GoalPost #18: Owners, Identities and Tactics
The Prince, The Country and The Tactician
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TotalFootball brings the GoalPost series which this time features 3 videos from the TotalFootball YouTube playlist that are interesting and informative .
Sheffield United — an owner’s perspective
Synopsis
In light of Chris Wilder’s exit from Sheffield United by “mutual consent”, this interview by Prince Abdullah puts forward the owner’s perspective. A very calm and well-balanced interview that shows his views and gives an insight into how clubs operate and how owners thing. An authentic interview worth watching in full.
My View
Football is a business. While we see the spectacle, behind the scene there is someone paying for that. A person or a group has invested money in the club and they naturally want a return on their investment. As a fan we can often wonder why an owner will not buy a player. It’s more than just valuation and potential, both of which can be a fickle. It is about how recruitment is done and how the choices and decisions are presented to, and perceived by, the owner. The transfer market is a big differential . Get it right and you’ll get a Bruno Fernandes or Raphinha for a relative “bargain price” — or get rid of some fringe players for startling amounts. Get it wrong, especially on a small budget, and the season could fold away. A lot of Liverpool’s recent success was in shipping out the “lemons” and making astute purchases. The Blades suffered the opposite fate: lots of outlay on players without the results to show for. Is the coach to blame? Well, if they can take the credit, then they must take the blame also — depending on who makes recruitment suggestions. Good recruitment is crucial for clubs. Getting the right recruitment process — and results, is the mantra for smooth sailing both on and off the field.
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Athletic Club Bilbao — unique
Synopsis
A great video (like we expect from TIFO) explaining Athletic Club’s Basque policy, and more importantly, clearing popular misconceptions or erroneous assumptions about it.
My View
I’m a great admirer of Bilbao’s Basque policy and have written about it earlier. It is a holistic philosophy connected with the land and language. It’s the soul of the club- something that cannot be imitated or bought. Bilbao have so far also proven naysayers wrong about the “limitations” their policy creates. Along with Real Madrid and Barcelona, they are the only club to never have been relegated from the Spanish top division. In April this year, they will play Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final. The irony of two clubs associated with separatist movements playing in the King’s Cup is only heightened by the messy downfall of Barcelona (no pun intended). Barcelona is today struggling for an identity both on and off the pitch; and their slogan mes que en club (more than just a club) ironically sits more, and indeed most comfortably with Bilbao. Despite having supported Barcelona since 1991, my heart will be with Bilbao in this final.
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Inverted full-backs
Synopsis
Tactics have advanced tremendously in the past decade or so. One term we hear more often now is inverted full-backs. It is a positional adjustment — where full-backs are positioned outside-in or …should it be inside-out? Watch the video, another excellent one from Tifo Football, to understand.
My View
At this rate of micro-innovations, we are heading towards an era of unprecedented tactical sophistication. No sooner we got used to false 9s now, there inverted full-backs, inverted wingers and even false 8s. Spearheading most of these innovations is Pep Guardiola, his schooling under the high-priest of footballing thought, Johan Cruyff, proving fertile ground for his experiments. Manchester City this season are playing a new level of football. Their fluid and often striker-less formations are in many ways coming full circle. Football started with a 2–3–5 formations and Guardiola’s City are well on the trajectory to once again achieve that, in practice if not in strict theory. A possession-based philosophy with a fluid 2–3–5 attacking set-up. TotaalVoetbal Mach 3 (Mach 2 was tiki-taka, as per my interpretation) — seems set to screen on our TVs (or phones) sooner rather than later!
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