I often use the terminology with my players “to play and move against the grain”. Its a really strong piece of imagery for younger players but is a key fundamental of one of my principles of possession.

This isn’t as simple as it sounds and requires a lot of analysis to achieve due to playing directly off the defensive set up of the opposition team. It is based in football principles but takes it to another level.

One of the key elements when planning your tactical/strategic approach to each game (based on your existing playing model) should be what is the opposition doing to stop us creating a high percentage of “finishing” opportunities.

Teams defensive patterns are more ingrained than their attacking patterns as everyone needs to know what/when/how/why their roles are and how they work with each other. This makes their defending patterns easier to read and recognise when analysing.

For example many top teams now use the touchlines as their triggers where they look to force teams to play to either the left or the right hand side of the field and them trap them against the touchline. They are able to get additional players there and any potential overload is difficult for the attacking team to achieve without unbalance.

In essence though this is the perfect time to play against the grain of the opposition defending movement and look to exploit the weak side with a 1v1 or 2v1 opportunity.

Often defending teams have two main objectives in their defending set-up. These are generally around the areas of can we force the opponent to play long balls or convince the opponent to play into the traps that have been set where we team has a numerical superiority.

Being forced to play into the traps set by the opposition means taking up consistent spaces that seem to be available which are the traps.

If players who play against the grain allow the defensive movement of the opposition to kick into gear BEFORE they move then they can make accurate decisions as to how to position themselves to move the ball around and through any defensive pressure.

Below is a very simple way it can be used but it is effective and can be used to teach your players how to move against the grain of the defending team to create overloads and attacking opportunities.

The left-hand player of the red team has the ball. The blue team elect to send their right-hand player forward to put pressure on the ball carrier. They believe they can do this as it as the striker is there to stop any movement of the ball across the field. If as the corresponding movement of the blue team is occurring the red advanced player takes up a position either beyond, between or below the defending movement as it is being carried out the entire picture changes.

In this case, the advanced player elected to move below the defending movement to receive the ball. The player who passed the ball moves aggressively away and beyond the pressure and the right-hand side player drives up and away from the ball. The key movement is the middle player moving against the grain of the pass and the recovery defending run of the blue advanced player.

Due to the defending principle of the blue team they will look to recreate a line of 3 defenders. The back 2 blue players will narrow up in the middle of the field and look to deny penetration passes as a recovery run is underway and pressure on the ball will come from the more advanced player. In moving the back red player against their movement the following scenario happens:

The team in red with simple movements against the grain of the defending team has created an overload on the left-hand side with either a 2v1 or a 3v2 if the blue advanced player doesn’t continue the pressure.

Strategic Outcomes

1. This movement against the grain looks to overload and isolate opposition players with the desire to take advantage of either our numercial or quality superiority.
2. Move the opposition into areas that’s outside of their defending plan and principles, therefore, increasing the ground they need to cover with the aim to penetrate them.
3. To move from their overload into ours with the intention of taking advantage of their pressing triggers and defending strategies.