Holding Midfield: Universality May Not Be the Answer – Part One

[Holding Midfield]

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At the beginning of the year I made some predictions about how I think tactics will adapt over the next few years. They were all based on the idea that football works in cycles – things will go out of fashion, but eventually the landscape will change enough for them to be the answer to another problem that arises later down the line. Take the example of the regista: years ago Fabio Capello found himself replaced by box-to-box midfielder Marco Tardelli, then years later Andrea Pirlo returned to the base of the midfield to dictate the play. The main problem today is Barcelona. They are quite simply a level above any other team on the planet – and arguably in history – so how do you go about beating them? Many have taken to replicating them, but the fact that Barca have most of the best players in the world playing for them makes it pretty hard to beat them at their own game – even if you do spend hundreds of millions like Real Madrid. Part of this idea probably gambles on a future downturn; at some point Barcelona will finally crumble, these teams who have been mimicking them [...]

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