When analysing something it is important to define your terms, to ensure that the reader understands the analysis. It’s also a useful exercise for the writer in order to organise their thoughts. Therefore, I decided to try and assemble something of a football tactics glossary.
I didn’t invent any of these terms, and the majority of readers will already know them. Most of them I picked up from reading analysis on other sites, chiefly Spielverlagerung. They are useful because they allow concise communication with fewer words than would otherwise be necessary.
Game Phases
Attacking Organisation: the game phase when you are in possession of the ball.
Defensive Organisation: the game phase when your opponent is in possession of the ball.
Attacking Transition: the game phase after you win the ball.
Defensive Transition: the game phase after you lose the ball.
[Game phases should not be viewed in isolation from each other, as actions and decisions in one phase will affect events in the next.]
Defensive Coverage and Pressing
Low-block: defensive line is around the edge of own penalty box.
Mid-block: defensive line is between the edge of own penalty box and edge of the centre circle.
High-block: defensive line is near the halfway line.
Vertical compactness: the distance between the defensive line and the forward line of a team.
Horizontal compactness: the distance between the widest players of a team.
Spatial compactness: the distances between players within the team’s formation.
Ball-orientation: the extent to which a team adjusts it’s positioning based on that of the ball i.e. shifting to the ball and overloading zones around the ball.
[Compactness and ball-orientation can also be attacking principles as well as defensive ones.]
Man-marking: classic full-pitch man marking where players all mark their direct opponents without a zonal structure. Can also be used to refer to individual man-marking which targets a certain opposing player.
Man-oriented coverage: the opposing player is the main reference point for defending players, however unlike classic man-marking there is still some zonal structure.
Position-oriented coverage: the main reference point for defending players is the positioning of their teammates and retaining the team’s shape in a (hopefully) compact block.
Option-oriented coverage: Defending players aim to cut off passing lanes between opponents. There may be spaces within the block but if executed correctly they will not be accessible for the opponents.
Counterpressing: pressing in defensive transition, immediately after a loss of possession. Can also be done with different reference points as with defensive pressing (see above).
Directional pressing: pressing in order to force opponents to one side of the pitch and reduce the area they can play in.
Possession and Superiorities
Positional play (Juego de Posicion): a playing model based on an organised zonal structure in attack to try and ensure optimal spacing between players, in order to create a ‘free man’.
Free man: the unmarked player for the team in possession in a positional play framework.
3rd man: the third player in a passing triangle. Often also the free man.
Overload/numerical superiority: having more players in a zone than your opponents in order to gain the benefits of the free man.
Positional superiority: advantageous positioning, for example being able to receive the ball behind the opponent’s midfield line, or a forward playing on the blindside of the defender.
Qualitative superiority: having superior players in a situation compared to the opponents. “Not all 1v1s are equal.”
Isolation situation: an attacker being able to isolate a defender 1v1 without defensive support and hopefully use their dribbling skills to beat the defender.
Dynamic superiority: the advantage gained from being able to receive the ball while moving vs a static opponent.
Individual press-resistance: an individual player’s ability to retain the ball under pressure from opponents using their own strengths e.g. upper-body strength, close control, dribbling skill, awareness etc.
Collective press-resistance: a team’s ability to retain the ball under pressure from opponents through their positional structure ensuring connections between players, as well as having players with individual press resistance (see previous).
Andribbeln: a German word describing the action of ‘dribbling in order to provoke opposition pressure’. For example, centre-backs bringing the ball out of defence and attracting pressure from opposition midfielders, thus opening space behind them.
Rest defence: Rest defence (or “rest defense”) is the tactical structure a team maintains behind the ball while attacking in order to prevent counter-attacks. It originates from the German coaching term: “Restverteidigung”.
Dismarking: used to describe methods that players and teams use to create separation from opposition markers.
Salida Lavolpiana: a now common method of playing from the goalkeeper in a back 4 whereby the centre-backs split wide and the defensive midfielder drops deeper. Named after former Mexico coach Ricardo La Volpe.
Players and the Pitch
Blindside: the part of the pitch which is outside of a player’s field of vision at any given time.
Cover shadow: the space that a defending player is covering behind them in relation to the ball’s position.
Depth: the space behind the opponent’s defensive line.
Halfspace: the space between the wing and the centre.
Statistics
Expected goals (xG): a predictive metric designed to measure chance quality, taking into account the positions of shots taken by a team and assigning them a probability of scoring based on past data. Models can also take into account shot type, angle, and game state.
Packing/IMPECT: metrics designed to measure how successful players and teams were at eliminating opposition players and breaking opposition lines.
PPDA (Passes per defensive action): PPDA is a statistical metric used to measure a team’s pressing intensity. It calculates how many passes a team allows the opposition before making a defensive action (tackle, interception, foul, challenge) in the attacking or middle third.