2019-05-01_World_Soccer

The backheel: football’s space craft

Paul

GARDNER

WORLDWIDE VIEW

quite likely, giving the ball away.

Which is why the backheel pass

is so seldom seen.

That such a pass can utterly

bamboozle opponents is a fact. But if

it is equally likely to fool team-mates

who are simply not ready for it, it

While you will be familiar with 3-4-

and 4-2-4 and 3-5-1-1 and suchlike

as ways of describing how a team

plays, I don’t like this numbers game.

Firstly, because I’m very uncertainly

grounded in maths, and secondly

because the numbers are dull and,

I feel, of questionable value. I usually

have major problems matching up

what I see and what the pundits

have told me I ought to be seeing.

I know what I ought to be seeing:

attractive, exciting, attacking football.

I also know that those formations

are never designed with that in mind

as they are invariably defence-based.

Coaches are good at planning defence

but not nearly so good at organising

things up front.

I have worked on this matter and

managed to overcome my aversion to

maths long enough to devise my own

numerical trio: 3-6-0. Something

different because it features only nine

players? The much greater difference

is that these are not players, these are

degrees: 360 of them.

My 3-6-0 is not a formation. It is

an invitation; an invitation to players

to broaden the scope of their passing.

And it is an appeal for greater use of

the backheel.

Any player with the ball at his feet

can, without shifting his body position

and by only a slight turning of his

head, pass the ball forwards, or

sideways, or angled slightly backwards.

Of the 360 degrees surrounding

him, he uses, let’s say, 260, and fails to

utilise the widening triangle of space

directly behind him.

While any player can make a decent

heel pass, the problem is the lack of

vision. Which means a blind pass and,

Special...Allan Cruz

Disguise...Cardiff

City’s Nathaniel

Mendez-Laing

beats Danilo of

Manchester City

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