by bigmick » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:22 am
Naturally as the coaching of team play becomes more and more complex, the systems needed to overcome those systems follows suit and each coach vies with the other to get the upper hand. Shankly and Clough were right when they said football is a simple game, but the reality in the modern World is that unless you get the set-up right you'll end up in a situation where the players come off at half-time knackered and with quizzical looks on their faces, "we can't get near 'em boss, it's like chasing shadows out there".
Tactical planning is like a game of scissors, rocks and handkerchiefs or whatever the feck it's called. Every system and thought process has a counterbalance and a way to play against it if the clever coach can spot it and work it out. Defend too deep against a target man and you'll be pinned back all game with the ball raining down on your penalty spot. Defend too high up against pace and you give the passer too much margin for error as he feeds it through to the pigeon catcher. Play 3-5-2 and you'll outnumber their front two and and as long as the two full-backs are fit as feck, like as not you'll outnumber their midfield as well. Well Ok, We'll ping it into the channels all day and pin your full-backs right back, your 3-5-2 just became 5-3-2 and you're in for a hard day at the office.
Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. Was it Einstein, or Socrates or Archimedes or some other exotic sounding brainbox who said it I don't know. They weren't talking about football but they might as well have been because the rule applies perfectly.
Holding midfileder? It's just natural evolution and the most basic laws of engineering at play. The strongest structure is the triangle, sit two blokes side by side in front of and in line with the back four and they can pass it through you from just about everywhere. Sit a holder in front of the back four, in between the centre-halves and they'ge got to pass it round him to slip somebody in. If that holder has good intelligence and can read it well, he may even be able to perform the role of screener as well.
Screener? The fella who gets himself in between the ball carrier and the oppositions star man at all times. Thierry Henri in his pomp? Sit a screener ten yards in front of him, stop the ball from getting to him in the first place. The reaction which is equal? He fecks off and stands on the left-wing all the time, making it impossible to screen him and leaving you with a redundant bloke sitting in front of the back four. Do it to Rooney? He just drops deeper, in front of the screener and hurts you from there.
It's a simple game, but often there are things going on which many fans wouldn't see. Some see more than others but none of us see anywhere near all of it. If you had nothing else to do other than watch football all day long you'd get nearly all of it but still not all. It's the way modern football is, simple but very complex.
It's what Mourinho means when he talks about pressing the ball hard in the centre of the pitch and inviting teams to play it out wider. With headers of the quality of Carvalho and particularly Terry you'd want teams to fire crosses at you if you had the choice. It's what Rafa means when he talks about getting the detail right. It's what I mean when I'm an advocate of Sissoko. Put up with the occasional miscontrol, poor pass or dodgy free-kick conceded. Wind him up and let him go because you know that a couple of times a game he will win the ball deep in the oppositions territory where nobody can legislate for the damage it may do. There's not that many counter reactions which are equal to that.
A great thread this Red, but my suspicion is it will get very few replies as most people simply aren't that bothered with such stuff. Should they be? not really, I should think you could pay such things little or no attention and still love the game to death.
Last edited by
bigmick on Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".