Despite the game evolving over the last few decades there has been very little change in terms of the system used by the coaches. 4-2-3-1 has now become a template for almost every team playing in Europe. The Idea of having a central midfield pairing of a box to box midfielder and a defensive midfielder or a deep lying play maker with a creative no 10 playing ahead of them is something that has been widely agreed upon. Some teams however do stick to an old fashioned 4-4-2 system or 4-3-3 system(which is only a slightly tweaked 4-2-3-1 system) while some managers follow the 5-3-2/ 3-5-2 systems. With almost every manager using the same system what differs is their philosophy/tactics and the quality of the players.

Signing players with abundant quality in areas of technical ability, creativity and intelligence is very difficult because of the amount of players available who are touted “World Class” and the big price tag that comes with them. So it is natural that only the elite clubs across Europe can have such players and it is something that is being evenly distributed, almost every elite team has a world class midfielder, a world class winger, a world class number 10 or a world class striker. A few teams have all of these too. So what separates these big teams? What is the reason behind smaller teams causing huge upsets at bigger stages? Work rate is something that is being constantly overlooked by a lot of people and my argument here is that there are not many changes in terms of the system used , or tactics employed or the quality of players available. The subtle difference amongst the bigger teams is the work rate difference between the players in either team and that work rate is the trump card or impetus for the smaller teams when they take on much bigger clubs at bigger stages.

Consider the 2014 World Cup, How were teams like Costa Rica, USA, Algeria, Chile, Colombia able to perform above expectations ? Costa Rica went on to top of the group of death something almost everyone thought would be impossible. As a matter of fact , Netherlands was a team which lacked quality compared to the other three semi finalists but all these teams did so well because of their defensive organization and work rate. Brazil had a lot of quality in them but were humbled 7-1 by a technically solid German side. The same side which had a tough time against the likes of Ghana and Algeria.

The table above represents the distance covered by the semi finalists and the other teams that performed much better than they were expected to. As I had expected these were also the top 13 teams in terms of distance covered !

Another reason as to why the table has been dominated by North and South American teams is because they were already acclimatized to the playing conditions, something most European teams found difficult to cope with.

Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland are the only Non American teams which went the “extra mile”, something that turned out well for them.

The table below shows a list of the top 20 players in terms of average distance covered(Minimum 3 games played)

Barring Axel Witsel from Belgium , the other 19 players are from the teams which have done exceedingly well in the tournament. Note that this is sorted by the average distance per game and playing more games does not matter .

Let us now consider 5 top managers who have done exceedingly well in their domestic and European campaigns.

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona :-



What change did Pep make at Barca that was not already in existence? The Catalans had been playing the tiki taka ever since the Johan Cruyff became the head coach of the team. Pep Guardiola himself was a part of the Johan Cruyff dream team. So how did Pep’s Barcelona become one of the greatest teams ever in the history of the game? A lot of people fail to notice what Barcelona had done “off” the ball. All the talk and focus is on their mesmerizing link up plays, silky passing and Messi. Guardiola in an interview told he is unhappy with what Barcelona were doing off the ball, he was talking about their weakness when the opposition had the ball. Pep countered this by introducing the “6 second rule” . The rule played a major part in the way Barcelona dominated their games. Having more than 60 % possession in almost all the games they played irrespective of the opposition. Barcelona were not only good at retaining possession but also at recovering it almost immediately. Their compact, narrow shape allowed Pep to implement his rule where the 2-3 players would press with very high intensity, closing down their opponents fast enough to disrupt the passing flow. Guardiola used a timer in all his training sessions to see how long his players take to recover possession. The average time given to the Barcelona players to regain possession was only 6 seconds. My point here is that while the possession based tactics like tiki taka were implemented across a number of clubs including Ajax where it originated, the cutting edge for Barcelona was the work rate ! This was applied to Bayern too when Pep took over as their head coach.

Chile and Germany were two teams that focused on this idea and a variation of it was made the crux of their philosophy. Both teams focused on pressing in the opponents half, not allowing them to build up while capitalizing on their miss passes. Germany were much more clinical than Chile and made most use of their chances.

A classic example is the way both teams played against Brazil. Most of the chances created by both these teams came from mistakes(dispossessed of the ball or their passes being intercepted) by Brazilian players (Sanchez goal , Kroos 2nd goal, Khedira goal) .

Jose Mourinho :-

From Porto to Real Madrid and then back to Chelsea now Jose Mourinho has implemented a lot of tactical changes to his teams , 2 things that always remained constant were the teams shape(Defensive Organization especially) and the Work rate from his players.

His teams played a high pressing game and capitalized on the opponents squandering possession and them being out of shape whilst conceding possession. Quick counters and some direct passing got him the crucial goals and was instrumental in his Champions League winning campaign at Inter Milan.

Mourinho overlooked “World Class” players like Ricardo Kaka , Juan Mata citing their work rate as the reason he picked other players over them. Sniejder worked like a charm at Inter because of what he could do off the ball and not just what he did when he was on the ball.

Louis van Gaal :-

One word that comes to your mind when you talk about this guy is his “Philosophy” . The concept of Total Football where players are allowed to interchange positions and have a more fluid yet organized shape. The most important phase in his philosophy is the Transition phase , how the team reshapes quickly to a defensive shape after losing the ball or how the players move around swiftly, finding spaces when the team has the ball.

He has been very particular about the fitness of his players because his philosophy is based a lot on their fitness and work rates.

He set up a training camp in Portugal prior to their World Cup campaign in Brazil. The conditions in the camp were similar to that of Brazil and the sole purpose of the camp was to bring the players into best shape, improve them in terms of work rate and see how much they could offer in those aspects under the working conditions ( High humidity and temperature).

Something similar to this was what Pep did with his Bayern team at Doha. All the above mentioned managers focused a lot on fitness and held a lot of fitness circuit training !

Sir Alex Ferguson :-

A success story in football without this man would be incomplete. Despite being a Manchester United fan for almost 11 years now, I have never completely figured out what brand of football Manchester United played under Sir Alex Ferguson. The safe term to use was the “United way” . But the more you look into it you figure out that it was a mix of possession based football with some deadly counter attacking football. The style revolved around transitions made, how quickly Manchester United hit on the break or to what extent where the wingers tracking back and supporting their full backs.

Sir Alex has been a firm believer of the importance of workrate, he always looked into players who offer a lot in terms work rate when he picks his team for crunch games or against other big teams like Ac Milan, Barcelona or Real Madrid. Be it using Park ji Sung to hound Pirlo in the game against Milan or using Welbeck against Real Madrid.

In fact Sir Alex’s bust up with Beckham happened because he did not track back which led to Arsenal’s goal and Man Utd’s eventual elimination from FA Cup.

Arsene Wenger :-

Arguably one of the greatest managers in the premier league era . From the time he took over in 1996 to present , Wenger has introduced a lot of changes to his base formations . From a 4-4-2 featuring Henry Bergkamp to a 4-5-1 with a poacher like Adebayor or Eduardo and now to the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation that most teams employ. The teams which played under his 4-4-2 set up had a mid field pivot of Vieria Petit and bolstered the likes of Gilberto Silva too. The concept was having an organized defense and having a midfield of two hard working players who provided quick transitions as well as cover to the team leaving the creativity job to their number 10 Bergkamp. Later on Wenger shifted to a 4-5-1 with the core of his team departing

Then came the 4-5-1 base , where Fabregas was introduced along with the likes of similar minded player Rosicky and Hleb ! The team at this point played a more possession based football opposed to the counter attacking style while retaining the beautiful link up plays, often referred to as “Wengerball”. The team at this point used high pressing and involved a lot of work rate but as time progressed Wenger was not able to continue with it because of the players he had at his disposal, forcing him to drop the pressing. Only a few players like Walcott, Ramsey , Flamini and even Rosicky now continue to do it while the rest do not. The lack of a Defensive Midfielder also played a part in it.

Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are two players who have done brilliantly in terms of work rate in the past few seasons and at the World cup. A common misconception regarding Ozil is that he is “Lazy” but when you look at the stats he covers the most distance.

Wenger now has finally set sights on signing a Defensive Midfielder or someone who can offer a lot of work rate and can contribute defensively, someone to partner Ramsey. Khedira has been heavily linked with them along with players like Lars Bender and Morgan Schneiderlin who are very similar. The fact that wenger tried to sign Gustavo also hints at a possible shift to his old pressing / possession based set up. The Golden years for Wenger came when his team employed high pressing or quick transitions through midfield powerhouses or pacy and clever wingers. It looks more like a cycle now, Wenger will look to get back to his 4-4-2 set up with a few tweaks to make it ideal for the modern scenario.

Emergence of Atletico Madrid and Borrusia Dortmund :-

These are two teams that shocked the entire football community with their performances domestically and in the UEFA Champions league. Both teams did not have a lot of World Class players like their counterparts did. A few things both these teams had in common was their high intensity pressing , making transitions and counter attacking with a more direct brand of football. To put it in simpler words high work rate !

Verdict : What I am trying to say here is that changes in terms of formations , philosophy applied would be very little from here on. Swansea and Liverpool have tried emulating Barcelona’s possession based football. And a lot of teams will continue to do this but the most important thing which differentiates every team is the work rate of the players, a quality that has always been over looked. The point of mentioning the 5 managers was because each of them had different philosophies and styles of football their teams played, but the crux of their philosophies were always based on work rate and fitness one way or the other. Over the next few years a lot of teams and managers will emphasize on this and work rate from here on will hold the key to success for these teams.