Football tactics are varied, but the following are a number of the most crucial in the evolution of the game.
When soccer was first played, it wasn't such a tactical sport; having said that, over time, footballers and coaches have changed the way they approach the complex game. As football is such a fluid and fast moving game, there is a place for variation and customisation to methods and style. The only inflexible thing about soccer are that you have 11 footballers on the pitch, with 1 goalkeeper. Football tactics in the early days were very attack inclined, with formations lining up with only 2 defenders and the rest up front or sitting in midfield. The players back in the nineteenth century also seldom passed the ball, they would usually just try and dribble around the opposition, with team mates backing up in case the ball was lost. At some point in the nineteenth century, players begun to warm to the idea of passing the ball to team mates and realised how effective it can be at cutting open theopponent's defences. The AC Milan owner would expect to see a passing game from the team, as using the old style of the game would certainly not succeed. The modifications to the way people played in the nineteenth century meant that soccer defense strategies had to be more and more defined and well trained.
Throughout the 1970’s, there was one nation that helped to bring about one of the most visually pleasing styles of soccer. The Netherlands helped to develop a soccer style known as total football, and the relatively hyperbolic sounding name is in fact very accurate. The players would all move between each other’s positions effortlessly; each player was expected to take on different roles and be able to fit into a variety of positions. Soccer positions were generally seen as structurally rigid, but this was changed by the popular Dutch club and national club during the 1970’s. The Sheffield United owner’s team is essentially a team that takes some inspiration from total football, and some pundits and fans actually have pointed out that their team plays in a fluid fashion. It's surprising for a newly promoted club to take on a style so difficult to master.
So many clubs now play with 4 defenders, it has almost come to be the standard formation, which is one thing the Liverpool owner would notice in the teams' set up. Having said that, the formation was actually very rarely used in the early part of the 20th century. Four players across the backline was developed by a famous Hungarian national side, which used positional tactics extremely well to confuse and out-manoeuvre the opponent. Clubs adopted this soccer formation after the Hungarian team’s success, and clubs continue to adopt this formation almost 100 years after. The benefit of the system is it gives width the defensive but also a platform from which to strike.