Tackling is the action taken by a player to take the ball away from an opponent when he has it in his possession. Taking the ball away from an opponent who has the ball in his possession.
Ranking
- Defensive entry concept and 1×1 dribble defence
- If the opponent is standing still and has the ball very close to his foot, I approach quickly and stand abruptly in front of him, the distance of the defender from the opponent will be the distance of our outstretched arm touching the opponent, more or less one metre, fixing my eyes on the ball not on the opponent’s body, and I wait for the right moment to enter him, when the opponent makes a mistake.
- If the opponent has the ball on his foot and is moving with it, ball and player in motion, catch up with him on the run and get as close to him as possible. I observe if his touches on the ball are too short or too long and decide when to go in to steal the ball from him.
- If we position ourselves at a distance from the opponent we allow him to have a view of the field of play close to him, of his team-mates and he has enough space to be able to make a good pass to his team-mates. The distance has to be very short in order to be able to take the ball away from him.
Defensive concept of 1×1 dribbling
The initial position of the defender is sideways in front of the attacker, side profile and we lower the centre of gravity, we lower the legs. If he is right-handed we close his right side, his strong side, so that he carries the ball on his left side. We place our left leg closer to his right leg and we place our right leg behind him. If he is left-handed, we close his left side, we place our right leg closer to his left leg and our left leg behind him.
We never press from the front, always from the side, we take him to the side and never with his legs open to the ball holder, because he can dribble us on the left, on the right and even make a ‘caño’ and pass the ball under our legs. If I’m in the centre, we take it to one side of the pitch, to a flank.
We bend our legs and lower our centre of gravity. The feet must be on tiptoe in order to balance the body and to be able to react quickly to any movement of the opponent.
The distance of the defender from the opponent will be the distance of our outstretched arm touching the opponent, plus or minus one metre.
This depends a lot on the defender and it is a good moment when the attacker loses a bit of control of the ball, when the ball slips out of his foot. If the attacker has the ball on our left side I enter and put my right foot in and if the attacker has the ball on our right side I enter and put my left foot in. That’s if the defender is right-handed, if the defender is left-handed I’ll do it the other way round.
Don’t spread your legs too wide so that the opponent with the ball can ‘spike’ you and pass the ball under your legs.
- Individual defensive tactical concepts.
– Marking
– Defensive 1×1 tackles
– Anticipation.