The Superiorities in the Attacking Phases in Football/ Soccer.

 Author: Oscar Mendez.

Briefly we will explain what we understand about the superiorities in Football/Soccer since in my opinion, after  seeing many people that are not coaches or have coached, talk or use these terms that later many coaches begin to use them incorrectly due to the confusion created (Specially in Great Britain).

First I want to make it clear that these concepts of attacking among many others, were a small part of what I mentioned before about the change of Paradigm in training and that I was lucky enough to be a part of since I was Studying and Coaching at the time in Spain, many changes that were created not only in Methodology, in Tactics and collective technique by the people from F.C. Barcelona based on concepts of Johan Cruyff.

Concepts like the third man, liberate or free up a teammate, third man and many others that were based on these superiorities or how to take advantage of them.

Like we have talked here several times before, from the changes in Paradigm and methodology, training traditionally  will never enable us to achieve this because there will not be enough time to teach these concepts  since when we train un-specifically  or out of context , we will have enough time to teach these concepts and later perform them automatically or pre-consciously in a match.

                                  Laureano Ruiz. Creator of F.C. Barcelona Method.

First I will mention the most common and used for several decades in Football,  that most of  people know or have heard about and used before.

NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY.

We can define it as simply having in a zone on the pitch one more footballer or player than the opponent. Overlapping or Underlapping  to create 2v1 situations either on the sideline or inside has been used for many years and the most easily recognized, trained and executed.

Joan Vila. Chief of Methodology of F.C. Barcelona.

POSITIONAL SUPERIORITY.

We can describe it as having a player in a zone where he can create disparity and the possibilities of the opponent to defend him by another player (defensive cover), will be reduced because in the zone where he does this, it’s  too close or near the opponent’s goal and the time to defend or execute that defensive cover will be not enough or too short.

I always give the example when I coached the U-20 in U.D. Las Palmas in 2006-07 season where we had  players like Jonathan Viera (ex U.D. Las Palmas, Valencia C.F. and Beiging Guoan) and Vitolo (Ex U.D. Las Palmas, Sevilla F.C. and Atletico de Madrid), these players we would look for them to have duels,  to receive the ball near the opponent’s box in situations where they would create scoring chances and  it would be very difficult to defend since once these players beat their defender, the possibilities of another defender to create a defensive cover would be impossible.

                                  Francisco Seirul-lo. Creator of Structured Micro-cycle.

THE SOCIO-AFFECTIVE SUPERIORITY.

We can define it as the more we know each other with a teammate, the better we can play together.

If a player trains specifically, playing or doing things he will do in the matches, the knowledge of his/her teammates and their characteristics, the strong and weak points will be every evident and easily exploited. If my center forward is extremely fast, or slow, if he is right footed or left, if he likes to receive the ball on his feet or to the space , if he is good protecting the ball etc.

It will be easier for the footballer to interact with his/her teammates knowing all this information regarding his/her teammates.

                                           Philosophical Father and first promotor of F.C. Barcelona.

THE QUALITATIVE SUPERIORITY.

We can explain it with a simple definition from Pep Guardiola.

It is not the same to play a 10v10 than a 4v4 or a 2v2. 

The complexity is much lower and it will be easier for us to generate disparity.

The principles of possession and positional play are based on generating and taking advantage of superiorities and starting many times from a 11v11 for example and finishing on a 5v5 or 4v4.

It is much easier and less complex, to be able to finish a play on a 4v4 than on an 11v11.

 

 Once I had an international player that used to tell me, “When I return to training, I hate you because I become a substitute, when I leave again, I love you for what I have learned”.

Juanma Lillo.