It has been a term tossed around liberally at Newcastle United since Matthias Jaissle arrived as manager, but what does “vertical football” actually mean?
It is the new buzzword in football analysis, the latest fashionable phrase to describe a “new” style of football, and it has been referenced multiple times by both Jaissle and Ross Wilson, the sporting director, since the German coach’s appointment last month.
For some of us of a certain age, vertical football just seems like clever new terminology to describe an old idea.
It involves getting the ball forward quickly as often as possible, utilising long balls up the pitch either to get in behind a defence or to contest possession on first or second contact. With so many teams in the Premier League and Europe pressing to win the ball high up the pitch when the opposition plays out from the back, vertical football is meant to nullify and, hopefully, expose this tactic.
But it is also, according to Jaissle, a mentality – the desire to compete for the ball all over the pitch, to be bold in decision-making, and to look for a penetrating pass at every opportunity rather than a cautious one.
“There are many, many different approaches within that [vertical football] aspect,” he explained. “That’s just the principle, being vertical in your approach.
“So, that could be that you go straight away for the long ball, that you don’t even try to play out from the goalkeeper, just going for the aerial duels there [high up the pitch].
“But that could be also that you have just the intention to always try to find the deepest option [high up the pitch], if that’s always possible.
“[That is not always possible] in football because if the opposition is taking away the depth, then you need to find other solutions. Then you need to play with deep lay-off patterns [to pick up the second balls], as an example, without going into too much detail.
“But you need to be versatile as well. The idea behind vertical football is the players’ mindset after collecting a second ball, after winning the ball, that the first view is deep [forward]. That you have that vertical approach – that should be always there.”
This is how Jaissle wants his Newcastle team to play, but after six weeks in the job we are not entirely sure whether it is going to work or not.
The results, so far, have been mixed. It was implemented perfectly in the opening game against Liverpool which Newcastle were unfortunate not to win. It was also very effective in the 2-0 away victory at Tottenham Hotspur, but it has looked far less convincing since. Liverpool and Tottenham both adopted a high defensive line, which made Newcastle’s game plan more dangerous.
Teams have also had a look at Jaissle’s Newcastle and have already worked out how to combat their new approach. They are prepared for the long balls and ensure they have players close to their centre-backs to compete for possession when it is loose in the middle of the pitch.
By his own admission, Newcastle are not playing it well enough at the moment, a point hammered home by Leeds United in a 4-1 thrashing on Monday night.
At Elland Road, vertical football looked like disjointed football, with their long balls out of defence easily dealt with by the Leeds centre-backs and the gaps between attack and midfield so large that there was no real contest for the second balls. Newcastle kept giving possession back to their hosts who punished them for it.
Newcastle looked dysfunctional against Leeds, just as they had done at home against Bournemouth the previous weekend.
This is perhaps to be expected. These are very early days in Jaissle’s tenure and he does not have the sort of physically imposing centre-forward to make the most of the new direction.
With William Osula out injured, since an excellent performance against Liverpool, the vertical approach has lost its focal point. To make matters worse, Newcastle are now also missing the rapid speed of winger Anthony Elanga who could be missing for two months with a hamstring injury picked up in training.
But for Jaissle it was not just the personnel that was missing against Leeds, it was a far more vital ingredient: aggression.
“For sure you need intensity to make it work,” he added. “First of all, you need to be intense out of possession that you’re getting the ball back if the opposition have it.
“So, you need to be aggressive and intense. That’s also our approach: that you have a good swarm [press] behaviour. Ball-oriented, fully committed and then, if you win then the ball again [you go forward quickly].
“Then we come into the vertical approach where you can use the chance against an unorganised opponent structure to be vertical and score [quickly] in the best scenario.”
Newcastle are still getting to grips with the idea. It will take time and a young side is going to have set-backs. Indeed, Jaissle has warned as much. The thrashing at Leeds could happen again this season.
“I heard a pundit complain the other day that I only use young players,” Jaissle said. “But I only have young players. That is the approach of the club and I have bought into that fully.
“The learning curve needs to be really fast and we won’t search for excuses, even with a young squad. We need to learn fast.”
It was a timely reminder that Jaissle inherited a squad that lost four key senior players over the summer and replaced them with raw, inexperienced youngsters. They have the potential but not the experience always to manage a game correctly.
Jaissle was angry with his players at Elland Road. He told them they needed to be more aggressive, to fight and compete to win their duels. Without that, his vertical football style is doomed to fail.
“We need to learn from our mistakes,” he continued. “Learning from the duel behaviours we missed in the Leeds match.
“If you continue the progress like that, if you’re tougher in those duels, if you’re more aggressive, if you’re more sharp and hungry to collect the second balls, it will automatically be a huge step because that means that you’re more dominant.
“It means that you have more possession. And then that leads to the fact that you threaten the opposition much more. So that will be the elements where we will focus on. There will be a reaction against Hull.”
There needs to be. After an unbeaten start, the Leeds defeat made Newcastle look like a team struggling to find a new identity. Whatever vertical football is supposed to be, it did not work.