Andres Iniesta — Tactical breakdown

9 La Liga, 6 Copa del Rey, 4 Champions League,
2 Euros, 1 World Cup…

Winning goal during ET of a World Cup Final,
that goal at Stamford Bridge…

UEFA best player, Euro player of the tournament…
Boy is this difficult to get through. “Don” Andres Iniesta leaving top level football once and for all. My goodness. One of the all-time great players. Arguably the third best player of his generation. A player so good, so magical and so accomplished it doesn’t seem stupid to say he’s on par with Zinedine Zidane. A player who was an indispensable part of two of the best dynasties of all time, arguably the best single team ever (2010/11 Barcelona of course, who else would it be?), and inarguably the best midfield trio in the history of the beautiful game. And this man sure did put the “beautiful” in the beautiful game. So beautiful he could make one cry while watching him (I’m speaking of experience). Dear Andres Iniesta, thank you.

He was, obviously, a key piece in all of these great Barcelona teams he’s played in. But what exactly was his role? Contrary to what a few not-so-great pundits have said over the years, these teams, particularly after Guardiola’s reign, have not been totally “free-flowing” or “interchangeable”. The famous Barcelona system has been a very structured positional system, where players are meant to be found in their specific spaces at specific moments. Iniesta has played in the number 8, left-sided “interior” central midfield role, often in a 4–3–3. The left central position has become absolutely synonymous with him, and he has mastered his specific role. He dominates the game by dictating the play on his left side. I mean dictating the play as in deciding, by his movements with and without the ball in the left half-space, of the verticality and speed of play on his side. He has played with plenty of different partners, be it a dominant true winger like Neymar, a great striker like Henry or Villa, or even with no forward and only an attacking full back such as Jordi Alba.

While Iniesta is obviously capable of absolutely anything with a football, such is his talent and intelligence, there are a few key aspects to his game that are interesting to discuss. I will look at his dribbling, passing and overall positional role.

Iniesta has primarily operated in the left side half space his whole career

Dribbling

Since Johann’s Cruyff days, Barcelona has always had a similar style of play, looking for different types of superiorities for its best players, particularly in central zones. Pep Guardiola installed his very specific Juego de posicion (or positional play) during his time as coach there. Since then, plenty of things have changed but the style has stayed similar and the same type of spaces are looked for. Messi and Iniesta have been the focal points in those offensive half-spaces, looking to break defensive lines. Obviously, they have been insanely good at this over the years, but what makes them so great is that they not only find space between the lines by receiving a pass, but also by simply beating opposing midfielders and penetrating those spaces by dribbling. Messi is on a different level, of course, but Iniesta has also mastered the art of dribbling by opponents and penetrating the defensive block.

Be it by combination play, by dribbling or by receiving a simple vertical pass, Iniesta will turn himself towards goal and often look to penetrate the defensive block by dribbling diagonally towards the centre. With the help of a cutting run from a striker or advancing midfielder in front of him that attracts defenders, he can then look to feed a runner in behind, combine, or directly take a shot himself. While he has played significantly deeper and attacked less by dribbling as he has aged, earlier in his career -particularly during the Guardiola years- the team was built around his (and Messi’s, of course) ability to create chances from this area of the field. His assist to Xavi for the opening goal in the famous Manita in 2010 is a good example of this.

Iniesta is also a hugely press-resistant player. This means that his ability to evade and get out of opponent pressure is great to the point where it becomes a tactical factor. If a player is consistently able to find his way out of intense pressure, the team can be built around this ability to an extent, and can be able to build out of the back cleanly even when pressed high up, knowing that they can count on their individual quality to resist the press. Other notable press-resistant players today include Sergio Busquets, Lionel Messi, Marco Verratti, Luka Modric or Paul Pogba. Iniesta himself has always been among the best in this domain, thanks to his ultimate composure, along with his exquisite dribbling and consistency. With a simple yet hugely effective arsenal of body feints, pivots, pull backs and obviously his famous La Croqueta, Iniesta gracefully humiliates his opponents deep in his own half and can then switch play and control the pace of the game. La pausa, a term designating a situation where a player literally stays immobile with the ball at his feet, stalling play in order to slow the game down, is also a important ability that Iniesta, among other great spanish and Barcelona players, has mastered. To conclude, it’s very interesting to note that as he has progressively become less dominant with his dribbling and press-resistance, Barcelona’s midfield and overall dominance has declined.

Passing

I don’t think there is even any need to mention his passing ability. It speaks for itself. Iniesta can make absolutely any pass in the world. He has 108 total assists in his career, but that stat doesn’t even come close to showing what a great passer he is. He has a career pass completion rate of 90%, but it is the variety that is really crucial. He started out as a young defensive midfielder, before become the best attacking midfielder in the world, before going through a final transformation to a controlling midfielder. He is able to combine in absurdly tight spaces to either break down a midfield or create a chance in the box. He also finds any run in an advanced areas while either stationary or after a penetrative dribble of his own. He is also excellent at switching play, be it with a long pass with either foot, or finding a player, often Messi is the opposite half-space.

As he has gotten older, the majority of his passes have become simple distribution to the left wing, where he has found either Neymar or Jordi Alba. He recycles progression from his half-space, while controlling the pace of the game by player horizontal passes to slow it down, or looking for a penetrative ball. For the latter, he is excellent at 2 man game combinations, where he can send the runner behind the defense or either end up on the wing to provoke himself.

Positional role

As I have discussed, Iniesta’s actions occur primarily in the left half-space. He has moved further back to become a deeper-lying controlling midfielder next to Busquets recently, occupying maybe a similar positional role to Toni Kroos’ for Real Madrid. His dictates the speed of play by the level of verticality of his passes, and has also been legendary at creating chances from advanced positions.

Conclusion

Overall, just a complete and all-time great midfielder. He absolutely dominated his area and the whole midfield during his whole career. Barcelona will undoubtedly have to either find another solution in midfield -young brazilian Arthur looks like a worthy successor in my eyes- or truly make a footballing transition. We have seen signs of this under Valverde with the style of play and also the players bought. It looks like next season Busquets and Rakitic will start in a double pivot, with four superstars in front, which is probably a little hard to see for some purist Barcelona fans. Iniesta’s departure is a very sad moment, both in a footballing sense as well as a historical one. But I think that with all his achievements, his most important contribution is to have been a part of Barcelona and Spain teams that showed us that the much-discussed “midfield battle” in football is about technical ability, intelligence and tactical understanding, rather than stamina, strength and physicality.

Once again, Andres Iniesta, thank you.