The nature of football

As I watch every single match of the world cup, yesterday I was watching Holland vs Brazil. As almost every country nowadays does, both  teams where trying to keep a clean sheet, rather than scoring goals. Brazil handled the pressure better in the first half and should have scored at least two goals. They only scored one, giving Holland the opportunity to get things right during half time and ultimatly get the 2-1 win.

Interesting enough, both teams played more or less in the same formation. Four defenders, two defensive midfielders (melo, silva - v. bommel, de jong), three attacking midfielders (kaka, robinho, alves - robben, sneijder, kuyt) and one target man (fabiano - v. persie). This resulted in a rather dull game.

This is much seen this WC. Only Chili and Spain choose to have an attacking style. The matches of these two teams are the only ones worth while. The rest is thrilling for the people of that specific country, but well played combinations or great goals are very, very rare.

Holland used to be the country who tried to play open and attacking football. That era is gone and since I'm dutch, I'm ashamed of the way Holland plays. Holland got this far, mostly because of luck. The goals of Sneijder yesterday were a good excample of that luck. But luck won't last forever. My hopes for the kind of football that brings real excitement are up for Spain and also for Argentina.

How a central striker can be essential

Yesterday I watched the match Spain vs Portugal. The keyplayer was Llorente, who came in the pitch as a substitute for Torres in the second half.

The coach of Spain, Del Bosque, knew that Portugal would be on the defensive so he thought of a plan to create space way up front. He used Torres and Villa more or less as wingers and let Iniesta play a free role to help out the midfield. Obviously he hoped this would make the defenders of Portugal decide to put pressure on iniesta on the midfield. The problem was they didn't. Spain had all the possession but couldn't create chances of any kind.

When Llorente, a central striker, came in everything changed. Llorente stayed in the middle and acted as a stand for Villa, Xavi, Iniesta and others to have the ball close to the goal to try to make a shot. Ramos and Villa became the wingers who were able to put in some nice crosses. This resulted in a major chance for Llorente, only after one minute on the pitch. The cross came from Ramos and Llorente was able to make a header. Fortunatly for the keeper is was directed at his hands.

Because Spain now had someone in the box who could keep the ball, wheter they tried to reach him through the air or through a regular pass. The goal is an excellent example of this. Llorente got the ball in the box, which was picked up by Iniesta who make a throughpass to Xavi who could reach Villa with his backheel. Villa then made the goal.

So, a central striker can be very important, not only in making goals, but also in creating chances for other players.

Holland vs Slowakia review

Today I was very excited to see the match between Holland and Slowakia. I've seen Slowakia play some good attacking football against Italy so I thought the match against Holland would be a nice one, since Holland tries to play attacking football as well.

Well, at 6 o'clock I was left dumbfounded. Holland controlled the match by not give away any spaces in the back and Slowakia was unable to put some pressure at Holland's defence. Two counters led to a 2-0 victory for Holland.

Slowakia tried their best but couldn't do any better. Holland played a very negative match. They couldn't get the ball foward and keep it there. The main reason for this is the poor position play of the midfielders. Holland plays with two defensive midfielders, three attacking midfielders and one striker. Sneijder is supposed to be the playmaker and plays as the central attacking midfielder. Robben en Kuyt were the two wingers behind Robin van Persie.

Each time a pass went to van Persie he had to deal with two defenders, because there was no one in midfield to support him. De jong and van Bommel are always too far off because they are given the task to defend. Sneijder lacks creativity and fails to see how and when to step forward. Van Persie lost almost all his battles versus Srktel and so Holland couldn't keep possession.

Sneijder is the main reason why holland can't keep the ball, although he has his qualities. The first goal is a perfect example. Mathijssen reaches Sneijder with a great tackle, Sneijder turns and immediately gives a great long ball behind the defence of Slowakia. Arjen Robben takes the ball, makes a run towards the centre and scores with his left foot.

Holland played very defensive after this and gave Slowakia even the chance to get back in the game. Unfortunatly for Slowakia fans their striker missed two great chances.

How to create your own concept of football (attacking)

As I said in my last post, a coach needs to determine which idea or concept of soccer you stand for. This time I'll talk about dominant, or attacking, football. The Dutch national team gained overall respect by playing this kind of soccer.

Dominant means that you're in control of the flow of the game. This usually translates into having more possession of the ball. When your team has the ball, the other team can't score. This is a unique and entirely different philosophy. There are a number of things important if you want to have any chance of succeeding:

1. High pressure
2. Use of spaces
3. Passing

The best formation to play dominant football is a 4-3-3 formation. This is the only possible formation to put pressure on your opponent, everywhere on the pitch. FC Barcelona plays in this formation and is the most succesfull squad over the recent years.

To keep possession of the ball you need to make as many triangles as possible, because it's the best way to play forward without giving opponents the opportunity to gain possession. Here is an explanation of the 4-3-3 formation: 4-3-3 formation

Like you can see in the video all three midfielders has to be near the center of the pitch. This way you gain the upper hand in midfield, mostly because the majority of the teams play with two central midfielders.

To exploit this advantage you have to make sure the passing and movement of your players is above average. Passes must have good speed, players need to move when given a pass and support other players in possession. If this goes well, you won't lose possession, anywhere on the pitch. If passes are given without power you leave yourself open for the counter.

How to create your own concept of football (defending)

A soccercoach thinks a lot about soccer. You need to determine which idea you stand for. There are a large number of concepts you can apply to your team. For example, you can play a dominant kind of football (attacking) or you can react on that which your opponent does (defensive). In my opinion these are the only two concepts which benefits your squad the most.

Whatever concept you aplly, your team needs to work together. The formation is the most important aspect. Although some coaches think it's better to adjust the formation based on kind of players in the squad, I think the standard formation comes first. After this you can make slight adjustments depending on the squad.

Let's start setting up a concept for a defensive kind of play. Most teams play in a classical 4-4-2 formation, like the US and England in the world cup. Always start with deciding what to do when the opponent have ballpossession.

First, you want to mark the two forwards. You should cover them with three defenders. Two defenders to mark the forwards thight, and one to cover the space behind.
After this you should mark the opponents wingers, so you need two full backs. This way, your formation consists five defenders.

Second, you need two central midfielders to cover the opponents central midfielders. Now, there are some options you have left with your remaining three players. You can choose to play with three strikers, or you can play with an extra (creative) midfielder and two strikers. I would pick the last option. You need a creative player who can feed the two strikers.
Your formation should look like this: Formation

Very important is to play with low pressure. You can't play with high pressure because you don't have enough players to put pressure on your opponent so your strikers will waste energy.