What is Positional Play
Some people in football today love to make things sound more complicated than they are! Positional play is not rocket science! Let’s do an analysis of one clip and simplify the concept of Pep Guardiola positional play.
Video clip showing the build up play versus Liverpool which led to a penalty kick
𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 - Positional Play
— Kavanagh (@ObsessFootball) February 11, 2021
Part 1
Some people online love to make things sound more complicated than they are! Positional play is not rocket science! The concept of Pep Guardiola's positional play, simplified in one clip would be this....pic.twitter.com/gbXkA0WpJc
The Three P’s
The Three P's in Positional Play = 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞. Broken down from the video example above into those 3 headings: 1. Establish good 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. That's really easy. Get hold of the ball under control!
Position
Position is key. Players occupy parts of the pitch to establish overloads. EXAMPLE: Trent Alexander-Arnold here. If he drops into Gündoğan City will play over him to Sterling. If he remains dropped off then City play to feet for Gündoğan to turn.
Pressure
Manchester City passes are mostly 10-15 yards in build up. This limits big spaces developing between players. Because of this when City lose the ball they have bodies within short running distance to quickly counter press & avoid counter attacks against them.
The Solution?
It’s not easy. City time & time again are using full backs to occupy midfielders that then allows overloads to develop in wide areas. Watching MOURINHO's Tottenham vs City this weekend it will be fascinating to see how Mourinho sets up to stop those overloads developing.
