# Beyond the Playbook: The Role of Anti-Strategy in Competition *What is anti-strategy and how does it manifest in football?* > For the full version with images, embedded tweets, and visual breakdowns, [visit BallerzBantz](https://www.ballerzbantz.com/p/anti-strategy). It's 2.06am in Kansas. I've got my laundry whirling downstairs and watching eager college mates return from their Friday night out, but my thoughts keep on coinciding at these: What makes a particular recruitment strategy effective? What makes a sequence on the pitch effective? What makes a skill/move effective? The answers to these obviously vary, depending on the matter of interest. But one feature that seems consistent is **anti-strategy**. Things you do just to ruffle your opponent, to increase your margin for error, to gain time and space to execute. In this piece, I will consider four manifestations of this 'anti-strategy' in football: - Player: Robben - Team: playing out from the back - Organizational: recruitment - Other fields: business, military, diplomacy ## Player: Robben's trademark cut Whenever one-footed players pull off something special, we often hear this phrase: 'you know what they are going to do, but you can't stop it.' For Arjen Robben, the key — his anti-strategy — was his deceiving, **neutral posture**. You see other players do use this during penalties (Bruno, Jorginho) or disguised through balls (Kroos). 1. Robben's touch to cut across the pitch. 2. Robben overcomes his horizontal momentum to settle in a neutral stance — facing the defender. 3. Robben is locked in with opponent; the defender is set to engage; they have him. Sike! 4. Robben takes a power step and evades the defender. In real-time, from our couches, we'd complain, 'everyone knew he was going to cut in.' Yet, Robben consistently painted a different picture for the defenders on the pitch. You might anticipate the outcome, but you can't beat the physics. Anti-strategies like this are the equivalent of luring a 20 ton-truck into a bend, then asking them to stop. Momentum says no. ## Team: playing out from the back When playing out from the back, teams occasionally use decoy runs to open passing lanes for the player on the ball. A few setups also have players — esp. GKs — use gestures to create time: point at a (pseudo) receiver, show for the ball without intending to receive. These moves, while not directly enabling progression, help confuse and distort the opponent. Good team-strategy, in this sense, is not just about culturing movements and actions for your team. It's also culturing anti-moves aimed at your opponents: actions designed just to throw them off. ## Organizational: Recruitment These are some ways anti-strategies manifest on an organizational scale: 1. Recruiting a player (ahead of schedule) just so your competition can't. 2. Recruiting a key stakeholder from another team to become 'one of the others' at your institution. 3. Leveraging the media to steer narratives about your intentions. *(Visit the full article for the complete version with images and visual breakdowns.)* --- ## Related - [[Reverse Engineering]] - [[Synergies]] - [[Head Coach Expectations]] - [[BB-wiki-1/Sports/Analysis/Arteta and Throw-ins]]