Watch: Moyes discusses tactical flexibility at EURO 2020

UEFA EURO 2020 thrilled fans worldwide with some of the best action that international football has to offer. It was dramatic and entertaining – but also fascinating from a technical point of view.

UEFA's team of technical observers analysed all aspects of the tournament: the matches, the teams, the players and the coaching trends that emerged or were reinforced during the summer's festival of football.

In the latest of our series of videos with these technical observers, we hear from West Ham United manager David Moyes who highlighted the tactical adaptation shown by coaches during EURO 2020.

Moyes highlighted Hungary's effective approach against Germany

"We saw the flexibility between five, four and three [at the back] becoming very apparent, but ultimately the flexibility in defensive areas was the big thing that was noticeable to all of the technical observers."

Moyes and his fellow technical observers examined the formations used across the 51 matches. "We found very different situations regarding in and out of possession but overall 1-4-3-3 was the key formation for most of the teams in the tournament." Nevertheless, he added that "15 of 24 teams had played with a back three at one point during the tournament." The approach was more settled at the top end of the pitch with the former Everton and Manchester United manager saying "we tended to find that most teams had a version of three forwards".

Moyes deploys wide-angle footage to illustrate how Hungary effectively turned a 1-5-3-2 – when out of possession against Germany – into a very attack-minded approach once they won the ball back, with players having the licence to burst forward and maximise counterattacking opportunities. He also talks about how teams with a back four often chose to build up play using a back three, showing how England utilised this tactic.

Making fundamental changes during games was also common at EURO 2020. "This tournament showed the coaches being flexible themselves in how they play and how they want their teams to play and it didn’t look as if it was a particularly big problem for the players to alter from one shape to another." He studied the pros and cons of switching formation mid-match, lauding the willingness of coaches to make structural alterations during games that weren’t going their teams' way.

The role of wide players in the tournament is also dissected, with Moyes spelling out how "wing-backs are almost at the stage of being called false wing-backs because of their movement, where they’re arriving, not necessarily being parallel with the touchline". He reveals how Leonardo Spinazzola and Denzel Dumfries would drift into centre-forward positions and also names Joakim Mæhle as one of the "inverted wing-backs" that made a big impact on the tournament.