But football is more than just technique or vision on the pitch. In a game of 90 minutes and the scoreboard that determines the outcome, there are scads of things unravelling on the pastures – those that are visible to the managers better than anybody else in the entire stadium.
Perhaps a majority of you might not be aware of the term ‘Raumdeuter’. And, after reading the aforementioned quote, most of you folks will definitely visit Youtube and watch videos of Thomas Mueller to know whether the things said by Marti Perarnau actually stand true.
If Perarnau’s description of the German does have any veracity, what then, is the secret that makes Thomas Mueller so special and an indispensable part of the Bayern Munich and German national team setup?
For a Raumdeuter role to be carried out to perfection, a player needs to have a positional sense and tactical astuteness of the highest pedigree. Thomas Muller, though deployed on the right flank as seen in formations, is given the freedom to roam around and look for spaces. His intelligence enables him to see things normal footballers don’t, which is why he is always present in the right place at the right time to score goals.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City played some swashbuckling football last season
The swashbuckling brand of football that Manchester City executed on the pitch and the beauty that it emanated surely won’t be forgotten for a long time. It is nothing short of injustice to know that with such beautiful football, the Citizens couldn’t lift the Champions League title, albeit they did dominate the English top-tier like never before.
The Spanish tactician used a three-man midfield consisting of Fernandinho, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne. It’s the use of the latter two for which Guardiola needs to be lauded.
Next comes the Spaniard’s use of false full-backs, a tactic he used sparsely at Barcelona but densely at Bayern Munich. In this strategy, Guardiola instructed his full-backs Walker and Delph or Zinchenko to move into the half-spaces(closer to the pivot) and create extra passing lanes so as to confuse the opposition midfielders and draw them out of their position to create spaces. The use of false fullbacks also helped in ball retention and nullifying or guarding the counter-attacks by crowding the midfield.
The bald-headed genius does deserve an applause for his brilliance, doesn’t he?
#8 Catenaccio (Inter Milan)
Helenio Herrera won the European Cup in 1964 and 1965 using the Catenaccio tactic
Popularly known for its use in Italian football, Catenaccio has been quite misunderstood and is widely known only for its defensive part of the game, although it boasts a very specific system. Meaning ‘door bolt’ in Italian, it does emphasize heavily on the defence but also has attacking characteristics that have been ignored.
However, Catenaccio actually shot to fame when it was used by Helenio Herrera at Inter Milan. Herrera, often regarded as the finest exponent of the tactic, tweaked Rocco’s version by introducing the libero, also known as the ‘sweeper’. Normally, the sweeper was positioned as a spare defender behind the usual three-man defence and was tasked with the duty of clearing loose balls and double marking the opposition striker whenever necessary.
In the earlier ages, in order to be exempted from the rule, an attacker was required to have at least three players between himself and the opposition goal (1 goalkeeper and 2 defenders). However, a change in the law meant that only two players were allowed between the attacker and the opposition goal (1 goalkeeper and 1 defender) – that is precisely the rule we follow today.
However, with only two men in midfield, this left a creative void in the centre of the park. To tackle this problem, Chapman shifted the two inside forwards in his five-man attack into the midfield, adding more creativity in the middle. The system looked like a 3-2-2-3 and resembled the two letters W and M.
Arsenal won a two First Division titles and an FA Cup title under the tutelage of Chapman and his WM formation.
#6 The 3-3-1-3 formation (Ajax)
Louis Van Gaal used the 3-3-1-3 formation with a bunch of youngsters at Ajax
Back in season 1994/95, a young Ajax team consisting of would-be legends took the world by storm with their enthralling style of play. They operated in a modified 4-3-3 system that pushed the boundaries of attacking football to new extremities. Louis Van Gaal, the then-coach of Ajax, used a 3-3-1-3 system with a bunch of graduates from the club’s youth academy and executed this new technique with perfection.
While Cruyff used a wider midfield so as to protect the flanks, Van Gaal used a narrow diamond with a playmaker connecting the attack to the midfield. This system requires players to have a great technical ability and high-level concentration since even a single misplaced pass can lead to a vulnerable counter-attack situation on the flanks.
Sarri-ball is based on possession-based football similar to Guardiola’s Tiki-Taka. However, it puts greater emphasis on verticality in contrast to the Catalans’ style to move the ball horizontally up the field. The possession-based style of play is executed using quick, short passes and also focuses quick transitions from defence to attack.
Also, Sarri’s strategy attacks heavily down the left flank. The right flank trying to make an impact with a few touches. The deep-lying playmaker in the three-man midfield, Jorginho in this case, is the heartbeat of the system as every build-up play runs through him.
Initially formed at Empoli and refined at Napoli, Sarri-ball gained prominence at the latter in season 2017/18. Napoli played a highly brand of attractive football and remained at the top of the league table for the most part of the season. Although they lost out to Juventus in the dying embers of the Serie A, their inexperience in those stages is more to blame than the flaws in the system.
#4 Gegenpressing (Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool)
Jurgen Klopp is famous for popularising the Gegenpressing technique
‘Gegen’ in German roughly translates to ‘counter press’. Gegenpressing is a type of pressing technique popularised by current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp since his days at clubs Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund.
Gegenpressing is precisely based on this idea of pressurizing the opponent by pressing heavily against him and compelling him into making a mistake after he has just won the ball. Though ‘pressing’ as a tactic has been in practice since Total Football was born in the 70s, different managers have different ways of using it for different purposes.
The technique involves players moving into close packs by using short passes so that if they lose the ball, they can retrieve it back immediately by surrounding the opposition player who possesses the ball.
If even one player shies away from his pressing duties, the opposition may be afforded the space to move the ball out of tight areas and start counter-attacks which may lead to a collapse of the structure. Since it requires the players to be continuously on their toes and barely gives them time to catch a breath, stamina also becomes one of the crucial aspects required to implement the technique.
Guardiola’s tiki-taka approach revolutionised football
Probably the greatest tactical innovation of the modern times, the Tiki Taka has its roots in the Total Football system used by Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team at Barcelona in the late 80s and early 90s.
When Pep Guardiola was appointed as the steward of Barcelona, he used his vision to create a system based on Total Football, but one that relied heavily on passing. They partly shied away from exploiting the space every time and focused more on retaining the possession of the ball by passing it around in order to control the game.
Initially, Guardiola had instructed his players to stay rooted to their positions until they reached the final third of the field. The build-up would start from the goalkeeper itself, with the ball being moved over the pitch in triangular patterns. Once they breached the final third of the opposition, Guardiola afforded his players the freedom to leave their positions as suitable and score the goals using sleek one-twos or through individual brilliance.
Lionel Messi popularized the False 9 tactic in modern football
In modern football, False 9 has gained tremendous popularity thanks to its perfect demonstration by Barcelona’s legendary hitman Lionel Messi. However, False 9 is a technique that, like so many other tactics, has its roots in the 1930s.
The false 9 creates an uncertainty in the defence, as the defenders get bamboozled over the idea of following the striker deep into the midfield. Should that happen, the void that gets created in the opposition defence is exploited by the attacking wingers, who move inside and score goals.
False 9 was first used by striker Matthias Sindelar for Austria in the 1930s. Hungarian forward Nandor Hidegkuti was deployed as a false 9 later in the legendary team of Hungary, the Mighty Magyars of the 1950s. It is important to note that this tactic usually uses players that aren’t physically fit to be a traditional no.9 due to their stature and strength.
#1 Total Football (Ajax, Barcelona and The Netherlands)
Johan Cruyff was the kingpin of the Ajax side that used Total Football in the late 60s
Total football is perhaps the greatest evolution of tactics that came into existence in football. It is also regarded as the base on which the possession-based style of play is built.
Total Football was influential in exposing the weaknesses of the Catenaccio – the system that relied heavily on man-marking. With players continuously interchanging positions, the opposition defenders were often found out of position in an attempt to mark the assigned player, creating spaces for the attackers to exploit and score goals.
