Understanding the difference between player behaviour and the intention behind the behaviour. Describe the WHAT and explain the WHY.
Often in modern analysis we simply describe the behaviour of a player or player/s on the field. The next step (and perhaps more importantly) is the intention behind said behaviours.
Modern day analysis can often be superficial. It tends to describe the behaviour of players and little more. Analysis implies that we can understand and subsequently explain whatever it is we’re analysing. Therefore, we should provide the reader with an explanation of the behaviour.
Describe the what (behaviour) and explain the why (intention). Of course, the behaviour is what we see and therefore quite “easy’ to describe. The intention, however, is hidden behind the tactical principle/s of the team and the individual principle/intention of the player.
Unless we are an analyst working for a club, it is difficult to know and understand the exact tactical principles and individual intentions associated with that team. The job of an independent analyst is then to recognise patterns and interpret the behaviour of the players to produce a possible explanation for what is happening. How does team X attack? How does team X defend? How do they transition?
What are tactical principles?
Tactical principles are rules that guide the behaviours of players in a football team. Without tactical principles players would experience constant miscommunication and it would be almost like street football. These principles are at a team level and therefore can also be known as team intentions.
Tactical principles align the intentions of the players in a team and allow them to look at football through the same glasses. For example, when the team is in possession in a certain area of the field, the 10 teammates off the ball are behaving in a way that is aligned to achieve the objective of the game through their tactical principle.
What are individual intentions?
Individual intentions refer to the behavioural choices of the different players on the football field. These individual behaviours look to contribute towards a given tactical principle. As the term itself says, it is at an individual/player level.
Let’s paint a framework for analysing football through a more objective lens and with a deeper understanding of what is actually happening.
Objective of the Game: Score Goals
Team Functions: Attack, Defend & Transition
Team Tasks:
- In Attack: Build Up + Create Goal Scoring Chances
- In Defence: Deny Opponent Build Up + Deny Goal Scoring Chances
- In Transition: Begin one of the above 4 tasks.
When we watch and analyse football, it can help to first identify what moment a team is in to begin to identify patterns of behaviour and the intention behind said behaviour.
Example:
Team A looks to begin their build up in a 3+2 shape (behaviour). The intention behind this could be to stretch the first line of opponent pressure horizontally and have two players behind the opponent’s front line. This allows Team A to progress the ball centrally towards the opponent’s goal (intention).
Other examples of common tactical trends described in modern analysis can be:
- Overload the midfield
- Attack in a 3-2-5
- Occupy the 5 vertical lanes
- Overload to isolate
- Play in the half spaces
Again, these are descriptive at best. It is simply describing the behaviour of the players on the field. In my opinion, the key piece lies in trying to decipher what is the intention behind the behaviour.
Why does a team look to overload the midfield? Yes, it gives you an extra (or more) players in that area. And then what?
Why does a team attack in a 3-2-5 shape? So you can have 5 players in the attacking line? And what does this achieve? Can we describe the intention behind the behaviour of the front 5 rather than just saying Team A has 5 players in attack?
Overload to isolate? It attracts the opponent to one side and then what? What is the objective of overloading one side of the field?
I think it’s important to describe and highlight something but also explain the intention or the reason behind it. For example, what does a 3+2 in build up achieve? You can’t simply suggest that a team’s build up or transition is excellent because they do so in a 3+2 base. You need to attempt to interpret and then explain the reason/s.
We will be looking at a case study (game) to provide examples of tactical principles a team displays and what the behaviour of the team and its players looks to achieve.
CASE STUDY: ARSENAL FC
The game we will analyse is Arsenal FC vs Manchester City from the 2022/23 season. We will focus on Arsenal and try to provide the team’s tactical principles in the different phases of the game along with the intention behind the behaviours of the players.
IN ATTACK
Per the above framework, we will look at what Arsenal do in the Build Up phase and the Creating Goal Scoring Chances phase to understand what they do in attack and the intention behind it.
Build Up
The aim of the build up for any team is to progress the ball into spaces of the field from which they can create goal scoring chances. As a general rule, a team can build up through, around or over the opponent.
Against Manchester City, Arsenal looked to build up through or around the City defensive press.
Principle 1 – Exploit space behind or to the side of the opponent’s front line by moving from a 4+1 shape to a 3+2 shape with (primarily) the left back moving inside.
The above 3 images, display the BEHAVIOUR of the Arsenal backline and pivot during the start of their build up. So, what does that tell us about Arsenal? Not much really, except that they like to bring their left back inside and spread their 3 centre backs. This is where after seeing this pattern emerge throughout the game, we would need to analyse and attempt to come up with an explanation as to why they do this.
Let’s look at the 3rd image above again, this time focusing on the behaviour of the opponent, specifically, the City wingers.
So the 3+2 build up provokes a decision from the opposition wingers. If they do not narrow out defensively, Arsenal could exploit the space behind their front line through one of their double pivots. If they do narrow defensively, then Arsenal can build up around them with passes into their wide centre backs and into their wingers.
Principle 2 – Exploit the space behind the opponent’s midfield line through the positioning of the interiors and wingers.
Arsenal want players receiving beside or behind the opponent’s midfield to continue progressing the ball towards the opponent goal and create a goal scoring chance. Usually this will be through their right central midfielder or left central midfielder.
So the behaviour of Arsenal’s left central midfielder and right central midfielder complements that of their backline and pivot, with the intention of becoming passing options to the side or behind their opponent’s midfield line. Ideally, in a way where they can face forward and continue to progress the ball.
Principle 3 – Circulate the ball until the possibility to progress the ball through or around the opponent arises. This can also be known as exploiting the space in front of the opponent front line.
When a team cannot progress the ball either through or around the opponent, on a basic level they have two options: play long or circulate the ball until the option to progress the ball is created. Arsenal tend to choose the latter.
So, Arsenal look to circulate the ball amongst the back line with the intention of generating options (space) to exploit behind the opponent’s defensive lines. Ideally centrally, if not wide.
The final puzzle of the Arsenal build up is that it isn’t always the same two players forming the double pivot. At times, Xhaka (the LCM) will drop next to the pivot with the left back staying outside. This can also be a trigger for the left winger to move inside, behind the opponent’s midfield line. This can then be another trigger for the striker to then rotate and become the left winger.
Create Goal Scoring Chances
The aim of this phase is pretty much self-explanatory: to create AND ideally convert goals.
Principle 4 – Occupy the opponent full backs. Arsenal generally keep their wingers high and wide, occupying the opposition full backs. This is with the intention of creating 1v1 scenarios for said wingers or to open the possibility of exploiting the space between the opponent’s full back and centre back.
Principle 5 – Exploit the space behind the opponent midfield line through numerical equality or superiority.
This principle is similar to Principle 3 in the build up, however this is where Arsenal will now look to move and create goal scoring chances. The behaviour is similar to principle 1, but the wingers will be supported by 2-3 players looking to create superiority (or at least equality) against the opponent’s back line.
The intention of this principle is to isolate their wingers in 1v1 situations with the potential for qualitative superiority and/or to generate situations to exploit spaces behind the opponent’s back line through off the ball movements.
IN DEFENCE
Once again using the framework explained, we will look at Arsenal’s principles in two phases. Disturb the opponent’s build up and deny goal scoring chances.
In theory, Arsenal’s defence could be summarized in one global principle – deny central progression. This global principle is evident in all areas of the field. Let’s analyse:
Disturb Opponent’s Build Up
The aim of this phase is to stop the opponent from completing their build up and getting into goal scoring areas. Often this can be confused with a team defending high up the field, however a team can still be in the build up phase inside their opponent’s half. This would apply for example, if an opponent defended in a low block.
Theoretically speaking, a team cannot have completed their build up, if the 11 players from the other team are behind the ball. However, we could argue that once a team reaches a certain area of the opponent’s half, they can create goal scoring chances even if there are 11 opponents behind the ball.
Principle 1 – Deny central progression/orient wide. Arsenal don’t want the opponent to exploit the space behind their front line when disrupting the build up. The reason is very simple: the opponent is more dangerous from central areas. They want to orient the opponent build up towards the sides where they will look to win the ball back or force the opponent to play backwards.
So, the team positions itself and moves to orient the opponent to one side, primarily the right side (opponent’s left) possibly due to Saliba’s superior ability in 1v1 duels/open spaces.
Principle 2 – Reorganise the defensive shape before attempting to win the ball back. There will be times when the opponent will be able to build up successfully. In this case, Arsenal look to move back behind the ball to create a good defensive shape and – once again – stop the opponent from progressing centrally.
So, the behaviour here is obvious: Arsenal players run to get behind the ball. Once again though the tactical principle is the actual intention: reorganise the defensive shape before attempting to win the ball back.
In this phase, a team is usually deep inside their own half and want to stop the opponent from getting into situations where they can score.
As per Principle 2 in defence, Arsenal are very adept at recovering and getting behind the ball if the opponent does progress beyond them towards their goal. For this reason, the team can have between 8 and 10 outfield players contributing when denying goal scoring chances.
Principle 3 – Deny central progressions in mid to low block. Arsenal tend to retreat into a 1-4-4-2 mid to low block and aim to deny central progressions by positioning their central midfielders in the spaces between the backline. This ensures the space between their centre back and full back cannot be exploited.
Principle 4 – Avoid numerical overloads in wide areas. This principle complements principle 3 and is about Arsenal players (usually the wingers) retreating to help their full backs with the intention to avoid the opponent isolating them 1v1 or creating numerical overloads.
The behaviour of Arsenal players in wide areas is to drop deep and support their full back. This is with the intention of avoiding being overloaded and/or creating a defensive 2v1. A secondary intention is to ensure the opponent cannot progress into the penalty box and is forced to play backwards.
Final Thoughts
Using the examples from the game above and through an objective framework, we were able to find patterns and analyse Arsenal’s principles both in attack and defence. The behaviour of the players allows us to identify the patterns and using this we then need to analyse and try to understand the intention behind said behaviour/s.
So, a tactical principle is not simply describing behaviours or the actions of a single player. It is a collection of individual behaviours that when executed effectively achieve a team intention.
Written by Julian Aguirre. My full name is Julian Aguirre Agudelo and I am 32 year old aspiring football coach. I was born in Australia but raised in Colombia, where I lived until the age of 16 before returning to Australia.
I began coaching at 24 and absolutely fell in love with the profession, especially with player development and tactics. I have been obsessed with football all my life and since transitioning from playing to coaching, this obsession has grown exponentially.
In October 2022 I left my life in Sydney, Australia and moved back to Colombia for 4 months before moving to Europe in January of 2023. I am currently living and working in London, UK for a non-league club called Welling United. My roles here are Under 16s and Under 19s coach. I also love watching and understanding football on a deep level and therefore do a lot of analysis in my own time, some of which I share on my blog The Patient Build Up.
My aspirations are to work and help develop players at a top level academy in Europe, and eventually coach at the highest level. On a deeper level, I aspire to develop and coach a playing style that will not only be successful but also influence and help generations of coaches after me.
