An introduction to 'Tactical Periodisation'

What is ‘Tactical Periodisation’?

In 2005 Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea team won their first League title in fifty years, also winning the League Cup in the process. Mourinho brought with him a new philosophy, that of tactical periodisation. The methods dictated by this system created a Chelsea side that conceded only fifteen goals over the course of the 2004/05 season and hauled in a record points total, a Porto side that won the Champions League against the odds, and an Inter Milan side that defeated Guardiola’s Barcelona en route to a famous Champions League victory.

Vitor Frade developed the methodology in the early 1990s before working with Mourinho at Porto and instilling a belief in its practices in the young coach. At the core of the ideology is a belief that tactics reign supreme in football, with all other factors affecting a team’s success relying on tactics. For example, a player with perfect technical passing ability will be of no use to the team if he cannot pick the right pass. Tactical periodisation is not an all encompassing football philosophy in the same way that total football is but rather can be thought of as a training regimen, a method for creating a tactically aware, well functioning team. Four elements are present in every training session; technical, physical, tactical and mental. Tactics take priority as they enable the other elements to be put to good use and tactical work is present in every aspect of training. A holistic approach is taken to training as many aspects of one’s game are trained in combination at any one time on the training pitch. For example, physical fitness will rarely be trained in isolation, with high intensity fitness training normally involving some aspect of tactical work. 

How does it work?

The method centres around the training pitch and allows a manager to create a cohesive team with players that, firstly, know their role within the team (due to the ever present nature of tactics on the training field), and, secondly, can be trusted to perform these roles (as the methods create an incredibly well drilled, physically fit, team). Players will work on fitness, technique and tactics at the same time, and training will orientate itself around specific game situations. Players will, in these drills, work out solutions to a series of issues surrounding attack, defence and the transitions between one another until they reach solutions that reflect the coach’s tactical outlook. In this way, players will be able to efficiently carry out the tactics espoused by the coach.

Of course the actual tactical model used by each coach is important, but this methodology concerns their application, and it is their application that is integral to the success of many of Mourinho’s teams. With each training session planned to the finest detail, and each training session (and every aspect of that session) building towards a greater end point (how the team should play), players will be able to implement a tactical system. Tactical periodisation, due to its focus on the application of tactics, has relevance beyond football; at the cornerstone of England’s 18 match unbeaten run and two successive Six Nations Championships under Eddie Jones was an embrace of tactical periodisation.

The ideology can perhaps be summed up by a statement made by Mourinho to his players when he arrived at Chelsea; ‘you never see a pianist running around a piano, you see a pianist work on the piano’. All work on the training field must work towards tactics as this allows the players’ other skills surrounding the physical, mental and technical aspects to flourish. In this way, you create a cohesive and successful team that can be greater than the sum of its parts. In this way, a Porto team with a budget a fraction of the size of their major European rivals won the greatest honour in club football.

What are your thoughts on ‘Tactical Periodisation’? How effective do you think it is to building team cohesion and success in football?