In praise of defensive football
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In praise of defensive football
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Re: In praise of defensive football
#2Great article! Thanks for sharing. This is potentially a great introduction to football for people who doesn't care about football (like USians)
Re: In praise of defensive football
#3Great article! Thanks for sharing. This is potentially a great introduction to football for people who doesn't care about football (like USians)
The funny thing is that the name soccer is of English origin[1] and is the more precise term, since it's short for Association Football. However, when one just says football it could be any number of ball games that involve using the feet at least some of the time[2].
[1] https://www.lexico.com/explore/whats-the-origin-of-the-word-...
Re: In praise of defensive football
#4Great article! Thanks for sharing. This is potentially a great introduction to football for people who doesn't care about football (like USians)
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Re: In praise of defensive football
#5Ironically, the most unrelentingly boring and defensive style of soccer is to be on offense most of the game, by maintaining possession and doing nothing with it. I say "ironically" because teams that maintain possession and "build slowly" usually receive credit for aspiring to play beautiful attacking football. When it works, and the offense circulates the ball around in nimble interchanges until they pounce on an almost imperceptible defensive error and pry open successively larger holes by quick intelligent passing until they have a high-percentage shot on goal, it can be sublime. This is how Barcelona played some of the most beautiful football of all time. It is often compared to picking a lock, since this slow, methodical style gives the defense time to sit back and prepare for you, which means you are attacking a defense at its best and most organized.
However, many Barcelona-wannabes aren't as great as Barcelona was, and for them the practical function of maintaining possession and "attacking" is not to score but to prevent the other team from scoring. (Spoiler alert: this is the punch line of the essay.) A team that spends most of the game "on the attack" may produce nothing but boring, sterile, fruitless possession, while their opponents spend relatively less time on offense, but more productively, because when they get the ball they directly attempt to do something with it.
For those who follow MLS, yes, I am an Austin FC fan. Fingers crossed that our new signings add some quality to our attack.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#6Great article! Thanks for sharing. This is potentially a great introduction to football for people who doesn't care about football (like USians)
The funny thing is that the name soccer is of English origin[1] and is the more precise term, since it's short for Association Football. However, when one just says football it could be any number of ball games that involve using the feet at least some of the time[2]. [1] https://www.lexico.com/explore/whats-the-origin-of-the-word-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_football
The first point is true; the second less so. If you use the term "football" most of the world will make the assumption you mean football, as opposed to any national derivatives of it or other games.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#7Ironically, the most unrelentingly boring and defensive style of soccer is to be on offense most of the game, by maintaining possession and doing nothing with it. I say "ironically" because teams that maintain possession and "build slowly" usually receive credit for aspiring to play beautiful attacking football. When it works, and the offense circulates the ball around in nimble interchanges until they pounce on an a…
There was a college hockey rivalry between North Dakota and Minnesota years ago that had this crazy contrast of styles.
You'd have games with North Dakota with 12 shots on goal (crazy low numbers) and Minnesota with 40 or more shots on goal. The results, the games were still 3 to 4 and so on and very competitive.
North Dakota would setup and just pass and pass. Minnesota would hang back defensively and wait for them to take their shot and try not to make a mistake. Minnesota would get into the offensive zone and just pepper away with shots at the goal and North Dakota would buzz around trying to scramble for that puck.
It was amusing because it was such a contrast of styles with each end of the rink playing entirely different. And yet they were very close / fun games. Fortunately in hockey it doesn't really slow things down quite like soccer when you take your time.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#8Ironically, the most unrelentingly boring and defensive style of soccer is to be on offense most of the game, by maintaining possession and doing nothing with it. I say "ironically" because teams that maintain possession and "build slowly" usually receive credit for aspiring to play beautiful attacking football. When it works, and the offense circulates the ball around in nimble interchanges until they pounce on an a…
You can think of different football styles as differents areas of a multidimensional space. Depending on your players strength, an area is better suited for your team. But the thing is, each of those area has a local maxima.
You excelently described barcelona style circa 2010. But to play it and expect to win you need Iniesta AND Xavi BOTH. because you have to be able to take advantage of those 4 to 8 opportunities in a match against a top opponent. Those player must have the psychological strength to not flinch when the opportunity present itself, must have the technical ability to execute what they want and you need at least 2 of them if you want to pursue intelligently whatever tactical advantage you gain. In the spanish team you had iniesta, xavi and silva.
Those player are exceedingly rare and are not simply good technical players, the share a common understanding of the "chess game" they are playing . The danger is if you don't recognise you don't have those player, possession football puts you at a disadvantage against a team with offensive talent, organisation and defensive will ! ( think France 2018 )
Re: In praise of defensive football
#9Ironically, the most unrelentingly boring and defensive style of soccer is to be on offense most of the game, by maintaining possession and doing nothing with it. I say "ironically" because teams that maintain possession and "build slowly" usually receive credit for aspiring to play beautiful attacking football. When it works, and the offense circulates the ball around in nimble interchanges until they pounce on an a…
As you say, teams have learned to defend against the tiki taka style of offense by playing a very compact organized defense. This leads to this whole slow, boring game. However, in a way that's already old-fashioned. Teams have moved on from that and started to play more gegenpressing. Here the philosophy is to win the ball early in the opponent's possession so they're unorganized defensively (because they were organized for attacking). This is for example how Liverpool plays.
Many people classify it as defensive soccer, but the idea behind it is actually very attack oriented. So much so that at the extreme end some people advocate for deliberately losing the ball (on the opponent's half), with the idea of winning it back quickly. The idea here is to force the opponent into having to attack and thereby ruin their defensive structure.
I guess the main point is that tactics in soccer are continuously evolving with coaches trying to find weaknesses in their opponent's style and thereby developing new strategies for others to react to.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#10Ironically, the most unrelentingly boring and defensive style of soccer is to be on offense most of the game, by maintaining possession and doing nothing with it. I say "ironically" because teams that maintain possession and "build slowly" usually receive credit for aspiring to play beautiful attacking football. When it works, and the offense circulates the ball around in nimble interchanges until they pounce on an a…
It depends I'd say. Bayern played a lot like this in 2020, which also lead them winning the Champions League. The key difference to what you describe was that they circulated the ball waiting for a chance to play an extremely fast attacking leading to a goal. Like an explosion after a few rounds of slow passing.