http://www.theoriginalcoach.com/#!total-defending-and-verticality/ckv0 We examine the defensive methods of German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund under Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp. By Feras Suwan [HR][/HR] It will go down in Champions League folklore; Bayern Munichâs comprehensive dismantling of Barcelona on their way to the UEFA Champions League crown in 2013. Most importantly, however, it wasn't just a result which demonstrated the dominance of one team over the other, it was the symbolic gesture of the type of football that is now needed to succeed in Europe. This type of football can be summed up in one word: balance. Bayern are the modern version of Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan in that they boast complete balance - attack, defence, transitions, set pieces, and fitness. This team is quickly becoming a modern coach's manual to base their training principles on. There is, however, one particular aspect of their play which I would like to focus on in this article - their defence. What Is Total Defending? Total Football is a phrase used to describe the movements of players during the attacking phase of play, that is, when their team is in possession. It is based on fluidity of positions, rotations and covering your teammatesâ runs. In this way, players use the movements of their colleagues for reference rather than zones on the pitch. However, Total Football is almost seldom used in reference to the defensive phase of play. The reason? Well, almost every team in Europe plays a zonal-based defence, positioning themselves in a particular area of the pitch and rarely moving away from it. I can only recall one team in Europe that has used pure man-marking â Marcelo Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao who used this tactic to great effect on a rainy night in San Mamés a few years ago against Barcelona. The problem with this way of defending is that it requires an extreme amount of concentration, discipline, commitment, and fitness. Consequently few teams are able to implement it effectively and consistently. Fundamentally, a team should deploy either zonal or man-to-man marking, but not both. This is where Bayern come in. I believe that they have quite possibly set a new trend in defending tactics, matching the significance of Sacchi's invention: Total Defending. The legendary Italian, who is widely regarded to have mastered the art of zonal marking, once said that there should be no more than 25 metres between the strikers and the defenders. The reason for this is to restrict the space in a vertical sense, hence reducing the distances between players. As a result, this makes it difficult for the offensive team to pass or dribble through the middle of this compacted space. The problem with this tactic - and any other for that matter - comes from geometry. Let's take a pitch with dimensions of 100m by 60m - this equates to 6000 square metres in area. If we take the goalkeeper out of the equation, each outfield player would have to cover 600 square metres, or about 25m by 25m in order to cover the entire distance of the field. This means that when all players on one team are evenly spaced out, no player is closer than 25 metres to his nearest teammate. Breaking it down this way, it becomes clear just how much space is to be found on a football pitch. So why is all this a problem you may ask? In simple terms it means that it is not possible to defend the whole pitch. In theory at least, no defensive tactic can reach optimal efficiency. If a team chooses to defend via a high pressing tactic, space will be left behind their block. Alternatively, a tactic of defending in a low and compact block will allow space in front of the block and gift the opposition possession. Logically then, the best method of defending would be a hybrid between the two systems. Thatâs where Total Defending comes in. Total defending is a hybrid between zonal and man marking used in a clever way. It involves two phases of play: high pressing and low block defending. Bayern have mastered the art of structurally changing the way they defend mid-game. In other words, they interchange between man marking and zonal as each scenario dictates. Often, Bayern chose to press high up the pitch, using the cue whenever the opposition goalkeeper has the ball. If Bayern choose to press high when the opponent is looking to play out of the back, the Germans will essentially be man-to-man in midfield which is a potentially dangerous situation if the opponents can play out of the high pressure. This is where the cleverness of Bayern comes into play. Ribery, Robben and Muller will engage the back five, including the keeper whereas the midfield trio of Alonso, Schweinsteiger, and Lahm defend zonally. As soon as an opposition player receives the ball in their midfield zone they will pressure him with gusto. Even cleverer is the way that Bayern's players can leave their zone to follow their man further away from his own goal and force the play back to the keeper. If this happens, a player that is away from the zone of danger (i.e. far away from the ball) will replace the player who has just left his zone. Consequently, the whole team mimics the positional rotation of Total Football, only in defence. The advantage of defending in this highly adaptable way is that the best tactic can be used at the best times. If the situation of the game requires a high press, they can do it. It is the same with zonal or man-to-man defending. Theoretically, total defending is the most efficient method. Think about it this way - pretend you are selling paint to artists. If you only have three colours - red, blue and yellow - you can only sell them to painters who want those colours. What happens if an artist asks you for some green paint? If you can only sell the paints individually, you will lose a customer. However, if you have the ability to combine blue and yellow, you can now sell green paint and expand your customer base. In football, the customer base is the other teams in the league and if you have the ability to combine all types of defending, you can play better against a wider range of oppositions. The Bavarian giants are the masters of mixing their core colours to create the perfect balance to counteract specific qualities and strengths. While they may never achieve maximum efficiency or be able to cover the whole pitch, they are the closest thing to defensive perfection in the game today. Verticality In a period of the game where possession is preached Ad Nauseum, it is refreshing to watch Borussia Dortmund display a brand of football different to most teams in a subtle but noticeable way. They play with a tactical mechanism called Verticality. Heavily influenced by a modern genius in Marcelo Bielsa, verticality is simply a reference to a style of play where the ball is brought from back to front as quickly as possible using short passing combinations. In essence, a slow, possession based build up is discouraged in favour of a more direct and quicker one where the ball travels forward at pace. Bielsa himself explains this philosophy in a nutshell: "Once we have the ball, we try and find a way of getting forward as quickly as possible, in a vertical direction if you like. But we donât get frustrated if we canât get it forward immediately, we aim to be comfortable on the ball, and if itâs not a case of going forward straight away, we keep it.â Jürgen Klopp is not as idealistic as Bielsa but his team certainly display a characteristic of the Argentineâs teams. Dortmund are much like Bayern in that they can adapt to what is required from them. They can keep possession for the sake of it or they can introduce rapidity into their attack on the transition, which they are deadly at doing. While Dortmund are certainly not a long-ball team, they possess an adaptability for Bielsa's vertical approach. Klopp is indeed a known admirer of Bielsa. The Marseille manager believes that vertical penetration using quick passing combinations brings about winning football. In this way it is a pragmatic concept as well as an idealistic one. Much like Total Defending, where many modes of defence combine to create a model as close to perfection as possible, the combination of possession and counter-attack work in the same way. The problem with possession is that, while having the ball is certainly more desirable than not having it, you force the other team into sitting deep in a low block defence. This is the bane of possession orientated teams such as Barcelona and Spain. In order to overcome this incessant and repetitive obstacle, the possession team must provoke the opponent with the ball either during a rapid counter attacking transition or during the build-up phase. André Villas-Boas explains the concept of provoking the opponent with the ball using verticality: âThere are more spaces in football than people think. Even if you play against a low block team, you immediately get half of the pitch. And after that, in attacking midfield, you can provoke the opponent with the ball, provoke him to move forward or sideways and open up a space. But many players canât understand the game. Top teams nowadays donât look to vertical penetration from their midfielders because the coach prefers them to stand in position (horizontally) and then use the movement of the wingers as the main source to create chances.â So as a coach, you must know exactly what kind of players you have and analyse the squad to decide how you want to organise your team offensively. Perhaps some players are more important than others. For instance, many teams play with defensive pivots; small defensive midfielders. Except for Andrea Pirlo and Xabi Alonso - and perhaps one or two more - they are players that are limited to the horizontal part of the game: they keep passing the ball from one side to another, left or right, without any kind of vertical penetration. Canât you use your defensive midfielder to introduce a surprise factor in the match? Letâs say, first he passes horizontally and then, suddenly, vertical penetration? Barcelona play horizontally only after a vertical pass. See how the centre-backs go out with ball; how they construct the play. They open up by moving wider so that the full-back can join the midfield line. Guardiola has talked about it - the centre-backs provoke the opponent, invite them forward then, if the opponent applies quick pressure, the ball goes to the other central defender, and this makes a vertical pass. âAt this time of ultra-low defensive block teams, you will have to learn how to provoke them with the ball. Itâs the ball they want, so you have to defy them using the ball as a carrot. Louis van Gaalâs idea is one of continuous circulation, one side to the other, until the moment that, when you change direction and space opens up inside, you go through it. So, he provokes the opponent with horizontal circulation of the ball until the moment that the opponent will start to pressure out of despair. What I believe in is to challenge the rival by driving the ball into him.â André Villas-Boas. In order to create space when a team is defending in a compact block, it is necessary to play the ball vertically, bypassing opposition players and making them turn towards their own goal. Now the attacking team has the advantage because the opposition midfielders are no longer shifting laterally - rather, they are running back towards their own goal which is a much less comfortable and organised way of defending. Defenders will get sucked infield, towards the ball and leave themselves open to passes to the flanks where the players have just left this space to contend with the threat of the vertical ball centrally. Klopp has masterminded a team which is deadly when they regain possession and the other team is not organised to defend as a group. Within one or two passes the ball has travelled forward and seized the space before the opponents have had sufficient time to reorganise. This is the key to Borussia Dortmund's game and itâs a glimpse into the growing part that Verticality has to play in modern football. What Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have shown us is that balance is still a key factor in a successful team. The ability to interchange between systems mid-game has come back into focus when the Barcelona model had previously shown us that only one system was needed - if implemented well enough - to be successful. The true success has been Total Defending and Verticality.
This is ok but i don't get some of the stuff about the pitch size as frnakly players don't spread out like that they shuffly left and right depending o nwhere the ball is. i'd say only 70% of the width of any pitch is ever used at one time. but anyway. The points made are: 1 front 3 actucally work to press back 5 consistsntely (not half heartedly or in retreat like we do) 2. Middle 3 press in their zones and if someone turns and moves away from goal they will chase them up hard 3. requires shuffling across to fill gaps what is never mentioned is to keep the gaps between players down you need confidence in system AND you need a keeper like every side emntioned has who is out allowing the defence move up with midfield and keep that high line. whether you use sideways passing or player striding up to provoke a gap or what you need that confidence i nthe system and thats what LFC are not doing. we HAD a system up to 46mins v chelsea last season. Gerrard stood between two very far apart cbs in a back 3 and any of them could stride forward AND we had two forwards looking to penetrate the back line of the oppostiion so there was space for midfielders to move and get a pass. In short now we've a deep line with gerrard 5 yards up, not facing the opponents and trying 40 yards balls by the time he does turn. no forward penetration at all and we sit in fornt of sides all day.
I'm a fan of the zonal system and have been for many years, it's simple and effective but takes concentration and most importantly communication.
yes it requires clear lines of responsibility and no hot heads jumping out chasing the wrong ball. (lovern)
The problem there is again communication he chases and at times correctly, his partner does not cover the hole left by him really simple stuff that we are getting wrong but we play with 2 head the balls in Lovren and Skrtel one of the pair has be be a thinker and a communicator.
yes and time he jumps across another defender who'd clearly got that ball. clealry yes a head the ball as you say but can he adapt?
