![]() ![]() Space doesn’t score goals, true, but every successful defensive side (especially the Italian ones down the years) has focused on congesting areas that their opposition likes to play through the most. Spacing is the key offensive weapon and Guardiola’s Barcelona are the finest exponent of perfect spacing in recent times. ![]() Set-piece strategies too are just useful a few occasions a game. Formations are very fluid in soccer and really offer just a quick guide as to the general shape a side should be in with the ball and without. Their real contribution to the plan offensively is not their chosen formation. They can only send 11 men out with a plan that gives them the best possible chance of success. However they cannot play the game for their team. They have an eye for players that can improve the team, have contacts and a reputation within the game that perhaps help their team get players they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, and pick formations and a style of play that align to the strengths of their squad. SEE MORE: Examining the genius of Pep Guardiola and his greatest tactical legacy Henry also only vacates that space when Messi comes to fill it, the play has moved on from the middle third and Messi can now move wide from central and the ‘strikers’ can go to the box. Secondly, on the goal that Eto’o scores off Henry’s saved shot, when Henry talks about making his outside in runs in the final third, he only does so when Eto’o has dropped below the penalty area, pulling the defensive line up slightly above the 18 yard line and making space for a run behind. Basically the forward pass would have been useless and possession rendered sterile. 2 up top) and the full-back would have pressured Iniesta into coming closer to his defense. If this was not the case and Henry congested the center, he would have been picked up by the spare central defender (remember Eto’o is ostensibly 1 vs. First, Iniesta is able to receive the ball on the halfway line from his defender because Henry has stayed on the left wing occupying the opposition right-back. This gave Barcelona basically four men in midfield and complete dominance of the game.ĭuring the above video, the perfect spacing is shown twice in beautifully picked examples. This meant that fullbacks could never collapse narrow to support their center-half, who in turn could never advance up the pitch to get tight to Lionel Messi or Samuel Eto’o when they dropped deep to support Iniesta and Xavi. The wide forwards in a 4-3-3, even those such as Henry and later David Villa, who were running central all their careers, had to hug the touchline until the final third. ![]()
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