How the Meta in Football Has Evolved | Tactics Explained

Football tactics are constantly evolving. However, if you ever feel like you've already seen modern tactics, that's because you probably have! in this video we'll take a look at how the META in football has developed over the years, and how teams have adapted to the changes in the requirements of the beautiful game.

[TapdotWater]

One thing I've noticed with Liverpool and teams playing in similar styles to the Gegenpress is that those operating as a 4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3) use wingbacks instead of fullbacks, and rely on them much less in their defensive half. A lot of the time, these 4-3-3s are starting to look like the modern 2-3-5, and it's been fascinating to see that shape make this unsung comeback

[brunoroedel]

Brazil was actually playing 4-2-4 since 1958, also winning 1962 world cup with this formation. This includes the use of Djalma Santos and Nilton Santos as attacking fullbacks, the greates tactical innovation of brazilian football. Also, Pelé kind of invented the number 10 position, the "ponta de lança", an attacker that was so good that you couldn't let him not touch the ball, he creates and also scores. I wish we could change the Meta today as we did before.

[ingsve]

"Most effective tactics available" is not what a meta is. That's a backronym and folk etymology based on imperfect knowledge of where the expression comes from. Meta is short for metagame which is the game beyond the game i.e. how tactics and counter tactics evolve to beat the currently preferred choices.

[axe]

You forgot Arsene Wenger man, he changed the English football, the drinking culture, fitness regime, philosophy everything

[d.z.back]

England: *invents football*
Scotland: let me teach you how to play football *with Scottish accent*

[Suimega]

Most Effective Tactics Available is an interesting retroacronym, because usually what we call the 'meta' stems from the metagame which was initially received as 'a game beyond the game', which is a game of anticipation pertaining to the strength and weaknesses of the tactics your opponent will use. It's true that in today's context, the way we conceive the meta has moved past mere 'anticipation' to become a matter of optimization. But it's the first time I've seen an acronym to describe it.

[pedrohmartinseco]

As Brazilian we normally talk about how strong the national team was in 58 and 62 as we won two world cups...the 4-2-4 was already real, in both teams, not only in 70 as you said, so I'd consider as a deserved mention...the 3-5-2 was very strong during the 2000's taking advantage of a strong midfield as META, and where the wing backs provided more balance attacking more than an usual Left/Right Back as the distance to cover was smaller. For the future, I believe regardless the tatics, a more intelligent game in sense of reading the enemy and exploiting their weaknesses like for eg: a very talented and Tiki taka (Barça) won several times Real Madrid and mourinho started to analyze how to counter it, after a few matches, Real Madrid won several games because they understood how to play against tiki taka, which was a very vertical game, very intense defending and long balls to stretch the lines of a compact Barcelona. That duels were amazing and worth seeing as they set a benchmark in reading the game match by match.

[nathanrottier]

I think we will see a switch back to a more total football, with all players needing to have the technical ability no matter the size, thinking of Vandyck (a center back who is good with the ball). I am personally excited to see where football is going, it is truly becoming a combination of skill and brains in all positions including the keepers (thinking of Enderson's ability to start quick counter attacks from a goal kick). As coach for youth it poses lots of challenges of coaching the importance of understanding the basic principles of the game and developing the technical skill set to meet the challenges presented to a individual athlete. Thank you for your videos they posses lots of great information.

[AdolphThaRed]

Well researched and quite informative. I just got this recommended to me, i’m hooked. Great content. Keep it up bro

[chachovalgame]

Man, I was loving the video until the 90's, when you said Premier League began their tactical reign (that would be a lie, because everybody knows the 90's belonged to italian teams, which mostly used 4-1-2-1-2 instead of 4-4-2) and hey, I get it, you're British and you love the Premier League but...if there's been one turning point in the history of the game in the last 20 years, that's the spanish football team.

"What a surprise", you might be thinking, "a spanish guy praising it's national team". Well, no. Trust me, I'm not a patriot, I'm just a nerd.

"Offensive" tiki-taka, the one that's about positional play, high pressure and playing in one-two touches to catch the opposite defense off-guard, was a tremendous innovation. The thing is, that can be countered. That kind of play depends on being technically and physically excelent, up to the point of playing both ridiculously fast (doing lots of off-the-ball runs) and accurate near the opposite box to 1) create a clear chance against defensive walls and 2) not losing the ball in a compromising situation, with all your team up in the second half of the pitch, that could leave you completely exposed to counter-attacks. Because that's the irony of the game, you need to attack to win. And if you are constantly, relentlessly attacking without achieving anything, eventually you'll lose your composure and will make mistakes. Ironically, the only man who was ever able to come out victorious against peak offensive tiki-taka (that's Barça prime, no matter what City ever does, sorry) was Mourinho, and he did it with two different clubs (Inter and Real Madrid). And he achieved that by allowing his players to feel they were the underdogs by making them play unapologetically defensive. As in, you don't need to attack to win, trust your lungs and not your feet, so, relax guys.

And that's why spanish national team changed the game like no other team has done since the 80's (Sacchi). Because they learnt to not to feel the need to attack.

Let me explain. When they were in the qualifying rounds, they would play offensively, but in the tournaments, they got painfully defensive. I watched every tournament match Spain played between 2010 and 2012 (I don't count the Euro 2008 because that was a different style of play entirely). Until the first 2010 WC match, they played fully aggresive, mirroring Barça's tiki-taka, but with their limitations (Silva was great, but not Messi, and the rest of the attacking front were technically great but apart from Torres -who played the whole WC injured- we didn't have really fast strikers). And they lost the first Game against SWITZERLAND. Because they just did that. They played a brick wall in front of their keeper, resisted for a hour, waited for us to grow impatient, had one counter-attack, won.

And that made Del Bosque change his mind. In a "f*ck everything, I'm just going to win this thing whether you like to watch It or not" kind of way.

And he started to play with three defensive midfielders, Iniesta as a classic n°10, Villa as a false winger and a one-legged Torres as a decoy. The midfielders changed their heart. They didn't pass the ball to create spaces between rival players, but to keep it. They played in a way that made sure very, very few things happened during the match. They just played a game called "Let's just pass the ball for 80 minutes and wait until the rivals' mental health completely collapses. Meanwhile, let them think Torres is the real danger here even if he can barely walk and let's hope Villa catches a loose ball inside the box."

And that stupid tactic made Spain reach the semifinals for the first time ever. There they played offensively for the first time since Match 1 (because they knew that Germany, the 2010 neutral-watcher-favorite, were too proud to play defensively) and won. And in the final, they were the only team actually trying to play football (Netherlands were trying to play MMA that night) and they won.

And even if they won, it's like they felt they had already had enough strong emotions for a lifetime. for the next tournament, the Euro 2012, they doubled that idea of boredom to the point of being absurd. They made sure NOTHING ever happened during their matches.

Six midfielders, three of them still defensive, nothing resembling a striker, and the only player actually trying to run towards the opposite goal was the left-back. The only team that ever posed a threat was Portugal, and they almost played Pepe as a midfielder and had the advantage that many of their players were in the spanish league.

Result: top-scoring team, winning the final 4-0.

Because all they did was passing horizontally so they would keep possession for the sake of keeping it. Seriously, they barely did any shots per match. The thing is, they had such confidence at that point that they shot once, they scored. I'm spanish and I can honestly say, they were painful to watch. You could tell that what they were doing was remarkable AF, historical stuff, a great achievement, but they were the food equivalent to eating Lego bricks.

Consequences?

Two consecutive tournaments (again, only counting 2010-12) without conceding a single goal during the KO stages. Two consecutive major victories.

More consequences?

Almost ten years of counter-attack based teams. Physically strong, tactically brilliant, high pressure teams that made sure things actually happened during their matches (and by this I don't mean necesarilly offensive teams). The renaissance of Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid reaching the Champions League final twice, 2018 France and 2019 Liverpool using pressing midfielders and fast attacking players, the rise of the 3 centerbacks and the offensive fullbacks. Hell, England was dominating the Euro2020 final against Italy until Southgate decided to take out Trippier and Rice (right fullback and defensive midfielder) and Guardiola lost the 2021 Champions League final because he thought he could defeat Kanté, Jorginho and a 5-man defensive line without an extra midfielder.

Now, defensive tiki-taka is not a magic recipe. That was a historical, ridiculous combination of highly-skilled players at their absolut best nurtured by a fierce rivalry between two of the greatest clubs in the world. Damn, the irony is that even Real Madrid 2016-2018 used defensive tiki-taka (with a static, pasive 3-man midfield, Benzema and Marcelo playing as extra midfielders, and the Big Difference being those slightly fast nobodies called Ronaldo and Bale playing up-front).

I'm sorry about such a long text but I felt personally attacked by you not including that mention to 1990's Serie A lol. JK, great video anyway :)

[jorgeherrera]

My grandpa had told me that in the past they used to play with very few defenders and everyone would just try to score and the scorecards were really high. This is the first place I see a mention of this.

[fmac]

In Brazil in the 50s/60s the most common formation was the 4-2-4.
Zagallo, two-time champion in 1958/62 and coach of the 1970 national team, became famous for being a winger who returned to close the midfield.

[obedboateng]

3:09 name a more icon duo than England and cockiness

[durge]

im surprised you didnt talk for another 5 minutes at the end about how the tactics and formations of the mid 2000s to today are just rehashes of earlier formations but with minor tweaks. i mean what is chelseas 4-3-3 or liverpools attacking fullbacks if not a return to the WW? the biggest tactical changes were realising that a dedicated sweeper wasnt necessary when your goalkeeper was able to come out and play the ball with his feet and playing two strikers wasnt necessary when you had fast wingers to come in from out wide. also surprised you didnt talk about the transition from 4-4-2 wide midfielders, crossing the ball in for tall strikers to 4-3-3 wingers cutting in on the opposite foot to score. arjen robben and cristiano ronaldo turning from LM and RM to RW and LW respectively after leaving the premier league for bayern and madrid. otherwise good video :)

[marcocastellani]

You could have titled the video "How the Meta in ENGLISH Football Has Evolved". By the way, it is widely known that catenaccio wasn't developed by Herrera, but Rappan (Switzerland) and most notably Viani and Rocco, who introduced the sweeper. Also, the 4-2-3-1 was very popular in the early 2000s, used amongst the others by the star-studded Real Madrid of Los Galacticos. I believe it would have deserved a mention, as well as the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 which characterised highly successful teams like 1990s Ajax, Cruijff's Barcellona, and 2010s Juventus amongst the others.

[djmattblack]

Poch utilized the 4-2-3-1 well, he would push the full backs up high then use the deeper midfielder as a kind of 3rd centre back in a 3-4-3 with Walker and Rose playing almost as wingers and Eriksen and Ali tucking in behind Kane

[davidcripps]

You forgot Allardyce's 10-0 formation

[dicksonh]

541 and 343 may be the next meta. Great defence and high energy counterattack.

[WunHungLo]

I think one major reason for certain developments are changes to the Laws Of The Game eg no keeper back pass, constant evolution of offside rule. Additionally, fitness equipment, the ball itself and playing surfaces have had a major impact as new ways to play, previously not practical, became viable. Generally the Laws have developed in favour of attacking football which again is a major influence over tactics.

[killallsuvivors]

I think the biggest change to tactics in the 21st century has actually came from the officiating of games making defensive football less effective and tackling less relevant to games. This is probably because the open free flowing game is more appealing to the markets which football has struggled to crack.