What does it take to be a winning team?
By: Fernando Valenzuela
Winning isn’t about luck. Winning is the result of a game plan, great touches on the ball, and players understanding the dynamic game around them.
Every position has a purpose, every pass is a potential game-changer, every movement is a calculated step towards victory.
While the skill of individual players often grabs the spotlight, it’s the tactical framework that truly determines the outcome of a match.
In this article, we look into the Position Tactics that affect the contributions that players make. We also explore how Team Tactics amplify the champion efforts to outplay the opposition. Both of these tactics together make up the whole tactical framework that makes the winning team.
Opportunities that arise during Open Play
Before going any further, I must point out that in this article we focus on the time - known as Open Play - when both teams are free to play without interruptions like set pieces or stoppages.
This time is important because it is when the majority of goals occur. Data from several leagues suggest that the proportion of goals scored during open play can be as high as 80% (1).
Pro Tip
Some goals are not classified as open play goals. Here’s a list of the special types:
Set piece goals: corner kicks, free kicks, and throw-ins.
Penalty kick goals
The official Stop and Restart distinguishes these goals from open play goals.
While set plays also present significant opportunities to score, they are more structured and less fluid than open play, and so they require special tactics that will be discussed in a future article.
Rapid, accurate, and confident Leaders
We know that teams develop strengths in order to win. We know that teams show up to compete with a strategy and a formation. We also know that, during a match, ball possession is essential to score goals.
What we don’t know is what happens when the game plan doesn’t work.
This is the moment when a tension(2) emerges, between what has been prepared for and something new. Here tactics become relevant, to answer the question of how to confront the new situation.
Simply put, Position Tactics are the way for players to destabilize the opponent and to shoot on goal.
For the way to come alive, players must take 3 steps:
Learn the space, time, and pace of ball possession.
Predict the paths of player and ball movement.
Choose the interception, pass, or shot on goal.
Of course, these steps depend on the state of possession and strategy.
The vital challenge is to create the crucial pattern of play that breaks through the tension.
To meet that challenge, players must be ready to lead the way, for themselves and for their team.
Honor, pride, and spirit of the Squad
Solo goals are rare.
Most goals involve multiple team members.
Generally, this means that one player can’t go far enough alone. Leaders must get other players to join the breakthrough effort, to carry it through.
Here, a team’s mettle is tested, and another layer of tactics comes into play.
Team Tactics are calls for allies to destabilize the opponent and to shoot on goal. They amplify the leadership of Position Tactics.
Effective calls for allies build on leadership in 3 steps:
Frame the cooperation.
Delegate the patterns.
Assign the teams.
Still, these steps depend on the state of possession and strategy.
The challenge at this stage is to reform the breakthrough pattern of play into an effective sequence.
To succeed, teams must cope well with demanding situations, facing them in a resilient way.
Courage in Adversity
In this article, we looked at moments of tension that arise during open play. We also explored Position and Team Tactics as ways to confront those tensions.
Yet, there is one final piece to consider. One that binds both tactics into a whole and distinguishes a winning team from the rest.
That piece is the diversity of individual players.
Each player has unique talents, preferences, and dispositions. Most importantly, each player has a unique capacity(3) to perform under stress. A great coach understands this capacity. She knows how much her players are able to withstand. She knows how much can be asked of them.
Still, players must be called upon to perform significant tactical behavior. Each must do her part as best as she can, at the right time, to express the real power of the team.
The universal call, for the squad to focus diversity, is to take shots that hit the target.
In the end, the way to win is to deploy tactics. For tactics to be effective, they must be creative, resilient, and unique.
Notes
According to UEFA competition data, the estimate ranges from 70-80%. Opta football analytics calculates 75% for major European leagues. Open play goals for the English Premier League historically range from 70-75%.
Researchers refer to this as a perturbation; a change that throws the flow of the game off balance.
This capacity is known as allostasis. Allostatic load refers to the long-term effects of a repeated stress response. High stress levels lower a player’s ability to perform under stress in the future.
