A few days ago, we analysed the playing style of Renato Gaúcho’s Fluminense and Fluzãos remarkable performance at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
The team captured attention not just for reaching the semi-finals — eliminating Inter Milan and Al Hilal along the way — but for the way they played.
Fluminense’s football was different.
It felt improvised yet coordinated, chaotic yet ordered.
It didn’t rely on strict positional references but rather on fluid relationships between players.
This is the essence of relational football, a style that emphasises time over space, interdependence over role, and the emergence of structures from within the game itself.
Were here to explain what is relational football, and break it down so that people can better identify and understand it.
In this tactical analysis, we examine two core dynamic structures that frequently appear in relational football: the escadinha and the corta-luz.
Though simple in form, they carry deep tactical and cultural meaning, not as planned routines, but as spontaneous responses born from mutual awareness and trust.
Fluminenses Escadinha under Renato Gaúcho (2025)
Relational Football Vs Positional Play: Two Ways Of Seeing The Game
To understand escadinhas and corta-luz actions, it’s important to first contrast relational football with positional football.
Positional football is based on predefined zones, fixed reference points, and a rational distribution of space.
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