Soccer Tactics and How it Applies to the Barclays Premier League

Michael Breedove

English 1102 Mrs. Ashlyn Williams March 25, 2014

Introduction Soccer is a widely watched sport. People all around the globe love to watch their favorite teams play every Saturday or Sunday. What most people do not think about is the work involved in getting teams ready for those matches. People just expect them to go out and play well and win. They do not realize that one wrong move in the preparation could potentially cost them the game. know never thought about this and this was not even my initial topic wanted to

research. !s searched for articles that talked about the generic playing styles of "arclays teams# found many articles that talked about soccer tactics as a whole. started to read them and realized how much actually went into coaching and preparation. Some of the articles were filled with statistic to help determine all that goes on in a match. These are things a coach has to take into consideration when he plays so many different teams. also found out that formations of teams# can cause a team to play better defense. !fter finding out this kind of information# decided to take a slightly different path with my research and discover how this all applies to "arclays teams as opposed to how much possession they play. want to find out what a team has to do to prepare for a game and how they have to play in order to be successful. This paper considers the multiple playing styles at work in the "arclays Premier Soccer $eague% more

specifically we will examine the implications of coaching styles# formations# locations of games. Literature Re ie! "ey #hrases$ Attac%ing$ When a team gains possession and goes on offense# they are &on the attack'. !ny play that tries to score on the opposing goal is called attacking. &rossing$ When a player kick the ball from the outside of the field into the middle of the field in an attempt to help his team mate score. ! cross is usually in the air# but it can be a pass along the ground. #ossession$ possession is any time a team has the ball. They lose the ball# they lose possession. &ounter Attac%$ when a team takes possession from the other team and then imminently goes on the attack.

Location$ $ocation of games is a very important part of how a sports team plays. &This phenomenon# known as home field advantage# exists in all professional sports# but is most pronounced in soccer.'(Tenga et. al )*+ ,obody can explain why# but home field advantage exists. &-ffects of .atch $ocation on Playing Tactics for /oal Scoring in ,orwegian Professional Soccer' tries to explain why teams who play away often play at a lower skill level. n their study# they found that 012 of all the goals a team scored were at home. Time of possession was slightly more at home# but it was only two to three minutes a match.(Tenga et. al )3+ $ago4Penas and $ago "allersteros try to answer the 5uestion of how playing away or at home affects a team based on their talent in their article &/ame $ocation and Team 6uality on

Performance Profiles in Professional Soccer. n watching soccer# have learned how 7helsea has been dominate at home this year. They have not lost a match at home all year and while having this coach as the coach# he coached at another team for a few years in between# they have not lost in over 8* matches. This does includes draws# but with the competition they face# this is still an incredible feat. To be the best you need to play well both home and away. $ago4Penas and $ago "allersteros used the top four teams in a league and tracked their performances in 91* games in the Spanish $eague. They tracked passes# dribbles# successful passes# cards# and possession to see how the stats differed from home and away games. !ny bad team is expected to lose to a good team on the road# but we always expect good teams to win on the road or at home. !ccording to Tenga# :olmes# ;onglan# and "ahr# a bad team may not get &home field advantage'(Tenga et. al )*+ because they lose a lot and offer no intimidation to the opposing s5uad. This can lead us to assume that home field advantage exist mainly for teams of similar skill level. "oth of the !rticles focus to some degree on the stats behind the games# but Tenga# :olmes# ;onglan# and "ahr actually used a lot of videos of the games to analysand teams. This allows them to observe teams any times and more carefully then just watching them once. f a lesser team can discover a weakness while a superior team plays on the road# it could give them the advantage needed to pull off the upset. $ago4Penas and $ago4"allersteros found that home field advantage is not as big of a factor for &good' teams as opposed to &bad' teams. Tenga et. al found that teams who play at home score 3 more goals on average than the same team playing an away game. They found that possession was almost exactly the same. They also broke the games down into many different stats from defense to formations.

&oaching$ 'eam #er(ormance$ &Some accounts stress the importance of the individual abilities and knowledge of group members# while others focus on group identification and consciousness or on leadership and they lead to a successful team# and both can fail. &The soccer context is ideal for the flowing reasons< the game is governed by clear rules% teams are more comparable in a soccer setting than any other setting% the boundaries of the teams are well defined% no players are missing% and the strength of interaction within teams and team performance can be accessed objectively.'(/rund =13+ >ne of the variables of how a team is playing is the point system that soccer uses. Three points for a win and one for a draw. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season is the league winner. They may not have played the best# but they scored more points and that has to count towards overall performance. The best teams are going to be the ones that have good individual players who can also come together and play well as a team. :ere is a ?outube video @;$ of some of the goals from last year that involve team work and individual skill# http<AAwww.youtube.comAwatchBvCftcWDpvEg0*.

7helseaFs coach# Gose .ourinho

'actics and )tatistical Analysis$ Some teams try to wow the crowds with their fancy abilities. >ther teams who are

not as good have to focus on actually working hard and playing well. The Scottish were the first to realize that they needed to pass the ball to their team mates. n H)=1 the -nglish coach said# &possession was counterproductive to scoring since goals usually come from three passes or less.' !ccording to Iavid Jilpatrick# !rsenal was the first team to drop players back from the forward position to defense so they could play better defense. !7 .ilan used a free flowing formation. This allows for more movement to the wings to spread the defense out so the offense can attack the middle more effectively. taly was the first country to introduce man marking to the game. They also added defenders to their line up to help with marking and they also emphasized team play instead of individuals. &Tactics !nalysis in Soccer4!n !dvanced !pproach' imminently states the importance of coaching. The writers say it is important for the coaches to have &high level knowledge' and for the team to have &analysis experts.' n the modern day of sports# players can be tracked while they run on the field. They use this information to determine how fast and how far they traveled. They use cameras# /PS systems# small tracking devices# or whatever they need to assess their players.(Perl# !dreas# and .emmert pg. 90+ "y knowing how much a player can run and how fast# they can build a tactic that suits him best. They can also use these things# along with experts giving their research# to use a program called S>77-; which give tables of information or even animations of what could happen. :ughes and Kranks start off by saying that keeping track of the goals scored in a season# -ngland developed into a &long ball team' or &direct play.' This is when you chipped the ball over the defense for you strikers to out run and easily score. They found that 1*2 of all goals were scored with three passes or less. They also found that a goal is scored every ten shots. -ngland tried to use these statistics to help gain an advantage# but it did not really help them.

/ermany figured out their strategy in the H))* World 7up and used -nglandLs strategy against them by chipping the ball over their defense. -ngland left themselves vulnerable for attack because they pushed too high up the field. n the H))* and H))M World 7ups# people started to track the passing and possession play of team. They are able to determine the average passes per possession# which was = or 8 in the two World 7ups mentioned# and determine if a three pass or less strategy would help goals to be scored. The figures show that in H))* 1*2 of goals were scored through a three pass or less se5uence# but in H))M it was only 882. 7ould it have been a change in tactics or a change in environmentB ;esearchers do not know yet.

Tenga# ;onglan# and "ahr have written a few different articles on soccer related subjects. They wrote &.easuring the -ffectiveness of >ffensive .atch4Play Jeeping in Professional Soccer' and they track all offensive output in soccer# not just the scoring stats. There is always the possibility that a team outshouts their opponent# and yet the other team still wins. Jeeping track of everything a team uses to create these goals is a better way to determine how a team plays. The teams have different possession styles# starting zones# passing penetration# and how much they pass.

.y observations have notes based on what teams did during their games. While the other articles do not talk much about how the "arclays teams play# my observations will give me a reference point so that can refer from the information about tactics to what have seen in the -nglish teams. ,ot many -nglish teams rely on fancy dribbling to win their games. They focus more on possession. :ow they use those possession is the key to their success. .anchester 7ity just breaks into counter attacks and is a relentless team on the attacking third. $iverpool is a

mix between fast counter4attacks to possession. 7helsea# my favorite# is a tactical minded possession team. Their players play well together and they do whatever they can to win. !rsenal is a passing team. .anchester @nited is a very up and down team. They won the league last year and are doing bad this year. They got a new coach and that seems to affect their play. Will he improve as he learns his playersB We will have to wait and see. *ormation$ 7arling explains in his article#' nfluence of Team Kormation on Physical and Skill4;elated Performance in a Professional Soccer Team# which is a study that was conducted over three seasons observing the Krench league# $igue H. The purpose was to determine whether a formation could be more beneficial than another formation. They observed many different formations and found that the physical demand on a soccer player was not changed by playing against any specific formation. They did find that a soccer playerFs skill level may decline if they play against certain formations that work against their style of play. ! basic M4M43 formation is generally the standard that anyone would compare formations to. t is the most basic formation and they used it in comparing certain aspects of the game like number of passes made and aerial duels won. They also looked for things like pass length and average number of passes per possession. 'raining$

.ark ;ussell and .ichael Jingsley discuss research that was done to see how exercise affects the level of skill a soccer player has. 7oaches usual focus on skill based drills# but this article says talks about how when athletes get tired their abilities decline. So if a coach only focuses on skill based drills without build his teams strength and endurance# how long will

those skills help his team in a game. :is coaching style may work for the first half of the game# but when his players start to decline from being tired then he has done a poor job at preparing his team. ! good coach will know how much to train his team in technical skills and in physical training. !long with a coachFs job to tactically know his his team and the other teams he plays in his league# he also need to know how to train his players. +o! I (eel this a,,lies to the -arclays$ .ost of the articles said nothing or very little on how this all applies to any team in -ngland. .ost of the research is on soccer in general or one of the other leagues. The "arclays is widely considered the &worldFs best soccer league#' and yet nobody studies why people feel that way. When tried to research the tactics of the teams# nothing came up. only found generic tactics and statistics that can apply to each team. 7oaching is something that never thought was a very prominent thing in any sport. understood that you need a good coach to lead the team# but always figured that the players are the oneFs actually playing so they have all the impact. This year .anchester @nited have fallen from their throne of "arclays Premier $eague 7hamps to a mid4table team who is being mocked. Someone who is not a fan might think that their best players were hurt of maybe they lost some players in the off4season. ,either of those caused this problem. .anchester @nitedFs famous coach# Sir !lex Kerguson# retired from coaching soccer and .an @# short for .anchester @nited# decided to hire -vertonFs coach Iavid .oyes. :is team had finished in sixth the year before so he was not a bad coach# but he was not 5uite the best possible choice. .an @ start the season and they just play horribly. -verybody expected this team to play so well and possibly win the league again# but after a change in coaching# they can barely win against the &bad' teams.

.anchester @nitedFs coach# Iavid .oyes 7helsea has been a top team over the past few years# but they have lacked something that has put them as the best. They have good players who player well together so that was never the problem. They used to have Gose .ourino as their head coach# and the team won the league title. :e left and went to ;eal .adrid. :e has now come back and 7helsea are playing very well. !fter observing this and the case of .an @ have realized that coaching is much more important that originally thought. Teams focus on things like formations and overall playing style. >ne thing the managers and coaches have to determine is what is the best line4up. They have to pick a formation that their team plays well# and they have to determine which players to put in each game. Soccer is unusual in that there are no set starting line4ups like many other sports. -ach player can bring a uni5ue style to the game that could help their team win over a team. "arclays teams have some players are almost guaranteed to start# and some players that are just rotated. The &all4star' players are the ones that always start and the other good players who are not brilliantly good may start one game# but the next game they may be a sub or not even on the bench. t seems like theirs almost too much talent on each the top teams for it all to be played. The amazing part is that these teams who are filled with so much talent seem to always play so well together. ?ou would think with all these good players somebody would be selfish. nstead they seem to understand that they can build off each other and benefit from that relationship. !fter all this# it is pretty easy to see how so many people consider the "arclays the best league in the world. Why is this im,ortant. Soccer is loved all around the world. :ere in the @.S. we are currently a country that is

split between people who love soccer and people who love other sports and not soccer. hope those people who do not care for soccer will read this paper and at a minimum gain a new appreciation for the game. t is not all about players who fall over without being touched# it is about using your teamFs abilities in a way that outplays your opponents team. The "arclays is the &best league' out there# but there are many more leagues people can follow. :ere in the @.S. we have .ajor $eague Soccer. n Spain they have $iga ""E!. There are many different leagues to watch and they all have their uni5ue styles of play. hope that after reading this paper# people will give soccer a chance in !merica to be what it is all around the world.

-i/liogra,hy$

!.P.7. Tenga# . :olmes# $. T. ;onglan# and ; "ahr# -ffects of .atch $ocation on Playing

Tactics for

/oal Scoring in ,orwegian Professional Soccer# 3*H9.

!lbin Tenga# $ars T. ;onglan# and ;onald "ahr. .easuring the effectiveness of offensive match4 play in professional soccer# 3*H*.

7arlos $ago4Penas and Goa5uin $ago4"allesteros# /ame $ocation and team 5uality on performance profiles in professional soccer. 7hristopher 7arling# nfluence of Team Kormation on Physical and Skill4;elated Performance in a Professional Soccer Team# 3*HH.

Iavid Jilpatrick# nverting the Pyramid< ! :istory of Kootball Tactics(review+# Gournal of Sport :istory 3*HH.

Gurgen Perl# !ndreas /runz# and Ianiel .emmert# Tactics !nalysis in Soccer4 !n !dvanced !pproach# 3*H9.

.ark ;ussell and .ichael Jingsley# nfluence on Skill Proficiency in Soccer# 3*HH. .ichael "reedlove# !ssignment >ne >bservations# 3*HM. .ike :ughes and an Kranks# !nalysis of passing se5uences# shots# and goals in soccer# 3**0. Thomas @. /rand# ,etwork structure and team performance< The case of -nglish Premier $eague soccer teams# 3*H3.