Future of Football: How will tactics evolve?

Goalkeepers as outfielders? Formations as we've never seen them before? The rise of virtual reality training technology and ''all-rounder" players who can slot into different roles?

As part of Sky Sports' Future of Football series, we asked a range of coaches, including some of the brightest tactical minds in the game, for their expert views on how men's football is evolving tactically - and where it goes next.

Introducing: Our coaches profiled

Before we look to the future, how far have tactics already come?

Andoni Iraola: "Twenty years ago, as a player, you were just trying to solve your own problems and win your duel with your marker, you weren’t thinking so collectively. Now, players ask tactical questions you would expect from a manager. First phase, second phase. They understand it all and they ask for little details. That makes it easier for us as coaches."

Matthias Jaissle: "These days the players are more and more involved in tactical things. Every coach and every club works with principles, so every player has to know a lot of things, tactically, in each phase of the game. I think that’s a big change."

Robert Moreno: "For me, the biggest difference is the time you have to decide on the pitch. Back then, you had four or five seconds to decide because it was a low rhythm, a different style. Now you have one second, at most. This is a big difference. A player has to decide before receiving the ball."

Rene Maric: "There is a higher frequency of actions now. If you watch a game from the 1970s, you have a lot of space. Now, the space is very small and you are not being defended by one player but by two, three or four. I think that has developed massively."

David Nielsen: "It's completely different and the major aspect is time and space. In the old days, strikers used to practice getting one on one with the goalkeeper. But if you look at the Premier League now, how many times do strikers get one on one from, let’s say, two-thirds inside the opponent’s half? It doesn't happen. Time and space has reduced."

Joao Nuno Fonseca: "It has been an evolution, especially in England. It is not only kicking long balls anymore."

Ruben de la Barrera: "We cannot compare the needs of the game now to in the past. I remember Edwin van der Sar starting the play in goal, but not in the way we see Ederson or Jason Steele do it. It is not the same. Football evolves. It is a different era."

Where are formations going and what will they look like in the future?

Des Buckingham: "Tactics and formations just keep coming full circle."

Chris Davies: "In the game now, you can see these trends like the 2-3-5 shape that a lot of teams are getting into or the 3-2-5. The idea seems to be to have five connecting quite closely on the ball and then five who are higher to threaten the defensive line. That is quite common."

Joaquin Gomez: "It is a cycle. We are talking about a three in defence and a two in midfield. That was happening almost a century ago and it is coming back."

Chris Davies: "What is fascinating is that if you go back to the Herbert Chapman days of the WM formation, that is basically the three-box-three that you see now in football. It is really interesting how that cycle has come around again even though the game has evolved in style."

David Nielsen: "I think, since 2014 or 2015, 4-4-2 has not been a good formation. To play with two strikers has been difficult. But now, if you have a midfield who are great athletes and can run even more, and a back four that can shift, then probably 4-4-2 has a chance to come back. Maybe a different variation, because you might need an extra player, so it might be a back-line of three with a player switching up into midfield, but something like that is possible."

Will we see more teams using completely different formations in and out of possession?

Andoni Iraola: "The systems and structures are changing a lot. They are much more dynamic. Probably, some years ago, it was, ‘OK, they play with three at the back, 3-5-2, so we’ll mark like this.’ But now, every player changes, every system changes, every small rotation... You have to be much more prepared as a manager now."

Joaquin Gomez: "We have different structures. If we are losing momentum, we adjust it. There are different trigger words to change it. It might take a player to go down, needing treatment. That is a trigger for us to morph into something else. It is very doable and we are seeing it very often."

Rene Maric: "There is more flexibility between approaches. Teams will press man-to-man and then go into a low block if that is not successful. But also there will be teams disguising their press, jumping out of zones and staying in a different position to the one they started the press with."

Chris Davies: "You can really see a team’s shape out of possession but it is a very different shape when they are in possession. Before it was 4-4-1-1 and you could see where everyone was."

Gabriele Cioffi: "Pep Guardiola plays a 4-4-2 in a defensive phase. Liquid in offensive phase but solid in defensive phase to prevent the other team being liquid."

Joaquin Gomez: "With Pep Guardiola, it is not just a formation or system of play, it is not about that. It is the flexibility. Football is moving into having a deeper understanding and to be a lot more flexible. It is normal now to have teams who attack and defend in a different system."

Chris Davies: "That seems to be a big thing. You will see teams pressing in a 4-4-2 – Arrigo Sacchi’s shape seems to be back in fashion again now. But when they have the ball it is completely different with options to rotate in a 2-3-5. Two different shapes seems to be the future."

Joaquin Gomez: "When Manchester City played against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final, within 20 minutes, it was not working and they changed into a different type of press, a middle block, and it worked really well. We are going to see more and more of that."

Matthias Jaissle: "It is not about formations that much. It is more how you want to play, how you want to attack, how you want to defend. If you understand that and the players understand that, tactically you are much more flexible and the formation is not that important. That could be a trend for the future."

Will the game become quicker?

Rene Maric: "The demands are getting higher every year. If you look at the statistics, the sprinting numbers, the intense metres, how those numbers have changed over the last 20 years, it is insane, a crazy development."

Paul Hall: "In 10 years, we will definitely see the game get quicker.  It will keep creeping up."

Des Buckingham: "There is evidence to show the game is 10 to 15 per cent quicker than 10 years ago. With sports science, I can only see it getting quicker. It puts greater focus on decision-making."

Andoni Iraola: "Physically, the players have to be very fit. Everyone needs to run a lot. High-speed running for me will be key."

Matthias Jaissle: "I think in the future it could be more dynamic, and more physical also. I’m pretty sure the standards will increase. Only the most professional players will survive at the top, top level, I would say."

David Nielsen: "The increase in the speed and physicality of players means the pitch is becoming too small. There is less space, so we need what they have in basketball and American football - really advanced attacking plays with more than just one, two or three simultaneous movements happening, and with players screening defenders when their team is in possession."

What about teams like Brighton, who try to slow the game down to invite pressure when they are building from the back?

Chris Davies: "What has come into the Premier League just recently is the idea of the pause and Brighton are very good at it. Previously, everyone was trained to play fast, flowing football. They wait. In moments, the game is completely static. And then, they will accelerate to break the press."

Rene Maric: "If it is going faster and faster and you can slow it down to the rhythm that you want, I think that is the difference between teams that have the ball and teams that do something good with the ball. It is the difference between possession and possession with intent."

Joao Nuno Fonseca: "Roberto De Zerbi is a very interesting coach who is producing something that is maybe unique in football right now because the team is playing very short in the build-up."

Paul Hall: "The way De Zerbi asks his central defenders and goalkeeper to be really brave and provoke the press has been really impressive. He has probably given Pep Guardiola his biggest headache of the year because of how his team builds."

Chris Davies: "They are very intentional in trying to attract pressure. They know what they are doing rather than just passing the ball across the back line quickly because it feels quick. That is not the way to gain an advantage because it is not necessarily helping to break past an opponent."

Joao Nuno Fonseca: "It is more and more important because with this you attract the opponent near to your goal and far from their goal. This creates spaces. When you try to press, it leaves half of the pitch. Imagine if you conquer this space in between? These are really important developments."

Which teams do you find most interesting tactically at the moment?

Des Buckingham: “I like watching Barcelona and always have. It is interesting to see what happens when a new coach goes in there and how they take it on.”

Robert Moreno: “In Spain, I like Villarreal and Real Sociedad. They have been incredible. I love the way they have developed their projects. How they sign players but overall how they play.”

Chris Davies: “Real Sociedad are an interesting team, stylistically. They are the only team in the big five leagues to qualify for the Champions League playing a 4-4-2 diamond. It is a possession-based idea. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Union Berlin are overachieving on the counter-attack.”

Gabriele Cioffi: “Ruben Amorim at Sporting because he plays a 3-4-3 but in a smart way. He plays a mid-transition. He waits for the opponent. Tim Walter at Hamburg is interesting in how he fills the gaps with players, how he plays in the half spaces, there are a lot of rotations.”

Rene Maric: "The German second division is interesting. Paderborn are playing asymmetrically with a lot of dribblers. Hamburg have the goalkeeper high. Magdeburg use the goalkeeper in a fairly extreme way. St Pauli are like the Swansea of Germany with a clean build-up."

Robert Moreno: “In England, I have to say Brighton, Arsenal and Manchester City. In France, the way that Stade Reims have signed players in recent years with no money is incredible. I loved Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli in Italy. Braga are doing incredible things in Portugal.”

Carlos Carvalhal: “Brighton play a little differently. Manchester City play differently. In LaLiga, Girona do different things. Fluminense in Brazil play with a kind of chaos under Fernando Diniz. That is very interesting to see.”

Rene Maric: "There is this discussion between relationism and positionism. At Fluminense, Mamelodi Sundowns and Malmo, they have these extreme overloads. They try to keep the ball but they are less focused on space."

David Nielsen: "I’ve been fortunate to follow Will Still at Reims very closely. He is creating something that is more about communication. He is playing a classic system, but there are a lot of things going on. These young managers coming in and doing well with teams at the bottom of the league who don't have top talents, that’s what I think is interesting."

Joaquin Gomez: “Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton are remarkable for their man-to-man pressing and the intensity, the discipline, of how they do that. A lot of people focus on the attacking phase but I think their defending is probably one of the best, if not the best, in Europe at the moment.”

Paul Hall: “Mikel Arteta is Pep 2.0 and he has managed to get Arsenal to be that position-based team. Marcelo Bielsa has pushed the envelope of what we can do. All of these coaches have been affected by Bielsa in the way that he coaches.”

Andoni Iraola: “When I started coaching, I loved how German teams played because they all defend, they all attack. They play the way I like to play. That was probably my first reference. From there, you learn from every team but there are a lot of teams doing things really well in the Premier League.”

How important will technology be in shaping the tactics of the future?

Andoni Iraola: "I think, right now, you cannot live without data. It is evolving a lot. It is much more precise than some years ago. Normally, I start with this. I say, before I start watching the games of my next opponent, ‘let’s go to the data, so we know what we are looking at’. It is something that has a lot of importance."

Des Buckingham: "I think there are things being built that will give us more in-game data in future."

Joaquin Gomez: "You watch All or Nothing, the series about American Football and see how long the days are for them, the planning meetings, the managers of specific positions. They carry books that they need to learn. I think we still have a lot of catching up to do."

Matthias Jaissle: "Here in Salzburg, we have the approach to always be innovative and work with new technologies. We also have a specialist in every department. But in the end, you really have to take care that you don’t have too much information. This is a big challenge. As a manager or coach, you know so much about tactics, but you cannot just give everything to the players. You have to really take care not to overwhelm them."

Ruben de la Barrera: "Football is evolving and you have to use new technology like virtual reality and artificial intelligence to increase the level of your performance. It is about updating and growing."

Paul Hall: "I am sure that in the future we will see artificial intelligence refereeing games."

Gabriele Cioffi: "Virtual reality could be the next step because of the better understanding of how our brains work. You can train a player without training him, just by showing him."

David Nielsen: "I think we have more or less adopted enough of the NFL, American football-style analysis into European football. The last thing we need to do now is stick a pair of virtual reality glasses on a player and make him play a full game."

Joao Nuno Fonseca: "If you had the opportunity instead of static mannequins on the football pitch, imagine that they are moving. I predict in the next 10 or 20 years, because the technology is making a massive evolution, holograms on the training pitch will be something common in the future."

Joaquin Gomez: "It is important to keep on top of it because the technology moves very fast. If you do not, someone else will."

For all the talk of technology, how important is it to keep the human at the heart of the game?

Andoni Iraola: "In the end, for a coach, I think the feeling and what you see in training every day is the No 1 for now."

Joao Nuno Fonseca: "As coaches, we cannot lose the real essence of us as human beings. We are dealing with people who have problems in their own lives. They might have children who are having problems at school or with health problems. We need to be sensitive to this as coaches."

Des Buckingham: "I think the eye of the coach, the experience of the coach, the gut of the coach, will always be important. The data is there for support."

Carlos Carvalhal: "I can choose to give importance or not to the numbers. Players are human beings. They have football in their head, in their legs. Football is a collective game and the players depend on each other. These movements and the timings of them are hard to explain through technology. It is intuition. It is why some players are better than others and I am convinced it will always make the difference in football."

Ruben de la Barrera: "Before the technology, there is the human being."

Matthias Jaissle: "I think the communication and the connection with the players is always the base for leadership and being a good coach. Here in Salzburg, we have so many young players, of over 10 different nationalities, so you really have to take care of that. I would always prioritise one-on-ones and face-to-face conversation."