Nobody coaches the man who has to defend the half-space

Attacking that channel has been drilled for a decade, and the defensive answer is still left to whichever player feels least uncomfortable.

The channel between the centre back and the full back has been analysed to death from one direction. Occupy it, receive on the half turn, break the line. Every academy in Europe teaches attacking it. Ask who is responsible for defending it and the answers get vague fast, which is odd for a space everyone agrees decides matches.

The problem is that it belongs to nobody by design. The full back cannot step in without opening the flank. The centre back cannot step out without pulling the back line apart and inviting a ball in behind him. The holding midfielder is usually screening the middle and arrives from the wrong angle. Three players are all partly responsible, which in practice means the space is defended by whoever is least uncomfortable about leaving his own job, and that varies by individual, by fatigue and by scoreline.

Good teams resolve it explicitly, and the resolutions are all ugly compromises. Some make it the centre back's ball and accept a stretched line, which requires a defender fast enough to recover and brave enough to be wrong in public. Some drop the near side midfielder into it permanently, effectively defending with a back five while claiming a four. Some just let the receiver have it and swarm him after the touch, betting that the man can be pressured before he lifts his head.

I lean towards the third, and it is the least popular. Denying the pass into that channel entirely is a fantasy against decent players. Accepting it and making it worthless is achievable, and it keeps your line intact.

What I object to is pretending the question is settled by shape. You can draw a compact defensive block on a whiteboard where the half-space is covered by the geometry, and it will be covered right up until an attacker stands still in it and the three men around him each assume one of the others has it.

Ask a coach who is responsible for that space and see how long the answer takes.

The length of the pause tells you how many goals his side will concede from exactly there.