Author: Oscar Mendez.
I´ve Heard
many times, journalists repeating over and over “the footballers here can´t keep possession or
give more than three passes without losing possession of the ball”.
Whether in the
construction phase in the Offensive Organization, defending with the ball when
they are winning or in other occasions that come up in the different situations
in the game.
Many of these
people which include sport journalists, coaches, fans, players, ex-players, think
naively the same (in my opinion), that is “to maintain possession of the ball
it is due to some cell, some mysterious reason or something hereditary”.
I personally
suspect that they think that the ability of a team to keep the ball depends on
good technical abilities exclusively.
Obviously for
someone to pass and control, that player must have complete technical mastery
of this fundamental, specially of how to control and pass the ball.
Personally I suspect that the reason they think that
these players have problems keeping possession
of the ball is because they think maintaining possession of the ball is
purely a technical issue and not a tactical one, and they feel these players
are technically inferior to others who can.
The thing they
are leaving out or don´t take into consideration is. that the pass and control
are collective technical fundamentals, part of the Technical Dimension.
Normally
everywhere, it was one of the first technical fundamentals taught, even though
it is part of collective technique and the child first in order to pass and
control , he-she must have total control of its body, its surrounding and
complete control of the ball, be able to see ball, teammates, opponents etc.
There are
always at least two individuals involved, but it is often trained individually
or mechanically ,analytically, very distant from the real situation where the
athlete has many variables, dynamically interacting and not behaving as
constant factors which takes away the complexity and reality of the exercise.
There must be “another
one” for me to pass to or to control to- from.
Also, apart
from the technical mastery that the footballer must have, directing the control
to whatever action comes after, executing this without thinking consciously in
thousands of seconds, seeing and taking advantage of space, looking for numerical
superiority and avoiding numerical inferiority and choosing whether to pass ,
to dribble, to break away from defender behind or in front of him-her, all of
this depending if the team is in possession or not.
All of this is
complexity and can not be achieved by executing analytical exercises.
Characteristics to take into consideration for a team
to maintain possession of the ball:
The main
reason in my opinion that is never mentioned is the tactical aspect or dimension.
In order for a
team to maintain possession of the ball and not lose it, besides footballers having good individual and
collective technique, they must handle tactical concepts / principles that, in
addition to the coach knowing them, he or she must know how to teach and train
them.
OFFENSIVE COVER
On Tactical
Periodization, this a specific principle we focus on when we want our team to
maintain possession and progress without losing it, besides what we mentioned
on the technical dimension above, we must make sure that our team, when we are
on possession, when we see it from camera view or from a sky camera, our
players are not occupying the same lanes on the width and length of the pitch (as
if we saw the game from a camera view , from the top). If our players are on
different lanes, it will be easy for the player when he-she is in possession,
have several passing options.
If they are in
the same lines like Koeman´s Barcelona recently, where they were many players
on the same lines, it will be more difficult because the passing options for
the player in possession will be reduced and it will be easy for one defender
to block passing lanes of several players.
Spacing.
By this
concept what we look for is for our players to maintain a certain distance, not
too far away from my teammate that he-she can pass me the ball but not too
close so that our team will be easily pressed, when we have the ball.
If our players
are too far away from each other, it will be harder for us to pressure after we
lose the ball and will be easily counter-attacked after losing the ball because
these players will be too far away from the ball .
We see many
times as teams become divided in two, those who attack and those defending.
If we attack
with few players, our chances of scoring decrease dramatically.
These aspects
mentioned take time for adquisition by footballers, many repetitions and
training.
We may not
notice an evolution in a couple of weeks even-though as the sessions add up the
footballers will begin to understand and execute this and we will observe a gradual
improvement.
Anyone can
analice or play in the park with friends, but not everyone can analice and play
real football because of its complexity.
Distinguish all the Phases of Play or Moments (Offensive
and Deffensive Organizatiion and Offensive and Defensive Transition).
Many players
we hear different coaches say that they organize themselves through the possession
of the ball.
When our team
begins to understand when it is on the Offensive Organization or when it must
look for quick transitions and that the players do it automatically implies they
understand the game.
There are
moments when our team must look for width without risking the possession of the
ball so it can progress and finish plays with many players on opposing box,
looking in most cases the longest way to the goal or to move the opponent where
with patience, and at a lower rhythm, attacking free spaces.
There are
other times where it must look for depth taking advantage of defensive
disorganization explosively, so we can surprise them.
When we begin
to recognize that we are attacking and not counterattacking, the footballers
will need more patience, will have to focus on not losing the ball because our
team will be open, where we will need a higher amount of passes with less
verticality, at a slower rhythm, because when we counter-attack we look for
speed, depth and we run a higher risk of
losing the ball because passes and movements will be forward looking to take
advantage quickly of opposing defensive disorganization.
Having longer possession
time than our opponent will not assure us of winning, but we do know now that
teams who have more possession win more often than teams who don´t in most cases.
Scientifically
we now know , thanks to Big Data and Game Analysis, taken from thousands of
matches from the most important leagues in the world (Germany, Spain, England,
France and Champions League) that teams have a higher percentage of winning since
they tend to shoot more, thus winning more.
In modern
Football we fall back on logic and Science that is what leads us and is of
constant support.
Obviously
winning does not imply only having a higher percentage of posession, but it limits
fortune percentage that is also a factor to take into consideration.
It is
obviously not a factor to take into
consideration by itself, without doing a Qualitative assessment but it is not
wise to deny it either.
This fact was
observed on thousands of matches and it is indisputable.
It is time
that people who talk and work in football, either begin to study or stop
repeating things that have no scientific evidence because it influences peoples´
opinions and later we hear saying things that don´t adjust to facts.
How a team is
going to play as we mentioned before many times will depend on a multiplicity
of factors that we have talked about before and it is a matter of the Coach,
Culture of the Club, characteristics of players, situation of club, economy,
fans, journalists etc.
No way of
playing is criticizable because not all of us begin “the race” on the same spot
or place and with the same tools.
Trying to Progress on Numerical Inferiority.
This mistake I see it many times where in the
active zone (zone where our team is
trying to progress to), the opposing team has many players outnumbering our
team. Normally happens when the opposing forwards move back in front of
midfielders.
When our team
on construction phase is building up from the back, in this case the red team,
too many players stay behind the ball and we end up playing a 6-7 v 11 of
opposing team.
It will be
practically impossible for our team to progress-penetrate with a numerical inferiority
that is so large or numerous.
The use of Rondos, Possessions, Positional exercises
to train this.
It is
important to train mobility apart from technical fundamentals that we talked
about where we see more insufficiencies, we must also focus to train to
recognize and exploit numerical superiorities, inferiorities, with constant
changes of possession, on different intensities, spaces, touches and different
types of difficulties.
Breaking away from defender for support and towards
opponent´s goal.
Another
important aspect is that players without the ball in possession phase, learn when
they break free from defender to support or towards opponent´s goal. When to do
this, when a teammate is being pressured we must support him-her, whether they
are in defensive sectors or in the construction phase or near the opponent´s
box. Many times we see a player being pressured, and teammate makes a sprint
towards opponent´s goal. Others we see a team that has possession near
opponent´s box but no one moves towards the goal, or they do it too soon or too
late, as Johan Cruyff used to say “you must break free from ender on the right
time, not too early, not too late”.
As the great
Laureano Ruiz used to say (creator of F.C. Barcelona method) we must divide the
team in three thirds when we are in possession of the ball, the first one we
must try to be near each other, the second one move inside the space we occupy,
the last one we must break free from defenders running towards opponent´s goal.
Other Tactical aspects to take into consideration:
Concepts like
geometric figures on the pitch, game rhythm, variability of passes, repetition
of passes, direct the attack and other principles of play that the coach must
know and know how to teach for the players to learn and execute them on real
game situations.
What many
coaches must take into account is that not all players need the same atention,
repetitions and help.
The difference
between a footballer that will play professionally and another that won´t, is
that many times the one that will reach professionalism will need less reps to
master it and many times will not need any help to see it.
So we must
remember to teach it consciously (saying it or showing it) but must learn it
pre-consciously with exercises.
In this moment,
we have a lot of scientific information, that knocks down many repeated and
made up phrases, that do not have any foundation behind and that now we can
recognize them that were based on speculation.
My intention
on this article was to knock down another one.
"We must want the ball a lot and have it
very little".
Jorge Valdano.
