Tactical Formations by Ruud Gullit (Patreon)

Most managers see the keeper as the first link in the build-up of an attack from the back.

The keeper plays an integral part in the team's tactics.

Tactics in short are about exploiting the specific qualities of the players in the team who will be decisive in a game, and attacking the deficiencies of the opposing side. Tactics only work if they enable the individual to excel.

Tactics and systems are closely connected. A system is a framework for defence and attack.

In defence, you use a system to organize and stick together so that the other side doesn't get through when it has possession. The point is: what to do when you don't have the ball? What to do to give the other side as little space as possible and limit its opportunity to attack?

When attacking, you stick to a system and a formation that will be able to create as much space as possible for your forwards to exploit their skills. At the same time, the task of the defenders is to identify where the danger lies should the forwards or midfielders lose the ball.

Within those parameters you have to make it click between the players, so that they can sense what the others are going to do. In other words: before it happens. But it's not about what happens when you have the ball, but about what happens when you don't have the ball.

Systems and plans of attack depend to a large extent on the qualities of the individual players. If the central defender is slow, the defence shouldn't be arrayed along the halfway line. With a fast yet technically limited striker, there's not much point trying to focus play in the other side's penalty area.

You need to start by drawing up an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your team before you can choose which formation to use: 1-4-4-2, 1-4-3-3 or some other variation. Then you look at the weaknesses of the other side's formation, or its individual players, such as someone who's not playing in his usual position.

To win the game, you need to have possession of the ball. But you don't need to have possession for long. You don't necessarily need more possession than the other side. That is a common misconception. Moreover, when you get the ball you don't need to keep possession: the main thing is to get as much advantage out of having the ball as you can.