Tactical in Football

Tactical in Football

There are many tactical in the football that we can use in the game.The best tactical is that tactical is suitable for your team.The tactical also based on your rival team too.To win the game,you must the perfect tactical for your team.

Offensive Tactics:Attacking

• 'Pass and move': This is the most basic team tactic — as soon as the ball has come into possession of the player, they need to be quick to decide whether to pass it or not. If they don't pass it immediately, they need to move with it; if they do pass it, they again need to move along, following the general ball movement.

This can also be used to mean that once a player has passed the ball he does not remain stationary but moves into a position where he can receive the ball again and give more options to the player in possession.

• 'Give and go'[or 'combination passing']: This is a basic tactic which is essentially the same as 'pass and move', and is an essential part of the 'target man' style of play (see below). The player in possession of the ball plays a pass to a teammate and then immediately seeks to move into space. If the player who passed the ball can 'lose' his defensive marker (either through pace, movement, superior fitness or a lack of awareness on the part of the defender) he could then be free to receive a return pass and advance towards and possibly threaten the goal. When the ball is played by the receiving player immediately back to the first player this is known as a 'One-Two' (in British parlance)

• Triangular movement: This is a movement tactic that allows a safe and quick shifting of the offensive flanks while maintaining control of the ball. In a triangular play the ball is passed between three players to form a triangle. The triangle is then shifted to a different position when a new player is added. Many triangles can be created with various combinations of players with the intention of slowly moving the ball forward and never really compromising possession. This tactic works well when trying to gain control in the midfield. However, it can also be used for pure attacking purposes. The effectiveness of this tactic lies in the fact that defenders are unable to quickly 'adapt' to the other attacker's style of play.The long through ball: This is a long, and usually high, pass from a teams' own half, over the heads of the other team's defence. It is intended for the attacking players to chase and it is important that they remain in an onside position until the ball is kicked. The tactic works best with strong and fast forwards who will have a good chance of winning back the ball, taking control over it, and eventually getting a shot on goal. In the diagram, the ball (red line) is played in front of the furthermost forward, the dotted blue line showing their run. In this example, a through-ball pass along the ground would be picked up by one of the defenders (black team) because the gap between the two central defenders is too small.Switching the attack: Using a 'square' or 'cross' pass across the whole width of the pitch to a player in plenty of space is a very effective way of both relieving pressure and building a fresh attack. The defending team will be required to adjust its positions and this usually creates spaces which can be exploited. In this example, the player numbered 1 has moved out of position, allowing more space for the opposing player. By playing the ball to the other side (the curved line represents an aerial pass), the recipient of the pass finds themselves in space which can be exploited.
• The 'through ball'(slide rule pass): Using the space behind the opponent's defensive line: Passes into this area have a number of pros: If an attacking player reaches the pass, taking care to avoid offside, he may get a 1-on-1 challenge with the goalkeeper, or be in an excellent position for a flank attack. Even if a defender reaches the pass first, the outcome could still be good for the attacking team. The defender will face his own goal, which could prompt him to give away a corner kick or a throw-in, make a risky pass to his team's goalkeeper, or being put under heavy pressure near the corner flag. Typically, teams with faster attackers than the opponent's defenders will try challenging this space, while the defending team in these cases will want to keep their defenders low when defending in order to give away as little space as possible between the defenders and the goalkeeper.

• Using the space between the opponent's defensive line and midfielder line ('the hole'): A common build-up of attacks is to pass the ball into the space between the opponent's defenders and midfielders. Normally, an attacker with his back to the goal will receive the pass. He will seek to turn with the ball, or distribute it to a player facing the goal, who optimally also is in front of the opponent's midfielders - or even on the move into the space behind the opponent's defenders.

• Swapping of the wing men: Sometimes, a team with two flexible (position wise) wide men will allow them to interchange as the game progresses. The aim of this is to confuse the defenders who are assigned to mark them, thus maybe leading to opportunities as the defender tries to find their man in set pieces (corners, free kicks etc., where the man may be in a totally different position and thus evade his grasp). Also, if the wingers are different types of player (one favouring crossing from deep positions whilst the other is prone to trying to dribble past their marker for example), then it might be to exploit a weakness in the opposing defender.
• Strong Side Overloads: An offensive attack can pressure the defense on to one side of the pitch by running most of its attackers and midfielders to one side letting a wing player or defender come to the opposite side with little or no coverage. The ball is then crossed or passed to that unmarked player for a free or near free shot.
• Using a target man: This tactic is useful when the team possesses a quality striker who has the ability of taking on the whole defense on his own. He will usually occupy two defenders, thus making the defense more vulnerable. Combined with two fast wingers, this tactic may give the 4-man defense potential problems. The team may also benefit from a target man at set pieces. The target man, can use give/go tactics described earlier, can attempt to "knock down" high passes to teammates or can simply try to out power and out muscle opposition defenders to create scoring opportunities for himself.

Defensive Tactics

All eleven players on the pitch have a defensive role. Which roles they are assigned, depends on tactics. In principle, there are two ways of defending, zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, defensive players mainly move in relation to each other, whereas a man-to-man defense mainly moves in relation to opposing players. Whenever defensive players are given, or give themselves, a larger degree of freedom, hybrids of the two are seen.

First, second and third defender.The first defender has the main responsibility for what the opponent in possession does, seeking to obstruct dangerous passes. The initial few seconds after a team has lost the ball are important, as the newly-defending team in these seconds will be poorly organised defensively. Wise first defending will contribute to the defending team managing to organise before the opponents attack.

The first defender should usually be the player closest to the opponent holding possession, but needs to be at the defending side of him in order to do an effective job. He or she should keep a distance of about 2 meters, although the ideal distance will vary with each situation. The point is to pressure the opponent as much as possible without giving him a large possibility of a dribble. As a dribble isn't as dangerous when the defending team is well organised, the distance may be shorter in these cases. Analogously, the distance should be increased if the defense is poorly organised.

In certain cases, the first defender should attempt a tackle. Often, however, this will increase the probability of being dribbled and passed.

The direction in which to move towards the opponent with possession of the ball may be the shortest direction. However, it may be of value to curve the defensive run, in order to channel (also called "show") the opponent in a certain direction. If the defensive team is well organised, he should be channeled ("shown") towards the center of the pitch. In the case of temporarily poor defensive organisation, however, he should be channeled towards the line.

The second defender is for security if the first defender is passed. In that case, he takes over as first defender, and ideally one of the third defender takes over as second defender. The team should be organised in a manner to make this transition as fast as possible. The typical ideal distance between the second and first defender is about six metres, but this will vary strongly from situation to situation. The most important factor is the opponent's speed. If he's moving fast, the distance should be longer. If he's standing still, the second and first defender may in some cases join forces and work as two first defenders.

The job of the third defender is to provide deep cover. He is generally in a stand-off position relative to the first and second defenders and tries to view the "big picture", keeping watch for new opponents moving up, and covering vulnerable gaps if the first and second defenders are bypassed. The sweeper role is sometimes conceived as that of a third defender, but every defensive player not immediately engaging the ball has the obligation to adjust his positioning to guard against dangerous situations and to plug vulnerable gaps. While the role of first and second defenders are rather similar, the third defenders' role is very different in zone defense and man-to-man defense. Also, their organisation will vary with formation.

The zone defense

In zone defense, second and third defenders and midfielders are organised in two lines, in the transverse direction of the field, thus organizing a defender line and a midfielder line, the midfielder line working as an "outer shield" for the defenders. The lines should be as straight as possible, although the first defender and in some cases the second defender may rush out of it to pressure the opponent with the ball. A straight line of defenders may prevent spaces behind some of them due to the offside rule. Also, even in zone defense, some opponents, for example those moving into dangerous space, may temporarily need to be marked. The man-to-man defense ideology holds that almost all opponents need to be marked at all times, although they will have to keep an eye on zone considerations as well, and usually a sweeper will be given a free defensive role. In practice, however, every defense will be a mix of zone defense and a man-to-man defense, although often with heavy leanings towards one or the other.

The number of players in the defender and midfielder lines is given by the number of football formation. Some formations use midfield anchors to stop attacks between the two lines. Attackers usually also play a role in pressuring defenders, in order to give them less time to find good passing alternatives.

The lines should be shifted sideways depending where the ball is. The third defenders should keep a sensible distance to each other, depending on the width the opponent's attacking players are distributed in.

Depth considerations

The distance between the defender line and the midfielder line should be kept constant at about 15 metres. However, the defensive line should back up and thus increase this distance, stand off, when there is no pressure on the opponent in possession, as this increases the possibility of a through ball. With tough pressure on the opponent, the distance may be reduced to below 15 meters. Also, as opponents move in close to the penalty area, the defending team will be forced to move their midfielders ever closer to their defenders.

When organised, the defending team will offer no resistance until the attacking team has advanced to a certain height on the pitch. The pressure height, or at which depth the midfielders should start acting as first and second defenders, depends on a lot of factors. For example, as higher pressure is more tiring, it demands players with good stamina. In general, a defensive-minded team will tend to stay lower, thus diminishing defensive risks as opponents get less space. This however, also gives them a longer way to the goal in the event of a break and counter-attack, making the long through ball a typical alternative.

The man-to-man defense

In a man-to-man defense system, a single defender follows his opponent wherever he goes. Extremely tight marking can be achieved in this way and star players can often be neutralized in a game by use of a dedicated "shadow". Since the man-to-man defense will take defenders in any part of the field, interceptions and broken plays will often offer opportunity for quick counter-attack. The Italian teams of the 1970s and 1980s often used this approach with impressive results.

The weakness of the man-to-man defense is depth when fresh attackers move up. The man-to-man defense also allows defenders to be drawn out of position, opening gaps for other attackers in vulnerable areas. This was Italy's fatal weakness in the 1970 Final, according to some analysts.^[7] To overcome this problem with depth, the man to man defense may use a 'sweeper', who is a central defender and has a free role, i.e. has not been assigned a player to mark. He sometimes takes up a position slightly behind the other defenders, as his defensive role often is to 'sweep up' any attacks that break through the defense and as such he adds valuable depth to the defensive unit. Usually the sweeper will be the controller of the defense. They will determine where the back line should be at any given time. Zone defense does not require a sweeper role, and as many teams have changed their tactics to this, sweepers are today rare.