Example – Aggressive Possession Football (Part One)
Summary of Tactic
Playing style:
- Combination of defensive football, short plays and aggressive defending
- Team mentality – Cautious (defensive football)
- Team passing directness – Much Shorter Passing (short plays) and Play Out Of Defence
- Team pressing intensity – More Urgent (aggressive defending)
- Look for possession football (defensive football combined with short plays) and aggressive defensive football (defensive football combined with aggressive defending) in the “Playing Style Composition” table above).
Formation:
- 4-1-4-1 DM Wide
- 4 Ds / 1 DMC / 2 MCs / 2 AM(R/L)s / 1 STC
- Neutral formation (neither more attacking nor more defensive before other tactical instructions) – helps the team to invite more pressure with defensive football while applying more pressure with aggressive defending.
Player roles and duties:
- GK – Goalkeeper (Defend)
- DR – Wing Back (Attack)
- DCR – Central Defender (Defend)
- DCL – Ball Playing Defender (Defend)
- DL – Wing Back (Support)
- DMC – Anchor Man (Defend)
- MCR – Central Midfielder (Support)
- MCL – Central Midfielder (Support)
- AMR – Inside Forward (Support) – technical number-ten
- AML – Inverted Winger (Attack)
- STC – Pressing Forward (Support) – target-man
Analysis of Style Methods
Higher/lower risk style methods:
- Natural – low risk mentality:
- Cautious team mentality.
- Contrasting – high risk mentality.
- Natural – short passes:
- Decreased player passing directness – 0 players.
- Note that the Play Out Of Defence team instruction also decreases passing directness for D(C/R/L)s, DMCs and WB(R/L)s.
- Much Shorter Passing team passing directness.
- Note that it is the team instructions that are important here. If a player is given increased passing directness it would be outweighed by the effects of the decreased team passing directness.
- Decreased player passing directness – 0 players.
- Contrasting – long passes.
- Increased player passing directness – 0 players.
- Natural – closing down:
- Increased player pressing intensity – 1 player (Pressing Forward).
- More Urgent team pressing intensity.
- Note that it is the team instruction that is important here. If a player is given decreased pressing intensity it would be outweighed by the effects of the increased team pressing intensity.
- Contrasting – sitting off.
- Decreased player pressing intensity – 0 players.
- Natural – narrow positioning (attacking width):
- Sit Narrower – 0 players.
- Decreased team attacking width.
- Note that the Cautious team mentality automatically decreases team attacking width to a small extent.
- Contrasting – wide positioning (attacking width):
- Stay Wider – 0 players.
- Natural – low tempo play:
- 0 players.
- Decreased team tempo.
- Note that the Cautious team mentality and Much Shorter Passing team passing directness both automatically decrease team tempo to a small extent.
- Contrasting – high tempo play:
- 0 players.
- Natural – refraining from dribbles:
- Dribble Less – 0 players of note (2 players are instructed to Dribble Less but they are ignored because the use of 2 such players is typical).
- Contrasting – direct dribbles:
- Dribble More – 3 players (Wing Back (Attack), Inside Forward, Inverted Winger).
- Natural – refraining from crosses, crosses from byline:
- Cross Less Often – 1 player (Inside Forward).
- Cross From Byline – 1 player (Wing Back (Attack)).
- Contrasting – crosses, crosses from deep:
- Cross More Often – 1 player (Wing Back (Attack)).
- Cross From Deep – 0 players.
- Natural – playing out of danger:
- Play Out Of Defence (team instruction).
- Contrasting – clearances:
- 0 players.
- Natural – refraining from shots:
- Shoot Less Often – 1 player of note (Anchor Man) (Central Defender is essentially irrelevant to its deep positioning).
- Contrasting – speculative shots:
- Shoot More Often – 0 players.
- Natural – wasting time:
- 0 players.
- Increased team time wasting.
- Note that the Cautious team mentality automatically increases team time wasting to a small extent.
- Contrasting – sporting integrity:
- 0 players.
- Natural – playing for set pieces:
- 0 players.
- Contrasting – sporting integrity:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – roaming movement, runs into channels:
- Roam From Position – 0 players.
- Move Into Channels – 0 players.
- Neutral – disciplined movement:
- Hold Position – 0 players of note (3 players are instructed to Hold Position but they are ignored because the use of 3 such players is typical).
- “Make more disciplined movement” – 0 players.
- Neutral – lateral dribbles:
- Cut Inside With Ball (on the flanks) – 2 players (Inside Forward, Inverted Winger).
- Run Wide With Ball (in central areas) – 0 players.
- Neutral – disciplined dribbles:
- Run Wide With Ball (on the flanks) – 2 players (2 Wing Backs).
- Neutral – passes into space:
- Take More Risks – 2 players (Ball Playing Defender, Inside Forward).
- Neutral – passes to player:
- Take Fewer Risks – 1 player (Anchor Man).
- Neutral – creative freedom:
- “Use more creative freedom” – 1 player (Ball Playing Defender).
- Neutral – tactical discipline:
- “Use more tactical discipline” – 0 players.
- Neutral – pushing up from the back:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – sitting deep at the back:
- 0 players.
- Decreased team defensive line.
- Note that the Cautious team mentality automatically decreases team defensive line to a small extent.
- Neutral – pushing up from the front (defensive depth):
- 0 players.
- Neutral – sitting deep at the front (defensive depth):
- 0 players.
- Decreased team line of engagement.
- Note that the Cautious team mentality automatically decreases team line of engagement to a small extent.
- Neutral – wide positioning (defensive width):
- 0 players.
- Neutral – narrow positioning (defensive width):
- 0 players.
- Neutral – stepping up:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – stepping back:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – man marking:
- Mark Specific Player/Position – 0 players.
- Neutral – zonal marking:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – tight marking:
- Mark Tighter – 0 players.
- Neutral – loose marking:
- 0 players.
- Neutral – tackling:
- Tackle Harder – 1 player (Pressing Forward).
- Neutral – holding off:
- Ease Off Tackles – 0 players.
Balanced risk style methods:
- Natural – collecting the ball:
- “Collect the ball more” – 0 players.
- Natural – dropping deep:
- “Drop deep more” – 0 players.
- Natural – carrying the ball:
- “Carry the ball more” – 1 player (Ball Playing Defender).
- Neutral – focusing play:
- Focus play (to playmaker focal role) – 0 players.
- Focus play (to target-man focal role) – 0 players.
- Note that “focus play (to target-man focal role)” would contrast with the playing style as it effectively implements direct plays to some extent.
- Contrasting – dribbles into channels:
- “Make more dribbles into channels” – 0 players.
- Contrasting – hold-up play:
- Hold Up Ball – 1 player (Pressing Forward) – this player is used to perform creating chances in central attack, as part of the implementation of defensive football.
From the higher/lower risk style methods list above it can be seen that the ‘natural’ style methods refraining from dribbles, refraining from crosses / crosses from byline, and playing for set pieces have not currently been implemented to a greater extent than their contrasting style methods.
Furthermore, refraining from dribbles has actually been implemented to a lesser extent than its contrasting style method.
The ‘natural’ style methods crosses from byline and refraining from shots have been implemented to a greater extent than their contrasting style methods.
Passes into space, creative freedom, sitting deep at the back, sitting deep at the front and tackling have also been implemented to a greater extent than their contrasting style methods. However, these style methods have no particular tendency to either suit or contrast with the playing style.
