In this thread, we shall see how Juego de Posicion is implemented on the pitch.
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Long balls are never encouraged from the back when the distance is large between the front and back lines. Inability to recover second balls.
The only exception being evasion of high press when long balls to the striker are used to neutralise the press.
In such cases, the structure is sufficiently tweaked so that the midfielders are positioned to recover the second balls efficiently.
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Overloading of a wing and underloading on the far side is the key feature in the concept of ‘free man’ generation. Vital in creating 1v1’s.
This is one of the most important aspects in JDP where the space is generated in the far side for the wide man to exploit.
The 1v1’s are aimed at creating both positional and qualitative superiority. For eg. the presence of a wide man like Robben or Messi leads to qualitative superiority in most cases.The positional advantage is that the full back gets drawn along with the back line towards the ball.
The free wide player who receives the ball is at an advantage with the space in front of him. The way he receives the ball also leads to a superiority as he has the momentum to go forward having received the pass on the front foot. Displacement of opposition is also achieved.
The initial passes in the build up are aimed at creating space on the far side and the player movements are purposeful towards this.
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The overloading of a particular side can be used to manipulate the opposition and play through the packed areas with optimal positioning.
Notice that the positioning of each player is such that no one is on the same horizontal or vertical line after setting the play up.
This allows manipulation of the opponent and the numerical superiority enables the team to play through the opposition.
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Opening up of passing lanes to the wide man with a run from a midfielder into the advanced areas. May/may not be blindside runs.
This is a case of exploiting man orientations as the midfielder drags his marker with an advancing run thereby opening the passing lane.
The potential of a strategic blind side run can also work here in the half spaces where a low compact block can be exploited thus.
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A typical example of exploiting man orientation in the midfield. The central mids drag their markers opening up the lane to the striker
Here the striker drops down to the space to get involved in build up. Advancing runs from another midfielder enables structure to progress.
An exact scenario played out between the Manchester City and Monaco match that ended 5-3 to City last season in the CL.
The two cases of free man and exploiting man orientation is explained below in the images.
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