Thinking Football: Embracing the Transition. (Part 3)

In Part 2 of this written series – we looked at the tactics which have largely been seen as the most effective by football coaches over the last several years and what this might teach us about approaching our goals.

In the 2024–25 Premier League season — however — there has been a major shift. We’ve seen coaches focused on control and dominance (Guardiola and Arteta) struggle compared to the teams with coaches who focus on making a really quick transition between attacking and defending — with Pep Guardiola referring modern football being about having to “…ride the rhythm.”

In football now, the teams who are most successful are the ones who can spend periods without the ball without giving away protection of their goal (endurance) or recover possession quickly (resilience) and can quickly create chances at high volume when they regain possession. With Liverpool, the team in Europe who have been most successful at combining this approach. Other teams such as Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Newcastle have all been aggressive in attack and comfortable transitioning between attack and defence.

For us, this might mean we are likelier to be rewarded by striking when the iron’s hot and simultaneously going with the flow. In essence, whilst out of possession, we must become comfortable with having our goals be temporarily unrealised, being unfazed by things not going to plan and embracing the uncertainty and chaos that comes with things not going as planned — without losing hope or belief in our goal being achieved (protecting our goal).

Whilst in attack, being less planned, measured and thought out and instead seizing opportunities, taking a high quantity of different shots and opportunities even if they don’t result in our immediate desired outcomes, might ultimately lead us to being more successful overall. The transition from resilience or endurance in the face of a failure or misfortune to taking a chance at success and playing to win– seems to be paying off for football teams and might be a lesson for all of us.

In football now, — risk-aversion, predictability, dominance and control are becoming less successful strategies. The ability to accept time spent ‘without the ball’ and time spent ‘with the ball’ and ensuring that there is a strong strategy for having things not go our way and taking opportunities to ensure they might — seems to be the most effective approach for anyone pursuing a goal.

Accepting time ‘without the ball’, balancing endurance and resilience and being aggressive and taking a high quantity of chances — irrespective of outcome — might be instructive for all of us trying to achieve our goals. This ‘post-control’ football landscape seems to mirror and increasingly out of control, unpredictable and unstable world.

Rather than being wedded to one approach — much like an elite football tactician — understanding when to take which approach is key. This applies whether you are patient and composed trusting opportunities to come in the right time, or you hungrily pursue your goals like Mo Salah, and deciding how and when you apply develop resilience or endurance when things do not go according to plan. Each approach has value and sometimes factors outside of our control might force us to take a different approach. The key is to create our own system for pursuing and maintaining the ability to pursue our goals — which can be sustained over the long-term.