Today we keep our focus on one of the keypoints of associative play: attract opponents in one zone to free other zones. This aspect is directly related to the generation and occupation of spaces in order to progress in the game. Attracting opponents becomes more difficult, as year after year teams present better defensive organisations as well as are more efficient in the recovery phase. Nevertheless, there is one team that manages this concept in an exceptional manner, and it is no less and no more than the 2020 Champions League finalist, Paris Saint-Germain.
Before levaing and commenting the video, we would like that you take a few minutes to think about the different ways to attract opponents. Do you think there's only one way of doing it? Or, otherwise, there are several ways to achieve the same result? Think about it, take a look at the video, and keep reading to discover and learn a bit more about this principle of play and its utility.
Let's go: we can see in the video, right from the start, that it seems quite difficult to penetrate Montpellier's defensive lines as they are quite tight and compact. It is true that Montpellier play with 10 men from the 17th minute, but it is also true that even with one less player, they keep their compactness and a good defensive organisation. Consequently, and as we can see in the video, the initial space for the attacking team is in the wide areas (lateral channels), where it is easy to reach by the defenders if a direct change of play is played without any other tactical movement taking place. Hence, the first thing we see PSG doing is to keep a player (usually a full-back or a winger) in more width than that of the defending team. This player is, typically, the future receiver of the ball. In order to gereate more space, we see how Cavani, Icardi, and Di María fix the back 4, all the centre backs and full-backs.
When this first step is achieved, the rest is easier to accomplish; we can see a great repertoire of different ways to attract defenders towards the zone of influence of the game. We can see, in a same clip, how Neymar with the simple fact of receiving the ball is able to paralyze the game, making his direct defender and the closer one to focus their attention on him, leading to a reduction of space in the zone of influence. This is the first way to attract opponents: staying still. Immediately next, we see Cavani making a support run towards Neymar, bringing with him a defender and making Montpellier's left midfielder drop off to the central area. The same happens with the left-back marking Juan Bernat. This is the second way to attract defenders: movements of support towards the holder of the ball. So, with a simple movement, PSG have numerical inferiority in a reduced space but, at the same time, they have the defenders exactly where they want them. Once the defenders have been attracted, PSG change the orientation of the game indirectly (with 2 passes) and generate a 2v1 situation in the opposite side. This is a clear example of attracting opponents in one side to play to the other.
Another effective way to attract defenders is repeating passes. Not necessarily between two unique players, but repeating them in a specific zone of the pitch. We can see this behaviour during almost every action in the video. While the concept is clear, we need to take into consideration several technical aspects for the full idea to work such as the speed of circulation of the ball, the zone where we want to attract players, the zone we want to free of players (if the players orient their body position towards the space they want to free, the defenders will get ready to occupy that space and the manouver will be counterproductive). What does all this bring to us? Well, it is better to see it in an image.
Exactly, free players in free space, where defenders were and now they have been attracted towards the ball.
At this point, the reader must be thinking that, at least, there is still one more way to attract opponents. We have left it for the last one because it is the most complex to execute properly. That's it, by driving with the ball. When we attract opponents by driving we have a massive risk; find ourselves in a situation of high numerical inferiority and this is why we need the full team to understand this movement, know where they must be, and be ready to occupy the corresponding zones of the pitch. There are two ways that driving with the ball can help us to generate space: driving towards the space of interest to free a teammate or, otherwise, drive in the opposite direction than that where the space we want to generate is. If this situation is resolved properly, it is the one that will produce the best results and provide a better advantage. Again, we can see it better with a picture.
We need to see that, in this case, the free space is generated in the same direction of the drive, but behind the back 4, a space that Di María is menacing and attacks at the right time after a 40 meters drive from Neymar.
We have seen which are the tools that we can use to attract opponents in a specific zone of the pitch to then play in a different one, whether it is in the lateral channels, in the central ones, or a mixture of both. Let's train it?
If you liked what you read, do not miss the entry in our TRAININGS section to see how to apply these principles in a practical way.
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