ajax in the process. But why haven’t Premier League clubs made an official approach for his services?
New Premier League managers from leagues outside the top 5, e.g. Graham Potter, Nuno and Rubem Amorim, have one thing in common when they started managing in the Premier League: defensive solidity with below-level attack. Owners and sporting directors are looking for a solid back 4 / back 5 in a compact defensive block. The questions for these teams are: can they consistently find their centre forwards? How do they attack the opponent in behind? How do they attack from wide areas?
Okan Buruk’s Galatasaray is the opposite: attack the opponent, press high and highly entertaining. But how do they defend balls in behind? Against Liverpool, one of Galatasaray’s centre backs presses Wirtz or Ekitike without the advantage of their opponent facing back-to-goal, allowing the opponent to run at the other centre back, as shown below.
And how do they defend crosses? In this example, ex-Tottenham centre back Davinson Sánchez freezes on the spot and defends the cutback but Liverpool centre forward Ekitike in the middle moves free of near post Bardakcı to shoot at close range.
Minimising the margin of error:
The higher the level, the smaller the margin of error. Allowing two opponents on the keeper in this defensive corner is dangerous – one of these players, Liverpool’s centre back Konaté, heads the ball at close range.
If Okan Buruk manages in the Premier League, what players and staff will he need?
2 dynamic centre backs, 1 dynamic centre forward. The strength and conditioning team and lots of players to rotate to maintain this high intensity style of play.
Even though Galatasaray‘s back 4 defending is not what potential employers in the Premier League want to see, the attacking ideas, use of attacking players, high intensity pressing, counterattacks and at times end-to-end football are super entertaining. I cannot wait to see Okan Buruk manage in the Premier League one day.
by Jeffrey Chau
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