JOGO FUNCIONAL

  Lately I've been exploring a topic that has its roots in some of South America's most exciting and flamboyant teams and was wondering if it could be advantageous in the European footballing landscape. After a few discussions on X and after doing research for my River Plate analysis, which you can watch here , I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate some time to write about it and try and explore this in more detail as well as touching on some examples that I've seen in games this week where  it has been used both efficiently and not quite so.  Europe and South America have always took ideas from each other, from the back 4 spreading from Brazil, the total football of Rinus Michels, also in a more radical and more recent example- the 'Europeanisation' of South American football (the Positional vs Functional debate). From more defensive tacticians like Bilardo and Herrera to more ' romantic' coaches such as Menotti and B...

  Racing Santander have had a flying start to the La Liga Hypermotion season, at the time of writing they sit joint top of the table with Levante after an unbeaten start and are considered to be playing some of the best football in the division, if not Spain.  Manager José Alberto is into his 2nd full season at the club, after spells at Mirandes where he replaced Andoni Iraola and Malaga he has created a side that are scratching the heads of many analysts in Spain for their unconventional style. Racing are an enigma of a football team, they don't conform to the globalised principles and guidelines of Positional play and are in fact leading a quiet tactical revolution in Europe which is starting to gather interest.  Their approach is somewhat unconventional, from their opening 5 games (and friendly against Athletic Club) we've seen a variety of behaviours established in their attacking phase. They explore the paradigms of w...