23/24 EPL season
I’m going to raise my hand and say I don’t understand soccer, although I wish I had a better understanding as my son’s interest in the sport continues to grow. I get the general idea, so I don’t need Soccer for Dummies, but I would like to better understand the strategies behind the game in general, as well as in specific situations (set pieces?). Any recommended resources?
There are tons of tutorials on YouTube- a few tries should get you to the level that makes sense for you
I listen to The Total Soccer Show podcast (mostly EPL and USMNT coverage) they have several ‘101’ shows where they breakdown different tactical elements
efil probably has the best tactical analysis on the board - he’s a good benchmark to help understand if you’re seeing what you think you’re seeing
But here are some thoughts- teams without elite offensive (attacking) talent will often play a low block (they have most of their players in defensive positions in front of goal) - they fine with you having the ball and passing back and forth away from goal, and once you do attack, they want to turn you over and hit a counter attack (sending 2-4 players to try to ‘steal’ a goal because you have over committed in your attack)
The flip side of a low block team is a pressure/attacking team / they want to keep a highline (their last defensive line as close to midfield as possible)
They want to dispossess you around midfield and send numbers (5-6) in attack- if they have a truly elite striker that might try to attack right up the middle (‘route 1’), but that requires otherworldly ball skills
But most will utilize the wings (right or left side), they want to pull the defense to them to create seams/openings in defense and play the ball into goal so a trailing attacker has some space to take a shot
I think those are basic defensive and offensive strategies with dozens of variations utilized