Topic: Liverpool Tactics and the Sacchi Influence.

[hesbighesred]

The AC Milan side of Arrigo Sacchi is known as a huge influence on Rafa’s ideas and methods, and he in turn was inspired by the early ‘total football’ sides like Michel’s Dutch side and Lobanyovski’s Dynamo Kiev. Many of these ideas, especially the defensive ones, underpin all of modern football. However, one crucial idea is rarely, if ever, implemented to its fullest extent.

This is, essentially, the idea that all players must play an equal part in the system. Every player is as important in attack as in defence, and that the players must have the mentality and the capability to accept that the team’s full potential can only be exploited if every player understands and implements the system fully. Sacchi puts this very well:

Football has a script. The actors, if they’re great actors, can interpret the script and lines according to their creativity, but they still have to follow the script.

Note interpret, not improvise. This is where I believe we are closer to that ideal than many of our rivals. They adapt the system to individuals; we adapt the individuals to the system.

Given that, I want to take a closer look at our ‘script’. To start with, I’ll be looking at how we attack when in control of the match. Many of these ideas relate to the ‘Level 3’ concepts explained here:

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=225239.0.

Key aspects of this are versatile players…or at least ones with a broad range of skills, interchange of positions and full backs who can get forward. All players should, if possible, be comfortable on the ball, each one able to act as a ‘playmaker’.

Next I’ll be looking at our defence, paying particular attention to our pressing systems, some ideas on how this works, and a look at some of the different variations we employ. You’ll find along the way that many common questions have sensible answers if looked at through an understanding of our overall approach.

The need for strong mentality, defensive discipline, tactical awareness, versatile players, even rotation and the problems for Rafa inherent in buying ‘orthodox’ wingers are at least partially explained once the team is seen as one machine made of the most suitable 11 components, rather than trying to build 11 components into the best machine you can.

To start with, a quote from Jonathan Wilson in his history of tactics ‘Inverting the Pyramid’:

…The man out of possession is just as important as the man in possession…football is not about eleven individuals but about the dynamic system made up by those individuals.

Some important principles that will recur throughout this article, and indeed any you read about the legendary modern coaches:

1.   From Renus Michels: ‘players who can regain the ball are indispensable.’
2.   ‘Total Football’ is about making the pitch big in attack, and small in defence
3.   Mentality, technique and versatility are hugely valuable, mentality most of all.

Some more things I learned from ‘Inverting the Pyramid’:

1.   Players able to ‘play between the lines’ are the key to unlock defences.
2.   As is winning possession in the opposition third. This second is hugely important.
3.   All teams these days employ some key features from ‘total football’ ideas, particularly varieties of zonal marking (note that the famous current ‘zonal marking’ debate surrounds set pieces. It is relatively rare for teams to man-mark in open play anymore) and pressing systems.

I’ve listed these ideas here because they really do crop up repeatedly, and are a big help in trying to answer ‘why’ a Rafa or a Sacchi approaches certain things in the way they do. For example, hitting it long and being compact in defence, with 10 behind the ball, seem  the very antithesis of ‘total football’, but are actually a vital part of a true ‘total football’ team, if you consider the maxim of making the pitch big in attack and small in defence. Long passes are great for stretching the play - expanding the pitch - a compact, 10 man defence shrinks it.

One thing I love about Rafa’s Valencia:

1.   Their nickname: ‘The Crushing Machine’. I want it.

Attack, attack, attack, attack - attack! Our approach when dominating games:

Keeping those ideas in mind, here are some of Rafa’s ideas in attack. The reason I’m using specific players here, not when I look at the defence is that I find it much easier to visualize how our attack might perform when specific players are named within it. In defence I feel the roles are the same regardless of who is in which formation ‘slot’, but in attack using faceless dots to represent players makes me feel like I’m abandoning the reality of what I see on the pitch and only trying to imagine what I think we should see.

-------------------------Torres---------------------

--Riera------------Keane/Gerrard------------Kuyt

--------------Alonso---------Gerrard/Mash

------Dossena----Agger----Carra-----Arbeloa

--------------------------Reina   

Lets start with the front men. Each player can easily swap in two positions: Either winger with Gerrard, or either with Torres. Gerrard/Keane can swap with anyone, so can Torres. Each player has the quality to not just offer something in the swapped position, they can something different. Being out of position is an irrelevant consideration, as regardless of the notation, they are all operating in areas of the pitch they are comfortable in and have played in many times. At times we're 'blurring' the distinction between these positions in the way that Man Utd and Arsenal are so praised for.

What at first can be seen as a defensive formation ‘4-2-3-1’, actually has the potential to be as attacking as a 2-3-5, all we have to do is tuck in Riera and Kuyt, and have the full backs pushing on. It can just as easily take the shape of other ‘back 4’ based formations.

Any of the front four can hold, run with the ball, run off the ball, go wide, cross or come in from a deeper position. Also notice that both ‘holding’ midfielders are able to operate box to box and out wide, while both centre backs can also take on the function of players ahead or wide of them.

This versatility goes all the way back to Reina, and every single one of these players can do something effective, efficient or unexpected with the ball at their feet, in any position they find themselves in. Over to Arrigo Sacchi:   

The player needs to express himself within the parameters laid out by the manager…Then the player makes decisions based on that…it’s about being a player. Not just being skillful or being athletic. I didn’t want robots or individualists. I wanted people with the intelligence to understand me, and the spirit to put that intelligence to the service of the team. In short, I wanted people who knew how to play football.

We’ve seen signs of how this looks since the pre-season friendly games. Balls played quickly into feet from the defence and holding midfield. Interchange and movement from the front four, often one takes the ball while the other three run, if no pass presents itself one of the full backs has had time to offer some width, while the ‘holders’ and remainder of the defence (including Reina) provide deeper options, and all of whom can play probing passes or even run with the ball should space and opportunity arise.
 
Alonso’s goal against Valarenga is a good example. Interplay between Arbeloa and Kuyt, on to Keane who has ghosted central and deep from wide left, pulling a man massively out of position and laying off for Xabi to score. If Xabi didn’t fancy the shot, Keane’s movement meant an acre of space for one of Dossena, Benayoun or Torres. If this comes to nothing, the ball goes back into midfield/defence, to be returned to one of the front four either dropping deep or making a run.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6cm-iqCywEo

Now, while our current players don’t offer the crossing strength of a traditional 4-4-2, we more than make up for this minor fault by having eleven players all capable of contributing to an attack independently and collectively, pretty much every single one of whom is able to step out of their role or line and into another one with little or no discomfort.

This is the circulation football described in Royhendo’s article as ‘Level 3’ football, and while it is by no means our only way of attacking, it is the game dominating approach we are aiming for.

A note on the Barry saga. While I don’t want to get into that debate here, I hope with the explanation above you can see how important versatility and the ability to change shape within the game with the same players can be. In this sense alone, Xabi is one of our most limited players, the one least able to take up and cover the positions of those around him, whereas Barry can and does do it with ease.

However, Xabi on top form also brings a level of sheer quality few can match, and to his credit we’ve seen in recent games that he is upping his versatility level too, it’s not uncommon to see Xabi around the edge of the box, or filling in at full back, or even staying much deeper if Agger starts roaming. Carra is also somewhat limited compared to Skrtel, but even in his case we can see he is making a huge effort to carry the ball out more.

The Case for the Defence:

Now to look at our defence, and to Sacchi again:

I used to tell my players that, if we played with twenty-five metres from the last defender to the centre-forward, given our ability, nobody could beat us. And thus, the team had to move as a unit up and down the pitch, and also from left to right.

We are solid in defence. That’s a function of the system and players. This is not to say we are inherently defensive, quite the opposite in fact…as was the case with Sacchi’s Milan. All of the traits described for our attack start with what we do without the ball. This is why players who can regain it are indispensable. Just as we have 11 potential ‘attackers’, we need 11 potential ‘defenders’. Sacchi again:

…when you have the ball, you dictate play. When you are defending, you control the space.

The approach to controlling space is two-fold. There is the physical position of the players (keeping ‘compact’, as Saachi describes above) and the degree of pressing we employ. The less time the opponent has on the ball, the smaller his pitch becomes, but also the more tiring it is for our players. Knowing when to sit deep and let the opponent pass in front of us, or when to close down with maximum intensity from the front players on back is a big part of our success so far.

Defensively is where formation, as written, becomes more relevant. I visualise our system as something like a pinball machine. Most outfield players are ‘pins’, with the centre-backs and central midfielders acting more like the flippers you get at the bottom, and on the better ones half way up a pinball table.

---*----------*-----------* (*denotes a pin, flipper or player, note that the wide forwards
 
-------*------*------*------   track back, the centre-forward tracks sideways, the centre

--*------*-------*--------*   mids are more of a triangle, with the central one moving less)

Just like in pinball, the way to get a big score is to keep the ball at the top end as much as possible. The aim of the ‘flippers’ (the two CBs and the wider CMs as portrayed in this diagram) is to keep the ball at that top end, although there is a different emphasis. Again like in real pinball, the higher flippers can be more precise, can target high scoring areas more efficiently, at lower risk should the target be missed. For the CBs the aim is to get it clear first, but for that clearance to still be aimed quickly into one of the danger areas. Agger and Reina are superb at this…Reina in particular is more like a rugby full-back than a ‘keeper with his sweeping and long kicks.

Now imagine overall shape of the ‘pins’ is kept together by the back 4, who slide around the pitch trying to get the ball into that front end, and trying to keep no more than 25 metres between the back four and the front men, with the front men being right up to the opposition’s back four. Now imagine that the pins aren’t static, and that aside from the CBs they are actively closing down and harrying within a certain area of influence around each pin.

This is my visualisation of ‘full pressing’. Employing this is the best way of winning the ball back in the final third, which is by far the likeliest way to score. Unfortunately doing this often requires enormous mental and physical resources, and it always requires an exceptional back four playing a well drilled offside trap, and a sweeper keeper. Fortunately, Rafa has equipped us with all of those things.

Now, imagine the ball fired to the top end of the pinball machine, and the amount it bounces/scores points before it falls back down towards the CB ‘flippers’. Imagine if one, two or even three of the front six pins don’t work. Suddenly the ball can return to the back four almost instantly down certain avenues. This is why all players should have positional sense and tackling ability. Tackling ability is probably less important than positional sense and the will to track back (or harry/deny space when an opponent is in your zone), but still, you can see a problem Rafa has here looking for quality orthodox wingers.

The ones with the mentality don’t often have the skills, the ones with the skills don’t have the mentality, while those with both come with astronomical price tags attached as soon as they’re detected in the womb, and even then often lack the stamina to last whole games, never mind seasons. Sacchi explains how this differs from Dutch pressing:

…they were based more on athleticism, we were more about tactics. Every player had to be in the right place.

The physical demands placed on the wider players in this system also explain why they are rotated more often, and the demands on the whole team show why rotation is so important, as an unfit player has a similar effect to one who can’t/won’t defend. Our centre forward also has to be in near perpetual motion. Although he doesn’t run as far as some, he always has some pressing responsibility. This, for me, is why Rafa often likes to take the striker off with ten minutes to go. Here a fresh striker can have the most impact, while a tired striker can do the most damage, or be more likely to get injured.

It’s also important to remember here that different positions need to do more work. Wingers do the most, but strikers are most dependent on sharpness, and also have to be able to close down the whole back 4 themselves at times. CBs do the least pressing, and you can see this in the players Rafa substitutes. I don’t think we’ve ever ended a match with the exact same front 3 (wingers and striker) who started it.

There is another feature to our defence though. Sometimes we drop off, defend deep. Let them try and play through the back 6, while the front/wide players harry/track them with varying intensity. This serves three functions. Firstly, it lets us recover. Secondly, it draws out the opposition. Third, it changes the size of the pitch.

What happens here can easily be mistaken for standard long ball tactics. I like to think of it as controlling the opposition mentally while posing a number of new and fiendish problems, especially to weaker teams with a more fixed mindset. If we change our mentality, it can force the opponent to change theirs. Both teams could sit back exchanging long balls, but that suits us, we recover energy for another burst of full pressing. If they try and keep possession or seize their perceived chance, we can be more direct and/or counter quickly. Sacchi again:

Pressing is…about controlling space. I wanted my players to feel strong and the opponents to feel weak. If we let [them] play in a way they were accustomed to, they would grow in confidence. But if we stopped them, it would hurt their confidence. That was the key: our pressing was psychological as much as physical. Our pressing was always collective.

The wide forwards are important for this. They have to have the physique and technique to be able, along with Torres, to control and make use of long balls from the back as well as quick balls into feet, and the versatility to either go for the quick cross/run on goal, or to make use of the new option of several runners from deep positions, or to pick up on any flicks from Torres. The second goal against Valarenga was an example of this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d6SGg3RO4X8

This kind of variation and flexibility does significant damage even when goals aren’t being scored. Remember the Valencia crushing machine. Not only can we pin you in your own area, make and exploit small spaces and stretch you with our full backs, we can also drop deep, draw you out, expand the pitch and hurt you with direct play/quick countering. Of course, because it is us initiating the changes we are in control, while the opponent is always (so to speak) looking over his shoulder, unsure what to expect.

Chelsea was a wonderful example of our different types of pressing, from high up the pitch, winning the ball back from their back four if at all possible, to sitting deeper yet stopping them doing the same to us (namely staying compact in our half) by having Babel, Riera and Kuyt all as a constant aerial threat, with two stretching the pitch out wide, and Babel with his pace stretching it lengthwise, thus preventing Carvalho, Cole and Bosingwa having their usual attacking influence.

You could think of it as like playing a concertina…as we squeeze and stretch the pitch we get it to play to our tune. We start to ‘own’ it. Remember as well that all our opponents are working on similar defensive principles in terms of a zonal, defensive block. By having varieties of pressing, versatile attackers and as much threat through the centre as out wide we are able to pull their block out of shape…and exploit the spaces. Over to Paulo Maldini:

…with [Sacchi] it was all about movement off the ball, and that’s where we won our matches. Each player was as important defensively as in attack.

Vitality of Versatility:
 
This illustrates how vital versatility, or at least a broad range of skills in each player, is to building a truly great team, rather than a team of great individuals. This is why players like Pennant, Crouch, Bellamy and Alonso are/were either at risk or on the way out, while players like Keane, Kuyt and Barry are sought after or favoured.

Having greatly skilled but inflexible players is ultimately hugely counter-productive, simply because we are now at a stage where every player has to be able to operate in more than one position, and be able to cover gaps that others leave. Crouch was a great option, for example, but a very static one. His lack of movement also means the wide players can’t move, as their supply line is vital, which also means defenders don’t get pulled out of position, which means less space for Torres, Gerrard and anyone running from deep. Compare this to even an off form Keane, and you can start to see why the extra £10million was worth it to Rafa.

This huge interdependence is arguably the strength and the weakness of very systematic football, as one part missing has a huge effect on the whole, and is surely one of the major reasons behind our excellent disciplinary record, namely that Rafa is obsessive about things like needlessly losing at least 10% of our pressing efficiency.

A last quote from Sacchi:

In my football, the regista - the playmaker – is whoever had the ball. But if you have makelele, he can’t do that. He doesn’t have the ideas to do it, although, of course, he’s great at winning the ball. It’s become all about specialists. Is football a collective and harmonious game? Or is it a question of putting x amount of talented players in and balancing them with y amount of specialists?

This is Sacchi talking about the Galacticos, but he could be talking about any number of teams. He describes this as reactive rather than pro active football, and I think he is right. Play the same way all the time, with the same players in the same formation and no matter how good you are you can always be beaten by a determined opponent with a plan to stop you.

Being pro-active and controlling games is not only about being able to do unpredictable things with the ball, but also being able to vary your game plan, stop the opponent achieving theirs, and having as many players as possible capable of making and exploiting spaces. Most of all, it is about having the ball in the first place, and this depends on the defensive system.

There is an argument that says there have been no radical innovations since Sacchi. While this has a lot of truth to it, I think it’s fair to say that Rafa, at the very least, is seeking to push these ideas as far as they can go. We have not just a team, but an entire squad of multi-rolled and multi-skilled players, with more of the same coming through the youth ranks, all of them being schooled in the same systems.

Rafa’s Valencia were arguably only a couple of seasons with better backing away from achieving similar legendary status. I hope Rafa can not only fulfil that vision with us but in time take it even further.


<sub>All quotes are taken from Jonathan Wilson’s exceptional history of tactics, ‘Inverting the Pyramid'.

Thanks to Royhendo and all the contributors on his ‘Level 3’ thread, and to RAWK for being quality.</sub>

[Matts]

Man thats a long post, bit too late at night to read it all....... Will make the effort to go through it during my lunch break tomorrow

[slickman]

That was a quality read if anyone has time go through and read it well worth it, thanks for time and effort u put into that hesbighesred

[matthew45]

Has anyone ever told you that football is a simple game?!

[hesbighesred]

Has anyone ever told you that football is a simple game?!

I didn't believe them. Football is a complex machine built out of very simple parts.

To put that in another way, Chess has far simpler rules than football. Is Chess a simple game?

[gabs]

Fascinating read that

[Bennyo]

Fantastic lunchtime read that. Thanks a lot

[royhendo]

seriously, along with yorkykopite, i'd recommend bookmarking hesbighesred's posts. you'll learn a lot!!

thoroughly enjoyed thjs post (as you know mate) and it's interesting re the pinball flippers, because in the past you talked about them being blades in a blender. either way it hints at how much of a f_cker it is to get through a side that does this well, and it'd be a great thing if even a fraction of the dunderheads who frequent the in-game threads could get their heads around the ideas you present. the board would be a nicer place as a result.

hopefully this thread really grows as an explanation of this rational school of football, and we can draw parallels with the work done by our own sides from 60s to late 80s (if people watch some of the big games again when they get the chance, they'll get a nice surprise with kenny's defensive workrate, and as for ian rush... there's never been anyone better suited to this kind of game).

Has anyone ever told you that football is a simple game?!

it'd be superb if some of the older posters on the boards could demonstrate how our club had already put these things in place (often as a result of facing top sides like Ajax in Europe and responding with innovations of our own). the game may have been portrayed as simple, but our teams played with ruthless intensity for many years - the players might not have had to learn theoretical concepts and complex ideas, but our players were intelligent and had a cast iron mentality. they were schooled in 'the liverpool way', which embodied more than just intangible dignity and pass and move - it embodied a relentelss brand of football that dominated europe for the best part of a decade.

the coaching staff found ways to bring these things down to earth for intelligent professionals, and as a system, massive parallels can be drawn with the teams fielded by the likes of michels, sacchi, and lobanowski.

the thing is, it's not that complex when you get the head around it, and we're now seeing a Liverpool side that's once again on the cusp of doing these things without having to think too much about it all. it's good timing this HBHR.

ecuared posted a brilliant article from phil ball on how guardiola's going down the same road with barca now, and his starting point was one of the best squads ever assembled in world footbal. it's taken rafa four years to build the squad's depth and quality to the level we need to do the same.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=225239.msg4952793#msg4952793

this is the article from soccernet (by Phil Ball - cheers ecuared!) and i think it's relevant to HBHR's post here.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=586175&&cc=3888

---

What was most impressive about Barça's win - against a plucky Almeria side who started the game well - was the sheer speed and physical presence of the 'pressing' game they have adopted in the last month or so. It's interesting that a side with so much quality on the ball should feel the need to do this, but its effect is ultimately demoralising on the opposition. It's hard enough to get the ball off Barça even on a bad day, but when you suddenly find yourself surrounded by a pack of home players every time the ball comes into your vicinity, and you are given absolutely no time to do anything with it, it's a double whammy of depression.

Atlético Madrid were similarly cut to pieces a fortnight ago, such that after 15 minutes it was game over, and the Almeria game followed a similar pattern, Eto'o scoring the third after a mere 20 minutes. As any pro will tell you, at 2-0 you feel you still have a chance. At 3-0, you just want to go home to your mum.

Barça knocked in five by half-time, with Eto'o scoring a hat-trick and Dani Alves getting off the mark. The full-back is beginning to look like his former self at Sevilla, now that his role is becoming clearer. He's not a full-back at all, and prefers to be given licence to roam.

Well, you can't roam when you play for Barça (unless you're Messi), but you can play 'high' if the manager's instructions have been to attack Almería in their own half, when they are in possession. That's exactly what Alves did, and it simply contributed to the tsunami of quality attacks that swept over the visitors' heads for most of the first half.

Everywhere you looked there was a sort of controlled creativity that came from almost always having the ball moving at speed, and almost always having three options available - such was Barça's movement off the ball. The fulcrum of the movement was, as ever, the interplay between Iniesta and Xavi - a classic combination of static and dynamic. Lampard and Gerrard, allegedly incompatible in England's midfield, would do well to study the theory, or watch a few Barça videos.

The secret lies in the fact that Xavi (the more 'static' of the two) never loses the ball. He dedicates himself to staying in the spaces that are created by the movements of the opposition in trying to mark the more dynamic or fluid players. He never really goes anywhere else, and he rarely runs with the ball. He simply dedicates every second of the game to retaining possession and making sure that the 'fluid' players get a constant stream of passes coming their way in territory that threatens the opposition.

Iniesta, a player who seems to be getting better by the minute, revels in the possibilities that this affords him, particularly given the fact that other players in his team (like Messi) are capable of retaining possession even when they decide to run with the ball - so to give it to them is not necessarily a risk.

Steven Gerrard, a 'fluid' player if ever there was one, benefits from having a Spanish player (Xabi Alonso) who is more static, and a forward like Torres who will always offer himself up to retain possession. In the England side, Gerrard lacks these luxuries. But Barça have them in abundance. In the second half against Almería, they took the foot off the gas and allowed their ten-man opposition to get their breath back - a gesture that may not have gone down too well with their manager or with their supporters, but there seemed to be no more desire for blood. Next week Barça travel to Málaga, who surprisingly beat Sevilla 0-1 in the Sánchez Pizjuan, making it four wins on the trot and a UEFA position.

[horne]

great read and makes a lot of sense.
not mentioned though is the influence of a bating crowd who can also have an effect on the oppositions mentality and the energy levels and motivation of the home players

i think as the clock ticks during a game the whole process (described above) speeds up when the crowd roars.the tempo picks up with the players and the pinball machine gets faster.The oppos defenders /flippers dont have the same thinking time and mistakes happen.
Time and time again i have seen this happen at anfield on the big nights,thats why it is imperative to get it right on the terraces too,which now seems to be coming together nicely.
Its nice to be part of the well oiled machine isnt it?

[Rome_1977]

I didn't believe them. Football is a complex machine built out of very simple parts.

To put that in another way, Chess has far simpler rules than football. Is Chess a simple game?

Football is a simple game, complicated by players!!

That is an outstanding read  and a great insight into both Saachi & Benitez's methods. However back to the simple statement, whilst the detail in this post could be deemed to be complex or potentially unworkable in an average team, simple rules apply throughout the varying standards of football.
Such as being as the man without the ball is as important as the man in possesion = movement off the ball, allows a team to retain possesion.
And when you have the ball make the pitch big, when you lose it become a compact unit, don't let them play through you etc....The real magic comes when you are able to transfer your knowledge, know how and pattern of play to a group of 11 individuals and make them play as you want them to.....And there are very few managers who can do this at the highest level, that is where Rafa comes into his own.....



 

[hesbighesred]

Cheers for the nice feedback everyone!

The last three games have been exellent watching for me because although I wrote most of this in pre-season, I hadn't finished it up until now. Against Wigan we saw a the dominating attacking play and 'full pressing', everyone compact, but far higher up the pitch to maximise the number of chances we could create, seeing as we had to come from behind. In the first half against Atlethico we started in that mode, but then defended a little deeper and made space for ourselves to counter into, a lot like our second half performance against Chelsea.

The psychological effect on opponents is also noticable. I don't think it's a coincidence how many opponents have had second half red cards against us, and Chelsea were walking a very thin line towards the end of Sunday's match, which given our excellent disciplinary record could also have an effect in the long run.

[royhendo]

Football is a simple game, complicated by players!!

That is an outstanding read  and a great insight into both Saachi & Benitez's methods. However back to the simple statement, whilst the detail in this post could be deemed to be complex or potentially unworkable in an average team, simple rules apply throughout the varying standards of football.
Such as being as the man without the ball is as important as the man in possesion = movement off the ball, allows a team to retain possesion.
And when you have the ball make the pitch big, when you lose it become a compact unit, don't let them play through you etc....The real magic comes when you are able to transfer your knowledge, know how and pattern of play to a group of 11 individuals and make them play as you want them to.....And there are very few managers who can do this at the highest level, that is where Rafa comes into his own.....

exactly right mate - exactly right.

mourinho uses a 'colour box' system to get these kind of ideas across to his players - the idea being that he hands out a bit of paper to and individual, or calls a colour to the team, and they are supposed to know what mode that represents. that's a massively complex idea and one that puts big demands on the players concerned - it's typical of mourinho as he tries to rebrand old ideas in ways that he can pass off as his own innovations.

meanwhile we have a manager who works long and hard both through detailed explanations and repeated practice on the training field until the players know how to do these things without thinking. again, i'm convinced things are bedding in nicely now, and the players are demonstrably coaching each other on the park - if that's not a sign that they 'get it' then i don't know what is.

[harrytrow]

Expanding and contracting requires the team to act as an organism.

I think of when under attack we shrink to make ourselves compact and more defendable, like retreating to the keep.
I tried to animate the contraction from not having the ball to regaining it in this clip


for some reason the clip is no longer available

[nocturnalvin]

without doubt a great effort but nothing personal mate, i think all these have been over-theorised.

Barca of old had Guardiola, Stoichkov, Hagi, LAudrup, Romario, Koeman in the same team... pretty much demolished everything that comes their way. Was there such over-analysis ?

The scums pretty much won the premier league titles with one system of play, attack with players with finesse.

Real Madrid has one of the most successful spell with Makelele in their team.

I am not saying you are wrong, but such thesis tends to be self-fulfilling.

[The Jackal]

Very interesting article that.

Was particularly struck about Sacchi's quote about 'interpreting a script' and also the ideas around versatility, and it got me thinking about all of this in relation to our Captain.

I think Gerrard in the past - due to necessity during Houllier's tenure - has often ad libbed, played off the cuff, deviated form the script. To be fair to him this often bailed us out - even during the early days under Rafa when we didn't really have the squad to carry out the script to the letter.

For the 'play' to be a success I think it is probably vital for the actors to implicitly trust the script writer, and I think Gerrard is finally trusting Rafa completely and is curbing his instincts to sometimes deviate from the script in order to take the lead role - because in effect there are no 'lead roles' with Rafa's scripts - every role is as important as the others.

I also think that now Gerrard is 'getting it' his versatility could be key to us over the next few years. It's obvious to most I think how Kuyt's versatility works for us (as you have explained) - he can perform the required role whether he finds himself in his starting role on the right, in an atticking position in the box, or in a defensive position in the RB. I think we all know that Gerrard has this versatility too and is a superior 'actor' to Kuyt, but occasionally in the past has not applied his versatility according to the script. He is doing that now.

[Stussy]

Wasn't Saachi influenced by our 80's teams? I read somewhere he studied our style and incorporated it into his own vision. Things just come full circle with Rafa's Saachi inspiration.

[Red number seven]

without doubt a great effort but nothing personal mate, i think all these have been over-theorised.

Barca of old had Guardiola, Stoichkov, Hagi, LAudrup, Romario, Koeman in the same team... pretty much demolished everything that comes their way

...But not the Milan of Capello, the inheritor of the Saachi legacy, who dicked Cruyff's 'dream team' 4-0 in one of the seminal performances is European football history.

[hesbighesred]

great read and makes a lot of sense.
not mentioned though is the influence of a bating crowd who can also have an effect on the oppositions mentality and the energy levels and motivation of the home players

i think as the clock ticks during a game the whole process (described above) speeds up when the crowd roars.the tempo picks up with the players and the pinball machine gets faster.The oppos defenders /flippers dont have the same thinking time and mistakes happen.
Time and time again i have seen this happen at anfield on the big nights,thats why it is imperative to get it right on the terraces too,which now seems to be coming together nicely.
Its nice to be part of the well oiled machine isnt it?

Great post. Again Chelsea was a fantastic example of that. Also, our crowd for me almost showed 'game intelligence'. They know not to get cocky against Chelsea, but we weren't cocky. Once the fans realised that we weren't just holding on, we were controlling, and when Chelsea weren't just going through a lull before the storm, but had run out of ideas, the songs came out at full force.

Regarding our history in terms of this, Wilson's book has surprisingly little to say about us.

What it does say can be summed up very easily: "We learned from the Europeans."

In the context of the book though, that's about the single biggest compliment he could pay us. He's saying we were the one English team who really wanted to play the way the likes of Ajax, Barca and AC Milan have done, rather than incorporating elements of it into a more pragmatic English approach. Our European Cup count, especially in the glory years, tells you all you need to know about how highly we're really being rated.

I also love a description he quotes about the boot-room, describing it as a library, where other coaches were welcomed to learn and talk. In that sense I'm also delighted to have Rafa at the helm. For me he's about the closest to those legendary coaches working at the top level today. Saachi makes a great point about the vision being sacrificed to individuals at clubs like Real, I think the same weakness applies to Man Utd and Chelsea. I honestly think Saachi, Michels and Paisley/Shankly wouldn't have gone anywhere near Berbatov, and a Ronaldo/Drogba would have been sold, and I think Rafa would be the same.

I believe in Rafa not because I think we'll win the title this season, or next season, but because I think Rafa's approach will, if we stick to it, lead us to not just the league but a great many trophies, if we give him the backing he needs.

@Roy:

I changed the blender to the pinball machine because I realised that the pinball machine idea actually covers everything I wanted to say about our defence: the desirability of keeping the ball high up the pitch, the way the players do not just intercept the ball but also recycle it, the idea that the more/quicker you recycle it the more points you get and the way the behaviour changes as the ball returns to our main 'flippers' the CBs. If you think about a future pairing of Agger/Skrtel, I find the idea of those 'flippers' going for the juicy high scoring multi ball ramps is a nice one. I guess I also like pinball more than blenders.

[Red number seven]

Wasn't Saachi influenced by our 80's teams? I read somewhere he studied our style and incorporated it into his own vision. Things just come full circle with Rafa's Saachi inspiration.

All great coaches learn from each others ideas. Although we all look to the great foreign coaches like Michels and Saachi for the big ideas, Shanks and Paisley were as significant innovators in football as anyone. Saachi would've been an idiot to ignore the sustained quality and success of the Liverpool of the previous 2 decades, and he certainly wasn't that.

[Paddock77]

Fantastic read. Well stated and made 'simple' (the pinball analogy ).

[royhendo]

Wasn't Saachi influenced by our 80's teams? I read somewhere he studied our style and incorporated it into his own vision. Things just come full circle with Rafa's Saachi inspiration.

spot on stussy - he visited England and imported the ideas to Italian football - no more traditional libero, in comes the offside rule...

nocturnalvin - I think it's possible to play 'off the cuff' as you describe and still dominate to an extent, but it depends on you having exceptional talents at your disposal and enough players willing to carry the extra work those 'special' players neglect.

if you do what guardiola's doing, you use some of the world's greatest players and demand intense workrate from them all. that's when things get really scary.

[azer]

Wasn't Saachi influenced by our 80's teams? I read somewhere he studied our style and incorporated it into his own vision. Things just come full circle with Rafa's Saachi inspiration.

was just going to say that.
Dont really agree with the over analysis, for me a lot of that is putting the same idea in as many different words as possible.
To win games, you need good players who are better than the opposition as a whole, pass, move and take opportunities while defending well. there is no secret to it except knowing what players to put where!

[Red number seven]

spot on stussy - he visited England and imported the ideas to Italian football - no more traditional libero, in comes the offside rule...

High tempo pressing game rather than conceeding space and defending deep. Virtually unseen in Italian football between Herrera and Saachi.

[IOMRed]

What an excellent article, dare I say a huge improvement on a lot of the topics on here which seem to be "such and such is shite" or "Rafa should pick so and so and stop playing such and such". Excellent read and very interesting.

[royhendo]

sorry, i meant to say the offside rule as an offensive weapon. obviously the offside rule existed before sacchi took over at parma (was it parma?)

[hesbighesred]

without doubt a great effort but nothing personal mate, i think all these have been over-theorised.

Barca of old had Guardiola, Stoichkov, Hagi, LAudrup, Romario, Koeman in the same team... pretty much demolished everything that comes their way. Was there such over-analysis ?

The scums pretty much won the premier league titles with one system of play, attack with players with finesse.

Real Madrid has one of the most successful spell with Makelele in their team.

I am not saying you are wrong, but such thesis tends to be self-fulfilling.

I seem to remember that Barca side won relatively little. They've only ever won 3 European cups I think. Never got close to the type of sustained success that Ajax or Milan or Liverpool had. Neither did Real, and also that was an astronomically expensive team.

Man Utd won many titles like that, but it's only in the last few seasons they've finally gotten to grips with the Champions League, they've had to learn how to adapt to different styles of play and become a better side for it...last season's Man Utd is the most complete team I can remember, better than the treble team.

Managers make compromises because of players, they don't like being 'rotated' and they don't like being made to track back and blah blah blah. Many truly magical players fall into that category. On the other hand you have players who are dedicated to winning. More and more our squad is full of the second kind. Can you say that about our rivals and their key players? Ronaldo, Drogba, Adebayor - are these players 100% dedicated to giving their team-mates and manager everything they have every day they can?

Of course, money and quality come into this, you can't build a great team out of donkeys, but Rafa has spent his well enough that we increasingly have a squad with the quality to compete with anyone, a mentality that is growing all the time, and where everyone is motivated and dedicated, playing to systems that consistently make strong opponents look like limited sides. It's not for everyone, but I like to think about why the greatest teams and dynasties are held so seperate from the rest, and one thing you keep coming back to is that the were coached/taught/learned better than the others, very rarely is it seen as the most talented individuals.

[Pr0n]

Has anyone ever told you that football is a simple game?!

Anyone can say that, until he's asked to describe in detail how it's played, what the strengths / weaknesses of a way of playing is.

Top post HBHR. One remark, I was led to believe from the topic that you were talking about art-dealer saachi, and not arrigo sacchi.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but Rafa was talking (among other things) about using momentum when he arrived at the club. He made an analogy with paddling in water, on how it's important to only paddle enough to not move backwards/or sink while the current was going against you preserving strength until the current was going with you, when you need to paddle hard. While the analogy itself might suggest a reactive rather than proactive approach (if you think of the current as the opponent) it visualizes well how we use the different parts of the game (the game being the current rather than the opposition) to our advantage. We press and attack hard when opposition is on their back-heels. We keep calm and organized while disrupting opposition when we sit back. That way, the opposition will find themselves overwhelmed when facing the current and hardly getting anywhere when current is with them.

Another interesting thing with the water analogy is, apart from water being a very dynamic element and good for illustrating the issue in question, is if you picture the attacking outlets as pipelines. The main pipeline being the one in the centre and then two on the sides. If you think of it as outlets in water, you'd have different types of currents from each of the pipelines. If you are only able to use one or two/ or parts of the/a pipeline(s) efficiently you'll have a lot less pressure in the receiving end, and it will be easy to control the effects of the currents. And the contrary pressure open the flood-gates when going forward.

For me, one crucial factor for controlling and dictating games is our strength in the centre. It's not only about the central midfield players, who are of exceptional quality, but also about our wide players supporting the centre - and vice versa in all aspects of play.

[Red number seven]

sorry, i meant to say the offside rule as an offensive weapon. obviously the offside rule existed before sacchi took over at parma (was it parma?)

Yes.

[Pr0n]

was just going to say that.
Dont really agree with the over analysis, for me a lot of that is putting the same idea in as many different words as possible.
To win games, you need good players who are better than the opposition as a whole, pass, move and take opportunities while defending well. there is no secret to it except knowing what players to put where!

Such bollocks, frankly. And how are you going to know what players to put where? How will they act? Pass'n'move is nice, it's pass'n'move. Like the rainbow, it's a description of an effect rather than an explanation of how it comes to be.

[hesbighesred]

was just going to say that.
Dont really agree with the over analysis, for me a lot of that is putting the same idea in as many different words as possible.
To win games, you need good players who are better than the opposition as a whole, pass, move and take opportunities while defending well. there is no secret to it except knowing what players to put where!

That's a pretty bloody big secret.

"All you need is well trained soldiers with excellent guns and up to date equipment who stay in cover, get their shot's on target while staying on mission. There is no secret to it except telling those soldiers where they should be at any given time."

Where each soldier should be at any given time covers a whole lot of different possibilities.

[Rafadom]

Very good read. It showed the different side of football that often goes unoticed.

Though i still feel football would be a more simpler game for many teams if they used common sense and actual intelligence.

As an example i see xabi as a rather intelligent person as well as footballer which is great to see as it is somewhat of a rarity. But in this one instanced it left him.

Their was a point whare he in was the middle which Masch, Masch had the ball and there were no options forward or out wide mainly because Masch didnt want to use his left foot so it was either the option of passing back or passing to xabi.

Now xabi literally could have about three feet to create the angle for a pass which would have created a possition for masch to run forward and xabi to pass to him which would have moved the ball forward towards the forwards allot quicker.

But he didn't and ended loosing the ball and putting us under pressure now if had trusted his thinking we would have been in a much better position.

Now i don't want this to be harsh critique at Xabi because he has been fantastic since coming back, he's use of both feet and his upping speed when running with the ball as well as his turning circle is a credit to him and long may it continue.

Its simply a point whare common sensse should rule as it would help many footballers and teams out completely, now i know football is alot about reacting to a situation but if you are commanding that situation with the ball using your brain is more important, but unfortunatly many dont.

[Red number seven]

To win games, you need good players who are better than the opposition as a whole, pass, move and take opportunities while defending well. there is no secret to it except knowing what players to put where!

As neat an explanation as to why England have won nothing for over 40 years as you will ever see.

[Stussy]

All great coaches learn from each others ideas. Although we all look to the great foreign coaches like Michels and Saachi for the big ideas, Shanks and Paisley were as significant innovators in football as anyone. Saachi would've been an idiot to ignore the sustained quality and success of the Liverpool of the previous 2 decades, and he certainly wasn't that.

Yeah, but I'm sure I remember reading somehwere that he came to visit Liverpool to study our training and to talk to our coaches. I think I read it in 4-4-2 magazine a few years back. I might be mistaken though. It was in an article about the greatest European sides of all time, and they put us head to head with Saaachis Milan.

[hesbighesred]

Top post HBHR. One remark, I was led to believe from the topic that you were talking about art-dealer saachi, and not arrigo sacchi.

Thanks pr0n, and how embarrassing

The article has been re-edited. Sorry Sacchi!

[STORMTROOPER]

fantastic post pal, enjoyed reading it.

[shadowraith]

great post i can see what you are talking about from re-watching the man u game Robbie was constantly pressing at the top making difficult for them to gain fluidity.

[NasEscobar]

Really good article this.

It's certainly starting to look like we've got a mentally strong team. A team that believes in Rafa's philosophy and the table seems to prove this.

I noticed on Sunday that Aurelio in particular played extremely narrow when defending, and was rather expansive on the attack - thereby reducing the area where they can score from. With Drogba playing we'd have approached it differently. That's why they brought Di Santo on to offer a bit more aerially.

[MikeD]

As any pro will tell you, at 2-0 you feel you still have a chance. At 3-0, you just want to go home to your mum.

There are places I'll remember......

[Pr0n]

Thanks pr0n, and how embarrassing

The article has been re-edited. Sorry Sacchi!

Ah.. errare humanum est.

It annoys me more and more the comments about football as a simple game. It's a no-comment. It's like concluding football is a complex game, or concluding the complexity of the world. Devoid of insight, devoid of meaning and above all a negation for any reason/reasoning whatsoever.

[hesbighesred]

Very interesting article that.

Was particularly struck about Sacchi's quote about 'interpreting a script' and also the ideas around versatility, and it got me thinking about all of this in relation to our Captain.

I think Gerrard in the past - due to necessity during Houllier's tenure - has often ad libbed, played off the cuff, deviated form the script. To be fair to him this often bailed us out - even during the early days under Rafa when we didn't really have the squad to carry out the script to the letter.

For the 'play' to be a success I think it is probably vital for the actors to implicitly trust the script writer, and I think Gerrard is finally trusting Rafa completely and is curbing his instincts to sometimes deviate from the script in order to take the lead role - because in effect there are no 'lead roles' with Rafa's scripts - every role is as important as the others.

For me a huge positive after Chelsea was Gerrard talking like Rafa, praising how 'compact' we were. Babel looked like a man possessed before he came on, coming to think of it. But yes, I've been really impressed with that side of Gerrard's game in the last few outings. We've still got a way to go yet though, against Chelsea, for example, I felt we were almost a little too converted, so much passing was quick and one-touch, and it's great that we're seeing that, but now comes the finesse of knowing when to take a second touch, how to adapt the script a little when we realise the match is going a little better or worse than we thought. Gerrard really getting this would be immense for us, and I think he is getting it more and more. Second half against Chelsea was almost perfect in his ability to be the extra midfielder or attacker as and when it was needed, but without ever charging around needlessly or giving up his position for too long.

Very good read. It showed the different side of football that often goes unoticed.

Though i still feel football would be a more simpler game for many teams if they used common sense and actual intelligence.

As an example i see xabi as a rather intelligent person as well as footballer which is great to see as it is somewhat of a rarity. But in this one instanced it left him.

Their was a point whare he in was the middle which Masch, Masch had the ball and there were no options forward or out wide mainly because Masch didnt want to use his left foot so it was either the option of passing back or passing to xabi.

Now xabi literally could have about three feet to create the angle for a pass which would have created a possition for masch to run forward and xabi to pass to him which would have moved the ball forward towards the forwards allot quicker.

Its simply a point whare common sensse should rule as it would help many footballers and teams out completely, now i know football is a lot about reacting to a situation but if you are commanding that situation with the ball using your brain is more important, but unfortunatly many dont.

This post relates to the extra level of comfort within our system that we haven't got yet. We're like an actor in the first flush of a big opening night, the next test is how we continue to grow into the role.

It also illustrates how important mentality is, you have to have players who want to constantly improve, want to be moved out of their comfort zones if that will make them better players. This is why players like Pennant and Babel, who are in many ways players that don't seem like likely Rafa buys are with us. Whatever their initial weak points, both are willing to learn and to work. I know Pennant hasn't been any type of significant success, but I think it's fair to say he's improved as a player and matured as a person, and on the pitch (for the first team) he's never shirked the job that's asked of him.