Craig Butler, co-founder and head of Jamaica’s Phoenix Academy of football recently made a very interesting statement in one of his Facebook Live broadcasts, recently. In referring to how Jamaica needs to collectively approach football in the future he said emphatically that what we need is “Systematic, sustained development with one local culture based on our genetic disposition”. And what is that disposition? Butler said “We’re fast”. I found this statement very relevant and encouraging because of the latest evolutionary trends in the beautiful game. It comes at a time when athleticism has taken on supreme importance in football. Not that it was never important before but the current tactical trends in football make it even more so.
The most important and fastest growing of these trends is Pressing. Pressing, has always been a part of football but in recent years under coaches like Klopp, Guardiola, Simeone, Pochettino and Bielsa among others it has been taken to a higher level. Pressing, which is essentially pressuring your opponent into giving up possession has become more intense and varied. Gegenpressing or counter-pressing, the latest buzz word involves pressuring your opponent as soon as you lose the ball in their half in order to get it back. Pep Guardiola requires his players to press intensely for six seconds after they lose the ball. There is the high press as your opponent tries to build up their play in their own half. There is pressing on the flanks trapping the opponents against the touchline and of course pressing is also involved even when defending deep with a low block.
Pressing in all its forms has become a dominant tactic in the German Bundesliga with almost all the teams, It has become prevalent in La Liga and Serie A with teams like Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Fiorentina to name a few. In England, pressing strategies are also being introduced under coaches like Klopp, Pochettino and Guardiola. Now, with Guardiola in the Premiership we have already seen teams like Swansea putting a lot of emphasis on a high press trying to disrupt Manchester City’s possession and build-up play.
So what impact has this had on player development in European football? Well it has made athleticism more important than ever before. That doesn’t just mean the ability to be quick and to run. It means, more importantly, the willingness to run. Players who are unable and/or unwilling to run are now finding themselves on the fringe of the game. Take for instance Belgian striker, Benteke, who is undoubtably a quality forward but found himself to be surplus to requirements at Liverpool. The reason is that he doesn’t fit into coach Jurgen Klopp’s philosophy because he is unable to provide the speed, movement and intensity required for a pressing game. Klopp doesn’t just want a striker who can score, he wants one who can press and move rapidly. Recently, we saw where Pep Guardiola said he expects more from his star striker Sergio Aguero. He wasn’t referring to just goals. Aguero is a prolific goal scorer. He was referring to movement and pressing.
Players are now required more than ever to be at peak fitness all year round. Mauricio Pochettino’s players at Tottenham have alluded to how gruelling they found his training methods to be when he introduced them at the club. Pep Guardiola has made alterations to the players’ dietary regimen and players who are overweight must train separately until they are fit to rejoin the team. Diego Simeone is very strict, as well, and has made players apologise to the rest of the team for being overweight. Endurance and speed are of paramount importance. This also accounts for teams becoming younger. Tottenham has one of the youngest squads in England and some people jokingly refer to the Bundesliga this year as a schoolboy league. Obviously some coaches feel they can get more athleticism from younger players.
This brings us back to Craig Butler’s point on Jamaica’s genetic disposition in football. “We’re fast”. Indeed we are an athletic people and this bodes well in an era where football is evolving into a game of greater intensity and pace. We are genetically suited to pressing. We have the speed and strength and physical intensity for that kind of game. The game has also become more refined with concepts such as “positional Play” developed by Pep Guardiola to maximize passing and incisiveness. Other coaches like Unai Emery, Jorge Sampaoli and Frank De Boer among others are advocates of their own versions of positional play. But don’t be fooled. This refined style of play also requires athleticism. Constantly creating passing angles and “free men” is hard work. It involves a lot of running. Pep Guardiola when asked recently what he expected of his players at Manchester City as they learn his philosophy had this to say ““They have all the permissions to play awful. They don’t have permission to don’t run…”. Jurgen Klopp has also instilled a brand of play at Liverpool where the forward players constantly exchange positions and roles as they attack. One makes a run out of his normal position and another makes a run to compensate for that change.
After describing Jamaica’s genetic disposition Butler went on to say, “We’re fast. It doesn’t mean kick and run, it means quick thinking”. Indeed, the complex variations of the pressing game with different ways in which to press the opponent, different reasons to press, different triggers to initiate the press doesn’t just require athleticism it requires quick thinking. It requires intelligence and by intelligence we mean the ability to be open to and absorb different ideas and concepts. This is not just required for pressing. It is required for positional play. It is required for Jurgen Klopp’s dynamic game. It is required for greater and more intense teamwork.
Think about a team like Atletico Madrid, known for incredible defensive discipline. The ball goes to one side of the field and the whole team adapts to the ball position maintaining the correct spacing and positions with each player knowing who must cover which space and who is allowed to move out of position and when. Atletico’s coach, Diego Simeone, has refined this to a science. Pep Guardiola has said he wished all his players could be midfielders. This is because he wants players who are intelligent in reading all aspects of the game and who are adaptable and willing to play different roles. That is the new intelligent player in football, today. Jamaica has a foundation of athleticism from which we can begin to develop intelligent players to fit into the rapidly evolving game.
This development, however, is no easy task. And Mr. Butler further elaborated on his points by making the very pertinent statement that “It means development. It means focus. It means everybody being on the same page with the training. Coaches being on the same page developing the youth in the same way so that they are all unified in their sense of purpose. When they go away and come back, they remember everything they were taught before”. These points cannot be over-emphasised. Recent successes in national football development in Germany and Belgium can be directly attributed to coherent, coordinated, unified strategies beginning at the very early youth level and up. If you look at the Jamaican team in this moment, drawing on both overseas based players and local players, the challenge is not easy to create a coherent tactical philosophy for the team.
Even clubs do not find this process easy and it takes time. Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp both needed about a year to get their teams playing the way they want them to play. A national team does not have that kind of time to train together. Whatever the chosen tactical philosophy of the Jamaican team, the adaptation to this new strategy must begin at the ground level and clubs must be encouraged in every possible way to participate or at least be aware of the development of our strategies in order to achieve a unified direction. Thankfully, pressing has seen more prevalence in the Reggae Boyz’ tactics over the past couple years and hopefully it will quickly form a greater part of Jamaica’s overall football DNA at both national and club level. In reference to our Under 17 players, Jamaican coach Andrew Edwards recently said "Again our pressing game is like a 12th man for us and we are going to be emphasizing improvement in that area".
Like all fans around the world, Jamaicans want quick results, but it is time we look towards the successful nations such as Germany and Belgium to recognise that the only way out of the football doldrums is hard work, time and unity of purpose. We may not see improvements right away but we must start right away for real improvements to be seen down the road. We have at least one clear advantage or bonus and that is our natural athleticism and our versatility in sport. Hell, we have produced a bobsled team. We can certainly adapt to all the evolving variations of football tactics with athleticism as our core foundation. With the current tactical developments such as pressing, positional play and a movement towards a new upgraded version of “total football” requiring every player to participate in all facets of play, this is the perfect time in the evolution of the beautiful game to seize the day and begin something special in Jamaica.
