In today's analysis we put the focus on a concept that has been thoroughly commented in football's recent history: third man. It seems to us that this concept is highly sexualised, something that should not happen in the middle of the 21st Century, so we have decided to explain and analyse this concept using the team that best does it: FC Barcelona Womens' team.
Nowadays, there is still a lot of people related and/or working in football who misunderstand or have the wrong perception about what the third man is. Let's try to define it: imagine that I have the ball (first player) and I want to pass it to one of my teammates (second player). But this teammate has a defender on and I can't pass it, because it will lead to losing the ball. It is here when a third player comes into play, who will help us (me and my teammate) to make the ball arrive to the second player. Confused? Let's see it with a sequence of images:
We can see in the first image how the centre back does not have any open passing line (except if she turns and plays with Sandra Paños, the keeper). But we also clearily see where the free space is, which will enable us (as a team) to progress and get higher up on the pitch. Hence, the players make an excellent analysis of the situation and one of them appears (taking a defender with her), who will make possible that the centre midfielder receives the ball in the gree space.
There are many factors we must take into consideration in only this movement. First and most important is that the players recognise/identify themsleves with their role: the centre back is the first player, the central midfielder is the second, and the offensive midfielder is the thrid. All of them understand and know where (towards what direction) they want to go, making the action easier. We can see how the offensive midfielder (third player) brings a defender with her. She knows that she won't even try to turn around when she receives the ball, because that would lead to losing possession, and because she has identified herself as the third player. Therefore, her action generates, additionally, more space for the second player.
The second aspect to take into consideration is the body position of all three players: the holder of the ball (first player) has a correct body orientation towards the third player to play a vertical pass that, by the way, breaks a full line of the defending team. The second player's body position is looking towards the third player, because she knows that she will receive the ball from that side, instead of receiving it directly from the first player, and this body orientation will make her control (when she receives the ball) much easier and she will take much more advantage than if she needs an extra touch to accomodate the ball. Finally, the third player makes the movement towards the first player but with her body position slightly oriented towards the second player, so she can play in one touch and avoid any risk of losing the ball.
Now that everything is much clearer, let's see the full video.
In the video we can see how, apart from the characteristics previously mentioned, the quality and sharpness of the passes between the players is key. Dominating this technical aspect allows the team to obtain more advantage and give velocity to the movement of the ball. Furthermore, we see how third man actions keep happening one after another and how successful they are, given the great understanding of the presented situations of the game.
We see how much understanding the action helps the team to progress. We must keep in mind that we won't always be able to play this third man combination as its success will depend on many factors: characteristics of our players, individual characteristics of the opponent, collective characteristics of the opponent, type of pressure, and a long list of etc. Hence, as coaches, we must promote not only the concept per se but also each player's role in a context in which the biggest benefit of the beneficiary/benefactor relationship will be for the team.
It is not by chance that FC Barcelona have reached the final stages of the UWCL in these last years. We should really rethink the name of this concept.
Should we train it?
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