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.
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.
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.
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.
Juanma
Lillo.
