“Reimaginer?”
I think the asker of the question thought I had lost my mind. Finally.
Surely imaginer would be more than sufficient? I felt imaginer did myself too much credit if I placed it in a description for my webpage. Reimaginer, although convoluted, took slightly less of the credit.
So, what is there to reimagine?
Plenty. Especially when it comes to football.
We are all of the moment. Yesterday has gone and tomorrow is yet to come, but people tend to spend most of their time thinking about those two things. Reflection is a useful tool and making plans can provide direction. Particularly if a key part of a person’s position is to help the young prepare for their future. As coaches of young players, their future is our primary concern.
Can we prepare them for the future if we don’t know what the future will look like? Football changes and evolves through the years. Rule changes, stylistic changes, emphasis on certain aspects of play rolling in and out of fashion. What will the game of tomorrow look like?
Well that, that requires some reimagining.
Increasing Use Of The Goalkeeper
In the last 20 years the goalkeeper has become an ever more important part of team’s build up play. When playing out from goal kicks they start the play. When possession has been established in the opposition half the goalkeeper represents a spare man who can help retain possession. This has meant that goalkeepers have needed to develop their ball striking and their receiving skills. Those receiving skills could be developed even further and Ederson has shown what goalkeepers are capable of with regards range of passing. Recently goalkeepers have been receiving ever closer to the halfway line, a further step in their development could be to actually drive forward with the ball at their feet, eliminating a pressing player. If so it would pertinent for coaches to help develop the dribbling skills of goalkeepers.
Increased Hybrid Roles and Increased Hybrid Players
The established playing positions of the last forty years plus have slowly broken down. Particularly from a UK perspective. It is arguable that each nation has had it’s own nuanced positions and roles for many years, but with the globalisation of the game these nuances have become more widely known. The wing-back is probably the most glaringly obvious hybrid role, but we can add the inverted wing back, inverted wingers, inside forwards and the false nine (amongst others). The false nine has also been evolved with some players into, in the words of Brendan Rodgers, the nine and a half. These roles are not necessarily new, some are over a hundred years old, but fell from fashion before being reborn.
The skill sets of certain positions are morphing, for a long time many full backs have been required to have the attributes of winger, but with inverted full backs their attributes start to look similar to a more central midfield role. Could full backs become box to box, needing to develop sharper finishing skills? The differences between holding/defensive midfielders are slender in certain teams and we may see increases in the amount of players who are capable in both. Greater fluidity and flexibility becoming the norm, with fewer specialists. The names we currently use are becoming insufficient, with the hybrid roles, hybrid names may be required, but those may not be snappy enough for regular use. Half-back trips off the tongue, while inverted wing back remains cumbersome.
Elite Specialists
The hybrid roles and universality are not always the most effective. We are seeing players who are ostensibly filling defensive positions who are not specialised in defending. There are strikers who are not specialised in goal scoring. Eventually those developing players will seek elite specialists in these key roles. In the meantime, the demand for outstanding defensive players will be high and the demand for, and almost deification of, outstanding finishers will continue.
No Heading
The research into brain injuries seem to be taking us in a direction where heading will be deemed unsustainable. While it is doubtful that the act of heading itself will not be banned, heading can be greatly reduced by enforcement of rules in relation to the ball travelling over head height, though the height of the goals may cause problems in this area. The impact this would have on long passing will be fundamental, as will changes to set pieces. Teams will be forced to pass short when building up from goal kicks. Free kicks could not be pumped into the penalty box. Corners would be unrecognisable. Changes to the game that reduce or eliminate heading would completely change football as we know it.
Take Short Goal Kicks To Take Long Goal Kicks
As passing short on goal kicks has become prominent it would seem that many teams have lost sight of the concept of playing short to go long. The out of possession team sets of to press the short kick leaving spaces to exploit. Yet teams seem to refuse to exploit those spaces. Not all goal keepers have the passing range of Ederson, but a goalkeeper does not have to take a goal kick. Eventually teams will play long to bypass the press. Then teams will drop off, not pressing quite so high, which will enable teams to have space to pass shorter once more.
Scoring Strikers vs Non-Scoring Strikers
As previously noted, the role of the striker or centre forward has changed. A player like Roberto Firmino is not in the side to score, but to create space and opportunity for goalscoring wide players. While Erling Haaland operates as a figure head with the responsibility for scoring. The method chosen will depend upon the personnel available to the coach or their game model. We are likely to see much more of this, along with debates about which model teams should adopt.
No Long Shots
It has been evident that teams are not taking as many shots from outside the penalty area as they once did. This is likely to be linked to the rise in analytics and teams seeking higher percentage shooting opportunities. As analytics tools continue to rise we may reach a point where we see zero shots from distance, apart from at set pieces.
More Substitutions
The genie may already be out of the bottle on substitutions. During pandemic football the number of substitutes on the bench has increased with the number of substitutions allowed during a game increasing briefly in the Premier League before returning to three. In Europe and European competitions, the number has remained at five. There is also the addition of concussion substitutes. How far are we from having rolling and unlimited substitutions? Perhaps even being able to make substitutions without stopping the play, provided players cross through a certain line or box as they do in futsal?
More Goals and Even More Goals
The amount of goals scored by the top teams is increasing. Since 2009/10 Barcelona and Real Madrid have broken 100 league goals on 17 occasions. In one season both broke 100 goals but both finished behind Atletico Madrid. Since the 1994/95 season Ajax (x3), PSG (x3), Manchester City (x2), Bayern Munich, Monaco, Chelsea and Liverpool have all netted 100 goals in a league season. The number of league fixtures are going down, but the goals are going up. Club finances mean that “super teams” can be assembled, but the top clubs are taking more risks and are more focused on outscoring the opponents. This trend is likely to continue at the top end, but when facing lower ranked opposition the tactical trend is for deep and disciplined defensive lines. Ever more fixtures are resembling attack versus defence, which could mean a decrease in “end to end” style games.
Removal Of Throw Ins
At youth grassroots tournaments and training games it is common to have dribble ins or kick ins rather than throw ins. Throw ins were brought into prevent teams kicking the ball great distances from side line restarts, but with players capable of launching long throws this no longer seems relevant. If players are able to pass the ball in or dribble the ball in we may see more ball in play time. The risk is that players launch the ball constantly but this can be combated with time limits or under knee height rules (taken from futsal and hundreds of summer youth football tournaments).
Time Out
During the conclusion of the 2019/20 season drinks breaks were utilised. These were often used by coaches and managers as a time out. The criticism of these breaks was the amount of time they were taking and that coaches were visibly changing tactics. Many times, the shape of the game would change after these breaks. Tactically this was interesting and added an extra layer of substance to games. If we gave teams a single one-minute time out in each half relatively little time would be taken from the game and coaches would have more opportunities to influence the game.
The Dembele Effect (Press Resistance)
Moussa Dembele was a unique footballer. Seeing central midfielders drop deep to receive the ball from defenders is not uncommon, seeing them drop deep and then dribble to carry the ball forward is. Very few players do this and while it is possible we will see more of this, the levels of risk presently seem to be too much even for the modern coaches who are accepting of high risks for high rewards. Dembele was also “press resistant”, hard to dispossess and shake off the ball. Press resistance has become a prized asset in deep lying midfielders. As it becomes more prized, more players will posses this ability. If the skill sets of central defenders and defensive midfielders continue to merge, it is possible that press resistance becomes a desired attribute in central defenders.
The Return Of 4-4-2
Arsene Wenger has stated in interview that he considers 4-4-2 to be the best team shape. It covers the pitch well and naturally provides width and partnerships, not isolating any players. The weakness of a traditional 4-4-2 is in central midfield. A flat 4-4-2 can be static and stagnant. A flexible 4-4-2 is potent. Viewing Jardim’s Monaco and Wenger’s Arsenal sides the mobility meant that opponents struggled to cope. These teams possessed a number of hybrid players, forwards that dopped into midfield or pulled wide, full backs who could perform as wingers, midfielders who could play in central defence and so on. With a rise in hybrid players, there will be greater flexibility in formations. The 4-4-2 might be the biggest beneficiary of this. The inverted wing back role in a 4-4-2 shape would counter act the weakness of the central overload. If both forwards are the nine and a half described by Brendan Rodgers a 4-4-2 could have six players swamping the centre of the pitch (whether they would want to is quite another matter). Watch out for the return of 4-4-2.