I've always wanted to see soccer played with two balls on the field. I think it would be many times more interesting.
In praise of defensive football
11–20 of 53 posts
Re: In praise of defensive football
#12I love watching defensive football, teams like Atletico Madrid defeating the Barcelona in the 15-16 Champions League finals.
What I hate watching is the time-wasting, injury faking shenanigans that defensive teams also do. Unfortunately, it's a part of the game due to football's insistence on using a running clock, which makes zero sense from a competitive aspect and needs to be changed.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#13Ironically, 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.
That was indeed brilliant. Loved to watch that. Explosive attack, instant chaos. Wonderful football. Reminded me of Bayern playing under Heynckes, very similar in style.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#14I love watching defensive football, teams like Atletico Madrid defeating the Barcelona in the 15-16 Champions League finals. What I hate watching is the time-wasting, injury faking shenanigans that defensive teams also do. Unfortunately, it's a part of the game due to football's insistence on using a running clock, which makes zero sense from a competitive aspect and needs to be changed.
> Unfortunately, it's a part of the game due to football's insistence on using a running clock, which makes zero sense from a competitive aspect and needs to be changed
Can anyone explain why this is, either than historic reasons like "it's the way it has always been done."? It seems a bit odd in today's world that they don't have a clock that everyone can see and the ref having the ability to signal to stop and start it.
And perhaps it's just accepted but I've often found it strange too that in extra-time the ref will usually let play continue through the time while a team is on the attack and only ending the game after the defense has killed the threat. It seems like a lot of discretion for a single person, the ref, to have.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#15Ironically, 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…
Perhaps the key is that possession and attacking are not actually as connected as it seems to the casual observer. If you get the ball back in your own box, are you defending or attacking?
My problem with the tiki-taka is exactly what you describe. Pass it around but do very little, wear out everyone's patience while you wait for a gap to open up. Even recent versions of Barca and Spain have felt this way at times, the difference between doing it positively and negatively seems to be pretty razor thin.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#16Great 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
What's more fun is the theory that "football" is not about how one contacts the ball but more about how one plays on foot rather than on a horse. The term "football" was derisive towards the games peasants play vs nobility playing games like polo.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#17Good defensive football is a joy to watch. It's a feat of organization and doesn't necessarily mean the teams don't score at all, or don't score good goals.
Someone like Antonio Conte has a pretty defensive style and his teams often rank very low (good) in goals conceded, but they are also almost always in the top 2-3 teams in terms of goals scored.
More recently, Thomas Tuchel's defensive reorganization of Chelsea this last season completely changed their approach to the game and won them the Champions' League.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#18Ironically, 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 organ…
Is "gegenpressing" used in English?
Re: In praise of defensive football
#19Ironically, 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…
Perhaps the key is that possession and attacking are not actually as connected as it seems to the casual observer. If you get the ball back in your own box, are you defending or attacking? My problem with the tiki-taka is exactly what you describe. Pass it around but do very little, wear out everyone's patience while you wait for a gap to open up. Even recent versions of Barca and Spain have felt this way at times, t…
The evolution from this seems to be to overload just one side of the pitch (or effectively just a quarter of it, instead of the entire opposition half) while leaving a wide attacker on the other side for a quick switch of play.
The defending team is then forced into either committing more defenders into the overloaded side (and leaving 0 or 1 defenders to cover the lone winger) or staying symmetrical and thus likely not impeding the buildup enough.
This is basically how Italy played in the Euros, overloading the left and leaving Chiesa open on the right thus creating valuable opportunities for him to take on a defender 1:1 with lots of space behind them.
This is probably the best you can do if you want to have high possession without constantly running into brick walls.
Re: In praise of defensive football
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 organ…
Is "gegenpressing" used in English?
It has been since Jürgen Klopp started working here.