HOW TO WATCH A SOCCER / FOOTBALL MATCH
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Okay, Thierry. You’re right. Following the ball is not ideal when you want to get the full picture of the game. So we need to ‘watch the game’, but what does that mean? How do you do that? It’s not the most practical advice.
Let’s break it down into some actionable steps to help you or those you work with, coaches, parents, or young players, start watching the game.
First thing to bear in mind is that conscious gaze is our attention, and our attention are the things that we are aware of exist and are important.
Experts in anything have trained their attention by becoming knowledgeable in their trade. For example, a real estate agent has trained their eye to pay attention to important factors of a house that will make it easier to sell. A dog trainer has trained their gaze to direct their attention to the dog’s behavior that communicates certain emotions or actions.
This is the difference between a novice and an expert.
In terms of watching matches, you train your attention by knowing which factors will lead to having a better understanding of what is happening on the pitch, and more importantly, solving the problem on the pitch.
Before we continue, a quick reminder that football is a problem to be solved. Both teams have the same objective, score more goals than the opposition. Which means that they are both preventing each other from achieve that goal…
So what are the important factors that will help us solve football problems in a match?
DEFENSIVE SIDE OF THE BALL
The first is the relationship between the attacking team and the defending team. By this I mean when Team A is attacking, how is Team B defending?
For a novice, this may be a daunting task in itself so we have to break it down further.
Let’s start with the defensive side of the ball.
The easiest place to start is the first line of pressure or the front line. How many players are they using to start their defensive pressure?
The next easiest factor to direct your attention to is how many players are in their back line? Is it three, four, five, maybe six?
Lastly, now that you’ve identified the front line and back line, it’s now time to figure out everything in the middle. This can sometimes be the most difficult because everything between the front line and back line can get a little messy because there is often a lot of movement in this area. However, using simple maths we can figure it out; there are 10 field players so if you see there are two players pressing from the front line and the back line has four players, that means there are four other players who should be somewhere in between those lines. Those four players are the midfield line.
So now that we have the basic structure, we can now figure out if there is any movement between lines.
For example, do center backs or outside backs jump into the midfield at any point? Midfield players ever jump into the front line? Do front line players track back into the midfield?
When you start to notice these patterns, you are gaining a perspective about how a team interacts in defence. These patterns are what make each team unique defensively.
This is just the beginning because now that the defensive shape and interactions are evident, you can now start to identify how the attacking team provokes the defending team. This is the next step.
ATTACKING SIDE OF THE BALL
We first have to understand the relationship between the two teams. When Team A is defending, how is Team B attacking?
With attacking it’s a little bit different because we’re going to use the defensive team as the reference point.
Firstly, we identify how many attacking players are between the defensive front line and the attacking team’s own goal. Obviously, to do this we must identify the defending team’s front line.
It will usually be the goalkeeper and two, three, or even four players.
Secondly, we identify how many players are in line or alongside the defensive team’s back line. We can consider this the attacking team’s front line. The number of players on the front line will vary widely. It can be anywhere from one to five players.
Lastly, we identify all the players in the midfield. To do this we can do some simple maths - if there are ten field players and there are two in the back line and two in the front line that leaves six in the middle. The players in the midfield can be the most difficult to observe because these players might be rotating constantly, especially if they play high quality football.
Now that we have a basic attacking structure, we must now identify if there are any movements between lines.
For example, do front line players drop into the midfield? If so, do any midfield players move into a front line position? Do any midfield players drop in the back line?
These kinds of movements are known as interchanges (2 players) or rotations (3 or more players). When we start to notice these patterns in attack, we are gaining a better perspective to how a team attacks. These patterns in movement are what make each team unique.
What I have provided in this section is a tool to view the game. However, it’s not the only one. Another one that you could use when watching a team that is extremely fluid in their attack, by this I mean that they apply many interchanges and rotations, is the Outside, Inside lens.
OUTSIDE, INSIDE LENS
It can be more difficult to pick up on patterns with teams who are fluid in their attack. So to make this process easier we can use something I’ve called Outside-Inside.
To do this, we have to have a clear understanding of what a defensive block is. When a team is defending, using the ten field players you can see that they create a shape.
The outline of the shape is formed by the outermost players.
In the following images, you can see the striped shape is the team’s defensive block or shape.
When we are watching a match, we start by identifying the defensive block. To do this, we identify the back line and the front line, and then connect the two lines to create a block.
You will notice when watching any match that the defensive block is usually smaller than the attacking block. There is a law of the game that constraints this behavior.
Law #1 states that the goal is placed in the center of the pitch. When teams are defending, they naturally want to avoid the ball going through the middle of the field because that’s the most direct route to the goal.
So often you see this kind of relationship between defensive and attacking shapes.
Now to apply our Outside-Inside lens.
When teams attack fluidly, players might not stay in positions, however, they will always have an attacking shape which is directly interacting with the defensive shape.
The Outside-Inside lens simply attempts to identify how many players are inside the defensive block and how many players on the outside of it.
One of the most fluid teams I have seen this year is Las Palmas, who is currently playing in Spanish second division.
In the following images, you can see that both against a high press and mid-block they have six players on the outside and four players on the inside.
Players will rotate in and out the defensive block. You might see a player who is along the outside, say the right winger, move into the defensive block and a player who was inside the block, say an attacking midfielder, move out of the block.
This creates a nightmare for the defending team because there is constant indecision about who they are meant to be marking or covering. The attacking team is in complete control.
The Outside-Inside lens is a great tool to view the game. It can be used as an analyst or coach but it can also be used as a tool to help players understand how they can rotate positions to create indecision while maintaining an understanding of the team structure.
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