Hurling still lagging behind Football in tactical thinking
Penny hasn’t dropped in terms of innovation in the small ball game
IN the summer of 2017, news broke that Jim McGuinness was joining Chinese football club Beijing Sinobo Guoan. It was right up there for shock value with the previous headline news surrounding Donegal’s AllIreland winning senior football manager, namely, that he was heading to Glasgow Celtic to be part of the coaching staff.
This is one sporting career that has involved taking the road less travelled. The China move came about when he was drafted in as assistant coach to Roger Schmidt, the highly-regarded former Bayer Leverkusen manager. And while it didn’t work out for McGuinness who was released early from his contract due to ‘personal, family reasons’, the Glenties man paid tribute to Schmidt on his departure: ‘It has been an amazing experience working under a top European coach and I have learned so much from him. I feel my experience in Beijing has set me up for the next stage in my development and I look forward to a new chapter in Europe.’
Who knew then that McGuinness would return to the Donegal job and set about applying some of the knowledge he gained on the other side of the world.
Schmidt’s teams are not just famous for their high pressing line but also their aggressive counter-press — a formula that has endeared him to the Benfica fans where he is currently working.
Meanwhile, the narrative around McGuinness’ Second Coming has revolved around a distinct change in approach from his previous tenure of Donegal which bagged an All-Ireland, three Ulster titles and managed to transform the face of Gaelic football along the way.
His opening Allianz Football League match in charge — against Cork in Ballybofey on the last Sunday in January — had everyone talking about this new front-foot, high-pressing style rather than a throwback to the bodies-behind-the-ball defensive web. Donegal went for Cork goalkeeper Patrick Doyle who was making his debut, spooking him and the visitors by aggressively pressing high up the field on the opposition kick-out. Going manon-man, like it was the 1990s all over again. Forcing Cork down sideline channels and then pinning them in for the turnover.
In a broader sense, it was a theme of the opening rounds of the football league.
There was very much the feeling that the game is evolving again from the dull, plodding, lateral passages of keep ball that infected so much of the play last year.
That there is a risk-reward logic to pressing high at different stages — particularly when the opposition is playing into a strong wind. That means teams that press are far less open to any lightning counter-attack where the likes of Rory Beggan simply boot the ball over the press and open up the possibility of a goal chance.
McGuinness summed up the thinking that it is more now about being flexible in terms of approach: ‘I suppose the fingerprint of what we want to achieve with the team started coming to the fore — quick transitional football and good support. Without going too deep into it, one of my things looking at Donegal in recent times was that when the ball was won it went lateral. Even today we could have done that better and been more dangerous.
‘I speak about “transitional football” and that’s very, very closely linked to it. We want to be aggressive, get up the field and ask questions of teams.’
And yet, to be in Walsh Park on Sunday for Waterford’s Hurling League game against Clare, it was as if that tactical penny hadn’t fully dropped yet.
A strong breeze was blowing pretty much straight down the field towards the city end. In old money, the talk amongst supporters in the redeveloped new stand would be whether it was a four or five point wind or maybe a six or seven point wind. Certainly, a considerable advantage, by any traditional metric.
Except figure this: against the breeze, Waterford registered 1-9. Went in at half-time level with Clare scoring 12 points.
‘We were under pressure at halftime,’ admitted Clare manager Brian Lohan.
But the second half continued in a scoring manner that defied conventional logic. Clare scored the first four points in the opening nine minutes.
They added just another four in the remaining 30 minutes when the four minutes of added time is included — yet that was still enough to win. With the strong breeze for 29 minutes plus, Waterford registered just seven more points. Just four from play to go with a Stephen Bennett free and two more from brother Shane who took over duties when Stephen limped off.
Clare goalkeeper Éibhear Quilligan didn’t have to make a single save of note in that entire second half — not dissimilar to the first when Shaun O’Brien was wholly untroubled.
Why? Because both teams were wedded to set-ups that weren’t adapted to try and make use of the elements.
There was no sense of identifying the theme of football’s opening rounds and seeing value in going man-to-man or pressing high — particularly against the wind. Even for short periods of the game.
Instead, it was the now standard formula of a two-man inside line and allowing the opposition’s extra man do as he likes.
Paddy Leavey’s influence on the game was dramatic. The Ballygunner
midfielder was named in the middle third but dropped from the start to sweep in a role that Tadhg de Búrca has copyright on. Clare made a hero of him in the first half as he roamed free and acted as cover in front of his full-back line.
Christy O’Connor’s statistical breakdown showed how he had more possessions than any other player – 24. On social media, he was nearly going viral by virtue of his own personalised interpretation of the ‘Brick flick’ — a onehanded flick off the hurl that Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh made famous. That he played a role in assisting 1-7 of Waterford’s total, including banging over a huge score from downtown on the wind in the second half, is an indictment of Clare.
His role in the goal should be Exhibit A. Zero pressure as he takes a Shaun O’Brien puck-out and angles a pass to the corner where the impressive Seán Walsh got in behind Conor Cleary to goal. Tactically, it was criminal. Clare played into Waterford’s hands by not pushing up or putting pressure on him, in addition
Playing Hutchinson far from goal had no logic
to hitting a lot of long ball on the breeze into an outnumbered two-man inside line of Aidan McCarthy plus David Reidy, with Ian Gavlin rotating in occasionally.
Now the counter to that is that it didn’t make much sense for Waterford to leave the likes of John Conlon free down the other end — such an intelligent reader of the game and deliverer of ball.
Davy Fitzgerald was that innovator in 2013 when Clare won the All-Ireland, employing a shapeshifting approach involving a sweeper — until Clare boldly pushed up to win the final replay against Cork.
The current Waterford manager is a careful strategist whose teams are always highly drilled, meticulously prepared, and highly choreographed.
And there was a level of innovation going on at the weekend in how Leavey was able to set up the goal because of Waterford’s tactic of bringing their defenders out past their own 45-metre line.
But that tactic was also exposed at times during last year’s Championship when one of the other main gripes for Waterford supporters was the lack of logic in playing one of the game’s best inside finishers in Dessie Hutchinson way too far from goal.
On Sunday, Mikey Kiely spent much of his time in the half-forward line. Finished scoreless. Now this same towering player is a natural target man who scored four goals for UL in last year’s Fitzgibbon Cup final in a far more orthodox role.
Sometimes, the best solution is the simplest one.
Look at the way Wexford’s injury-time equalising goal against Kilkenny in round one came from a long hopeful punt on the wind that broke off a Lee Chin groundstroke for Cian Byrne to finish.
You don’t need to travel to Beijing to see the tactical value in using a high press or adapting to suit the elements.