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Possession-based Playing Style
Attacking in Football
Xavi’s challenge - What we have to improve 🤝
On one hand, Xavi wants to control possession. Dominate the game. On the other hand, he wants us to attack space if there is any. Here lays the challenge. Preventing chaos.
As a coach, football is all about increasing the chance of your team scoring, while decreasing the chance of the other team scoring. Xavi looks to do so through a style of playing based on having the ball. However, we are not looking to keep the ball for the sake of having it.
With the ball, we want to defend & attack. To score a goal, there must be space. Xavi’s philosophy is about manipulating space through having the ball. Moving opponents out of position, for then to attack the space that opens up. Patience is essential.
Still, we are more direct than what people expected us to be under Xavi. People draw lines to our time with Luis Enrique as the coach. This goes back to Xavi’s intention with having the ball.
We want to create space with the ball, but if space is already there, Xavi wants us to attack it with a direct approach. However, there must be a balance. Otherwise, it will hurt us.
If we move into an attacking position, there is a higher risk that we lose the ball. If we lose the ball, it’s s greater chance that we concede a goal. We want to be able to constantly pin teams back, while sustaining pressure when we lose the ball. Total dominance.
If the game becomes chaotic - both teams constantly attacking when having the ball, it will benefit the opponents more than us. We have to find a balance. We often refer to the term “La Pausa”.
La Pausa is about timing. Knowing when to attack. It’s when a team keeps the ball, drawing in defenders, then exploiting the space left open by the defender moving out of his position. This is what we need to improve.
At times we lose control over the games as we become to eager to attack. The players’s decision making in possession have to become better. With that said, we should be direct at times, we just have to choose our moments carefully.
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