Last week, we discussed the speed of football actions within the context of youth football. Today we will look further into this, but now through the lens of the professional level.

As mentioned, football actions are universal, so whether you are playing in India, Argentina or the UK, there will be a format of 11 vs 11, 2 goals and 1 ball. Using the rules of association football allows the game to take place and (hopefully) stop any confusion.
For the game to be a success and to reach the objective of scoring 1 more goal than the opponent, each player will always be executing different football actions. Without these, you can’t participate in the game and execute your desired intentions.

Last week we looked at what a football action is, so to recap;

What is clear before we start, is that all football actions by definition are the same. Whether you are a player at under 7’s or a professional in the Premier League, when making a pass (in the correct context), you will be communicating, making a decision and executing a decision. The differing factor between the 2 ends of this spectrum, is the space that a player has and the time afforded to them. This characteristic underpins the football action and impacts how fast/slow a player executes a given decision.

Now, what is clear to state is when you are playing football at the highest level (professional), the space and time will be significantly reduced as the intensity (speed of football actions) is extremely high. Intensity is the speed of what the football action (CDE) is executed at and will contribute to the decision making process, of all participating players.

In professional football there are many external factors that have to be taken into consideration, that can effect the thinking of a player. The crowd, the referee and even the occasion can contribute to slower decision making and in turn, poorer execution.

When speaking with my colleague, he was able to share some very informative insights into executing football actions, at the highest level. The examples given were of Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas.

Frank Lampard

Would scan non-stop throughout the game and this enabled him to consistently create space
When this happened, the communication between the Chelsea players was so high, it allowed Lampard to receive the ball and pass easily
He preferred receiving the ball on his back foot and the pass that enabled him to do this, was always executed at very high speeds. (Minimal touches, to then pass the ball – keeps the intensity of the attack flowing)

Cesc Fabregas

Had extremely good game insight and this allowed him to understand, what was going on around him, at all times
Passing was one of his strengths and he would execute this action, within extremely tight spaces. If you applied pressure, he would nearly always get out of it. If you afforded him space, he would take full advantage
The ability to execute all football actions, within a tight spaces, allowed him to attract more pressure into his zone. This would create space elsewhere on the field

From looking at some of the examples that have been listed, it’s clear to see that both players were extremely good at executing their desired football actions, even if the space/time was very short. My colleague mentioned, that whatever he tried (out of possession) didn’t work and they would always come up with a new solution.

So, the question is, where do these solutions come from?

The brain will receive many stimuli in the game and we have spoken about this previously. Once a certain stimuli gets above the decision making threshold, the respective player will then act on this and (attempt to) execute a football action. When you’re in a game environment though, especially at the top level, you don’t have the time to ‘think’ about your actions. Instead, your brain will act unconsciously and choose the desired decision for you. This is very much like eating with a knife and fork or riding a bicycle.

Having a football player that can execute football actions unconsciously, is what we would want in an ideal world. Although this doesn’t exist, you can achieve it with good training session design and coaching. If you allow a player to ‘think’ too long during competitive play, then this will contribute to slower decision making and poorer execution of football actions.

Challenge your players from the start and the unconscious execution of football actions, will have an opportunity to flourish!