Preface
This is not the first time I write about football styles and methodologies- that’s why a decent part will be a compilation of what I wrote in some articles before. Yet, the world cup and the Pundits’ inputs about it force to take the big tournament as a demonstration and case study. Especially that, as usual, there were more attempts to look at the empty part of the Spanish glass rather than analyzing it for what it is for real, With its flaws and benefits.
When Italy won the world cup in Germany, football romantic analysts claimed that they didn’t deserve it because they played a so-called “Passive football style”, the pragmatic football analysis responded by pointing out that the most important thing in professional football is winning titles. Football exhibitions place is freestyle tournaments, not world cup. They also recalled that defense is also football, and a team that produce quality defense the way Italians did, deserves the title as much as a team that win it depending on offense brilliance .
The anti-Italy pundits were basically attacking football admirers, added to the Majority of journalists in UK who slate and underestimate any success if it’s not English.
The analysts who defended Italy were basically the pragmatic ones who place result over anything else, beside the Italian journalists who rightfully defended their national team achievement.
Four years later, Spain won the world cup. And as usual, there were journalists who hailed the achievement as a victory of offense football and beautiful game. They are basically the romantic analysts mentioned above who believe there is a right way and a wrong way to play football. The argument that “the right way” wins no title is proven wrong again. Spain won the title. Take that pragmatics!
On the other side, there were the journalists who complained that for Spain to win this world cup is enough to call it the worst tournament ever! They scored the least number of goals. They played boring football of passing and passing then….passing and passing again. Those are basically the previously called pragmatic who were lecturing about “results over style”. And of course, the Majority of journalists in UK who attack any success if it’s not English joined this chorus. Read their articles and you will be surprised of the level of inconsistency while stating their opinion in both cases.
A case for Spain: Dancing between the contradictions
It is extremely astonishing that those who used to argue Barcelona’s “right way to play football” claiming it is arrogant. The same journalists who believe the important thing is winning, and not the way you win. They are now writing eloquent articles that Spain didn’t deserve the world cup because they played boring football and only scored a handful number of goals. Didn’t they win this way?
It was even stranger that most of the Italians i had discussions with, believe that Spain didn’t deserve the title for the same reason. They scored the fewest number of goals for a world cup champion. That’s valid as a critic for the offense efficiency. Yet, isn’t that a huge credit for defense quality as well? Scoring the least number of goals was more than enough to win. Isn’t defense another way of quality football anymore? How can Italy deserve it and not Spain then?
It’s a personal choice for someone not to like possession style of football. No one can argue with that. But it’s a long senseless shot to label it as “boring football” especially for someone who hail settling deep and counter attacking.
If the ball is the reference and the focal parameter in this game, then how can a team that is not interested in having the ball be more fascinating for a football fan than a team that entertain the ball for most of the game time? That’s like saying there is more joyful in watching parked formula 1 cars than watching it in a race.
The same people who complain that attacking football admirers are not aware of the virtues of defense approach for being more systematic and tactically disciplined style usually underestimate the systematic approach of possession oriented teams (or attacking teams as commonly known).
Between Barcelona and Spain: Perfecting the system
While most of the credit was given to Barcelona after Spain’s world cup victory, Spain in this world cup perfected Barcelona’s football approach. Basically the quality defense of Barcelona was always overshadowed by the excellence of offense. The collective systemized dynamics of their defense is more or less an advanced catenaccio. In my preview for the second leg game between Barcelona and Inter, I tackled the defense subject:
“Defense is to prevent your opponent from scoring. As obvious as the definition is, its interpretation tends to be too one-dimensional to understand the variety of options. Some build towers and walls around the city. Sometimes it works; sometime the walls collapse and the city get wiped off the map. Both cases happened. If you forgot, I can remind you. Barcelona players in return, ramble through the opponent troops taking their arrows and swords (the ball?). Without it, they can’t even initiate an attack. Not only that, but the Catalans will also have more arrows (possession share) to shoot on the opponents. Though, it’s not all easy. If you get busted while crawling between the opponents’ tents, you are dead! They will easily stab you once, twice, and even more. Building towers sound more secured as long as it works. Yet it invites the enemy to approach the city gates. Moving towards the opponents’ tents sound like a crazy idea. But as long as it works, the return is extremely high as you don’t only defend your city but you also dominate and terminate the enemy permanently, using their own arrows. High risk=high return. I am sure you’ve heard that before. In the past five years, the return for Barcelona was unmatched. That’s good enough to stick to the principle.”
While before the first leg against the same team I wrote:
“Barcelona through possession oriented build up succeeded to keep the ball for the longest period possible, and that’s how they prevented Inter from scoring goals. An approach that’s still underrated by many football fans around the globe while claiming that Barcelona defense is weak. When Barcelona increases their ball possession, that’s defense, and it’s not bad at all.”
Still, Barcelona’s defense faced some tricky challenges. First, the lateral cover to block counter attacks. The team lost lot of points and games because they lacked the answers to fix this defect. Busquets is a good player in that matter, but he needed more support in the midfield especially when he was accompanied by Xavi and Iniesta (Keita provide relatively better cover when he plays). I’ve been mentioning what I call the Vacuum tunnel since two years already. It’s the space between the offense setup and the defense line. The moment the team loses possession this tunnel sucks the opponents’ counters from one side and blow it in the face of the defenders on the other side as fast as the cameras can catch.
The exposed space Barca players leave behind
when they go for miscalculated offense/pressure work
My suggestion to solve this problem was to introduce a different defense approach when losing passion by departmentalizing the fight to gain back possession using less players to put pressure on the opponents than we usually do and more players to close the spaces in the midfield.
The above demonstration explains a method I call “the anvil and the hummers” or sometimes I refer to as “catching the rabbit”. Putting pressure using the maximum number of players will create spaces in the midfield (Vacuum tunnel) for the opponent to play the ball through, breaking the initial pressure and generating counter attacks. Having a line to create cover (Anvil) closes all the spaces and squeezes the opponent in possession under the hummers of players putting pressure. You will need fewer players this way to retain the ball and they will put less effort because it is easier to catch a rabbit squeezed in the corner than running after it in an open field.
Then there is the physically demanding side of this approach, something that is not recognized sometimes. Continuous pressure while hunting for the ball is more demanding than positional defense. The sequence of the games leave an impact on the overall performance.
How long can you do this Alves dance while maintaining pressure and transition?
“At Barcelona the defense is mainly the job of the players who attack the opponent territory. This season, it’s the work of three forwards, two midfielders and an Alves (you can make up a position name for him. May be: the wing back forward?). The role of the defensive midfielder (Call him Yaya) is to create cover, and the role of the three defenders left behind is to create depth.
It’s a kind of win-win deal between defense and offense. Defenders agree to take the risk of guarding a wide sector of the field without sufficient number of players, which save more players for the offense section of the pitch. Offense in return pay for that by applying high pressure in the opponent's half, winning the ball as fast as possible, increasing possession time, and creating a Y2K problem on the scoring sheet that lacks a third digit to count the goals scored by the Catalan slaughters. All that contributes to keep the defense enjoying a sun bath, and keep Valdes in an extended vacation.
The Dangerous Compromise between Defense and Offense
When the Pressure on the ball drops by 15 %, it doesn’t demand 15% more effort from the defenders to cover that declination. It actually leads the whole system to collapse. Because the defenders role then switch from creating depth and Freezing the opponent’s last man standing upfront, to become a mission impossible of standing and facing a counter attacking tsunami, to mark, tackle, cover, with continuous re-positioning and pressure. And still falling under the obligation of building up the game from behind with accurate passes, Nonsense clearance is a crime in Barcelona. That’s too much for a defensive trio, right? This is not something we train our defenders to do. This is not something we like. And it's not something Defenders of any team can handle.
If we agree on that, then we know that the periods when the team face a drop in form, we need to evaluate the whole team defensive contribution (and specially those who are upfront), before looking for the scapegoat who made the last mistake before the goal. More pressure upfront means fewer counters, leading to less catastrophic mistakes. That’s the magic of probabilities.”
Spain during the world cup applied the basic tricks of Barcelona but did what was required to avoid the mentioned defensive defects. Vicente del Bosqe –now a national hero- was criticized for employing two holding midfielders. We already analyzed the roles of the two holding midfielders of Spain, but one can imagine what would have happened if he failed to win the world cup. Yet, one of the reasons he won the world cup was the impressive positional synchronization between Busquest, Xabi, and Xavi and the way they closed all the spaces in the midfield and assisted the center backs when the two fullbacks moved forward. As a result, even with both fullbacks moving forward and with at least one of the fullbacks being less qualified defensively than Abidal for Barcelona –Capdevilla. Spain was still more stable defensively against the best teams in the world cup than Barcelona was last season against big clubs.
Germany, a team that scored for fun during the world cup failed to create any sufficient threat when they played Spain. Netherland after beating one of the most solid teams defensively-Brazil- did nothing better than the Germans. Some may argue that Holland’s goals and victory over Brazil were basically the result of defensive errors. That’s an additional prove that when possession football succeed it creates better defensive output than traditional defense. Spain’s quality to keep the ball in the opponents’ half prevent even the possibilities of defensive errors or at least limit it. Defense is the ability to avoid conceding and there is no way better than not allowing any scoring opportunities at all. Again, an advanced catenaccio!
With such a level of quality systematic defense and dominant possession, even with a main striker suffering a coma, the team still succeeded to keep defense tight and keep the ball in the opponents half long enough to score and win. A perfect mix of playmaking football approach and upgraded daring catenaccio that camp its troops in the opponent’s half rather than the teams’ own box.
N.B. "Total football" and "Catenaccio" terms used in this article express a symbolic meaning regarding defense awareness and offense approach. By no mean we define any team's style nowadays within any of the mentioned traditional styles.
