‘Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.’

– Johan Cruyff

I see this quote from Cruyff quite often. It always seems to be used to support an opinion about how players should be trained or about how the game should be played. A few of the general sentiments that have stood out over the years: coaches arguing against players being taught to dribble during their younger ages because that makes the game more difficult from a team perspective, plus dribbling is sloppy and therefore too complex, wanting and coaching young players to be able move the ball as well and incisively as a professional team like Barcelona or Manchester City, and age-old takes like ‘a pass moves the ball quicker than a dribble!’ – which is true, but negates the idea of how a dribble can completely unbalance the opposition structure numerous times in one action.

It is also typically the case that the emphasis is put solely on the first part of Cruyff’s quote, that ‘playing football is very simple,’ in that, again, the act of passing is a simple skill and therefore the game should be simple. However, rarely does there seem to be any thought or analysis (beyond the idea of dribbling making football harder) as to why Cruyff ended his statement with ‘but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.’ If it were as simple as telling players to play ‘simple’ passes, wouldn’t every coach have their team play in a Cruyffian manner given the results that have derived from that style of play over the past half century?

We can look at the teams in which Cruyff played for and coached to see what he wanted his football to be like: individuality was embraced, fluid passing, interchanging of positions, intense and very concentrated pressing. To achieve the sort of synergy amongst a squad of players that allows this type of playing style to be successful is far from simple, coupled with the intricacies and details behind the tactical elements of it, this Cruyff quote should not be misconstrued into the idea that a possession-based game is simplistic and that, our youth players in particular, should only be taught how to pass the ball in a simplistic manner rather than, for example dribble, in order to achieve this Cruyffian utopia. ‘Simple’ football is far from simple, but rather developed and built upon the complexities within it and it is only because of these complexities and the time spent working on the details within them that we are able to perceive simplicity in the play.

Behind the Scenes

The complexities that it takes to create a side such as Guardiola’s Manchester City, Klopp’s Liverpool, or Bielsa’s Leeds, that makes the movement of the ball seem so simple and fluid, cannot be understated. When we look at Guardiola’s Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City, one of the notable commonalities is that there is always structure when they are in possession (juego de posición), used to both allow them to move the ball to move the defenders and then get players into specific areas of the field to provide penetration, as well as to prevent counter attacking situations for the opposition. The Catalan’s sides work on the principles of their positional play in every training session and it is only because they work so diligently on the smallest of details of where players should be, relative to the ball, their teammates, the opponents, and the space, and in what moments to occupy these spaces, that it makes their football look seamless and fluid. There are elements of flexibility and freedom in Guardiola’s structure that allows for player’s individual qualities to thrive, but the team as a whole are given a stricter framework to build from rather than simply being told to ‘keep the ball’ and ‘play simple.’ There are complexities within the build up play, the progression of the ball, and the final actions.

Thierry Henry touched upon this to an extent on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football a few years back, although I imagine his wording here about Guardiola just looking to get the team into the final third isn’t exactly what the Catalan has in mind based on the similarities in the types of goals that Guardiola’s teams score:

With the need for these complexities to underlie the simplicity of the football, we end up seeing plenty of professional teams struggle to progress the ball, lacking a prescribed structure and principles to penetrate their opposition. Even sides that play some ‘easy on the eye,’ passing football with technically skilled players can struggle without structure (I’m thinking Arsenal in the mid 2010s under Wenger). With that in mind, how can we then expect a youth side, that does not have the opportunity to possibly go into as much detail as a professional side, to develop the necessary complexities to make their football simple? If we do not give our players the tools to do so, how can they appropriately react to generic phrases like ‘play simple,’ that are heard on the sidelines of youth games everywhere as, without the team being given principles, structure, and a framework in possession, it is tough to know how, why, and when to ‘play simple.’ Without the aforementioned elements in a team, success in progressing the ball forward and even ‘playing the simple pass’ will come down to the quality of the individual players and simple chance rather than a cohesive and collective approach. Here Guardiola tries to get his ideas across to the Bayern Munich players early on in his tenure:

Playing the ‘simple football’ that Cruyff is talking about is far more complex than the simple idea that it is just about passing the ball. Instead the simplicity that we see on the field requires a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to achieve cohesiveness on the pitch, starting with a coach that has formulated their ideas coupled with their ability to effectively communicate those ideas to a group of players both verbally and through the organisation of the exercises within their training sessions.

If a coach’s idea is that they want to play with a possession-based approach to the game and tells players this, but does not show the players what, why, when and how to approach different situations or give his players the appropriate framework to do so, then that coach’s ideas of a simple game of football will never transpire. Instead, the players will rely on their individual qualitative superiority to find any success against opposition. This as well, is only thinking about the game in possession, when in reality, in order to be successful in playing the game the way in which Cruyff envisioned (and for the football to appear simple), a coach and a team must look to be dominate in all four phases and again we ask the question, ‘is the coach able to transfer their ideas to the players?’

This is clip from Manchester City v Bayern Munich in the 2013 Champions League is great example of how a team can make things look incredibly simple, but only because of the principles that have been instilled (and the game state).

Quantifying the Game – Does It Make It Simpler?

Marcelo Bielsa has made a lot of statements based on his extensive analysis of football that quantify the game, such as ‘there are 36 ways to communicate with a pass’ and ‘there are five types of off the ball movement.’ How valuable is this to a coach? Some might say that it is an over complication of the game to be breaking things down to this degree. However, could it not be argued that this makes things simpler for coaches and players? If you agree with Bielsa’s analysis, you now have a set number of ways to move off the ball. With that information, you can design your training sessions with a greater amount of specificity and see how each movement effectively fits into your game model and the player profiles of those within your team. Without this depth of analysis, are you able to definitively say what fits into your game model and, from that point, effectively communicate to your players what it means to play your style of football and in when it makes sense to do X over Y? Does a definitive statement not make things simpler, not just for you as a coach to get your ideas across, but for the players to understand?

We, of course, have to accept that there are nuances in a statement like ‘there are five different types of movement off the ball.’ There are different player profiles, different patterns, different reactionary movements, and a host of other things that go into any particular movement and so. While we accept there are five different off the ball movements, we need to not only understand the details within them, but also understand when and how they are applicable, and this bring us away from simplicity and into the complexity of the details on the coaching side of things. Our job as a coach is to then take the complexity of the details and turn it back into a more simplistic message for our players, bringing us back to the idea that while football is a simple game, the complexities behind playing simple football are vast.

Pass the Ball like Barcelona: Simply

Passing is hugely important in football, no matter the level, however, the degree of its importance varies significantly. If you have an under-9 team and are wanting them to pass the ball like Barcelona, you are going to face the reality that, for a lot of players at that age it is not in their understanding to do so, and depending on how you get those behaviours from the players (one touch passing constraints) at that age, you could be doing them a disservice in their long term development.

We think of Barcelona when we think of Cruyff because of the type of football that he and Michels brought to the Catalan club upon their arrival in the 1970s and that Cruyff continued when he managed the side in the 1990s and so I feel it fair to use Barcelona as the subject of his quote. Lots of coaches want to play a brilliant brand of football like Barcelona have played in the recent decades – a style that looks simple and pleasing to the eye, yet we must understand and respect the time that it takes to get there. We must understand that during their most successful spell, under Guardiola (a man that has said that he prefers a player that can dribble the ball over one that can just pass), that so many of the key players came through La Masia and experienced years of education in how to play a particular way. They were taught the fundamental intricacies of positional play, both from an individual perspective in how to gain awareness and perspective and executing decisions to the team principles, and this was emphasised greatly by Guardiola.

Here again, we need to understand the complexities that go into Guardiola’s brand of positional play and then look at the details of what we would recognise as the simpler aspects within it. A good example of this is this video of Guardiola talking about the importance of body shape during his playing days at Barcelona. We then fast forward to a clip of him with Raheem Sterling, talking about the exact same thing. It is this consistency and approach to details, however simple they may seem, that allows Guardiola’s (Cruyff’s) possession-based football to appear simple in its application on the field.

These are simple details – often overlooked – that go into the how and why of what we want our players to do and aids in their overall ability to perceive the game and make decisions, which makes the game look easier and simpler for them.

Preparation = Simplicity

The best coaches that have the best teams in the world are typically the most prepared. How well a coach is prepared is directly linked to how clear and specific their game model is and the clarity and preparation filters down to the players and their ability to approach the game with confidence. The more prepared we as coaches are, and our players are as a result, the simpler the game will look and only then can we think about this Cruyff quote in the context that he meant it to be.

We must paint the right pictures for the players and give them the necessary principles and repetitions to be able to recognise the situations and patterns that emerge in the game. Again, the more prepared and the more exposure our players get to these moments and situations, the simpler the game will appear to outsiders looking in.

‘You help 11 players do the right things in the right moments’ and if those 11 players do the right things in the right moments, it looks seamless, cohesive, and gives the illusion of a team playing simple football.