Splitting the CBs, two point o

Champions League gameweek 2, 2018/19.

Bayern Munich vs Ajax at the Allianz Arena. 

Mazraoui has the ball. He is pressured by Ribery and Alaba is attempting to block off his passing lane to van de Beek. Van de Beek himself makes a run out wide, dragging Hummels sizeably away from his position. Meanwhile, Boateng is keeping tight with Tadic and Kimmich is protecting the far right. Javi Martinez, however, is strolling lackadaisically. He should be moving deeper to cover for Hummels more aggressively. 

Mazraoui turned inside. Alaba stays with his man. Ribery drops off, unbothered by defensive responsibility. Boateng stays on Tadic. Hummels keeps with van de Beek while simultaneously moving back to protect the goalmouth. 

Javi Martinez? Having started as the DM, he is now neither covering for Hummels, nor effectively closing down Mazraoui, neither is he effectively positioned to block off the Mazraoui-Tadic passing lane. That combination will eventually produce the goal. What Javi Martinez is trying to do, no one knows. 

Here, credit must be paid to Ajax. There is one attacking runner on each of Bayern's back four. Ideal conditions to generate organised chaos. 

Boateng steps up to Tadic. He is not close enough to tackle nor effectively intercept a pass. Behind him, the entire penalty box is empty. Neither Hummels nor Kimmich will ever reach Mazraoui, and Alaba himself is a pace behind to make the blocking challenge. 

Javi Martinez? He didn't move into Hummels position when the attack first started. He left Boateng alone to guard Zone 14. And he didn't even keep with Mazraoui's run to complicate the shot. Dreadful. 

Splitting the CBs

One of the most crucial parts of football is positional cover. Meaning, if one player is pulled out of his position, another teammate must drop into that space to provide defensive cover. It's one of the fundamentals of team sports. And this relationship is perhaps best manifested, and certainly most crucially represented, by the CB-DM-CB triangle. 

The CBs are instructed to protect the goalmouth. To, no matter what, be the last two bodies between ball and goalkeeper. The DM, for all his on-field duties, at its core is the protectorate of the defence, of the CBs. When players ignore this duties, goals are conceded. 

Champions League gameweek 2, 2018/19. 

The ball is being moved out onto the right flank. Fabinho is currently positioned exactly where he should be. And Captain Henderson is dropping a tad deeper should something go wrong in these final minutes of the match. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet. 

Mertens's movement has dragged van Dijk entirely out of position. Both will soon be by the touchline. This is essentially the cue for Fabinho to turn his head, asses the defensive line, and drop into the holes that need plugging. Instead he, and Henderson a tad below him, are both caught ball watching. 

Napoli progress further into Liverpool's half. The entire left halfspace has opened up, now that van Dijk has been dragged out of position. There is space for Callejon to run into, space that Fabinho should be moving toward to stifle Napoli's attack. But again, he and Henderson are ball watching. While Gomez and Alexander-Arnold, the last two and the youngest two of Liverpool's back line, are left to defend the goalmouth. There is an attacker running off of each of them, and both, unsurprisingly, are ball watching. 

As Mertens passes the ball into Callejon's path, Fabinho is finally picking up his pace. Already too late as he will surely be beat for pace. Gomez, understandably, is ball watching, giving Insigne all the needed time to make any blind-side run that he desires. Alexander-Arnold is not doing enough to keep up with Insigne nor to eliminate Milik's cutback run. Henderson finally tuns his head to asses the defensive situation. As the next picture will show, the Liverpool captain does nothing with this information. 

Callejon is running into the penalty box from an entirely uncontested left halfspace. Fabinho and Robertson can't catch him. Gomez is trying to position himself to intercept the ball, but Insigne can make any blind-side run that he desires. Alexander-Arnold finally checks his shoulder for where the danger lurks, but he looks to the wrong side and afterward stops running altogether. 

In brief: van Dijk has been pulled out of position. No fault of his own, this will always happen to CBs several times in a match. There were two natural DMs in Liverpool's midfield trio that night: Fabinho and Henderson. Fabinho never dropped into van Dijk's position, despite being right by the left halfspace during the time of the attack and having multiple opportunities to do so. Henderson, despite this happening in the 90th minute, never made the effort to drop deeper and help the defence. Alexander-Arnold may be inexperienced, but still displayed horrid spatial awareness and defensive intuition. Gomez was left as the one-man defensive line. 

Building up from the back

Modern football almost demands the top teams to initiate their moves, essentially their momentum, from their own goalline and all the way into the opponent's goal. 

Here is how my team will shape up 

New age football

1.) As the goallie prepares to take the goalkick, each CB drops super deep and to either side of the penalty box. It is purposeful that the CBs drop this deep. The aim is to drag out the opposition as far forward into our half of the field as possible. 

If the opposition intends to press high, it cannot foolishly overcommit. Given high pressing can prove fruitful, it is dangerous to do so vs a thoroughly fluid team that has grown comfortable to playing out the back - as my team would be. 

2.) The fullbacks keep wide, as they mostly will be instructed to do. They do not aggressively push forward, but take up positions nearer the defensive-third-middle-third threshold. 

Here, the idea is to space the CBs and FBs reasonably far but reasonably close. Not too great a distance to complicate a pass or leave either party entirely stranded when pressed, but a perfectly large enough distance to force the opposition's winger, attacker, or whoever will be responsible for closing the pair down, to only attack one player and in such a manner that a passing lane cannot be blocked. 

In brief: the CB and FB must be far enough from one another to be able to play any type of pass between themselves, but the FB cannot abandon the penalty box either, should there be a turnover in possession. 

3.) Here lay the foundations of the central net. This will be further discussed in great detail. But in premise: both of the CMs are to be positioned in the halfspaces, in a vertical lane with the CBs and as a horizontal passing option for the FBs. 

The DM must feel naturally attune to positioning himself in between this quartet of CBs and CMs. He is the pivot. And the team's design is to allow him an open passing option, or two, for any body angle. 

4.) Two players are to be left in attack. On paper they are labelled as the LW and ST, but it can be any two of an attacking trio. 

The LW and ST position themselves as wide as possible, in a direct vertical relationship with the FBs. Here is why: 

• To allow for a quick route forward between FB to attack, should there be a need. 
• To pose the following questions to the opposition's defence: 
• Is it the CBs that keep with the LW and ST, as they would in open play? 
• Should the FBs stay back with the LW and ST, or push forward and help the high press? 
• If the FBs go forward and the CBs move wide, who will protect the centre? 
• How can the FBs and the CBs prepare for the eventual blindside runs by the LW and ST? 
• Is it best to keep a narrow line of four? or stretch wider but have defenders in all the optimal positions to eliminate possible threats? 
• To buy space for the RW

5.) This entire design is hinged on one player, one opponent, one moment. 

The defenders are spaced to purposefully create high volume to our play. The attackers are positioned far out on the flanks to purposefully stretch the oppositions defence. The midfielders stay relatively close to one another to purposefully attract the oppositions midfielders deep into our half. 

This leaves one player and his presumed man-marker: our RW, their DM. Both are exactly in the centre of the field. 

One successful body feint, and the RW is allowed to spring forward on the attack against a back four with gaping holes and two attackers running in from the flanks. 

One successful tackle, and the opposition is only metres away from our goal, with all defenders in near disarray. 

Football is a game of fine margins. 

The basics

Football is different. Different in every single way. No uniform guide, no cemented laws. Just one truth: space is power. 

But that's too bland sounding to feel dogmatic. A more fitting law: 

Football is about manipulating the opponent, manipulating space.

New age football

Pictured, two teams. The poka-dot circles are players positioned by my design. The hollow rectangles represent the opposition. Immediately worth noting: my fullbacks, the labelled LB and RB, will always be asked to keep wide nearer the touchline and to be aggressive in their attacking positioning. 

1.) The ball, drawn in as the hollow white circle, is at the feet of the RCM. He is central, just below the halfway line. Accompanying him are the LCM and RW. Together, the three form a tight triangle, ideal for close control, rapid movement, and ball circulation. This triangle is instructed to dictate play in the entire middle third and beyond. It is the axis of my team.

The sole two other laws to football read: 

• For each attacking action there will be a defensive reaction.
• The opposition will always gravitate toward the ball.

As this triangle stays close, the opposition will surround it. The striker will press from one side, the midfielders will push up to apply pressure, and the wingers will narrow in from the flanks. That is the desired effect. 

2.) While the ball-controlling triangle dictates play ahead, the backline is responsible for setting the volume of the play. The lower the line drops, the more vertical space there'll be for the opposition to exploit and for the team to cover in bid to attack. If the line pushes forward, there'll be less available space in which to play football. The focus will shift to quick, close control passing. The team that is trained to excel in such football will, undoubtedly, excel. 

The DM of the team will always position himself in between the CBs. As the central triangle circulates the ball, the back line of three pushes forward to essentially open up three avenues:

• a central diamond with the DM at bottom point and the RW at the tip.
• each CB occupying the lower halfspace, still within his own half, but capable of redirecting the entire team play out onto the flanks. 

This particular set up poses a few questions to the opposition. Is it worthwhile to press the DM and alleviate pressure off the central triangle? or allow him all the time in the world to play his preferred passes? Do the wingers step out to pressure the CBs? or do they keep with the central triangle? 

3.) At the other end of the field, the attack. If you control the opponent's defensive shape, you win the game. Thus, two players must always remain forward. The ST and LW must always occupy the opposition CBs, each picking up his own respective man. For what purpose? In brief:

• It is suicidal to defend without numerical superiority. If there are two attackers, there must be a minimum of three defenders. 
• If there is one attacker on each CB, the opposition DM must stay back and hear his CBs to provide cover and aid. This opens up large vertical distances between the opposition's backline and midfield. Distances that my team can exploit with the right passes and movement. 
• The opposition fullbacks are also caught in two minds. To stay narrower and help out the CBs? or to move out wider and ensure that my fullbacks will not be given the time to accelerate into  their incisive runs?

The opposition is currently forced into a defensive shape designed by my team's meticulous positioning. 

4.) At any point, factoring in that the backline has pushed up further upfield, anyone from the central triangle, or any of the two attackers, can drift out wide nearer to the fullbacks. Out on the flanks, it is strictly diamond football.