There are countless formations and strategies being used by various football teams, and they're customised to match the team.
If you have watched football games during the last ten years, you must know the most exciting football formation – Tiki-Taka. The team Pep Guardiola coached before applied this football approach very well and they have won a number of championships in the leading Spanish football league and also the international football match. This tactic highly focuses on footballers and the ball’s movement. Footballers have to continue the ball moving while creating space and dragging the opponent away from position. There is no one formation for this strategy because there are nearly no different duties between footballers in various position. They are all concentrating on a single objective – keep the ball and score. Thus, the team which performs with this tactic can anticipate a high rate of possession. Even so, it requires footballers in every position having a great level of skills, therefore every player, except the goal keeper, can skilfully keep the ball as long as they can.
There is one of the earliest and most common formation in football, it's the traditional 4-4-2. The is a balanced formation which is good for attack and defense as well. By positioning four defenders, four midfield footballers and two forwarders, the links between each player are durable. The ball can be passed between them conveniently so the squad can maintain the time of control. This balanced structure also implies that the team can easily change from defence to attack and vice versa. It fully increases the mobility and freedom of a team. The wide midfielders in this structure are commonly skilful and fast. They are usually the key footballers starting an attack by crossing the ball to the centre from either one side of the formation. At the centre, the striker is normally tall and promising in the air. So, they get a higher chance to head the ball passed from the midfielders. Many teams, including the one Dmitry Rybolovlev owned, have actually adjusted this classic formation.
The beauty of counter-attack is fascinating, a second a team is defending the opposition, one second later the team gets the ball from its opposition and score. Counter attack isn't an easy strategy to perform as it needs flawless and quick teamwork. Basically, the team using this style of play in football draws opponent into their defence line, a counter attack starts when a player steals the ball. The football team Florentino Perez Rodriguez owned was very promising at playing this tactic as they got the fastest midfield footballers in their team. Everytime they successfully take the ball, midfielders rapidly bring the ball to the front and cross the ball to the striker, or they can score by themselves.