General Football Thread

[Atomiswave 6,117]

Damn, was it of age or sickness? RIP

[Special Juan 28,141]

27 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

Damn, was it of age or sickness? RIP

More sickness than age. His misuse of drugs and alcohol did not help.

[Atomiswave 6,117]

16 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

More sickness than age. His misuse of drugs and alcohol did not help.

Yeah his coke abuse was well known, 60 he was I see. In any case thanks for the info.

[robsblubot 3,595]

I was lucky enough to have seen him play on the telly. Yes, it was his final year as a top player and I barely remember it, but from what I do remember, the easiest way to describe Maradona play would be comparing him to Messi: Diego had MORE tight control of the football than Messi.

Being originally from the south of Brazil, near Argentina (everything is many miles away over there), we have a somewhat different view of Argentina esp regarding football. For example, I wouldn't go into Pele vs Maradona because it is akin to Ronaldo vs Messi (apples to oranges) as they could have easily played together and even complement each other. But I'd say Messi is a little closer to Pele in style when compared to Maradona: a bit more direct than Maradona and a bit less about protecting the football and controlling the game like Diego was.

Maradona controlled the game like no other player I've seen.

The mentality of Maradona on the pitch was amazing. He was not as calm as Messi is and his sanguine demeanor would also influence his teammates in a positive manner. Maldini said once that Diego got kicked all the time and never complained.

[Vesper 30,175]

RIP DIEGO!

 

[Jase 43,479]

JFC! The English media are despicable!  

 

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

JFC! The English media are despicable!  

 

Usual from the usual.

Still not over the hand of god even thought it was 35 years ago. The poor guy dies, an absolute legend, a huge heroic figure to 3 or 4 generations of football fans and past/present day footballers and they pan in specifically on something that is to do with their NT.... Would say I am surprised but simply am not.

[Vesper 30,175]

Miguel Angel Ramirez, the best coach you’ve never heard of

https://theathletic.com/2232129/2020/12/01/miguel-angel-ramirez-coach/

Sometimes, when someone has a crystal-clear vision of how football should be played, and is willing to sketch it out without reverting to generalisations or cliches, the best thing you can do is sit back and soak it in.

You almost certainly haven’t heard of Miguel Angel Ramirez. He is 36 and has never played the game at any significant level. His most high-profile position in European football to date was as an academy coach at Las Palmas, his hometown club in the Canary Islands. He is only a couple of years into a managerial career that he stumbled into by accident.

He is also the most exciting young coach in South America. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, a sermon.

“Football, for me, is a possession game,” Ramirez tells The Athletic over a shaky Skype connection. “But not in some a superficial way. Having control of the game means having the ball. That’s the foundation on which I can build everything else. I try to outnumber the opposition in places, so what looks ‘risky’ is just actually just the team attacking with as many elements as possible, in as many ways as possible.

“I obviously want to keep a balance, which allows me to defend, but I like to subdue the opponent, playing close to the opposing goal. In terms of the relationship with space, it’s like a chess game: the opponent might leave a gap, or not, and there are certain spaces I want to win. I play with the opponent to win control of certain areas where I think I can do damage.

“When I don’t have the ball, I want to win it back, and I want to do that as soon as possible so I can keep attacking. That’s more or less what we were looking for. In broad strokes, that’s how I want my team to play. That’s how I understand football.”

It sounds good in theory, but ideas alone do not make you the talk of a continent. No, that is a factor of the extent to which his vision has been transposed onto the pitch. Ramirez’s team play daring, intricate, futuristic football. It carried them to the 2019 Copa Sudamericana — South American’s Europa League equivalent — and it has made them one of the most watchable sides in the Copa Libertadores this year.

At which point, we must place the final piece into this overachievers’ jigsaw. Ramirez does not manage one of the Brazilian or Argentinian giants, but a tiny Ecuadorian side called Independiente del Valle. Their stadium, in Sangolqui, holds just 8,000 people. Before Ramirez took charge, in May 2019, they had never won a top-flight domestic title, let alone a continental competition.

That Sudamericana success was historic. Now they are competing against even bigger teams — and holding their own. They started their Libertadores campaign with back-to-back 3-0 wins against Barcelona de Guayaquil and Atletico Junior, then recorded a staggering 5-0 success over defending champions Flamengo. That result echoed around South America, and even though Flamengo later achieved some revenge back in Rio de Janeiro, COVID-stricken Independiente remained loyal to Ramirez’s vision.

“It’s normal that a team like Flamengo, or Junior, who are champions of Colombia, will be better than Independiente, because we don’t have the same budget,” says Ramirez. “My whole squad is paid one-quarter of what (Flamengo striker) Gabriel Barbosa is paid. So in normal circumstances, we have no chance of beating Flamengo.

“But I think we’ve had some matches that have ended up making noise, globally. It’s less about the result and more about the way this team plays. It’s attractive football for people who like a spectacle.”

---

Blur your eyes a touch when watching Independiente and it’s not so difficult to imagine you’re watching Manchester City — and not just because Ramirez himself could expect to be a finalist in any Pep Guardiola lookalike contest.

They have a goalkeeper who is happy to step out of his penalty area and start moves. They have full-backs who are comfortable slotting into midfield positions. The wingers stay high and wide, stretching the play. There are even, to borrow from Guardiola’s lexicon, a pair of “free eights” who roam between the lines, probing for openings. The ball is occasionally pinged to the far side of the field but otherwise, it stays on the floor.

Ramirez accepts the comparison but insists that his approach is influenced more by those with whom he has worked closely. “For those of us who like the possession game, obviously Guardiola is an important name, a point of orientation for our footballing compasses,” he says. “But I don’t know how Guardiola works. I only see how his team play. The inspiration has come from the people I’ve had around me — people who have helped to build me up, offered me an idea about how to go about being a coach.”

While Ramirez got his start at Las Palmas and then had a brief spell in Greek youth football, he cites his time at the Aspire Academy in Qatar as his most formative experience before he arrived in Ecuador. There, he met his mentor, Roberto Olabe, who is now director of football at Real Sociedad. Over the course of six years, during which he coached the under-12, under-13, under-16 and under-17 sides, his philosophy took shape.

“Roberto had this way of seeing the game as it relates to the player, to space, to the opponent,” Ramirez explains. “I arrived in Qatar unable to see that. By sitting with Roberto and chatting for many, many hours, I was able to start to see the game in a totally different manner.”

The chance to go to Ecuador came in 2018. Independiente have a link with Aspire, who recommended Ramirez for the job of academy coordinator. He didn’t think twice, but the decision to step up and manage the first team when coach Ismael Rescalvo left the club a year later was trickier. Ramirez liked working with young players. He did not harbour a burning ambition to move up to senior football.

Still, it felt like too good an opportunity to turn down. “I had time during that year in the academy to get to know the club, to get to know the people behind the project,” he says. “I knew their vision, and what they wanted. I understood that I could be calm and secure in the knowledge that I was going to have stability at this club.

“What I saw during the nine seasons I was at Las Palmas — a European club who spent a long time in the first division — was a third-world set-up. Independiente have a first-world set-up — a structure and a vision that is very different to other clubs in Ecuador and to most of the rest of South America, too.”

 

Ramirez holds the Copa Sudamericana aloft (Photo: Franklin Jacome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images)

 

On a practical level, Ramirez must work within certain constraints. “It’s a very responsible economic model,” he explains. “There aren’t funds for big signings, because there’s a salary cap that the club doesn’t want to go past. They want to prioritise the academy and the promotion of academy players to the first team, even knowing that doing so has certain sporting costs.

“Throughout the club, teams use the same method of training and style of play. There is also a very effective scouting network. Right now, Independiente are the No 1 club in Ecuador for scouting young players: the best talents in the country play in our youth teams. We try to get players into the first team and the idea is that later we can sell them to bigger clubs. So players leave, players come in from the academy, those players are sold… and that’s how the club remains sustainable.”

This suits Ramirez, who already knows all of the youngsters well, down to the ground. Four of the players who started the Sudamericana final against Argentine side Colon came through the academy system. The Ecuador national team have also started to benefit from the production line and Ramirez says there is growing respect for the club’s achievements on the continent. “For Ecuador, Independiente are an example of how to do things,” he says. “It’s a club that don’t have a lot of supporters, but there has been a big reaction across the country. There’s a lot of admiration: people can be fans of another club, but they’re also supporters of Independiente.”

Much of that owes to Ramirez’s style of football. He has won admirers far beyond Ecuador, too: Palmeiras were desperate to secure his services earlier this year and they aren’t the only Brazilian club to have been in contact. Ramirez, though, says he was not overly tempted.

“Let’s put all our cards on the table: I’m just starting out professionally,” he says. “I understand that I wouldn’t have had the guarantee that I have here at Independiente del Valle. I know that a bad result isn’t going to change anything about the project at Independiente, about the vision that the club have and the trust they have in me.

“In Brazil that wasn’t going to be possible. The immediacy, the focus on results, and above all the lack of time to train… it would have been impossible for me to build a foundation for a project. Everything is immediate there: every two or three days, you’ve got to get a result, and if you don’t get that result, you’re out on the street.

“Especially for my system of play, and how I understand the game. However big the club, the circumstances wouldn’t be there due to the immediacy that pervades Brazilian football.”

He has had a few phone calls from this side of the Atlantic, too, and admits the prospect of testing himself in Europe is more appealing. “I’m not obsessed with returning, but it is attractive because the competition there is so difficult. The level of coaches… I know it will push me to new limits. It’ll be a headache to work out how to compete in each match. That’s what motivates me.

“I have to be careful because I don’t think my way of playing would be well suited to just any kind of club. My way of understanding football needs a particular context, which not all clubs have. So I have to be very sure before I take the next step.”

You don’t need a crystal ball to know that his time will come. In the more immediate future, though, there is business to attend to. Tonight, Independiente are in Uruguay for the second leg of their Libertadores last-16 tie against Nacional. The first leg ended 0-0, but goodness knows how: the Ecuadorians had 78 per cent possession and a frankly ridiculous 32 shots. More of the same in Uruguay and they will surely progress to the quarter-finals, where a glamour meeting with River Plate could await.

Which isn’t bad at all for an unknown Spanish youth coach, right? “I never imagined this,” he says with a glint in his eye. “I think everything that has come my way is a gift from football. And a gift from life.”

 

[Vesper 30,175]

wicked goal

Shirley Cruz

 

[Vesper 30,175]

LGBT role models might be common in women’s game but they’re still so important

https://theathletic.com/2244089/2020/12/08/rainbow-laces-women-eriksson-harder/

Sweden’s Magda Eriksson and Denmark’s Pernille Harder

It’s match day and Sheffield Wednesday are playing at Hillsborough. Logging on to my laptop to start some work, a cursory scroll through Twitter tells me that it’ll soon be Rainbow Laces week and that, unsurprisingly, people still take issue with a campaign that promotes inclusion and diversity.

But, hey, it’s 2020 and I should know better.

I kiss my girlfriend as I leave the house, then listen to a Christmas playlist on the drive to the stadium. Things have been a little different this year, what with no fans around and Sheffield in tier-three lockdown, so the journey takes much less time than usual. We’ve also just bought a house, so that’s something a bit different, too, as my Sunday will likely be spent decorating or on a walk with just the two of us.

When I get to the ground, I send a message to my girlfriend to let her know I’ve arrived safely — something she insists on every time I drive to a game — and then head inside. It’s eerily quiet at Hillsborough, as it has been at matches for months, and as I take up my position in the press box, I notice I’m the only woman covering the game up there again this week. That’s not unusual and although a bit disappointing, it’s not a huge problem, unlike Wednesday’s inability to score goals from open play, which has me slumping my head onto my keyboard with frustration as the game ends in yet another draw.

As I said, it’s not uncommon for me to be the only woman in the press box at a Championship match but it is a thing I notice and some days more than others that makes doubt creep in. And as well as identifying as a woman, I am also gay which isn’t news to a lot of people but is something that I am mindful of when I am in a footballing environment. Most people probably don’t even care but some days it’s there in the back of my mind as another thing that separates me from those sitting around me and could be cause for abuse on the rare occasions I get to go to a game as a fan.

So why am I telling you this?

Well, as part of Rainbow Laces week I was asked what the campaign means to LGBT women, which is not a straightforward thing to answer. It’s impossible to answer for everyone but to me, the campaign is important, particularly because it brings together two of the most important things in my life: my identity as an LGBT woman and my love of football.

We rarely have grown-up conversations about football’s inclusivity issues and we normalise the lives of those who work in the sport even less frequently. And so when it comes to the time of year that rainbow-striped corner flags and captain’s armbands pop up, it’s nice to start that conversation again in the hope that someone, somewhere finds acceptance in a sporting community that might have shut them out or hurt them over the years.

When prominent players including Jordan Henderson post supportive messages on social media, it makes a difference. As do the tweets from clubs’ official accounts in support of the campaign but they are, disappointingly, met with dozens of damaging and offensive replies and always bring about the debate over when a professional male player will come out in English football. When will it happen? How will it be received? How will the media react?

None of it ever feels particularly helpful until a male player does become the role model that many young LGBT people need and even then, they should be allowed to come out without pressure or expectation.

But some of the answers and a much more constructive way of considering how LGBT players and fans can feel more included can be found in women’s football.

It’s in the high-profile out players and coaches of the Women’s Super League and the fact I wouldn’t hesitate to take my partner to watch a game in women’s football that I find the answers to what the Rainbow Laces campaign means to me.

In the part of my life that involves engagement with the men’s game, Rainbow Laces can feel like we’re all chipping away at an iceberg in the hope of reaching an enlightened state of the game where who you love, your gender or any part of your identity is irrelevant to your ability to play, watch or work in football. On the other side of things in the women’s game, I think of the campaign as a chance to celebrate the progress already made by acknowledging LGBT role models.

The photograph at the top of this piece of Sweden’s Magdalena Eriksson and Denmark’s Pernille Harder (clad in a Sweden shirt), who are in a relationship and both play for Chelsea, sharing a kiss after a World Cup game in 2019 is a good example of that. It sent Twitter, or one tiny corner of it anyway, into a tailspin and made the pair even more powerful role models in a moment of celebration.

On and off the field, that will have had an untold impact on so many LGBT people — it would certainly have changed my world to see something like that when I was a teenager — and that’s what Rainbow Laces is all about. Eriksson and Harder have spoken about how many letters they received in the wake of the photo making it onto the internet and it’s not hard to see why such a genuine moment of affection will have made a difference to so many.

Seeing successful, happy and thriving LGBT role models can mean so much to people who are not ready or not able to come out yet. Delivered through sport, that carries even more power as there is, after all, no more universal language than love or indeed love for football. A photo like the one of Eriksson and Harder and their subsequent steps to embrace their new status as football’s power couple reassures LGBT people that it’s possible to live without fear — whether they are out or not.

The image and messages like Henderson’s will bring home something that either currently feels, or at one time felt, so out of reach for LGBT people around the world and that influence is worth celebrating. It’s what makes Rainbow Laces, which can at times feel like lip service from Premier League clubs and still has some way to go to ensure football really is for everyone, worthwhile.

It’s a celebration, a message of acceptance and, most fervently, hope for a better future.

 

 

Harder and Eriksson: ‘After the photo people wrote and said how much we’d helped’

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/07/magda-eriksson-pernille-harder-kiss-womens-world-cup-common-goal

We're powerful together': Harder and Eriksson on being a gay couple in football

Sweden’s Magda Eriksson and Denmark’s Pernille Harder talk about their kiss in Paris that went viral, what it was like coming out and joining Common Goal

It was the most normal thing in the world to Magda Eriksson when, after helping Sweden defeat Canada in the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup, she located her partner in the stands and wandered over towards Parc des Princes crowd. They shared a kiss and thought nothing of it until later on, when the amount of activity on their phones suggested something was blowing up.

“We weren’t even aware anyone was taking a photo,” Eriksson says. But somebody had and the noise on social media had nothing to do with the fact that the girlfriend in question, the Denmark international Pernille Harder, was wearing the shirt of her country’s arch-rivals. The image’s power came from its sheer rarity: a gay, high-profile sporting couple showing their love in public without the slightest abashment. Harder only realised what had happened when her Twitter following suddenly swelled by 3,000; a penny began to drop that something so everyday to both women could be an inspiration to millions.

“It was crazy, the picture was tweeted all over the world – Argentina, Brazil …” Harder is speaking at another familiar scene: the dining table of her apartment just outside Wolfsburg where she is preparing for a fourth season with the serial German champions. Beside her sits Eriksson, the Chelsea defender, who has spent the three weeks of her pre-season break here. Time like this is precious: once the football starts in earnest they may see each other only a couple of days a month. They cannot remember sitting down for an interview together before but their relationship, which they have never hidden since getting together as teammates with the Swedish club Linköping, has taken on a new dimension.

“We’ve always just been natural, not so much thinking of being inspirations together, putting pictures up of each other or anything like that,” Harder says. “But when we saw that photo and the comments around it, then it was really something; like: ‘We’re role models.’ We had messages from a lot of young people, people of our age, but older people also.”

Eriksson came to a similar realisation. “I think that’s when I felt the demand for role models in that way, because of how big it was and how many people wrote to me on Instagram saying they looked up to us and how much we’d helped them. That’s when I understood that we’re really powerful together. Before, we hadn’t really seen ourselves as that.”

That power has been wielded for further good now they have signed up for Common Goal, the movement through which footballers pledge 1% of their earnings to organisations that drive social change. They are the first couple to do so and their donations will be pledged to PlayProud, a global initiative that aims to make team sports a safer and more welcoming environment for youths who identify as LGBTQ+. “We’ve played without privilege and now we are privileged,” Eriksson says. “So now we want to give back to those people who don’t have the same situations we do.”

Among PlayProud’s findings is that more than 40% of LGBTQ+ youth do not believe their communities accept them. Eriksson and Harder grew up in liberal countries but they had different experiences of coming out. Ikast, the Jutland town of 15,000 where Harder was raised, felt “like there were so many traditions” and she did not feel comfortable revealing her sexuality until after she left to play in Sweden seven years ago.

“If I came out in my home town I don’t think anyone would have hated me or anything, but I would have felt a bit alone about it,” Harder says. “It was a bit like being a homosexual in this small place was weird and not normal, and no one was it. When I came into this new environment in Linköping it was totally normal and maybe that helped me to find myself and really realise that I could fall in love with a girl. I think it’s important that environments are open and people can talk about it more. Then everyone can just be themselves.”

Eriksson says it was “definitely easier” to come out in cosmopolitan Stockholm but she still agonised at length before telling those close to her. “I came out a lot earlier than Pernille, but when I think back to it I still had anxiety,” she says. “When I told my friends for the first time I was crying so much, and had so much pressure building up to it, even though I was probably in one of the most accepting environments in the world. So I can imagine how tough it is for people who don’t have the environment I had, because I struggled even though it was really acceptable.”

The time when this kind of conversation could, on record at least, be held with a high-profile male player still looks some way off. An anonymous Twitter user named @FootballerGay, claiming to be a Championship player, stated his intention to come out last month but then reversed the decision, saying he was not strong enough. A handful of individuals, such as the former Leeds winger Robbie Rogers, have done so in the past but the numbers have never been enough to indicate a sea change.

“If you look at the photo from the World Cup and the support we got, imagine what a men’s player would have, it would be massive,” Eriksson says. “But it feels like we have to break the norm before that happens, unfortunately. The men’s game has taken a different turn and it’s very difficult for players to come out. Hopefully when youngsters today grow up, the norm will change.”

Harder thinks male footballers are still “afraid of how fans and teammates will react” but the example of just one courageous individual could change perspectives. The women’s game is setting a standard on this front and in other areas, too. More than half of the 107 players to have signed up for Common Goal so far are women and it is hardly news that their salaries are generally far lower. “I feel we know what it’s like when you’ve come from a lower point,” Eriksson says. “You want to help the younger generation and grassroots build something because of what we’ve gone through.”

Yet there must come a point where the pressures of managing one’s own top-level playing career, acting as a social role model and bearing responsibility for pushing an entire sport forward appear overwhelming. “That’s been the life of a female footballer throughout history,” Eriksson says. “They’ve always had to do more than be footballers. They’ve always had to drive it and get questions that would never be asked of a male player. But hopefully those things will change in time.”

She sensed a shift in the way Sweden were received after finishing third at the World Cup. They lost agonisingly to the Netherlands in their semi-final but beat Germany and, in the third-place play-off, England along the way. Upon arriving home she felt something about the sport’s consumption had fundamentally transformed.

“People were like ‘It was so fun to watch you guys, so entertaining’,” she says. “I’d never heard anyone say they’d genuinely enjoyed watching us before. Previously it was a bit ‘We support you guys …’ but kind of condescending. This time they’d enjoyed it and I was like ‘Ah, this is the point I’d been wanting to reach for so long’. One where people just respect us and don’t think of us as women playing football but just watch the football game.”

Harder’s place among the crowd came after Denmark’s failure to make the tournament, a situation expedited when Eriksson and Sweden defeated the Euro 2017 runners-up in qualifying. She is firmly among the world’s best players; a lethal, exhilarating striker. It was galling to miss out but certainly not an issue that would ever cloud their relationship; she followed Sweden across France, estimating she stayed in nine different hotels during the month.

“I kind of got used to it,” she says of that initially unwanted, but ultimately fulfilling, perspective. “Every time I was at a stadium I was really thinking ‘Women’s football is so cool and fun to watch’. And I think a lot of people who hadn’t seen it before changed their view of it.”

Without ever expecting to, Harder and Eriksson may have altered a few other perspectives too.

 

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

The North American League project already has the approval of FIFA AND CONCACAF. MLS and Liga MX are working on the regulations.

[Fernando 6,585]

37 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

The North American League project already has the approval of FIFA AND CONCACAF. MLS and Liga MX are working on the regulations.

What is this? 

[NikkiCFC 8,319]

27 minutes ago, Fernando said:

What is this? 

USA and Mexico to have league together. 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Quincy Promes has been arrested for suspected involvement in a stabbing.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Dortmund have sacked Favre.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Gerard Houllier has passed away.

[Vesper 30,175]

Features

VIKTOR MASLOV: THE PIONEER OF THE 4-4-2 WHO TOOK PRESSING TO A NEW LEVEL

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2020/10/12/viktor-maslov-the-pioneer-of-the-4-4-2-who-took-pressing-to-a-new-level/

Football is defined by its various and diverse philosophies and the masterminds behind them. For every successful tactic, there is someone behind its inception. The sport is littered with influences that precede it, and by the 21st century, every new style is not really new, but a modification of something old.

Evolution is an inherent part of life, and football evolved faster than ever in the 20th century. While the evolved form might become a work of art, one must not forget its roots. One of the primary innovators of the modern game is Johan Cruyff, but there are important, just a revolutionary, figures that preceded the great Dutchman.

Amongst the ranks of famed football innovators, one name is often missed out. Victor Maslov can lay claim to being one of the forefathers of the beautiful game as we know it today, and yet there is a stark lack of credit attributed to the Russian. It might be that his legacy is outshone by those that succeeded him.

One of his successors was Valeriy Lobanovskyi, a Ukrainian whose success at Dynamo Kyiv was one of many common denominators between he and Maslov. Whether or not football has room for just one Soviet innovator, the fact remains that Maslov is one of the lost masterminds in the game who demands much more credit than is afforded to him.

Maslov was born in 1910 in the Soviet Union, at a time where the European landscape was dominated by shifting borders and conflict. As a player his rise was steady, joining RDPK Moscow in 1930. He crossed the city divide a couple of years later, moving to Torpedo Moscow. It was there where he made his name as a tidy midfielder, staying until 1942 and captaining the side over a three-year stint during his time in the capital.

He hung up his boots in 1942 as the Second World War began to escalate in his homeland. It was, however, not his playing career around which Maslov’s legacy is centred. A modest yet successful period on the pitch was the precursor to his time in the dugout, which would go on to define his legacy as well as the sport itself.

He took over at Torpedo when he retired, but what followed was a largely underwhelming six years. When he was sacked in 1948, he learned of the news from the cleaners. He found it difficult post-Torpedo, shuffling between three clubs in seven seasons. But after some time off, Torpedo came back for Maslov, and it was then when the seeds of success were sown.

A four-year stint produced a league title in 1959/60 and two cup wins as Maslov began to find his feet at the highest level. He moved on to SKA Rostov-on-Don for two years after that, commencing a solid building job that preceded a famous runners-up finish in the Soviet Top League in 1966. His efforts were finally recognised by the elite when Dynamo Kyiv came calling in 1964.

Football formations have come in and out of vogue through the decades, and the 1960s were no different. Vicente Feola’s Brazil won the 1958 World Cup with a distinctive 4-2-4 formation boasting two wide wingers, a model that the world saw as the ideal system. The USSR turned to the same formation, with national coach Gavriil Kachalin at the head of its use. Club coaches followed suit as well, but their performances at the 1962 World Cup were reflective of a side in tactical flux. After Kachalin, Konstantin Beskov continued to hang on to the potential of the 4-2-4, even if results were mixed.

Given Brazil’s success, that belief wasn’t entirely misguided, but innovation comes from looking at what works and then improving it. Maslov had no intention of following the crowd, and instead chose to take the 4-2-4 and bring the two wide wingers into midfield. While the 4-2-4 had one winger tracking back to become a third midfielder, Maslov innovated pulled back the other winger too. In doing so, he formed the 4-4-2, outnumbering the two-man midfield across the world, but not hindering his side’s creativity at the same time. In Jonathan Wilson’s words, “the 4-4-2 was first invented by Maslov”.

He saw his formation as a system of individual roles that combined to form a collective that was greater than the sum of its parts. The wingers were now wide midfielders, who fulfilled their remit of working in the space in front of the full-backs, who themselves were encouraged to join in the play. His introduction of attacking responsibilities for the traditional full-back was the beginning of their dual responsibility.

The midfield had a holder who covered the back four, while there was an advanced playmaker in possession. Maslov preferred his side to keep the ball moving and abolished man-marking in favour of zones. Above all of that, however, what he had his side doing without the ball was the defining factor. His clockwork system had players limit the space afforded to the opposition, winning the ball high up the pitch. That is now known as pressing, and his system was good enough to pressure the opposition while closing gaps of their own.

At the time, pressing has long been prevalent in sport. In hockey, Thomas Patrick Gorman had introduced the concept of forechecking, where his forwards would surge and aggressively impose themselves on opposing players in possession, cutting down space and blocking passing lanes. It took them time, but it eventually brought success. More than anything, the system requires a machine-like system for it to fully work. While it seemed impossible to transfer over forechecking from hockey to football, given the numerous differences, it was eventually successful.

The likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Jürgen Klopp have introduced a pressing system at their clubs today, but the very essence of the tactic dates back decades. Some credit Rinus Michels, while others attribute its success at the top with Ernst Happel’s Feyenoord, who won the European Cup in 1970. Whether or not Maslov’s influence is unrecognised or simply forgotten is something for the revisionists, but it warrants credit.

The 4-4-2, regardless of its initial forefathers, is now a staple of the modern game. His tactics may have been criticised by the romantics, but it was undoubtedly effective. It maintained the right balance between defence and attack, having more bodies in midfield to carry out transitions. It ensured that football moved towards efficient systems rather than a reliance on individual brilliance.

Maslov’s innovations, which would later have a profound impact on Lobanovskyi, included a new tactic altogether, but what completed it was his emphasis on training and recovery. It is no surprise that the advent of pressing coincided with improving fitness levels in the 1960s; to press hard over a sustained period, fitness has to be supreme. Maslov introduced intense physical training, but he also focused his attention on nutrition and recovery. While this is now a staple at clubs across the world, it wasn’t the case back then.

One of English football’s clichés is the 4-4-2 formation, but that itself was drawn from the Three Lions’ sole World Cup triumph in 1966 under Alf Ramsey. Their success with the formation led to a nationwide adoption of the system, leading to its association with the English – and wider British – game. It is also why Ramsey is incorrectly credited as its pioneer, when in fact Maslov had devised its use years earlier. Given Cold War tensions at the time, it might be that Ramsey devised the 4-4-2 on his own, but there is no doubt that Maslov was the first.

Like many pioneers, the Russian was ahead of his time, though it didn’t always translate into trophies or acclaim – at least not immediately. Thanks in part to their midfield, Dynamo Kyiv won the league for three consecutive years between 1966 to 1968, with Soviet Top League power shifting from Moscow to Kyiv.

Maslov’s favouring of a collective ethos on and off the pitch was something that set him apart, with regular consultation with his players the staff a key part of his method. He would gather his squad together before games and talk through the plan, asking for their thoughts along the way. Such trust was vital in his implementation of a team-centric tactic. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the likeable Maslov was known as “Grandad”. It’s also a reason why he’s been forgotten to time.

Maslov might have gone further than a nominal 4-4-2 too. A free-flowing, interchangeable side was what he ultimately had in mind, something that he wasn’t able to execute during his own life. But that was ultimately the groundwork for Lobanovskyi’s success at Dynamo, and eventually Total Football under Michels and Cruyff.

In Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid, where he puts forward Maslov’s case as a great pioneer, one of the Muscovite’s quotes stands out: “Football is like an aeroplane. As velocities increase, so does air resistance, so you have to make the head more streamlined.” His hint at the dearth of strikers to come was an accurate prediction of the path football would take over the following years.

He was eventually sacked in 1970 when Dynamo slipped to seventh in the league. He wasn’t helped by a lack of reserves, and the players lost to the World Cup affected his side in all areas. While his impact at the club may have gone stale, his dismissal was sour nevertheless, shipped off with no replacement in sight. He returned with Torpedo, winning a domestic cup, before a stint with Ararat Yerevan, but by then his career was in decline. He eventually passed away aged 67 in May 1977.

The concepts that Maslov pioneered, such as zonal-marking and aggressive pressing, have come to shape the modern game in ways the Russian himself may not have imagined. He conceived it all, and his famous Dynamo side is the stuff of lore in his homeland. Sadly, though, the exploits of Lobanovskyi have come to push him out of the limelight.

It is ironic that the player once rejected by Maslov would eventually eclipse him as a coach. Lobanovksyi’s vision of the game revolved around science, to which extent he established a partnership with Professor Anatoly Zelentsov, a dean of the local Institute of Physical Science. Their exploits led Dynamo Kyiv to auspices further than those achieved by Maslov, but the principles remained similar.

A systematic style, a focus on nutrition and recovery, and those high-pressing ideals were adopted by the Ukrainian, and to his credit, he placed Dynamo on the world map. Unlike his former coach, he wasn’t limited by the means of his times, coming into a game rife with tactical innovations and free-thinking. While they endured a frosty relationship, they remain giants of the Soviet game, each achieving success in their own right.

While Maslov may have been forgotten to time and his innovations lost over 40 years of a rapidly evolving sport, the evidence of his brilliance lies in the fact that the 4-4-2 formation that he pioneered is still in use today. It shaped a generation of footballers, aiming to tie creative ideals with just enough pragmatism that the team would always come first. It’s why Viktor Maslov is a legend the game should cherish.

 

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Indestructible rankings: most fielded players in 2020 https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2020/wp318/en/ No professional footballer has played as many minutes in official matches in the calendar year 2020 as Manchester United’s centre back Harry Maguire. Up until December 17th, the English international was fielded during 4’745 minutes (53 matches). The top 100s for both goalkeepers and outfield players are available in issue number 318 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post. For outfield players, Maguire ranks ahead of Manchester City’s Rúben Dias and the Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. Other well-known footballers are high in the rankings such as Bruno Fernandes, Romelu Lukaku and Raphaël Varane. If we consider the number of matches played, the Danish full international Christian Eriksen tops the table with 54 games. However, in terms of minutes, the Inter player is not even in the first 1,000 ranks. On average, he played just over a half time per match. With regard to goalkeepers, at the head of the table is Marcelo Lomba from SC Internacional: 4’740 minutes in 52 official matches. The Brazilians are over-represented in the top positions of the rankings. Four goalkeepers playing for European clubs are in the top 10: Lukáš Hrádecký (Bayer Leverkusen and Finnish national team), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan AC and Italy), Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid and Slovenia), as well as Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich and Germany).

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Professional football survey: reminder

 

Dear football/soccer enthusiast,

the CIES Football Observatory wishes you a happy end of the year 2020 and an excellent 2021, hopefully with the possibility of attending more matches in the stadiums.

We also kindly invite you to take about 5 minutes of your time to answer this anonymous questionnaire about the fans’ opinion on professional football. Warmest thanks to all those who already answered. Your answers will be analysed and made available in the January’s 2021 Monthly Report.

Sincerely yours

On behalf of the CIES Football Observatory, its head

Dr. Raffaele Poli

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Cristiano Ronaldo shows his class by giving away his award to Robert Lewandowski after winning it

https://punditarena.com/football/jeff-simon/cristiano-ronaldo-robert-lewandowski-bayern-munich-juventus/

Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in an incredible gesture

Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo had reportedly won the Globe Soccer ‘Player of the Year’ award but refused to accept it. He chose to give it to Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski instead who he felt was more deserving of the award.

The Juventus superstar was set to clinch the award in Dubai on Sunday after a fan vote deemed him the best performer of 2020.

But Italian publication Tuttosport claimed that the ex-Real Madrid man and his agent Jorge Mendes opted to turn down the award.

They believed that it was “unfair” and that the only reason Ronaldo won was due to his popularity and that Lewandowski was the deserved victor.

Lewandowski has scored 55 goals in 2020 propelling Bayern to a treble of league, Champions League and German Cup. The Pole had finished as top scorer in every competition he participated in last season.