Antonio Vacca can remember the moment well.<\/p>\n
In truth, the Italian is unlikely to forget it anytime soon, given he not only gets to see his \u201clittle theory put into practice\u201d every time he watches Brighton & Hove Albion play on television, but he also has Roberto De Zerbi\u2019s initials tattooed on him.<\/p>\n
The story Vacca recalls goes back to De Zerbi\u2019s time in charge of the Serie C club Foggia, between 2014 and 2016, and an incident in a training match that fundamentally changed how the Brighton manager viewed build-up play<\/a>, and, ultimately, contributed to one of football\u2019s modern tactical trends.<\/p>\n As a keen futsal and five-a-side player in his home city of Naples, Vacca developed an instinct to use the sole of his foot as a method of receiving possession. \u201cI found it easier to stop and control the ball that way,\u201d he tells The Athletic.<\/em><\/p>\n De Zerbi saw talent and intelligence in Vacca and believed he could play at a higher level, but there were also moments when he found the midfielder\u2019s use of the sole of his foot frustrating. Sometimes De Zerbi would stop training and say to Vacca: \u201cSorry, if you need the sole, you have to use it. But if you don\u2019t need it, you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The practice match in question threatened to be another of those occasions as De Zerbi urged Vacca to shift the ball more quickly, only this time the coach received a response that stopped him in his tracks.<\/p>\n \u201cMy team-mates on the opposing side weren\u2019t stepping out to press me, so the Mister (coach) kept telling me: \u2018Pass it, move it\u2019,\u201d Vacca explains. \u201cSo I replied: \u2018Mister, if our opponents on Sunday come here and play for a point and I move it without getting one of them to jump and press the ball, it\u2019s no use\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI argued that if I put the sole of my foot on the ball and lured my opponent out, I\u2019ve invited him to press me. As he does that, we can break the line with a pass.\u201d<\/p>\n Some coaches could react negatively to a player disagreeing with them on the training pitch and making a tactical suggestion, but that was never De Zerbi\u2019s way. Vacca and others would spend hours in the coach\u2019s office talking tactics.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who don\u2019t know him might have another idea, but he\u2019s really humble and a footballer can tell him anything,\u201d Vacca says. \u201cHe\u2019s the one who has the final say, but when you say something to him, he\u2019ll go away and think about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the following day he said, \u2018Vacca\u2019s right. When our opponents sit back, we need to put the sole of the foot on the ball and get them to come out, provoke them, because when a player sees you standing on the ball like that, it sparks something inside them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Many years later, during a two-hour webinar, De Zerbi credited Vacca with opening his eyes to the tactical value of using the sole of the foot as a means of inviting pressure and giving him one of his core build-up principles as a coach.<\/p>\n The images below, which are taken from Brighton<\/a>\u2019s FA Cup<\/a> tie against Liverpool<\/a> last season, illustrate what that looks like.<\/p>\n Adam Webster<\/a> has his studs on top of the ball, enticing Cody Gakpo<\/a> (circled) to press. Alexis Mac Allister<\/a> comes short to offer an option\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2026 Webster feeds the ball into the midfielder and Pascal Gross<\/a> (circled) is the free man.<\/p>\n Mac Allister passes inside to Gross and Brighton have worked the triangle perfectly.<\/p>\n Vacca\u2019s influence on De Zerbi feeds into a wider conversation around the increasing use of the sole of the foot in build-up play at other clubs, as well as the tactical game of cat and mouse that often sits alongside it.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester City<\/a> was a classic example.<\/p>\n When Arsenal<\/a> goalkeeper David Raya<\/a> put his studs on top of the ball in the image below, it was the trigger for the City midfielder Rico Lewis<\/a> (circled) to lead the press. For context, Raya had already received the ball twice from Arsenal defenders in this passage of play (City didn\u2019t always choose to press Raya when he used his sole).<\/p>\n The second of those Arsenal passes back to Raya was made by William Saliba<\/a>, shown below. You can also see how City\u2019s six-man press is narrow to stop Arsenal from playing through them.<\/p>\n Raya ends up playing a \u2018bounce\u2019 pass to Jorginho<\/a>, with the intention of dragging City\u2019s press further forward and freeing space up elsewhere.<\/p>\n But what\u2019s interesting here is the home supporters\u2019 growing anxiety, which could be heard loud and clear (and it was not fuelled by the moment when Julian Alvarez<\/a> nearly scored after pressing Raya \u2014 that hadn\u2019t happened at this point).<\/p>\n A hurried clearance upfield from Gabriel follows \u2014 all that patience turns to panic \u2014 with Martin Odegaard<\/a> (circled below with his arms outstretched) frustrated that the centre-back didn\u2019t slide the ball into his feet.<\/p>\n We saw Raya with his foot on top of the ball a lot on Sunday and taking time with his pass selection, in the hope that a City player would press him and leave an Arsenal player free.<\/p>\n That was the plan but it troubled some supporters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all my fault,\u201d the Arsenal manager said, referring to the crowd reaction. \u201cThey can boo me. He (Raya) was excellent. He\u2019s got \u2018big ones\u2019 because with the crowd going like this, other players \u2014 I\u2019ve seen it \u2014 they start to kick balls everywhere. I said to him, \u2018You don\u2019t do that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n In this final example from Sunday, Raya had the ball at his feet for 23 seconds, which must feel like an absolute age when 60,000 eyes are on you in the stadium and City could jump and press at any given moment. As Arteta alluded to with his \u201cbig ones\u201d comment, it requires a lot of courage to stay calm, ignore the background noise, and wait for the movement patterns to unfold, which is what happened here.<\/p>\n Eventually, Declan Rice<\/a>, circled below, comes from left to right to rotate with Jorginho and receive possession. Mateo Kovacic<\/a> is briefly caught between the two Arsenal players and, arriving late, commits the foul on Rice that should have led to a second yellow card.<\/p>\n The static element of the modern game is intriguing from a tactical point of view, even if it\u2019s not everyone\u2019s idea of fun in the stadium or watching at home on the sofa.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaying with a pause is massive at the moment,\u201d says a coach at a leading Premier League<\/a> club, who was speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to give an interview.<\/p>\n \u201cAs football has developed in the last 10 years, pressing and build-up has become the key feature. You watch a top-level game and a lot of it is about, \u2018How well do you press the opponent\u2019s build-up?\u2019. So these more sophisticated ways of attracting pressure to take advantage\u2026 like Ederson<\/a>, he\u2019ll put the sole of his foot on the ball.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically bait\u2026 who is prepared to let a ball be completely static? That\u2019s why it\u2019s quite interesting now when you watch games against Manchester City<\/a> \u2014 and it will happen against Brighton \u2014 when the ball will just be completely still and nobody will press anyone. That\u2019s also the next evolution: if we know they\u2019re trying to do this to us, what do we do to counteract it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GO DEEPER<\/p>\n How Football Works: Third-man combinations in the double pivot<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/p>\n There is a technical element as well as a tactical benefit to receiving the ball with the sole during build-up.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you receive the ball leaning to one side, you exclude yourself from a play,\u201d De Zerbi explained in his webinar. \u201cIf you have it to the left, you could not play to the right. If you receive the ball with the sole and from the front, you can play to the side you want. There, you have total control of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n The images below, taken from Manchester City\u2019s Premier League win over Arsenal towards the end of last season, highlight that point. In this instance, Granit Xhaka<\/a> chooses to press Ederson after Rodri<\/a> passes the ball back to the City goalkeeper.<\/p>\n By receiving with his sole rather than taking the ball to the left or right, Ederson gives no indication to Xhaka (circled) as to what he is going to do next.<\/p>\n Ederson can still go either way right up to the last second.<\/p>\n He eventually slides a pass to Ilkay Gundogan<\/a>, who lays the ball off to Rodri (unmarked because of Xhaka\u2019s decision to jump and press Ederson) and City are \u2018out\u2019.<\/p>\n As well as keeping his passing options open by controlling with the sole, Ederson never took his eyes off his team-mates or Xhaka.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to look down again for the ball,\u201d says Paul McGuinness, who spent 25 years as a youth coach at Manchester United<\/a> and is a big advocate of using the sole of the foot. \u201cYou have 360-degree control, you can look at your opponent and instantly play the ball. It\u2019s the timing of it, it\u2019s the milliseconds it gives you.\u201d<\/p>\n It also means that the opposition find it hard to co-ordinate their press.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve taken the clues away,\u201d explains Ian Cathro, who worked alongside Nuno Espirito Santo at Valencia<\/a>, Porto, Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/a> and Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>. \u201cUsually, when the ball is in movement, there\u2019s an indication as to where it\u2019s going next and that also triggers presses. So if a centre-back receives the ball and takes it across his body, that\u2019s indicating where the pass is likely to go.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the ball goes still, you force the opponent to be the one who makes the decision. You then just need to be good enough to be able to act upon the decision (the opponent makes) and be willing to take that pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n In Brighton\u2019s case, acting upon the decision is not random or spontaneous. Their passing patterns are largely determined by how and where opponents press and are rehearsed over and over on the training ground.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sole-of-the-foot stillness element is to force the opponent to jump. Based on that jump, De Zerbi and the players already know: \u2018Here\u2019s my one, two, three patterns to take the space that\u2019s been left by this jump\u2019,\u201d Cathro explains. \u201cIn Spain, they refer to it as \u2018automatismos\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Those moves are well choreographed. Even before Lewis Dunk<\/a> put his foot on top of the ball in the still below, Billy Gilmour<\/a> was signalling where the next pass should be played.<\/p>\n As soon as Fred (circled) motions to step forward, Julio Enciso<\/a> comes short and\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 Gilmour (circled) is now free on the other side of Fred.<\/p>\n Of course, it still needs a high level of technical ability to execute the passes and, as we saw in Brighton\u2019s 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday, the consequences are severe when a mistake is made deep in their own half.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also another question to ask here: what happens if the opponent doesn\u2019t take the bait?<\/p>\n West Ham<\/a> refused to press and adopted a low block in their 3-1 win over Brighton in August, leading to De Zerbi\u2019s team slowly probing, which isn\u2019t quite the same as the \u201cstillness element\u201d that Cathro talked about. In the latter scenario, the team trying to provoke stands its ground when the bait isn\u2019t taken.<\/p>\n If you are wondering what that looks like, watch this moment from England<\/a> versus Israel at the Under-21 European Championship in July. Levi Colwill<\/a> had the ball at his feet for 32 seconds, then 12 seconds, then 14 seconds, all in the space of less than a minute and a half. It was a bizarre passage of play, genuinely uncomfortable to watch \u2014 there were loud whistles in the stadium \u2014 and made you wonder if the TV had frozen.<\/p>\n Something similar happened when Burnley<\/a> played Manchester City on the opening day of the Premier League season and Vincent Kompany instructed his team not to press Ederson so they could keep the \u2018outfield\u2019 game 10-versus-10. Burnley\u2019s supporters got more and more annoyed as Ederson (pictured below) stood alone with his foot on top of the ball.<\/p>\n There is a theory that some \u2018lesser\u2019 teams may find it easier than others to employ the deep block that Burnley and Israel Under-21s used.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of Brighton\u2019s real benefits is that they are a \u2018smaller\u2019 club \u2014 there are at least seven teams who go to the Amex feeling a responsibility to press and attack them,\u201d says the Premier League coach who spoke earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea<\/a>, you can\u2019t go to Brighton and sit back \u2014 it wouldn\u2019t be accepted.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you imagine that you\u2019re a United striker and a Brighton player has actually stopped the ball dead on the pitch, your reaction would be: \u2018I have to engage with the ball. We are Man United. We can\u2019t have a Brighton player standing with his foot on the ball\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s exactly what they want. They\u2019re waiting for that moment and the minute you jump, someone is free and they play these really well-timed combinations in midfield and play around you.\u201d<\/p>\n Cathro nods. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for the stadium to accept, that\u2019s true,\u201d he says. \u201cIt becomes a much bigger test for the strength of character of both coach and players \u2014 but probably more so the players because they\u2019re the ones who are on the pitch and going to feel the heat.<\/p>\n \u201cIt always comes down to simple things, like the dynamic between players and fans, the score and then you\u2019ve got the other bit \u2014 the things that are in your mind: \u2018Have we lost in the last eight games? Have we won in the last eight games?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Higher up the pitch, the use of the sole of the foot as a receiving method divides opinion. One of the criticisms from some coaches is that controlling the ball with the sole can become a default setting for players irrespective of how each phase of play looks and slows decision-making as a result.<\/p>\n It was identified as a problem with Bruno Guimaraes<\/a> before his move to Newcastle from Lyon in January 2022. Performa Sports, a consultancy based in Rio that provides bespoke performance analysis, started working with Guimaraes in September 2021 and highlighted an area of the midfielder\u2019s game that needed to improve.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start, we had one strong perception with Bruno: that he had a lot of vices from futsal,\u201d Eduardo Barthem, an analyst for Performa Sports and Guimaraes\u2019 main point of contact at the consultancy, told The Athletic<\/em> in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had played it (futsal) for a long time \u2014 longer than most kids in Brazil \u2014 and you could tell. The main one was his first touch: every time he received the ball, he\u2019d put his foot on it like they do in futsal. Only then would he start to open up his body. It meant he wasted a lot of time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe showed him a few videos that demonstrated this really clearly. You have to control the ball in a way that gives you time and allows you to make the most of the space that is there. The way he did it, he missed out on a lot of passing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Barthem described the videos they showed Guimaraes as a \u201clightbulb\u201d moment for the player, and the Brazilian adapted his game accordingly.<\/p>\n Equally, it feels like there is a balance to be struck, bearing in mind there are clearly times when receiving with the sole of the foot, even in advanced areas, can be beneficial, especially as a form of disguise.<\/p>\n The example below shows Philippe Coutinho, during his Bayern Munich days, threatening to shoot, controlling with the sole, then threading a clever ball down the side for Ivan Perisic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Coutinho\u2019s use of the sole of the foot had a big influence on Adam Lallana<\/a> when they were team-mates at Liverpool.<\/p>\n It says much about the way players are \u2014 or were \u2014 developed differently in other parts of the world that Lallana said the first time he ever came across players regularly using the sole of the foot to control the ball was when he watched Coutinho and Roberto Firmino at Liverpool. Both Brazilians played futsal when they were younger.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I\u2019d learnt it off them sooner,\u201d Lallana told The Athletic<\/em> last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n
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