Is the Premier League Falling Victim to Its Virtues?

Photo credits: dailymail.co.uk.
Crystal Palace's Ian Wright in the 1990 FA Cup final.

20 years ago English football was surrounded in a cloud of mystery as far as most people in Europe were concerned. Without today's uninterrupted flow of live streamed matches, football had to be witnessed live on most occasions - and following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, English teams became even more alien to continental football lovers.

However, English football managed to retain its appeal. The tales of teams going at it no matter what the score was, packed up stadiums, matches played in broad daylight, fervent supporters that would never turn their backs on their team and brave supporting of managers through thick and thin kept paving the imaginary of the remaining Europeans, particularly the Southern for whom many of those concepts seemed to belong to a whole different universe, let alone sport.

The Premier League was finally introduced in 1992, coinciding almost to perfection with the return of English teams to European competition. The first (not always live) broadcasts of the FA Cup final, for instance, started to surface on continental TV sets and the enchantment would rapidly pick up steam. When England's top tier became a regular fixture in the schedules of most enthusiasts of the sport, it seemed too good to be true. No tale had been exaggerated. Everyone wanted to bear witness to those appealing matches.

Since then, the Premier League managed to grab the spotlight of European football and to bring the best players and managers to English shores, effectively ensuring English clubs remain some of the wealthiest in the world (suffice to say, for instance, that Roma's revenue is below West Ham's, as a term of comparison) However, that glitter has been fading away in recent years.

• The culture

In fact, over the past few years the marketeers in charge of branding the Premier League have been - ever so subtly - changing the competition's catchphrase from "The best league in the world" to "The most exciting league in the world", capturing a very delicate yet crucial nuance.

Not long after leaving Chelsea, André Villas-Boas (not exactly the most revered presence in English football) made an interesting point by admitting he had not entirely apprehended the nation's reality when he tried to change Chelsea's style from a reactive approach into a more proactive one. Ball retention and patient build-up were not only concepts hard to grasp by supporters, but by players as well.

Photo credits: independent.co.uk.
Roberto Martínez has made the headlines
with Swansea, West Brom and Everton.

The fact is that English football appears to be deeply rooted in broken up matches with extremely high levels of intensity - which for some reason does not lend itself to significant change. It is probably not entirely coincidental that most of the tectonic tactical shifts that have taken place over the past two decades have not hailed from Blighty, despite clubs like Swansea or coaches like Brendan Rogers and Roberto Martínez, both of whom managed the Welsh club.

The gutting duels between José Mourinho's Chelsea and Rafa Benítez's Liverpool from a decade ago were certainly fiercely contested, but they revealed a betrayal of sorts to English football's main tenets. Football is meant to be playing passionately and with your heart on your sleeve, not on tactical boards and in 0-0 matches. After Manchester United's defeat against Barcelona in Rome in 2009 (following which Sir Alex Ferguson admitted himself that he didn't feel like keeping on playing wary football), English football may have taken a step back.

• The insularity

Great Britain's isolation has simultaneously been one of the country's main trumps and flaws. In football, it has meant that, despite significant breakthroughs, the island's football still finds some common ground with the way it was played several decades ago (Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis, for instance, keep on making excellent lemonades with some of those methods). England, in particular, has remained something of an oasis (poor pun intended) to the unsuspecting bystander who craves for scoreline uncertainty and intense matches.

Photo credits: telegraph.co.uk.
How long will it take to repeat Chelsea's
2012 Champions League success?

However, that very feature may very well be damaging English teams' prospects in Europe. Leaving the Europa League aside for a moment - since English teams usually consider it nothing but a Thursday night nuisance -, Chelsea's triumph in 2012 was something of an anomaly (not unlike Inter Milan's the year before), in a season that didn't end with the same manager that had started it. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have taken over Europe by storm and it appears hard to fathom them letting go in the near future.

The same insularity that allows Arsène Wenger to remain on his job has the effect of allowing to repeat the same mistakes season after season as Arsenal are usually eliminated in the first round after the group stage. Defensive organisation and transition seems to be an afterthought in so many managers of English teams, as if the successive attacking waves would somehow make up for the conceded goals.

Liverpool didn't even manage to pip Basel to qualification from their group and Manchester City's struggles in Europe's main competition have been well documented, regardless of the man in charge. Manchester United still very much look like a work in progress and nowhere near European domination.

If England are to enjoy European success anytime soon, Chelsea seem to be the safer bet - and even the Blues have troubles of their own as an aging John Terry and his sidekick Gary Cahill can sometimes suffer at the hands and feet of swift, mobile forwards. Still, Chelsea look far more composed when they give the ball away, for instance, and immediately proceed to adjust in order to protect the fastest way to their goal.

• Conclusion

But perhaps the most worrying signs are not the ones that can be perceived in the Champions League, but rather on English pitches week in, week out. In a time where coaches the world over are more and more concerned about how to populate the centre of the pitch correctly and create chances in that particular part of the pitch given its primordial importance, it is baffling to see Manchester City, Arsenal or Liverpool being ripped apart by any team that attacks them through the centre on quick attacking transitions - something that stronger European sides seldom forgive.

In short, the reason why the Premier League remains such an interesting, attractive proposition may well be the very reason why England must rely on José Mourinho and Chelsea if they want to brag about being top dogs again.

PortuGOAL's latest podcast

The latest installment of PortuGOAL's series of podcasts has been released and can be found here. In it Tom and I discuss what conclusions can be taken from the first half of the Portuguese league and we also have a quick-fire round of questions about José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nuno Espírito Santo and Bernardo Silva.

Spoiler alert: the show was recorded before the recent turn of events that saw both FC Porto and Benfica throw away their respective three points.

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.

FC Porto X Benfica: Dragons' comeback or Benfica's opportunity?

Picture credit: zerozero.pt

In a league where the two major clubs have been running away with the title with increasingly greater ease, FC Porto and Benfica now must make the most of these showdowns between the two archenemies. The old saying used to act as a cautionary tale against the importance of these matches, drawing attention to the fact that smaller teams were usually the runners-up's undoing. Not anymore.

With that in mind, Sunday evening's match will treat us once again with two very different approaches - and even though the match won't probably reach the same levels of managerial proficiency of the now memorable duels between Vítor Pereira and Jorge Jesus as coaches and personalities, there will in fact be some common traits.

• FCP's defence vs SLB's attack

Jorge Jesus might welcome Alex Sandro and Danilo, who has probably been enjoying his best season at FC Porto, with open arms, but truth be told the Dragon's defence has looked anything but impenetrable. While Bruno Martins Indi looks more and more like a shrewd (albeit not cheap) piece of business, his partner - whether it's Marcano or Maicon - leaves something more to be desired. On the other hand, FC Porto's ever marauding full-backs often leave space at the back that can be exploited by Benfica's Nico Gaitán and Salvio, and they're sometimes left exposed by Casemiro and Herrera.

In fact, the clash of styles may well begin on this part of the pitch. Julen Lopetegui's favoured possession-based approach relies heavily on the centre-backs seeing a lot of the ball. However, none of them look particularly adept and they are frequently found wanting while executing the strategy, which has offered more than a handful of opportunities to their opponents throughout the season. Jorge Jesus's Benfica, in turn, are more fond of transition-based matches, where they can make the most of spaces vacated by adversaries - something that might just play into the hands of Gaitán, Talisca and Jonas, with the latter being particularly keen on discovering pockets of space.

Advantage: Benfica

• The midfield battle

While nominally playing with two central midfielders, Benfica might not be at a disadvantage. Jorge Jesus usually has his teams very well drilled as far as defensive duties are concerned, even when it comes to his forwards and wingers. Moreover, the team's movement and compensations improve dramatically as the season goes on and the players get to know the coach's methods. If Óliver Torres and Hector Herrera are to play ahead of Casemiro, as expected, it will probably open up spaces for the excellent Enzo Pérez, whose understanding of the game and ability to penetrate enemy lines stands head and shoulders above Herrera's huffing and puffing.

Andreas Samaris, conversely, may well be another matter, since he still does not seem too familiar with Jesus's ideas and may find it hard to patrol his assigned spaces, with all of Óliver, Herrera and Yacine Brahimi tending to converge to his area. The other side of the coin? Look for Enzo Pérez to immediately pounce the moment FC Porto give the ball away and open up acres of space with just Casemiro shielding the side's back four (or sometimes less). As Sporting showed when they played at the Dragão for the Portuguese Cup, it may be easier to take this FC Porto down by allowing them to shoot themselves in the foot.

Advantage: Benfica

• FCP's attack vs SLB's defence

This is clearly where things get complicated for Benfica. While Luisão still commands a huge deal of respect by remaining able to stay ahead of the inevitable curve, Jardel is no Garay and Máxi Pereira has been showing signs of a gradual but constant decline. With Lopetegui's main attacking plan relying on 1v1 situations down the wings and Jesus's willingness to often allow his team to face even-numbers situations, the individual difference between Benfica's defenders and FC Porto's attackers might just be too much for goalkeeper Júlio César & Co. to handle.

If Gaitán is effectively deployed down the left, he will have to stay on his toes during the defensive phase, since the partnership of Danilo and (most likely) Cristián Tello will certainly prove too much for make-do left-back André Almeida, with Jardel - who will surely have his hands full with Jackson Martínez's skills and sheer strength - also wary of stepping out too far from his zone against such quick opponents.

If Benfica manage to stay compact, FC Porto will have a hard time breaking them down. If, on the contrary, the Eagles take the bait and start coming out in numbers, the Dragons' forwards will enjoy a field day.

Advantage: FC Porto

Benfica's Jorge Jesus: The fine line between perseverance and stubbornness

Benfica's Jorge Jesus.
Photo credit: futebolportugal.clix.pt

Life is usually pretty simple for a football supporter - not easy, mind you, but simple. You love your team. You hate (or at least profoundly dislike) your city rivals and/or archenemies. When your team win, it's one of the best feelings in the world. When they lose, getting to work the next morning seems just a tad harder.

This is one of the reasons why the phenomenon that surrounds Benfica's coach Jorge Jesus is so interesting. Every club - at least in Southern Europe - is subject to these virtually bipolar fans (straying away from the loyal supporters), but the Eagles are a club that seems to be constantly riding a wave of euphoria or experiencing the hardest of crashes with reality. There is hardly ever any in-between. During the same week, it is possible to hear supporters swearing on their mother's grave that Jesus has been the best thing that has happened to Benfica over the past two decades and others who assure their conversational partner that he's only lucky he's had access to such gifted players.

• Team identity: a blessing or a trap?

Every (future) manager taking their badges will have heard countless times that designing your "modelo de jogo" - your tactical blueprint, if you will - is crucial. If you have no idea where you're going, you'll never get to your destination - or so the saying seems to go. You're told that that blueprint has to take numerous things into consideration, from the players at your disposal to the club's ambitions or the supporters' traditional reactions to results and displays. Your identity seems to be the cornerstone around which everything revolves.

The issue comes when you take that identity to the pitch, to face reality - and what you do when results do not come your way. What do you do with that identity when your players are clearly not good enough to execute what you had in mind? What do you do when the president insists that you play two strikers? What do you do when you hit a slump of form or face much harder competition on another environment?

The average supporter could not care less about all these questions and thus it is much easier to just sing their coach's praises when their team win and blast him to hell when they lose. In this specific case, Benfica's supporters are quite happy to watch their team destroy other sides in the Portuguese league, but find it much harder to stomach when Jesus implements the same tactics in Europe and crashes out of the Champions League.

• When to stick to the plan and when to give in?

The issue always ends up at the same stop: over their last five seasons in the Champions League, Benfica have only progressed once to the last sixteen. And that seems to be the point where black and white do not suffice to address the Jesus conundrum: his know-how when it comes to materialising his ideas is undoubtedly impressive. The new players that are invariably signed during the off-season to replace the ones he molded over the past seasons and went on to greener pastures always seem extremely raw and totally uncomfortable with the coach's ideas. Some months later, some of them are touted for higher flights and mentioned on the foreign press.

But what baffles most - including this columnist - is the apparent (or perhaps evident) unwillingness to adapt his approach and options the slightest bit to what his team find in front of them. The cavalier attitude that is on display week in, week out in Portugal seems to do more harm than good, conveying the impression that system will be able to meet most needs. Used to dictate most matches domestically, Benfica often struggle in the Champions League, because their blueprint relies heavily on transitions - both defensive and attacking. In Europe's top tier, however, other teams are much more adept at punishing them for committing so many men forward with caution apparently thrown to the wind.

• The grey area

It would be much easier to judge coaches simply on results. In truth, that's what always happens in the end. With Jesus, however, there is one lingering question: should he be criticised for never being willing to change or should he be praised for the courage to stick to his ideals no matter what? After all, at some point all geniuses were dubbed crazy and stubborn for believing in their work. Sometimes, good or bad are not enough to describe a (wo)man's work.

A year in the life of Arsenal

Arsène Wenger might just be wondering where things
keep going wrong. Photo credit: theguardian.com

Anyone who follows football up close - be it supporters, journalists or pundits - experiences a feeling of déjà vu every once while throughout a season: The feeling of almost being able to guess a final scoreline, the unshakable feeling that that passage of play, that goal, that dummy was already witnessed the year before. Whether it's the top clubs finally gelling and trouncing opponents in cold week nights or a weekend of flooded pitches, there is sometimes the impression that everything has indeed already been invented when it comes to football.

But perhaps nothing leaves us with the feeling of being smack in the middle of "Groundhog Day" like good old Arsenal. Following the Gunners' fortunes is nothing short of watching sequels of bad franchises, where despite the odd change of personnel here and there, we all seem to have a very well informed guess about how things will turn out eventually.

• Summer

The previous season has just ended. After a tottery mid-season, Arsenal managed to finish in the ever precious fourth spot and clinch their place in the crucial Champions League. Wenger, true to form, assures supporters and journos alike that lessons have been learned and that the off-season will be spent plugging the glaring holes in his squad - namely virtually any position from central midfield backward.

However, by August there have usually been few pieces of business apart from the already traditional signings of potential game-changing youths that will be supposed to evolve into powerhouses within a few years under Wenger's tutelage. By then supporters start to get restless and Wenger duly abides; over the past few years he has ended up splashing some cash on an attacking player (in previous years not even that) promising to revolutionise the team's game. Any of the previous season's troubling positions end up being ignored.

• Autumn 

By September and early October, Arsenal seem to get firing on all cylinders. The latest acquisition - Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Mezut Özil, Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sánchez, what have you - seems to be keeping the manager's promise and rumours start flying about the possibility of this being Arsenal's year at long last, the time where all the planning from previous seasons come to fruition. This is the time when Arsenal top the league (or hover nearby) and where changes in backroom personnel are put under the microscope to explain the latest change in the team's fortunes.

By late October, early November, some worrying signs start to surface. An important player gets injured, then another, then another. Late September's initial drubbings in the Champions League gradually give way to pale performances that usually end up costing the Gunners the group's top spot in the end. The inevitable elimination from one of the cups tends to follow, as well as the first points dropped in places where title candidates cannot afford.

• Winter

With the Premier League's busy schedule over Christmas and New Year, this tends to be the moment where Arsenal wave a definite goodbye at any illusion they may have harboured of fighting for the contest. The home draw against a midtable team, the barely comprehensible defeat away to bottom-dwellers - all of it paints the picture of a distraught team with holes throughout that are too big to ignore.

By late February, Wenger sings the tune of being involved in several fronts, only to see the league's big dogs get farther and farther away. In the Champions League, the "bad luck" draws one of Europe's powerhouses and Arsenal crash out of the competition either in the last sixteen or in the quarter-finals at the very latest. The conclusion is always identical: positive brand of football but ultimately an approach that is absolutely unsuitable to Europe's top echelon.

• Spring

The quicker players slowly start coming back from injury. With a less congested schedule, the team seem to get back to its best. A spirited comeback is needed to ensure the crucial fourth spot, even though it seems too far off this time around.

By March and April, some are left wondering where this Arsenal were all this time - the courage, the resilience, the excellent football, the joint effort of all the artists and hard workers on the same page. What once looked like a mirage - qualifying for the Champions League - now seems possible. Just.

By May, the Gunners end up achieving their (what one can only assume should be a) secondary goal. Whatever chances of putting their hands around some silverware dissipated in some unlucky clash with a Championship team or a side that ended up being relegated from the Premier League.

Wenger, true to form, assures supporters and journos alike that lessons have been learned and that the off-season will be spent plugging the glaring holes in his squad.

FC Porto 2-0 Lille: Dragons claim their place in the Champions League

Starting line-ups

FC Porto have progressed to the group phase of the Champions League, successfully raising the number of Portuguese participants to three, after eliminating LOSC Lille over two legs.

The match at the Dragão between Portugal and France's third-best teams from last season was a touch more one-dimensional than expected, with Lille favouring a more reactive approach, despite trailing by a one-goal margin from the first leg.

There was some curiosity as to whether coach René Girard would remain faithful to the 4x3x3 formation he tends to deploy in the tougher matches or whether he would instruct his players to be more proactive with and without the ball. FC Porto coach, in turn, fielded the exact same starting XI he had presented last Wednesday in France.

• Matching formations do not mean matching dynamics

One of football's greatest truisms is that games are not won on paper, which is usually a fair point when supporters and commentators discuss the virtues and flaws of the tactical arrangement of any given team. Case in point, both FC Porto and Lille took to the pitch organised in a 4x3x3, but the way went about it couldn't have been more different.

While Les Dogues kept allowing FC Porto time on the ball and (sometimes too) patiently waited for their opponents to get caught in possession - which almost came to fruition when starlet Rúben Neves underhit a pass, forcing Maicon to a desperate last-ditch effort - the Dragons stayed the course they have undertaken under Lopetegui and offered a very fluid display during the first 20 minutes.

Indeed, FC Porto's long(ish) spells of possession were followed by quick switches of play in an attempt to find vulnerabilities down Lille's weak side (the flank the ball is not on) and making the most of the excellent Brahimi and Óliver Torres. Despite being nominally stationed on the wings, both these players tended to drift inside and allow full-backs Danilo and Alex Sandro to motor forward.

• Man-marking often equals vulnerabilities

Hector Herrera did not have the easiest or most successful season last term, but his particular traits allow him to shine on specific circumstances (as shown at the latest World Cup). Here he was able to take advantage of Lille's vulnerabilities in midfield. The gaping holes that kept surfacing all over the centre of the pitch were a direct result of the team's man-marking in midfield.

All it took was for Óliver or Brahimi to come inside to drag Balmont and Gueye out of position, which allowed Herrera to sprint in behind (usually at Gueye's expense), particularly down Lille's right side. Lille midfielders could be seen swapping man-marking duties on the pitch, instead of approaching the challenges in zonal fashion.

Marked improvement, but still work to do

When compared to last season, there are significant enhancements as far as FC Porto are concerned. With more men closer to the ball when in possession, the Dragons are often better equipped to react to giving the ball away, usually being fast at keeping their opponents from transitioning into attack. The few times that it didn't happen, Lille were unable to make the most of it because they invariably looked to the wings to provide crosses, allowing FC Porto defenders precious time to retreat into their positions.

On the other hand, it was already possible to see distinct moving and passing patterns, the concern seeming to be to offer several passing options to the player with the ball (for instance, if the centre-back has the ball at his feet, it's quite likely the full-back will offer width, the winger will come inside to offer a passing option and the midfielder on that side will sprint in behind on the wing).

Nevertheless, there were some periods during which Lopetegui's charges were not in total control of matters and where, against stronger opposition, slip-ups could have been punished. The team seemed somewhat surprised when the coach asked them to retreat after Brahimi's beauty of a first goal from a direct kick and Lille could have effectively got back into the match.

• Evandro brings stability, Souaré kills all hopes

Four wins in four matches with no goals conceded is way too short to offer any kind of perspective, but Lopetegui should at least be praised for giving the team a solid identity (something the side lacked throughout all of last season) and for sticking to 17-year-old Rúben Neves on such demanding matches. The Portuguese midfielder eventually ran out of steam, making way for Evandro, who brought some much-needed stability to a midfield that was clearly coming short by the middle of the second half.

A couple of good chances for Lille ended up yielding nothing and it would actually be one of Les Dogues to kill the tie: left-back Pape Souaré's poor pass offered Brahimi the possibility to run at Lille's defence and play Jackson Martínez in with a perfectly weighed pass. The tie was definitely over.

• Conclusion

A very positive result for both FC Porto and Portuguese football. The Dragons' expensively assembled team needed to make sure they were in the Champions League to justify the huge investment made and the weapons at their disposal make them clear favourites for the Portuguese title (even though one can't help but feel this is the club's swansong as far as high-profile signing are concerned in a desperate attempt to wrestle the title from the hands of Benfica).

There already seem to be some good routines and patterns in the squad, and the positive results will surely help the players believe their coach's ideas. Still, this possession-based approach has its drawbacks, namely when the centre-backs are called upon to start out attacks or when opponents remain compact and patient.