Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2025

32 33 11TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT ASPIRE IN THE WORLD FELLOWS Rafa Benitez: So the main thing what Paco was saying is that we have been analyzing these things ourselves. Everybody has their own analysis, but the reality is what we have seen. And it’s not just now, but especially now with the new rule. So we have seen we need not too many passes to score goals, but especially with the new rule, there are a lot of teams that they press high, they regain the ball and they score. We cannot go back. So we will adapt now. We have been watching Champion League games and also the EUROs. I was watching this game for UEFA as an analyst. We saw the intensity and the man-to-man, and in this case players or passes between the lines. And as soon as they receive, they go forward. So these are the kind of things that you are watching now. A team that has the control of the game in terms of possession, and then they have to find the gap. They have to find the space and then go through. To create the space in the pockets and try to go there. And as soon as they receive the ball, they know exactly what they have to do. Look forward and try to running behind. He’s trying to find his space. He is looking around to be sure that nobody’s behind him between the lines forward. It is very common when your team is much better than the other team, you have to find these gaps. Now that it’s an example of when we say, playing from the back man toman. We had this conversation before with Nesta about what do you want from your team? Gary was also saying, you don’t want your team playing here. And now we have that. So we have teams that they try to play so much that they are under pressure already. You see the man-to- man orientation and then, what does it mean? Oh, I have to play back. So in one side, it’s very easy to go to press here in the corner and it’s man to man and aggressive, and they stop the game over there. So if we talk about transitions, how many goals you score in transitions with a few passes, you stop the other team in the opposite side of a pitchwith a foul, you stop the transition. So that is another tactic. And for me it’s a bad tactic, but it’s happening all the time because it’s a lot of man to man defending. They stop players progressing and they stop the counter attack or the attack. So that was quite clear. During the EUROS we were working together as technical observers and then we were preparing some clips of Germany pressing and building a strategy. That means a risk playing man-to-man orientation. That’s clear, playing over the high press and link ingup with front players because the teams are pressing higher and are quite aggressive. Now the teams are learning and they are playing short and then playing over the pressing. So that is the reason why Paco was talking about regains in the three quarters of the pitch, because the teams are avoiding the press, trying to play over the press. Physically you need better players now. It’s more demanding physically because it’s more aggressive and it’s more about following players everywhere. All the examples that we tried to put together is with the idea that we explained at the beginning. A lot of these situations that we have seen are dependent and we try to teach this to with youth, it’s decision making for the players. They need to know the roles and responsibilities because it’s a lot of man to man and they need to know how to defend one vs one, two vs two, three versus three, playing over the press. (Speaking) Rafa Benitez: