In today's football, technical and tactical reforms have made the sport more varied, and modern football has always placed a strong emphasis on passing, but this was not the case in the era of football's origins. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Early football was based on passing, where players would quickly dribble forward after getting the ball, and the rest of the team would focus on quickly regaining possession after the receiver had lost the ball.

Considering the player's first thought after receiving the ball, 19th-century football was more like rugby than modern football: passing was very rare, and if it was passed, it was only a last resort.

However, the style of passing was further developed in the future. In the 70s of the 19th century, a team called Queen's Park dominated Scottish football. In the 1872 match between Scotland and England, the team provided many excellent players for the national team. At that time, England's players were stronger and began to reflect the first style of modern football. But the Scottish players look more like a unit, and they don't choose to go it alone when attacking, but will tear apart the opposition defence with passes.

It was a shocking way for England players to be a completely new concept – that the ball could be passed to a better team-mate, something they had never considered before. Unsurprisingly, this team style of play maximizes the abilities of the players and creates a team that has always been more harmonious. Since then, such ideas have spread throughout the United Kingdom, but also throughout Europe.

Although the teams at the time often changed tactics and formations, in the process of tactical development, the teams focused more on the style of play than the formation.

But the birth of the "WM formation" can be said to be an exception.

This pyramidal system is actually 2-3-5, and in the mid-20s it became dominant due to a change in the offside rule (less than three defenders between the ball and the opposing goalkeeper offside to less than two offsides). At the beginning of the 20th century, teams began to understand the value of offside traps, but such changes were far from perfect, and teams became more difficult and risky when creating offsides.

Arsenal legend manager Herbert Chapman realised his side had to adapt to the new offside rules, so he decided to move his team's centre-back (and then one of the midfield three) further back, between the two wing-backs, to form a three-man defence. This completely changed the nature of the defense and gave the team a stable foundation.

However, due to the retreat of this "central defender", the midfield of the team was understaffed, so the inside forwards had to drop back to help the midfielders, leaving only one center forward and two wingers in the front, at which point the team's formation became 2-3-2-3, which is often referred to as the WM formation. At this time, the team has enough personnel in the defence and the midfield can be fully supported, which means that the team is no longer just about attacking.

Hungary's 6-3 thrashing of England in 1953 was arguably the most famous game in football history, and Hungary's tactical deployment was completely superior to England's. In fact, the core reason for Hungary's outstanding performance is very simple: the role played by the key players in the team is completely confusing for the English players.

Despite not being the star of the team, Hungarian centre-forward Nandor Hidaiguti was the catalyst for Hungary's outstanding performances. The England player felt that wearing the number 9 shirt would naturally be a natural part of the goalscorer and involved in the physical confrontation with the centre-backs.

But that wasn't the case, he dropped back deep and managed to draw England centre-back Harry Johnstone out. More often than not, he played the role of a midfielder, not directly threatening England's goal, but instead helping the rest of the team's strikers find the back of the net with his passes.

Uh, is this the prototype of a classical front waist?

In addition to attacking, Hungary are also different defensively, with midfielder Josef Zacarias dropping back to become the team's second centre-back, a move that pushes the full-back position further down the flanks (similar to the current full-back position).

The idea quickly spread around the world, and the back four gradually became a common tactical system around the world. But Hungary's contribution goes far beyond that, as their style of play has taught attackers to make better use of space rather than recklessly confronting opposition defenders, and the art has spread rapidly.

By the 60s of the 20th century, the advent of chain defense changed the entire defensive approach of the team, the main of which was to change the concept of scavengers.

Austrian coach Karl Lapan was the first manager to try to have a sweeper behind the defence, and since then, Italy coach Nerello Rocco has made the game popular in Italy when he was in charge of Tristina, and although he will change the formation of the team frequently, the role of the sweeper has always been there.

Because of the superiority of the defensive line, the team that uses this style of play is most concerned with how not to concede the ball, so the game scene is very dull and boring many times.

Rinus Michels, the great coach who carried forward the all-attacking and all-defensive tactics, is perhaps the greatest tactical reform in the history of football.

There are no fixed positions, and the constant switching of positions involves the opposition's defence, and everyone seems to be able to play the role of defence, midfield and front.

The uncrowned Kings of the Netherlands are the best example of this: they can defend from the front and attack from the back.

Many people think that this tactic means that players can run to their favorite positions according to their preferences, but in fact, this tactic requires very high levels of physical fitness, tactical understanding and execution.

The key to this system is to always find space on the pitch, but football is a team sport of 11 men, and Johan Cruyff has only one, so the Dutch team, which struggled to achieve true all-out attack, failed to win the World Cup three times.

Since then, many tacticians have wanted to innovate and reform, but they have found that they have always been unable to bypass the shadow of all-out attack and defense, even today in the 21st century, the Tiki-Taka created by Barcelona and Spain is only based on all-attack and all-defense, and has achieved some functions.

This tactic attaches great importance to the ball and especially pursues control in the midfield, so they rarely use defensive counter-attacks, but compress the space as much as possible, trying to get the ball back in the midfield, so high pressing was also born with this tactic.

Of course, there are no backward tactics in the world, and there are no truly advanced tactics, everything in the world is mutually reinforcing, but one thing is certain, as long as football is still around, football tactics will never stop developing.

In this summer's European Championship in France, two teams used a three-back formation at the beginning, one of which miraculously reached the semi-finals and became the biggest dark horse of this Cup, that is, the European Red Dragon Wales, which participated in the main match of the international competition for the first time; The other is Italy, an old powerhouse that reached the quarterfinals and was defeated by Germany who switched to a back three.

It can be said that half of the teams in the last four of the European Championship have won with a back three.

Does this mean anything? Will there be new imitators in international football? Will we see more teams switching to a back three in the Europa League this season?

Jonathan Wilson, a tactical columnist for The Guardian and author of "Inverted Pyramid", a masterpiece in the history of football tactics, has given a negative answer.

The back three was popular in the late '80s, but faded into obscurity in the late '90s in favour of a one-striker system.

The evolution of the formation follows a certain pattern, and the reason why the back three will become popular is because with the disappearance of traditional wingers, the full-backs no longer need to focus on defence, and their position is advanced to the midfield to become wingbacks, leaving three defenders to deal with two strikers: two to mark and one to lag behind.

Then, with two defenders free up against a single striker, the midfield in a back three formation is overpowered, especially when the two wing-backs have to deal with two wingers in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation.

Josep Guardiola's Barcelona have brought a new twist to world football in recent years, with teams having 65 or even 70 per cent possession becoming more common, and teams with less than 30 per cent possession are adapting to the situation.

Swinging the bus in the backfield, leaving no gaps, and letting the opponent fall in the midfield, this kind of play that was unimaginable before has now become the way for many teams to survive. In this case, the loss of control of the midfield does not matter, and the redundant defenders become an advantage, as the team's goal changes from "winning" to "not losing".

At the other end, there has also been a resurgence of the two-striker set-up, which has left the two-centre-back formation a bit confusing, while the back three can cope with it with ease.

Tactical theory can certainly explain some of the problems, but Wales and Italy use a back three, mainly based on the actual situation of the players. They are by no means playing a back three for the sake of playing a back three, but the back three formation allows the best players in the team to play more, and it happens that this formation adapts to the rhythm of this European Cup, most of the games are clear in attack and defense, and there are few hand-to-hand fights in midfield, Italy and Wales have always dealt well with attacking teams, but there are not many ways to deal with defensive teams.

While the back three is all the rage at this European Championship, it is unlikely to affect the tactical environment in the domestic league and there may be some imitators, but the failed attempts of former Red Devils boss Louis van Gaal have shown us that the style of play that works for the national team cannot be replicated in the club. Because clubs can look for the best players in every position, the national team can only assign the most reasonable positions to a limited number of players.

That's why Mike Phelan is so worried when he sees the starting lineup.

Obviously, the team only has two healthy central defenders, but Niu Shuai has withdrawn former Chelsea defender Michael Essien to the central defender position, two full-backs have been used as wingbacks in the midfield, three midfielders, former Liverpool defender Mohamed Sissoko and former Arsenal defender Mathieu Flamini are mainly defensive, and the new captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is the metronome of the midfield, responsible for the team's brain, controlling the pace of the game and midfield scheduling. Among the two strikers, one is the two-time Premier League Golden Boot but the Dutch striker Robin van Persie, who is aging and declining in form, and the other is Wales international Robson Kanu, who played Cruyff's turnaround shot at the European Championship.

This is the first time Hull City have played in a back three, and it seems to have appeared in training matches, but at the time it was thought that it was just training, and Phelan did not think that it was premeditated.

'Swansea's starting XI are out, they're in a 4-2-3-1 formation and it's clear they want to keep us at bay with crosses from the flanks and long-range shots down the middle. Niu Shuai said as he kept scribbling back and forth on the tactical board with his pen.

This is the first time he has explained his tactical deployment to the players and coaches in the dressing room, because the first time to play a back three tactics is very risky, and Swansea at home is strong, so Niu Shuai must explain some tactical details.

And although Ferran was very dissatisfied with Niu Shuai's temporary change of formation, he couldn't help but watch it intently when he saw this Chinese man explain tactics for the first time, and he wanted to know how much ability he had to be so arrogant.

"Swansea's single striker is a 194 cm tall center forward, this Spaniard has a good header and good foot work, but the body is average, Davies, this person will be handed over to you, with your fierce hand-to-hand combat and all kinds of small movements to make him feel what a Premier League game is, not his fucking soft bones La Liga."

Davis touched his bald head and smiled, and the others let out chuckles, this pre-game tactical meeting is not so tense.

"Essien, although you used to be a big buffalo, now you are old, but your experience is still there, I let you play as a central defender, is to ask you to be a scavenger, when the opponent attacks, one, eliminate the second drop point in the penalty area, two, their forward midfield, that Icelandic sniper who likes to step forward, don't let him be unscrupulously active in the penalty area! As for him outside the box, you don't care, the area you're responsible for is inside the box. Niu Shuai looked at Essien and pointed at the chess pieces with 23 on the whiteboard.

Then he looked at Zhu Zeming, drew two arrows on both sides of the No. 5 chess piece on the board, and said: "Help the two of them to help defend in the penalty area, don't lose your position when defending, the task of the two wingbacks is to compress the middle, put their wingers and fullbacks cross, and you must strictly prevent inward cutting and passing and shooting in the penalty area." Depending on the situation of the game, make bold forward passes to create scoring opportunities for the forwards in the frontcourt. ”

After a pause, Niu Shuai gently tapped on the tactical panel and said: "Don't worry about fouls, you can kick when you should kick, no matter how many penalties you give, it doesn't matter, which world-class central defender hasn't missed?" ”

Everyone looked at Zhu Zeming, who was red, in surprise, and many people had envy in their eyes.

To be so valued by the manager is the rhythm that will fly.

Fei Lan opened his mouth slightly, but in the end he still didn't speak, no matter how Niu Shuai used people, everything was decided by the result of the game.

"Although Van Persie and Kanu are two strikers, Van Persie is in the back, more similar to the forward midfield, and can move anywhere in the front, Kanu rushes forward, but don't entangle with the opposing central defenders, run more, and pull out the gaps. Before we scored the first goal, our tactics were to defend low, put the bus in the box, and first make sure we didn't concede a goal. ”

As he spoke, Niu Shuai looked at Schweinsteiger, and a ghostly smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Bastian, remember, if you want to beat someone, you must first learn to be beaten." When you are not afraid of being beaten, it is when Old Man Mu regrets it. ”