What is positionalism and its Guardiola roots?

Our guest on Episode #74 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Teamworks, is Jamie Hamilton.

Jamie is a UEFA A Licence coach and has become one of the most important thinkers in football coaching, with his work on positionism and relationism.

This has struck a chord with coaches, players and fans, at all levels of the game, and is influencing a change of approach.

SHOW NOTES =>

01:50: Jamie's background - as a coach and writer.

04:06: How he first became interested in the concept of positionism. Influence of Pep Guardiola. Desire of positionists to turn chaos into order. Inspiration of Fernando Diniz at Fluminense. 

19:20: Guardiola's teams becoming more controlled and ordered in the last five years. Finding Premier League teams more formulaic and less inspirational than they could be with the players available.

20:29: Coaches putting players into slots in pre-designed systems, rather than evaluating who you have, as people and players, and making the best of them.

31:38: Head Coach as a "top-down controller", thus constraining freedom. Enzo Maresca has said that there IS freedom - by virtue of the player receiving the ball having time and not being under pressure. But this is a certain definition of freedom and very different to the definition that a relational coach like Carlo Ancelotti would use. He gives his players freedom to move where they please too.

35:30: Defences are getting more attuned in how to combat positional systems. Becoming more physical, utilising man-to-man marking more. The inherent predictability of positional systems is being countered. So where now? This is where relational football can come in. 

42:12: Coaches are worried about what happens when they lose the ball if they don't use positional systems. This isn't necessarily true though.

46:55: Teams have started using man-to-man pressing systems to combat positionalism, eg Bournemouth. This has led to teams hitting long balls into space with a classic number 9 chasing. Set pieces have also come more and more to the fore. There have been some creative solutions, eg Kane dropping very deep for Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund, but the most interesting solutions have tended to be outside the Premier League.

53:50: Bayern Assistant Rene Maric has said (on this podcast) that "tactics don't exist." Need for players to think in the moment.

56:52: Definition of relationism in layman's language. Positionism is zonal, inspired by handball. Relationism is non-zonal with exponents like Diniz, Ancelotti and Scaloni.

1:05:32: Need to let players play and not over coach. Good example of Messi and Suarez. Ability to let go and to be surprised.