Spacing: football tactics explained

Why is football the sport where, so often, the underdog can triumph? If one team has a significantly better eleven than their opponents surely winning a game should be straightforward?

Go for a man-for-man marking system, match them for work rate and watch the goals roll in. Well there’s a key tactical concept that goes some way to explaining why football isn’t as simple as this.

This is the idea of spacing – and here is our tactical explainer.

What is spacing?

Spacing is essentially the positioning of players relative to the ball and other teammates. Formations are a solid general guide for where players will, on average, appear on the pitch.

But a teams’ spacing tells us which areas of the pitch a player will look to occupy. They are also looking to create space for other players to run into, in turn disrupting the oppositions’ defensive structure.

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Every attacking team, regardless of formation, or style of play, is looking for space to exploit when they have the ball. To find that space to manoeuvre the ball, players need to occupy the correct space.

On the ball a player doesn’t have to overthink what he or she does to employ spacing. They simply look upfield for a player that has space from their opponent and attempt to find them.

The greater challenge comes when spacing is what players do off-the-ball. Within their area of the pitch they need to decide whether to help the player with the ball, who could be coming under pressure from the opposition – or hold their position.

If they are being tightly marked off-the-ball a player will also need to move to drag the marker with them and open up space. They can also create space by moving closer to the ball and become a passing option.

This is why employing a man-to-man marking system doesn’t equal guaranteed results. Good sides will exploit this through spacing, knowing when and where to run to pull players out of position and dismantle a defensive line.

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Spacing sounds basic in practice but to have multiple players in possession all aiming to create space at the same time, in tandem with one another, is not easy.

Generally, teams will normally space themselves tight and narrow to maintain possession in a disciplined manner, or wide and spread if they want to play a more expansive game.

Who uses spacing effectively?

It is difficult to label spacing to just one team or club. At the professional level every team is using spacing to find weaknesses in their opponent.

And spacing is the sort of subject certain data analysts will spend hours and hours poring over before a game, essentially asking - 'what spaces in the oppositions set-up can we exploit and how might be go about it?'

However, one memorable team that used spacing in an interesting way was Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United. His team would constantly be on the move to find passing angles and shapes, through spacing.

His team would evolve their shape on the spot in an attempt to move to where the space was, whether through short and incisive passing, or a combination of running into space and utilising longer through balls.

Some of Bielsa's training methods when he first came to Leeds were widely discussed - particularly 'murderball', a training match where the ball is continually put back into play. In this game there are no free kicks, throw-ins or other stoppages.

It was an extremely intense game that demanded hard running. But this is why Bielsa loved it. Players would constantly be having to think and move in terms of spacing.

Those without the ball would have to help the often exhausted player on the ball extremely quickly. Leeds' style under Bielsa wasn't bulletproof, but it was entertaining.

MORE TACTICAL EXPLAINERS

We have several tactical explainers to help you understand more about football.

When it comes to midfields, we have pieces on what a box midfield is, how double-pivot midfields function and explainers on the No.10 and the No.6, as well as attacking and defensive transitions.

We also have explainers on what gegenpressing is, what target men are how inverted full-backs work and what ‘between the lines’ means, along with explainers on overlaps and overloads.