Keep Your Shape vs. Crossing Lines

"Keep your shape" or utterances to that effect are common calls from coaches in youth soccer competitions. Most of the time, especially at younger ages, this implies staying in the teams formational shape; 1-4-3-3 or 1-4-4-2 as examples. In the older age groups the word shape becomes more synonymous with the word support.  Support (and balance) takes priority over formational shape as the latter becomes a bit more fluid.

Typically a formation will have three lines; backs, midfielders, forwards.  Dependent on how each line is employed there might be what we shall call "sub-lines" within each line.  For instance, in a 4-3-3 the midfield might be deployed in a triangle as 2 holding midfielders with an attacking midfielder in front of them.  The triangle shape might shift to one holding midfielder and two attacking midfielders but the players manning these positions stay with their "line."

The same is true of the back line where two center backs are often found flanked by two advanced wing backs.  In this case, the two advanced wing backs might appear to form a line with the holding midfielder(s), but their roles and responsibilities are still associated with the back line.  Similarly if two or more forwards are deployed one might be pushed forward as a target while another is slightly withdrawn.

"Stay in your position" is another call often heard at youth soccer contests.  It can mean the same thing as "keep your shape."  Often times when I watch youth soccer matches I see two teams in rigid formation moving up and down the pitch in synchronization. A picture of armies of the 1700's facing one another in rank and file across a battlefield comes to mind.

Now, I think shape or more specifically support is a critical element to team defending. The system employed behind the support strives to make an attack(er) predictable and therefore more easily defended.  This is sound soccer at any age or competition level.

If predictability of attack is a desired result of properly supported defending, then unpredictability is paramount to effective attacking.  This is where crossing lines comes into play.

In review, formations deploy 3 basic lines with possible sub-lines fielded within any or all lines.  Backs, midfielders, forwards.  When defending these lines define the teams formation.  All too often in the youth ranks they also define a teams attacking shape.  However, this makes the attack very predictable.

Crossing lines simply means a player moves from one line to or even better through another line.  The easiest way to depict this scenario is to picture a wing back moving up the field through the midfield line and into an attacking position abreast of the forward line.  The wing defender has crossed lines and therefore fundamentally changed the shape (or formation) that his team will attack in. If the responsibility for crossing lines from back to front in the formation / shape is shared amongst all backs this movement can prove to be unpredictable and extremely disruptive to the opponents maintaining their own shape or support system.

This movement is commonly defined as mobility, the fourth element to the game of soccer. In previous writings we have discussed the first three elements of the game of soccer; penetration, depth and width.  It is the mobility used to establish these elements that help define a teams attacking shape and the support within that shape.  More precisely it should be mobility between lines that defines a teams attacking shape and manipulates the defending shape of the opponent.

Crossing lines brings a fluidity to the game that rigid deployment in formation shape does not allow for.  In military terms it is akin to defending in a castle while an opponent uses speed and mobility to bypass the castle. In soccer terms, crossing lines adds another dimension to a teams ability to create numbers up situations to attack with. Think again of the wing defender. In front of him a midfielder engages a defender. The wing defender moves forward on the flank isolating that defender in a 2 v 1 situation.  Now the overlap combination passing sequence might be on or the defender might be set up to execute a wall pass / give and go sequence against. But the real value of mobility and crossing lines might be what is occurring on the backside of the opponents formation where your other wing defender might have freedom to run the flank all the way into the final third. Now, the opponents defense is stressed and under pressure of attack from both on-ball and off-the-ball threats on different fronts.

Crossing lines brings with it an element of danger when the ball is lost.  You will find teams that are adept at crossing lines when attacking filling their defensive shape from back to front regardless of originally assigned positions.  This is where pressing defenses come into play.  Upon losing the ball the nearest three defenders press to either win the ball back or slow the counter attack allowing teammates to reestablish shape behind the ball. Six seconds.  That is how long those pressing have to win the ball back. That is also how long teammates have to regain defensive shape behind the ball. 

In conclusion, one of the games within the game of soccer is the battle of Keeping your shape vs Crossing lines and the transitional phases of going from one to the other.