Football's Laws of Attraction

Despite being bandied about all over, it is sometimes hard to grasp the notion of what exactly is the "decision-making" that everyone keeps talking about. One would be hard pressed to find a clearer example than Stefano Mauri's goal in the last Rome derby.


AS Roma vs Lazio (2-2) Full Highlights 11/01... by rubin7190

As one of the last few one-club men in his time, Daniele De Rossi is one of the most respected players in Italy and a symbol for his club. With his nation, De Rossi has won the World Cup and has a bronze medal from the 2004 Olympics and a silver medal from the 2012 Euros. Back in 2012, he was even close to a move to Manchester City following his stellar displays in midfield (and sometimes in a three-men defence).

Nevertheless, not even a player like De Rossi is free from the pull that a round piece of leather exerts over players ever since they (and we) were kids. One of the most curious sights in football is to watch a spontaneous match between young toddlers, where all one can see is a bunch of infants gathered around what must surely be a black hole, such is the gravitational pull.

In this case, De Rossi ended up doing exactly that, as it is possible to attest over the following pictures.

1. Roma give the ball away down their right wing and a 3x3 situation immediately arises.

2. Felipe Anderson progresses up the pitch while Roma try to contain the threat while waiting for back-up. Vasileios Torosidis can be seen sprinting back to try to improve his team's odds. De Rossi seems to be analysing the situation correctly as he glances over the space behind Davide Astori. Stefano Mauri, the eventual goalscorer, is still a few yards behind both Astori and De Rossi.

3. A simple, outside overlapping run leads De Rossi to make the inadvertent decision to approach the ball instead of providing coverage for his team-mate, effectively succumbing to football's laws of attraction and opening up a gaping hole in the heart of his very defence (shaded circle).

4. Even though De Rossi realises his mistake, it is already too late and Felipe Anderson is wise to pick his pass at the right moment as Mauri makes his run into the penalty box.

• Conclusion

While watching the video, one is able to realise just how quickly this whole process takes place, which might help explaining just why improving the players' decision-making skills and ability to read and understand the game (and what is asked of them at any given moment) is one of today's top priorities for most coaches.

World Class Coaching

The analysis of the latest match between Milan and Juventus can now be found at the fine World Class Coaching blog, at http://www.worldclasscoaching.com/blog. Please feel free to comment, suggest or disagree at will.

Udinese (almost) fail to show up

Starting lineups

Pundits (unlike myself) are often criticized for giving their opinions according to the result, and not according to what they think the game offers at that particular moment in time. The match that pit Juventus against Udinese was supposed to present two title contenders - but unfortunately only one of them showed up (for most of time, that is). In fact, the match seemed to go against what would be expected by most - myself included.

These two teams had met a little over a month ago, but this time Juve were without Pepe and Marchisio (replaced with Giaccherini and Quagliarella) and Udinese weren't able to call upon Asamoah and Pizni). Just like the match in December, Antonio Conte chose to mirror the system of Udinese, going with what can broadly be described as a 3x5x2, where as Francesco Guidolin had to reshuffle all of his midfield, which would prove decisive for the final outcome.

In the second minute, the bianconeri were already performing one of their trademark moves. If we compare the first clip with the first goal against Roma (second clip), we will be able to see several similarities. Even though the players finishing the moves are not starting out from the same position on the field, the principle is the same: a quick run on the weak side of the ball in order to take advantage of numerical inferiority or equality.

Udinese started out by assuming a clearly counter-attacking stance, keeping a low defensive line and choosing to be up in numbers. Pasquale's fielding on the left wing was surely intentional, since Guidolin will have wanted someone to mark Lichsteiner a bit closer. With Asamoah and Pinzi absent, Udinese found themselves with no out-ball and no one to act as a pivot, a role that Pinzi plays so well. This meant that, unlike the match in December, there was hardly anyone to take the ball up to Di Natale or Abdi, which in turn meant that Juve just kept on piling up the pressure. Armero, playing out of his natural position, tried to deputise as the exit man, but often seemed to forget that his job wasn't just motoring up the field.

As seen here, Udinese's midfield was constantly left exposed due to Armero's venturing forward. 

It is still strange to notice, particularly in a league as tactically aware as the Italian, how much time Andrea Pirlo is allowed on the ball. He was able to dictate the tempo and re-start the moves after Udinese throwing the ball forward, in a desperate attempt to relieve the pressure. Actually, Abdi did not exert any sort of pressure upon Pirlo (even though he seemed to have tried at first), and he even started going backwards, possibly trying to help his porous midfield. Therefore, it was no surprise that he didn't make it back on the second half - his replacement, Floro Flores, was a bit more incisive.

When Juventus scored towards the end of the first half, there was some curiosity as to what their plan B would be, given that they had been so hesitant. Oddly enough, just when everyone Juve had the game in the bag (and so it seemed to yours truly), they suddenly dozed off and let Udinese back in the game with wayward passes that mostly Isla intercepted, using those interceptions to counter-attack. Di Natale shot for the first time on 52 minutes and, only two minutes later, Floro Flores scored. Even though the goal came apparently out of Juve's own mistakes, Udinese seemed to be right where they wanted. Feeling the game was getting out of hand, Conte replaced Quagliarella (such an improvement on that particular position, when compared to the out-of-place Pepe).

Once again, Udinese's goal meant nothing and they ended up conceding precisely when it seemed that Juventus would play into their hands. After that, it was one-way traffic and the team from Udine showed that they never wanted anything more than a draw.

I would just like to point out two issues. The first one has to do with Matri. Almost unnoticeably, he managed to have 50 touches (Di Natale had 27, as a reference), from which he mustered 3 key passes, 5 shots (3 of which on target) and 2 goals. It doesn't get much better than that for a forward. The second issue relates to Giaccherini. Not only is he an avid scorer (he scores 1 goal every 5 games, on average), but he also has a tendency to find spaces to run into, opening spaces for himself and others to score. Definitely a player on the rise.