World football moving to single striker mode: UEFA
Wojciech Moskwa
World soccer trends show teams moving towards playing with a single rotating striker and away from a two-pronged attack, UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh said on Monday.
Former Scotland manager Roxburgh also said that teams where forwards and midfielders switched positions during play were often more successful at loosening up defences than those using less fluid tactics.
Speaking at European body UEFA's post-World Cup national coaches conference, he said: "One of the key trends coming out of the World Cup is more teams playing with one striker.
"No team gives up space for free nowadays, so you need players to rotate in the front," Roxburgh said.
"Take Brazil: When they played with two strikers, one was slightly behind the other," he said of the world champions.
"When they played three front-liners, they were always rotating, always moving. That is the most difficult thing to mark and the greatest advantage of this system."
Turkey's Hakan Sukur or Argentine Gabriel Batistuta were also often left up front to cherry-pick defences at the finals, played three months ago in South Korea and Japan.
Roxburgh said that flexible, speedy teams, able to quickly mobilise multi-player counter-attacks, often fared better than those playing with a traditional libero and set playmaker.
TOTAL FOOTBALL
"This means a return to total football, where players easily move from back to front, like the Netherlands. Guus Hiddink had Korea playing like a Dutch club in the World Cup," he said.
Dutchman Hiddink steered South Korea to an unprecedented semi-finals appearance.
Roxburgh said decisive players in attack were usually middle-to-front slot men like Spain's Raul, Italy's Francesco Totti or Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson, or wide players like England's David Beckham or Sweden's Freddie Ljungberg.
He said that even though a majority of teams at the World Cup played with four defenders, all four semi-finalists played with a flat back-three, signalling a changing trend.
But keeping the chess-like tactical analysis in perspective, Roxburgh said Brazil's record fifth World Cup triumph was largely based on their massively talented squad.
"They were just brilliant with the ball, often connecting on fast combos sparked by unusual technical plays," he said.
Rudi Voeller, who steered an unfancied Germany squad to the World Cup final, said the gap between traditionally strong teams and smaller football nations had largely closed.
"Small countries have definitely caught up in recent years. We realise that there are no longer any easy matches," he said.
The three-day summit, to which 52 national coaches -- including England's Sven-Goran Eriksson, France's Jacques Santini and Italy's Giovanni Trapattoni -- were invited, will analyse World Cup goals and refereeing decisions on Tuesday.
