forget the goal itself, even the pass.

90% of breaking down / stressing a deep-block is altering their body orientations.

CREATING blind-sides.

most of the treacherous work is getting the block facing sideways, instead of frontal.

a deep-block is most comfortable when possession is in-front of them, the goal immediately in their blind-side.

can't have an attacker in your blind-side that way, it'd be redundant.

this is also why KDB and Trent have been so incredibly effective.

they attack blind-sides.

scattered thoughts on Momentum, Heliocenters, and Football.

a thread.

× let us establish exactly *what* momentum is.

momentum can be defined as "mass, in motion".

with the amount of momentum gathered commonly known to be dependent on two factors:

- the quantity of mass, in motion
- the speed of mass, in motion.

Brazil's #6 for the next 15 years, their rival to Federico Redondo.

the South American answer to Declan Rice.

in fact, the closest regeneration of Declan Rice.

Gabriel Moscardo.

a thread 🧵. one of the biggest floor-raising abilities of a deep receiver (either #6 or #8, this case, a #6) is relieving pressure off of the settled defensive shape by recovering possession and immediately transitioning the team 40/50 yards ahead.

almost all professional defenses are good at defending on one side OOP, it's simple stuff.

it's when you force these defenses to shuffle from one side to another, constantly, that spaces open up.

that's a significant issue with the Xavi / ETH vertical football. when the ball is constantly moving in one direction, vertical, it forces NO rotations / adjustments from the opposition's block.

everything is in front of the block or attempting to get behind it, it's easy to pay, attention to.

attacking the blindside is 🔑 at the pro level.

part of the reason why Pep doesn't like duel-engagements particularly after possession-loss is that his containment approach to counterpressing is ESSENTIAL to the subsequent technical actions necessary to consolidate + progress possession.

contd/. duels are tiring, tired legs are inaccurate, the more City would engage in duels, the more technically awry / inaccurate they'd be once they regain possession.

the more awry they are technically, the more duels they'll have to engage in as a result of losing the ball..

contd/.

quick reflections on @ReneMaric article addressing the (at the time) unconventional usage of Rafinha by Pep Guardiola.

specifically in "libero" or "inverted FB" situations in Bayern vs Koln in 2015. Rene already addressed some key in-possession advantages to the inversion of Rafinha from a traditional FB position into central areas such as:

- confusion regarding marking responsibilities on Koln's left side
- extra middle passes
- central RD protection

players are (unrealized) tactical possibilities.

coaching is the realization of possibility. no, players do not directly represent tactics, it's a decomplexified regurgitation, players need context to maximize performance, even the best players.

yes, even Mbappe and the likes, players don't exist in a vacuum.

you can however, project their potential.

ever wonder why Iniesta was such an effective ball-carrier?

the secret is in the upper-sidefoot contact he made with the ball consistently.

look at how *fixed* the core of his body is, despite his momentum carrying him towards his left, his abdomen remains mostly upright / fixed.

allows him to save energy when planting his furthest foot (to explode/change direction), and saving energy = ability to repeat movements.

it's universal logic.

"philosophy" implies an alleviation of pragmatism necessary in football, and life.

there should be no loyalty to ideas, only rigor in analysis / re-evaluation of the hierarchical order of values.

and the subsequent attempt to achieve the maximal value.

https://twitter.com/MartinRafelt/status/1659155463114563587

https://twitter.com/thewittyjack/status/1588564647632064512?s=19

the notion that Real Madrid's squad-building has gone awry is incorrect at best, there seems to be a gross misunderstanding of Madrid's recruitment / squad-building philosophy.

this (if true) is the correct call, which Madrid often make.

https://twitter.com/MadridXtra/status/1659444106441940994

Perez / Calafat are aware that there are holes (LB / RB / #9), do not be mistaken.

but Madrid refuse to sacrifice their *standard-quality* relative to long-term financial / contractual investments.

Game-State, its Conditions and Fluctuations, and why it is the Holy Grail for seekers of the European Throne.

How to win the Champions League, a thread. what is game-state?

game-state is the symbiosis of two teams' individual quality / tactical intent / psychological temperament / game-context,

and the interactions between all.

both within a single team, and across the two competing teams.

of course Emmanuel, and rightly so, it's better to only allow 3/4 transitions and 2/3 settled attacks against City's defense every 65 minutes, than it is to allow the double of that while forgoing defensive possession, even Madrid minimize risk, just in different ways.

https://twitter.com/daudi10emmanuel/status/1656188292939886595

you think Madrid players don't want to go all-out attack at every opportunity against everyone?

of course they do, but Carlo and the vets (Luka / Toni) understand that sometimes they need to sit back, absorb pressure,have 10-12 minutes of defensive possession..

why Luka Modric is brilliant in tight-spaces:

A - Stride Length (space between front / back leg extended), affords wider Protective Radius (immediate 30-40cm around)

B - Step Variance (alternating between short, stuttering steps / elongated steps)

why is it important to have the physical composition + intuition to vary Stride Length?

It's about functional applications in tight-spaces of each (long-short)

long strides allow for firmer planting of feet to ensure optimal readiness for contact / shielding /1

Josep Guardiola.

the Grandmaster who chose pitches over chessboards.

a thread: "The process of picking a line-up is like sitting in front of your chess pieces. You’ve no idea how similar the two things are,”

words of a man who has spent a thousand nights, picking at calluses of his mind-matter.

toiling over which pawns to move forward, which to hold back.

no team in modern football leaves behind the emotional impression of earlier eras, nature of the game, seems like we come up with reasons to subtly jab at Pep's legacy every year though.

https://twitter.com/kenearlys/status/1483024128072368129

As for entertainment value, i for one find City's positional/technical excellence tremendously rewarding, much more than say all 2000s sides bar Barca, mastery is enjoyable in any field.