in the world of Animation a well-designed character is said to be instantly identifiable by their silhouette alone when it comes to football in ER has gone by even if the players were replaced by generic gry blobs many teams had such a distinctive playing style that they would instantly be recognizable be it Fergie's flying Wingers whipping in crosses wenger's Exquisite Arsenal passing sides or Brazil's classic dribble heavy teams but now if a side has a physical fallback tucking in to form a back three in the buildup would that be nlman and pavad Javi and araho aund
or would it be Pep Guardiola and KY Walker or if it was a Midfield box instead would that be kpps lost Liverpool side with Trent tucking in tockles Chelsea or aeta or pep with zenchenko moving into their Midfield and if the side generally attacked in a 325 formation which team would come to mind you get the point football has become seemingly more and more homogeneous and for many the blame lies squarely at the feet of Pep Guardiola this way of playing popularized by Pep Guardiola is huo depos a philosophy focus on creating superiority over opponents
in one of two ways firstly quantitative superiority which is getting more numbers around the ball than the opposition allowing the side to have an extra man or qualitative superiority which is having a one versus one situation where the attacker is of higher quality than the opposition's defender allowing them to get past the issue isn't with the philosophy itself but with the fact that many teams have converged on a similar Pep Guardiola esque approach to achieve these goals meaning that at times teams can look like they are simply clones of one another with a different name
on the back of the shirt so it may not be the style of play that some find tedious but rather the mental fatigue of seeing so many sides trying to replicate the same patterns a bigger complaint against pep is that to achieve numerical overloads around the ball often involves an intricate system and this prioritization of the system rather than the players has led to individuality being stripped from players so not only have teams as holes become more similar players now opt for more controlled 5 to 10 yard passes rather than risky flare Maneuvers the most
commonly cited example of this is Jack relish who has transitioned from the dynamic star of the team at Aston Villa to a Ford who prioritizes retaining possession at Manchester City but the reason for this is simple an unfortunate truth is that football is a results based business so naturally managers and clubs will model what works the perfect example of this was when Conte blazs through the Premier League winning the trophy and leaving a list of broken records in his wake thanks to his back three system all of a sudden the use of the back three
in the Prem League more than tripled the rest of that season and the next with Pep Guardiola being the most heralded and successful manager of the last 15 years it was almost inevitable that several teams would adopt key principles from Pep but another key is that the pep ification of football has coincided with the rise of data and advanced statistics in the sport and again the goal of these statistics is to increase the odds of winning in this results based game before flare players who looked great but weren't efficient might have prevailed as they were
given more leeway to fail now efficiency rules meaning the classic number 10 who fluctuates between jaw-droppingly good and an inconsistent threat who doesn't like to defend have gone extinct statistics have also made things like the closer you are to goal when you shoot the higher your odds of scoring much clearer this has led to a decrease in players attempting longrange screamers with a low XG and an increase in slow possession play that moves the ball closer to the goal teams have also realized that when you have the ball the opposition cannot score leading to a
preference for retaining possession rather than risking speculative passes that could lead to turnovers and goals conceded all of this is before mentioning the higher level of opposition scouting that occurs now meaning that teams know each other more intimately before playing than they ever did before that paired with the opposition frequently having to play against similar quo Deion Styles means that the opposition can be quite effective in coming up with a game plan to slow the team down leading to The Possession heavy side being slow and pensive in the buildup which can be perceived as boring
so has the so-called pep ification of football ruined the game one of the most ironic parts of the argument is that Pep Guardiola the figurehead of the popularization of huo deposicion is one of the managers least married to the strict structures associated with it while his strategy of press and possess May remain the same throughout the season the tactics from match to match vary season on season and match to match as he looks for the most effective solution to win each game another common misunderstanding of this style is that it is this rigid system that
treats players as robotss and strips them completely of their identity in fact the goal is to offer a player more room to be creative within the system and a particular part of the pitch as tul said it's important that I think I always argue with a lot of my friends about that and don't try and play other people's Ro obviously you allow imagination yeah but if you're trying to be two or three different things it's not going to be successful no not at all not at all and it's very important that we don't we don't
uh um suppress Crea ity in the opposite but in your room in your space in that moment where you are protected please find your solution I will never tell neyar what to do in a certain closed space because he will find a solution I never dream about so if an attacking midfielder like de bruo for example doesn't have to worry about coming deep and moving across the pitch to help in the buildup and instead can trust his teammates to do that all of his attention can be directed to trying to be as creative and influential
as he can in this region when he does receive the ball Additionally the search for overloads around the pitch has meant that the more technically gifted every player is the better the chances of getting those overloads this has actually led to a rapid evolution in several positions such as goalkeeper Center back fullbacks and to a lesser extent defensive midfielders who in the past were almost purely functional on the ball in these positions and now have had to dramatically increase their technical ability as well as their positional awareness this rapid Evolution and potential for continued change
is an exciting Prospect and the opposite of boring in my opinion ironically quo depos might actually be the reason dribblers end up becoming more important than ever with teams canceling each other out all over the pitch in man-to-man orientations having a player anywhere on the pitch who can face his man and get past him will be a huge Advantage as they would be able to change the state of the game and suddenly give the attacking side a huge leg up but perhaps the biggest advantage of the style of football that prioritizes a great system over
a great collection of individual ual is this it allows smaller teams to compete more effectively with top clubs if it was simply a matter of dependence on individual players top teams who could buy the best players would always be on top to close the gap against higher spending sides by having a superior system with the Brighton sides of recent being the best examples the caveat there is that a team with great players and a great system will still probably beat the side with just a great system and if that still isn't enough huo dep posion
may be the dominant style for the likes of fern ois and his relationism approach which while prioritizing possession is much more fluid are gaining Steam and bringing some variety to the scene not to mention Carlo ancelotti's various free flowing iterations of Real Madrid that have seen continued success in recent years football tactics tend to come in Cycles with different styles becoming the most effective until the AC cryptonite is discovered and dismantles that style but I want to hear your thoughts on how pep has changed modern football if you like this video check out this one
examining pep P's weirdest tactical season click on screen now
