Counter-attacking football has long been a popular weapon for the Davids seeking to topple the Goliaths — and the catapult goals such as Anthony Elanga’s are its crowning glory.
Elanga raced 85 yards in nine seconds, breaking clear from a defensive corner and dribbling from inside his half to score a thrilling winner for Nottingham Forest against Manchester United on Tuesday.
Twenty four hours later and Marcus Rashford scored the opener for Aston Villa at Brighton, bursting out from a defensive corner and latching onto a long pass from Morgan Rogers.
They seemed like goals for our time, totems of this Premier League season. Two speed merchants freed from the burden of life at Old Trafford, revitalised in effective teams doing serious damage on the turnover of possession.
And yet, as usual, this is nothing new. Malcolm Allison, in his definitive coaching book Soccer for Thinkers, wrote ‘a team losing possession is in trouble whether the players realise it or not’ and ‘often, the nearer a team is to goal the more players will be put out of the game by losing possession’.
Allison thought any cross intercepted from the penalty area would eliminate between ‘two and six players’ and went on, ‘if there are only four left and one makes a desperate tackle and is beaten, the team’s plight sinks from unhappy to unhealthy’.
He also noted how teams dedicated to attacking freely would be naturally more vulnerable and that young forwards were naive or as he put it ‘not terribly concerned’ about losing the ball in the opposition’s penalty area.
This was published in 1967, a year when Allison was assistant to Manchester City boss Joe Mercer, building a team to win the title one year hence. But it feels more pertinent than ever in an era when aggressive, front-foot football with high defensive lines aiming to turnover possession in the final third has become commonplace.
All Premier League teams can counter-attack dangerously. Some rarely have the chance because they want to — or are expected to — dominate the ball. Others depend on it.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s Forest are designed for it. They are combative and well organised. They defend deep, are ball winners and some come with added quality. Murillo can charge out on the ball from centre half and
Morgan Gibbs-White has wonderful vision and range of passing. Up front, they have extreme speed in Elanga, more pace and technical trickery in Callum Hudson- Odoi and craft, clinical finishing and aerial power in Chris Wood.
Crystal Palace operate with a similar philosophy, albeit a different shape. They too build from a solid defensive bedrock able to withstand periods of pressure, with all-rounders in midfield who win the ball and pass it and a ruthless blend of pace, power and skill on the ball up front.
When football’s tactical cycle turns, old theories come back with new twists.
The modern era differs from Allison’s because its pristine surfaces invite dribblers to glide and carry the ball at pace. They will train for it, with explosive power in quick bursts off the mark. Premier League wealth and sophisticated recruitment data ensures they select the right players for the task.
Much of the technical work of dribbling will be done through the youth levels and, by the time players break into the first team, coaches are refining strengths within tactical strategies.
Analysts run software and scour footage to target weaknesses, while set-piece specialists work on breaking out from defending corners and free-kicks as much as attacking ones, with the aim of getting the ball to the feet of the right players in the right areas at the right times.
When Emi Martinez caught Jan Paul van Hecke’s header from a corner on Wednesday, Rashford was just inside his own penalty area and Rogers was on the six-yard line.
Rogers peeled left to collect a short throw from his keeper and Rashford put his head down and sprinted in a direct line towards goal. Brighton’s Lewis Dunk chased Rashford all the way back without ever getting close enough to make a challenge. Fewer than 12 seconds elapsed between the Martinez catch and Villa’s first goal in a 3-0 win.
At United Elanga may, as Ruben Amorim implied, have found the shirt weighed heavily, although he would have had nowhere near as many opportunities to break into open spaces. All except the boldest will still sit deep against United, whose illustrious stature as footballing cavaliers means they sense an obligation to play in an open and attractive style, just like Tottenham.
On their day, teams such as Forest will punish them on the break, although it is by no means easy to do what Elanga did and throw down a sprint challenge.
Any coach understands opponents are most vulnerable at the breakdown of possession wherever it is on the pitch because, defensively, they will be out of shape.
Teams committed to playing on the front foot work hard to stop the counter- attack. They deploy recovery pace at the back, such as Spurs and Micky van de Ven, and try to stop counter- attacks before they begin, sometimes cynically.
Think of the Myles Lewis- Skelly red card at Wolves, a young player desperate to do his bit punished — perhaps over-zealously — by a referee aware of what goes on.
The beauty of the catapult strike from a defensive corner is that several of the best defenders will be out of the picture, like Dunk.
When Elanga took his first touch, 15 yards inside his own half, he was pursued by Patrick Dorgu and Alejandro Garnacho, with Noussair Mazraoui on cover, but his decisiveness won the day.
His confidence is soaring in a team maximising his attributes. No United player could get near enough to take him out.
Another Goliath slain by David and his slingshot.