5 Main Tactics to Understand Modern Football

Football has been interpreted differently by each manager since its emergence and has been brought to the field with different strategies and formations. Managers have adopted different formation and tactical understandings according to the skill ceiling of the players and with the aim of limiting the opponents, and they have arranged their teams on the field according to this understanding.

Since each manager looks at the game differently, tactical understandings have emerged that try to limit or completely stop each other. Some teams, due to player quality; while some teams adopt a football that is protective, keeps the score, slows down the tempo of the game, and leaves the ball to the opponent, so to speak, with the decision of the coach; Some teams, keeping the tempo high and keeping the pressure at the forefront, did not want to give the ball to the opponent, and when they did, they wanted to take it with a sudden press called 'gegenpress' and continue the set attack again.

Shields: Fend off Raids

We had the opportunity to watch examples of these formations in many matches. While the moves were being implemented mutually, there were certain purposes. Now there are systems with three defenders, two fullbacks, and a total of five defenders; four attacker systems were taken to the field to defend. Sometimes, because triple systems are numerically superior in the face of pressure, they aimed to set up the game comfortably without defense and to start the attack without losing the ball.

Of course, in modern football, it’s not just the attackers’ job to attack. For this reason, coaches who wanted to go to the opponent’s area with more people sometimes put one or sometimes two fullbacks on the attack, again a move to achieve numerical superiority. To stop these types of moves, of course, having three stoppers is not the only option. Quad defence; that is, in the structure with two defenders and two fullbacks, from the midfield to the center and from the wings to the sides; that is, help was brought to the opponent backs and it was desired to defend the area with correct matches.

Marcelo Bielsa, one of the pioneers of modern football, uses a structure called ‘man to man’, that is, man to man, which is a match for each player, which is intended to be the shadow of the player with whom the players are matched, and in this way, he tries to defend his field with the right man pairings.

This type of defensive tactics to stop the opponent can be found in all matches of Mourinho and Guardiola. The transition game-oriented defense he made both in Barcelona matches in Real Madrid and in City matches in Tottenham caused a lot of trouble to the attack of Manchester City.

Swords: Flock to Coming

In defense, just as organization, cohesion and correct placement according to the opponent are as important as personnel ability, tactical richness, correct runs and using the field in the widest way are as important in attack. We can see these expansions and the runs that need to be scored in the Klopp and Guardiola matchups, which are perhaps even more valuable than El Clasico at the moment, and are highly enjoyable to watch.

In addition, it is possible to see good offensive sets, high tempo and good defensive placements not only in the matches of two attacking teams, but also in the matches of a defensive team and an offensive focused team.

It should not be forgotten that; Pleasure is maximized when good offense is done against good defense in the match. In order to overcome solid defenses and man-to-man presses, to get behind these defenses; There are tactics and formations that are used and that, when applied well, increase the number of goals and positions in the match. In today's football, how a team performs rotations in three areas on the field is more important than how it is lined up on paper. As an example to this; An example of breaking this type of defense is that Guardiola, who plays with a creative player in the center and with a lot of midfield origin players, throws one of their full backs into the midfield and has one more person in the center, thus putting the names like İlkay, Foden, De Bruyne in the center into the penalty area and providing numerical superiority.

Heavy Metal Football

Teams that have mastered playing the ball and do not let the opponent out of their own half of the field, of course, have a lot of weapons. One of these weapons, and the one that puts the opponent in the most difficult situation, is the gegenpress, that is, the sudden press after a turnover.

These teams, when they lose the ball, want to grab the ball and go back to the opponent while the opponent is getting ready to attack. This press, which is done in the front area, requires everyone to go to the right places, at the right time, in sync, from the farthest to the farthest, and is a defensive form used by teams that want the ball and want to keep the tempo high in today’s football.

Except for the front area press, it is desirable to corner the opponent on the field with dynamism and intensity. Although not in full form, Liverpool is the greatest example of this. Bringing two technical and talented fullbacks such as Robertson and Trent to the attack with names such as Firmino, Salah, Mane and Jota in the future, an energy tank like Wijnaldum in the midfield in 4-3-3, and a technical leader like Henderson, almost drowning the opponent. Key to success. Of course, it’s not just Klopp and Liverpool. Guardiola’s City, Gasperini’s Atalanta, Hansi Flick’s Bayern can be good examples of teams that try to outflank and strangle their opponents.

Cross Passing

The more dangerous a weapon the Gegenpress is, the more important it is to be able to pick up from defense and get up with passes.

While coming out of the defense with the ball, you can overcome the opponent with technical feet and numerical superiority in order not to let you play comfortably, and you can achieve numerical superiority in the opponent's half and score a goal.

Now, let me talk about the templates that can be used to overcome this pressure. Triple defenses are structures that are more comfortable in removing the ball from the pressure numerically. However, if the system is two-stopper, you can include one of your fullbacks in the game setup. Likewise, Guardiola does this with Kyle Walker and sets the line-up with fake-back Cancelo as 3-3-4 or 3-2-5 and starts the attack by getting out of the pressure.

Another option is; You can put a technical player between the two defenders and start the attack in the form of 3-4-3. Klopp exercises this option using Fabinho between the centre-backs. In the quarter-finals match played recently, we saw that Real Madrid got rid of the pressure of Liverpool with the balls and started the attacks.

Zidane used either Toni Kroos or Casemiro between the centre-backs.

Stability Monument: German Panzers

In every league, there are teams that have won the championship for a few years in a row or that play for the championship every year: Juventus, Milan, Inter; In England, Liverpool, Manchester City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, also known as the 'big six', are among these teams. However, in recent times, Bayern Munich, which is a monument of stability in the Bundesliga, where every team is a competitor and everyone from the smallest to the biggest creates problems for their opponent, has shown us stability and discipline by winning the league cup thirty times.

Continuing these successes in recent years and winning the Champions League with Hansi Flick last year, the club is one of the clubs that gives us the taste of modern football. As for the games; unpretentious, calm but effective and at the same time rational football can be called. Neuer is a crazy libero goalkeeper, so to speak. At the far end is Müller, a superintelligence unto himself. In addition, this system, which is simply a goal machine and works with Lewandowski in a multi-disciplinary and stable manner, occupies a great place in today's football.

Sporika enable teams to practice modern football tactics in professionally designed environments. From our hotels to fields, we give ultimate attention to optimize the performance of the teams and make them have a better training camp period.