Tactical Theory: Compactness – part 2

Earlier this week, I wrote a tactical theory piece on compactness, focusing on how it affects the defensive phase of the game in terms of four orientations that team engage while defending. Today, we’re picking up where we left, trying to give an even deeper insight on the same topic and to explain the usage of the concept in other phases of the game, but also to fill out the blanks that are left in the defensive part of the game after the first analysis was sealed.

This tactical theory analysis will take a deep look into flaws of incompact defences, the access potential of compact ones and influences compactness have on transitions and positional attacks.

Troubles of incompact defending

Most of the benefits of compactness could be seen in the volume one piece of this tactical analysis series at our website, such as it secures supportive angle of defensive play, a better quality of control of the defending area, better access to an opponent and the ball, etc. The other thing that is important to be pointed out is that it can also be used as a camouflage tool for individuals who lack quality in the defensive part of their game.

For example, Paul Pogba isn’t the most useful and the best player when his team is defending, so opponents will probably aim their actions towards him since there they can create a surplus or qualitative advantage over him. To get that neutralized, the team that has Pogba sets itself in a compact shape which will leave the individual who is not that good in that phase of the game with guarding the lesser area, and also support him coming from teammates that are positioned in reach.

As we can see in the picture, the incompactness of Pogba’s side left him with no supportive security, which results in a numerical advantage for opposition. They have double-superiority over the defenders since, besides the surplus, they also utilise on fact that the player who is defending huge area isn’t that good of a defender, so it can get very difficult for the out of possession team.

The compactness erases these advantages attackers have over Pogba since it secures him support and gives him a smaller area to defend.