Football - the beautiful game
And what an amazing weekend we had to prove it. Chelsea going to Munich & returning with the Champions League....a true underdog story. Not only did they beat the most successful team in Germany, they also beat one of the best teams this world has ever seen - Barcelona. Yet there were many people who were unimpressed with this feat & their main complaint was that Chelsea had played "ugly football" & were simply lucky to reach the final.
Now this article isn't about the Champions League final nor is it only Chelsea's performance; it's about this "ugly football" which many people were complaining about. For the most part, I saw a tactic being adhered to in a disciplined manner. Anti-football, the worst named tactic in the book, is actually another term for Ultra-defensive. The idea is that you repel the ball from your box at all costs by outnumbering the oppositions attack, disrupt play & wait for a mistake from the opponent.
2 ends of the spectrum:
Over the past half-decade, the world has seem the product of many years of "Total Football" combine with Spanish flair to produce the "Tiki-Taka" style which Barcelona play. We are taught by our peers & social media that this is the pinnacle of what football is meant to be, yet is is simply a tactic embedded into the thinking of each of their players. Since football is a game of tactics, surely there must be an opposite to this tactic...a kryptonite to this Superman.....an anti to this football? It seems that this Ultra-defensive/anti-football is the tactical kryptonite for Tiki-Taka. Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Celtic & Rangers are some of the more recent teams to take points from Barcelona, who, for all their pretty football, could end this season without a trophy.
Not so simple:
As footballers & those watching football, we seldom spend much time praising the structure of defenses & tend to focus more on the technical ability of individuals, or the speed of an attack. Defense is an after-thought, or a back-up plan, never the main plan. To have less than 20% possession yet still stick to a plan is quite hard. Teams who play anti-football incorrectly are usually sitting back for an hour & asking a large man to punch them hard in the face - it will happen if not played correctly. If defending accurately for 1,5 hours was easy, Sporting Gijon would be taking points from Madrid & Barca. Instead, it's quite difficult. Man United twice met Barca in the finals & twice tried to play a free-flowing attack against them. It failed.
Parking the bus; Anti-football & the Dark Arts:
Everyone has their own opinion of what these terms mean, so here's my version of the 3.
Parking The Bus - usually when a team uses numbers instead of tactics. A last resort & low IQ tactic.
Anti-football - the positive would be the ability to match stronger teams.
The Dark Arts - this is the diving, time-wasting, scratching, swearing and complaining to the ref, which is so often associated with the anti-football tactic. It's bad, but it does break the play & puts the opposition off. As long as it's within the rules.....even Drogba, for all his diving, managed to stay on the pitch for a full game.
Tactics:
Going toe-to-toe with a stronger team is not a good idea, so how do you give your team an advantage? How do you even the playing field? With tactics. Variations of 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 usually end up as 9-0-1. The outlet striker is important & will be used when the opposition is so focused on attack that they are unable to defend a counter-attack properly. At the back, a key point is to outnumber the attack, using zonal-marking to put more 2 or more defenders on an attacker. Do not dive into tackles & allow the opposition possession outside the box.
I had an issue with the reaction given to a different choice of tactic, a defensive tactic. I believe that it can help a disciplined team achieve great things & that it should be respected (if not watched as often) as an equal to the many free-flowing attacking tactics we're presented with daily. Trophies go down in history with a side helping of either "they played pretty to win it" or "they defended well to win it". Remember "attack wins games, but defense wins championships".
And what an amazing weekend we had to prove it. Chelsea going to Munich & returning with the Champions League....a true underdog story. Not only did they beat the most successful team in Germany, they also beat one of the best teams this world has ever seen - Barcelona. Yet there were many people who were unimpressed with this feat & their main complaint was that Chelsea had played "ugly football" & were simply lucky to reach the final.
Now this article isn't about the Champions League final nor is it only Chelsea's performance; it's about this "ugly football" which many people were complaining about. For the most part, I saw a tactic being adhered to in a disciplined manner. Anti-football, the worst named tactic in the book, is actually another term for Ultra-defensive. The idea is that you repel the ball from your box at all costs by outnumbering the oppositions attack, disrupt play & wait for a mistake from the opponent.
2 ends of the spectrum:
Over the past half-decade, the world has seem the product of many years of "Total Football" combine with Spanish flair to produce the "Tiki-Taka" style which Barcelona play. We are taught by our peers & social media that this is the pinnacle of what football is meant to be, yet is is simply a tactic embedded into the thinking of each of their players. Since football is a game of tactics, surely there must be an opposite to this tactic...a kryptonite to this Superman.....an anti to this football? It seems that this Ultra-defensive/anti-football is the tactical kryptonite for Tiki-Taka. Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Celtic & Rangers are some of the more recent teams to take points from Barcelona, who, for all their pretty football, could end this season without a trophy.
Not so simple:
As footballers & those watching football, we seldom spend much time praising the structure of defenses & tend to focus more on the technical ability of individuals, or the speed of an attack. Defense is an after-thought, or a back-up plan, never the main plan. To have less than 20% possession yet still stick to a plan is quite hard. Teams who play anti-football incorrectly are usually sitting back for an hour & asking a large man to punch them hard in the face - it will happen if not played correctly. If defending accurately for 1,5 hours was easy, Sporting Gijon would be taking points from Madrid & Barca. Instead, it's quite difficult. Man United twice met Barca in the finals & twice tried to play a free-flowing attack against them. It failed.
Parking the bus; Anti-football & the Dark Arts:
Everyone has their own opinion of what these terms mean, so here's my version of the 3.
Parking The Bus - usually when a team uses numbers instead of tactics. A last resort & low IQ tactic.
Anti-football - the positive would be the ability to match stronger teams.
The Dark Arts - this is the diving, time-wasting, scratching, swearing and complaining to the ref, which is so often associated with the anti-football tactic. It's bad, but it does break the play & puts the opposition off. As long as it's within the rules.....even Drogba, for all his diving, managed to stay on the pitch for a full game.
Tactics:
Going toe-to-toe with a stronger team is not a good idea, so how do you give your team an advantage? How do you even the playing field? With tactics. Variations of 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 usually end up as 9-0-1. The outlet striker is important & will be used when the opposition is so focused on attack that they are unable to defend a counter-attack properly. At the back, a key point is to outnumber the attack, using zonal-marking to put more 2 or more defenders on an attacker. Do not dive into tackles & allow the opposition possession outside the box.
I had an issue with the reaction given to a different choice of tactic, a defensive tactic. I believe that it can help a disciplined team achieve great things & that it should be respected (if not watched as often) as an equal to the many free-flowing attacking tactics we're presented with daily. Trophies go down in history with a side helping of either "they played pretty to win it" or "they defended well to win it". Remember "attack wins games, but defense wins championships".
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