Stop thinking about rigid formations: football is now far too dynamic for that

Before every game the ritual for any fan, pundit, player or coach is to look at the lineups and formations. The debates of how a tactical battle between one team playing 4-4-2 and the other operating with 3-5-2, for example, will be discussed, but in the modern era things are a lot more complex and players do not function in a rigid system. Instead they have individual roles within a carefully designed blueprint.

All systems are hybrids and dynamic nowadays, and defining them in terms of traditional formations is too simplistic. How a team line up for kick-off does not reflect what is going to happen for the next 90 minutes. Top-level football is becoming like the NFL, where coaches have specific plans for different phases of play. Players will know where they need to be when their team are in possession in order to get the ball to the most effective players at the business end of the pitch.

The best example I have seen of fluidity within gameplay recently was Chelsea v Tottenham. I really liked what Chelsea were doing when in a back five: Reece James was on the right of three centre-backs and Ruben Loftus-Cheek was at right wing-back. Within James’s remit was to go tight to Son Heung-min and if the South Korean went into midfield James went with him and others would cover the space he vacated. Sometimes James was part of a back three with Loftus-Cheek at right wing-back, at times those roles were reversed and on occasions James was a central midfielder or right-back. He and Loftus-Cheek had three or four roles within one job. These are the multifaceted aspects of modern football.

Chelsea Women under Emma Hayes operate with the same philosophy. Last Sunday against Liverpool they were fluid in how they moved and rotated.