Tactical Theory: Rethinking the long line pass
Why the long line pass isn’t the most effective way to progress and how to solve it by using different approaches in the wide areas.
Introduction
The long line pass is a simple vertical ball forward in the wide area with the aim to progress up the field. Usually executed by the fullback to his respective winger. This pass can either be a high ball in behind or an on-the-ground ball to the feet of the wide player.
This pass is simple to execute and gets the in-possession side up the field (near to the goal) easily, but it has a lot of disadvantages from a strategical and individual point of view.
The downsides of the long line pass
The fastest way to reach the goal is by going through the centre. Moreover, the middle offers more passing options for the ball-carrier, as Rene Maric elaborates in his article about the half-spaces:
“The freedom of choice is greater in the middle of the field. There is no boundary created by the touchline. One has roughly eight basic directions from which the ball can be played (forward, backward, left, right, and four diagonal lines). On the wing there are only five directions (forward, backwards, square to the left or right, and two diagonal lines). This means that the space to work with is limited and the precision of vertical passes must be higher.” (Maric)
In turn, defensive setups obviously look to restrict central progression and aim to guide the opponent towards the wing. Fullbacks are still often the pressing trigger and have usually no choice other than passing the ball to their respective winger (especially at systems with a double wing occupation). Moreover, the fullbacks’ body orientation alongside their view and the simplicity induces the long line pass.
Tuchel talks about this on a congress (which will be further discussed later on):
“My team had a thought pattern: ‘We play the ball wide and on the ground along the side-lines — that’s safe, that’s comfortable, the guy up front can see how he gets on, none of my business’.” (Tuchel)
Some teams, such as Liverpool, purposefully use these long line passes to reach their wingers in behind. However, this vertical pass can be very inefficient for less direct teams, where the fullbacks play into the feet of the winger.
That’s because the ball ends up again on the wing after the long line pass, where (as already mentioned) the options to progress are reduced. Moreover, it’s mostly even more difficult to get out of these situations as the opponent will apply aggressive pressure and create a temporary overload to trap the in-possession side.
Additionally, the receiving winger has a negative body orientation (with his back to goal). This usually triggers his direct opponent to press aggressively, as the wide player can normally only play backwards if he isn’t given enough time to turn.
To make an interim conclusion, it can be said that to solve the issue of the long line pass and effectively progress through the wide areas, it’s necessary to improve the body orientation of the receiver or (even better) access the middle.
Solutions
Various ways from different coaches to achieve these conditions will be presented below:
Diagonality — The Guardiola way
The first possibility is to improve the body orientation of the receiver by changing the passing angle into a diagonal one. A way to achieve this is by applying the principle of “single wing occupation” (meaning only one player is positioned in the wide channel).
I’d like to call this method the Guardiola way, as his structure in possession is based on maximising the passing lanes (preferably diagonal ones) by creating triangles and diamonds all around the field. In Pep’s teams, the wingers are normally the only ones, who are positioned on the wing lane, while the fullbacks occupy a more inside position. This shape creates a diagonal passing angle from the fullback to the winger (a diagonal pass from the centre back to the winger is often open as well).
One of the big benefits of diagonal passes is that the receiver has a better body orientation than at a vertical pass (mostly side-on), which makes it easier to progress into the middle but also enables the winger to take on his respective opponent more comfortable and potentially beat him in a 1v1 situation.
Guardiola speaks about inverted fullbacks in this beautiful clip and showcases the positive effects of having a diagonal passing lane out to the winger:
“The winger receives it already in an attack position, and not on his back with a defender behind.” (Guardiola)
Dynamical space occupation — The Arteta way
A few weeks ago, a video of Mikel Arteta talking about a simple concept to solve the issue of the long line pass went viral on social media:
The Spaniard talks in this clip that he doesn’t want a straight line between the fullback and his winger, as it’s more difficult to progress due to the body orientation of the winger. Instead, he favours a diagonal angle, just like Guardiola.
However, when watching Arsenal play this season, the Gunners create at times a different diagonal angle with the fullback holding the width and the winger dynamically occupying the half-space when the respective fullback aims to pass to him. This creates a diagonal passing lane to the inside. Moreover, this angle alongside the movement enables the winger to take a directional touch inwards and beat his opponent with a dynamical advantage.
That’s because the winger’s direct opponent will normally anticipate a simple long line pass and jump aggressively to restrict the winger from turning. By simply moving horizontally and occupying the half-space, the winger moves against the grain of his direct opponent and can access a more valuable zone with a better view (usually side-one body orientation).
One-two — The Bielsa way
Combinations play a big part in almost all of Marcelo Bielsa’s teams: using various passing patterns to get out of congested areas, progress play and eventually create chances.
One of the simplest passing pattern is the one-two, which can be very effective if done with high speed and the right timing. This combination was often visible in Bielsa’s teams between the fullback and the winger, who regularly both occupied the wide channel to create width.
Great quote by Judah Davies from his article about the blind-side, highlighting the effectiveness of one-two’s:
“With the ball’s location moving at the same time as the opponent’s, the defenders’ main visual reference points are effectively being split. For this reason it is not possible for them to act on both simultaneously. Focusing on the ball alone risks leaving the opponent free to run behind them, whilst focusing solely on the opponent may mean not being able to track the direction of the return pass.” (Davies)
The pattern starts with the fullback playing a simple long line pass towards his winger, who is normally under immense pressure. In the meantime, the fullback advances with an underlapping run to provide an inside option for the winger, who quickly lays the ball off into the move of his teammate. The fullback regularly has a dynamical advantage and a forward-facing view, which enables him to either break through himself or find better positioned players.
Cutting the edges — The Tuchel way
Another clip, which went viral a few years ago was Thomas Tuchel talking about the usage of a diamond-shaped field in his training sessions, which made it impossible for his players to play a long line pass (something they did too often for his taste).
He specifically talks about topic of the long line pass and changing behaviours at 11:48:
“A lot of teams try to break forward early down the wings — now my team played it wide extremely early and kept trying to carry out attacks along the side-line, ball on the ground. That was an absolute taboo for us. We wanted, conversely, to force the opponent, to this day, to play along the side-lines, because for us that’s the ideal pass to actively force the opposition to lose the ball.” (Tuchel)
Therefore, instead of using a simple rectangle shape in his training sessions, Tuchel regularly implemented a diamond-shaped field. This form creates a diagonal angle from the fullback to the winger and back inside diagonally. Within this shape, the players are forced to execute Tuchel’s principle “diagonal-flach (diagonal on the ground)” by still obtaining the maximum in freedom of choice. The players are therefore forced to find solutions by themselves with the constraint of the diamond-shaped field, which implicitly teaches the principle of “diagonal on the ground”.
Conclusion
Even though the long line pass seems to be a viable way to progress up the field, there are a lot of different possibilities to exploit the wide areas in a more effective manner such as using diagonal passes, dynamical space occupation or simple passing combinations.
