Support: The Second Principle of Attack
Finding a way to keep the ball
Earlier this month I wrote about width – our first attacking principle – and looked at some simple exercises to teach it to young players. In this piece, we’ll look at the finer points in our second principle of attack: Support.
Definition
As always, I think it’s useful to begin with a definition. The way how I define support for my players is: Having a passing option underneath the ball to maintain possession. It’s a broad and simple definition to give us wide latitude with its use, but it still describes exactly what it is and its purpose.
Now supporting options should always be present across the field. However, for this article, it’s mostly going to refer to our center backs and holding midfielder while we’re in the Attack Creation zone of the pitch.
Following our 3rd Principle of Good Coaching, I find it’s helpful to give specific moments or “plays” for players to identify. One such play I try to key them in on is a “drop & switch”.
So I’ll ask them “What sort of pass follows a supporting pass?” The answer I look for is a diagonal pass. If we’re dropping the ball it means there’s pressure being applied and/or there’s no forward passing options, so we have to switch the field to advance the ball further up the field. Now players have two distinct moments to look out for (pressure on ball/no forward passing options) and a play to execute when it happens (drop & switch).
Of course this is not a hard and fast rule. There are times when support passes need to be followed with a clearance, a wall pass, a split, whatever. But generally speaking — especially when I want teams to understand how moving the ball horizontally can help them create better goal-scoring opportunities — a diagonal pass comes after a drop.
Stretching the Field
I explicitly tell my teams that we are a possession-based team therefore we need our playing space to be as big as possible. This means our forward line needs to pin back the opposition’s defensive line as far as possible while our supporting players need to create as much space as possible behind the ball.
Most young players will instinctively chase the ball up the field because they want to be part of the action and they feel that they must be close to properly help their teammate. But, as mentioned above, the opposite is true. To successfully help their teammate we need players to create space behind the ball so we can share it and maximize everybody’s touches.
This means a delicate balance must be struck. If players chase the ball forward then space will be limited and the opposition will be able to easily press the ball and force a turnover. If they stay too far back, then their teammates won’t be able to hit passes accurately or hard enough and thus more turnovers will occur.
Therefore players need to understand the technical abilities of their teammates and position themselves appropriately to best provide a supporting option.
Restdefence
Supporting options can also be thought of as “restdefence” players i.e. players who are in good defensive positions when a turnover occurs. This means supporting players should not just consider themselves as pressure release valves, they must also consider their positioning when they believe a potential transition moment will occur.
This is a crucial piece of the game as players who can take information in (trajectory of the ball, speed of the opponent, direction of play, etc.) and make a good decision earlier will give them an advantage, even if their technical or physical skills are subpar relative to the opponent. How each player positions themselves and what motivates their decisions to either press or delay depends on the game model — but that’s a road we’ll go down at another time. For the moment, it’ll suffice to say that supporting players are key to maintaining the ball and controlling defensive transitions.
Finer Details
There are tons of small details that go into supporting players executing successful offensive plays. The most important is that they must scan before receiving the ball to identify their target and decide on the type of first touch and passing technique they need to use. I refer to this process as “Scan, Choose, Execute” with my players.
Scanning requires not just the physical movement of turning your head (which is easy) but more importantly knowing when to do it and what to look for. This is directly tied into technical understanding as the best players in the world are the ones who can glance at the ball for a moment and “instinctively” know where it’s going. By not having to watch the ball travel 10 yards into your feet, players can take a momentary glance before receiving to better read the situation they’re in.
I recently saw a clip of Luka Modric’s highlights against Elche and I noticed how he would scan while the ball was traveling into his feet.
Supporting players must also be good at backpedaling to create space underneath the ball while its traveling AND running diagonally while the ball is traveling in front of them. This is different from dribbling as they’re essentially running behind the ball while the weight of the pass moves the ball across the field. This movement allows them to create more time and space away from the opponent while simultaneously switching the point of attack without having to slow down to take a dribbling touch.
Supporting players must also orient their bodies before receiving to take directional first touches and continue the flow of play. This means players’ hips must be positioned to properly receive the ball while also preparing themselves to make the next movement with it.
Once in possession of the ball, supporting players need to use both their eyes and their hips to direct opposition players in front of them and create better angles that they wish to exploit; whether it be through dribbling or passing. Sergio Busquets is known for doing this, but if you watch the first three minutes of the clip below, you’ll see the Belgian center back Jan Vertonghen backpedal to create space, orient his hips to receive, scan while the ball is moving towards him, and use his eyes and hips to deceive opponents.
It is worth noting that none of these skills are unique to supporting players, but they’re certainly important for them to master.
Supporting Cast
While we’re primarily looking at how the back line and holding midfielder provide supporting options to our attacking players, the truth is any player can provide a drop pass.
We want to make sure that each offensive line has an easy supporting option, particularly our front line since our center forward will be receiving with their back to goal. This means our attacking midfielders need to be triangulating around the opposition and look for cues to receive layoffs from the center forward (i.e. provide support).
Another play to identify is when the ball moves wide to an outside forward. Attacking midfielders can then choose to make a run behind the opponent’s defensive line or open up underneath/behind the winger to receive a pass. In this way, the ball is essentially being used as a magnet to attract defenders while the midfielders creates space underneath the player to receive a pass back.
When teams are playing zonal defense it’s possible to recreate this situation on a regular basis as the nearest defender will always support underneath depending on the distance from the passer to the winger. For some reason it reminds me of basketball when a player will hold his run behind a screen to create separation away from his defender and have the space to take a shot.
This is a play that can be recreated almost anywhere; you’ll see it a lot when a holding midfielder wants to get a ball from an outside back. It’s one more reason why this concept of supports needs to be a principle that all players understand.
Wrapping Up
Having Width and Support in the Attack Creation phase of play gives the team a good base of possession to create patterns of play that are easily identifiable. That is the first step in teaching young players tactical problem solving. Obviously there’s counter-examples to this, but if you can create order within a chaotic game it becomes easier for players to experiment with different positional and technical decisions, and thus learning will occur.
Of course the game is holistic. If you just have Width and Support then you’ll only be going side-to-side and backwards and eventually be stuck in front of your own goal —which is bad news bears. Therefore other attacking principles need to be implemented to help advance the ball, and we will talk about those next time.