Football can be tough to pin down. With so much happening on the pitch, we tend to talk about tactics at a high level — they played on the front foot in a 4-2-3-1 — without really getting down to how the game actually works: roles, runs, rotations, reads, assignments, triggers, timing, angles, distances and all the other details that make up a style of play. Where would you even start?
In this ongoing series, John Muller takes a closer look at the mechanics of the game, one little piece at a time, comparing how different teams play — and why — to help make football make sense.
Each edition can be found below.
Wall passes, pressing triggers and jumping your opponent
Third-man combinations in the double pivot
Cutting the pitch in half
Keeper-backs
Midfield pivots and receiving the ball across the body
(Header: design by Eamonn Dalton)
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