Types of superiority found in football
Have you ever wondered what your team should do when they have the ball to try to progress in the game and be able to reach the opponent’s goal without losing the ball, achieving a good passing sequence and improving the play action after action?
In today’s article we are going to talk about the types of superiority or advantages that exist in football. These types of advantages are developed by Paco Seirul-lo in his book ADN Barça, which I talk about in another post.
What is superiority?
According to the RAE (Spanish dictionary), a superiority is the pre-eminence, excellence or advantage of someone or something over another person or thing.
We have to understand that the game is a continuum of relationships and interactions between the different players that make up a team and the players that make up the opposing team. At the bottom of the page I leave you a link to Youtube where you can see visual examples.
Therefore, when we talk about superiority, we can also talk about relational advantages. In this sense, we can find several types of advantages:
Numerical superiority
This is the one in which the organisation of our team has in a limited space around the ball a greater number of own players than opponents in that space-time.
In the image we can see how two players go after an opponent, finding a situation of numerical superiority, as there are 2 attacking players against 1 defending player.
Positional superiority
This is achieved through the positioning – location of one of our players with respect to one or more opponents who are arranged according to a certain system of play.
In the image you can see how Raphinha is located in a position where if you manage to contact him, he will have an advantage over the opponent.
Qualitative superiority
This is the one in which in each individual confrontation, the qualities of our player can be superior to those of the opponent.
In the image you can see how Lamine Yamal has outperformed several of his opponents.
Conditional superiority
Conditional superiority is when in a given space we have one or more players with superior physical capabilities to those of our opponents.
In the image you can see how Mbappé runs away from several Argentina players.
Socio-affective advantage
This is an advantage in which, in a given space, the sum of the abilities of two or more players in our team is greater than the ability of the opposing players to counteract these qualities.
The image shows how Barça is able to combine the skills of its players to develop long possession in positional play.
Below, you can watch a video on Youtube where I explain with visual examples the types of superiorities.
Of all these superiorities, which one would you choose if you had to pick just one?
I read you,
Goal hug.