The focus of this guide is on international football as it is well documented and it does not have as many variables as club football to analyse. This guide primarily interprets FiFA technical reports[www.fifa.com] (mens) & UEFA technical reports [www.uefa.com](EURO tournament)

Successful - (adjective) accomplishing an aim or purpose. I focus on teams that make the semi-finals and/or winners of major international tournaments.


When I was nearly finished writing a 4-4-2 formation guide, I realised that:

• successful teams aren't using the 4-4-2 anymore;
  
• the 4-4-2 can be easily changed into any other formation, and it usually is during matches and from week-to-week;
  
• the best formation is the formation that suits your players and takes advantage of your opponent's weakness.

Ok, maybe I didn't just suddenly realise this. It just became increasingly absurd writing a 4-4-2 guide about "creating a winning team" when it actually requires much more than a set formation. So, instead I present to you a guide about what successful teams are doing when they play football. Hopefully this will inspire you to adopt a system and a formation that suits your team.

A lot of this guide should be fairly obvious, but it is the simple things that successful teams get absolutely right that brings momentum to their success. This is what I want to cover in this guide.

It should be apparant the team is well drilled in the tactical system and that the system gives players the flexibility to express themselves. The tactical system should be flexible for individual creativity and for the team formation to be able to adjust to the match situation at all times. Players should be able to use their own strengths going forward.


Uuruguay was the only semi-finalist using the 4-4-2, and even then Diego Forlan was more of a trequarista. Forlan would roam the field to find space and to create chances for Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez. The other semi-finalists were all using their own brand of the 4-2-3-1 (Spain, Netherlands, Brazil).


12 of the 16 Euro2012 teams used a single centre forward operating a 4-3-3 or its younger sibling, the 4-2-3-1 (including Spain). Spain operated a 4-6-0 false nine with no recognised Centre Forward except when Torres or Negredo were brought on (in the 4-2-3-1). Six teams used a single holding midfielder, ten teams used a double holding midfielders.

Four teams lined up in a 4-4-2 structure: England, Ireland, Sweden & Italy (italy's first two matches were 3-5-2). Greece, France, Croatia, Portugal and Russia lined up a 4-3-3. The rest of the teams used the 4-2-3-1 (with some notable variations anf nuances of course).


Some of the best players tend to have an unfixed/varying position. The rest of the team is designed to accomodate this. In Euro2012 Croatia had an asymetric 4-3-3 tilted to the left so that Darijo Srna could surge up the righflank (something he did exceptionally well). Neville says when Ronaldo played for United, Ronaldo would play his position where he coud find space[www.bbc.co.uk].

Some consider fixed positions and formations to be dying out[online.wsj.com], I am not that pessimistic, but it is certainly becoming difficult to track players who move crossfield to create space and opportunities.

In Euro2012 there was a record amount of headed goals scored. In the early stages of Euro2012 headed goals were 40% of the total goals scored. Maybe Euro2012 is just a statistical anomaly, or maybe headers are how teams are scoring against well-organised defences. In my humble opinion, I think it is the later.

• Euro1996- Headed 11 / Total 64 --- Percentage 17.2
  
• Euro2000- Headed 15 / Total 85 --- Percentage 17.6
  
• Euro2004- Headed 17 / Total 77 --- Percentage 22.1
  
• Euro2008 - Headed 15 / Total 77 --- Percentage 19.5
  
• Euro2012 - Headed 22 / Total 76 --- Percentage 28.9

Of the headed goals, 9 of 22 in Euro2012 were from set pieces, compared to 7 of 15 in Euro2008. 10 of the 22 headed goals in Euro2012 were delivered by crosses from the right, only 3 headed goals were scored from left field crosses.

In Euro2008, Euro2012 and UEFA Champions League 2011/2012, approximately 22% of goals originate from set pieces.

Of the 343 corners created in Euro2012, 6 were converted. The authors of the UEFA2012 technical report suggest that the low conversion is due to spying and studying of the opposition

four penalties were award in Euro2012, three were converted. At Euro2008 five penalties were awarded, four were converted.

Of the 60 goals scored in open play in Euro2012, 25 originated from crosses from the flanks (42%). 32% of the open play goals oringated from combination passing play.

In 46 of the 64 matches, the team that opened scoring went on to win the game. Six games were scoreless draws and eight matches were draws. In only four matches of 64 did a team win a match when they conceded the first goal.

In only two matches of 31 matches did a team concede the first goal and then go on to win the match.

Teams need a healthy amount of aggression combined with excellant technique (Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Brazil, Ghana, Argentina, Chile, USA)

Strong teams will usually come across a situation where most of the opposition is defending. Teams need fast tricky attackers who can consistently win their 1v1 matchups. Their skilled attackes will create space out wide that does not exist in cenre of the pitch. These players are almost capable of winning matches on their own.

It seems that successful teams are dealing with the conjested centre of the pitch by “going around the sides”. Typically this means fullbacks and wingers playing on the opposite flank who cut inside to draw opponents away from the areas to be exploited by overlapping fullbacks.

Teams tend to use compact defences with a zonal marking policy but could switch to man marking where necessary. Almost all teams are using a four man defence/backline (notable exception: Chile, Italy sometimes).

Brazil, Germany, Argentine, Spain and Ghana used big powerful defenders and also recieved support from the midfield and one of the forwards.

Successful teams conceded very few fouls -if any- around their own penalty area.

The two dominant tactics to regain possession

• lying deep in their own half, then launching quick counterattacks (Algeria, Uruguay, Portugal, Switzerland). Although there was a real threat of defenders being too deep to be able to launch effective counterattacks;
  
• high pressing - trying to win the ball back in their opponent's half of the pitch or close to the halfway line at the latest. This tactic prevents opponents from building attacks.

some teams used a mixture of both (Argentina, Germany, Ghana).

No article about successful international football teams would be complete without a discussion of the spanish national team. In this guide I am trying to write a guide as brief as possible so I will only discuss the recent success of Spain's national team. I suggest you read a book about the contributions and rivalry of Real Madrid & Barcalona.

The Spanish previously had a poor record in international football. Spain's only major title prior to Euro2008 was the 1964 European Championship. After being eliminated from Word Cup 2006 in the second round to France, Spain's coach (Luis Aragonés) came to the decision that the team was not physical or tough enough to be able to out-muscle opponents. Physical football was a strong tradition in spanish football (the spanish national team is called La Furia Roja -The Red Fury). The new focus of the Spanish national team was to embrace the tika-taka style.

The tika-taka is a style of football which focuses on short passing, movement off the ball, passing through channels and maintaining possession. The style requires a team that is highly technically skilled, tactically adept and highly disciplined.

Spain developed a style of tika-taka football that balanced short passing possession with direct attacking. Of Spain's first six goals of Euro2008, five were from direct breaks and one was from a set piece. Tika-taka is also key part of the defensive system. The more Spain dominates possession, the less time the opponents have to score.

Spanish passing style - notice how most passes are sideways or forwards with an occassional direct ball forwards. The reciever of backward passes tend to: run on to the ball, recieve the ball with a touch, dribble a little, then pass.

long video

&

short video
The next piece of Spain's golden generation success is the sustained intense high pressing. If the team loses possession, there will be (i.e. "must be") an attempt to win back the ball within 2 to 6 seconds. If the ball is not won back initially, then it is very unlikely that the ball will be won back soon. This requires immense stamina and strong discipline from the team. It is the combination of short passing and high pressing that enables Spain to have high possession statistics.

The following video demonstrates Barcalona pressing (similiar to Spanish national team)