Talking Tactics: The good and the bad of playing out from the back

A recent trend in world football has been the sharp rise in the number of teams opting to play out from the back, encouraged by law changes that meant the goal kick no longer had to leave the penalty area before the ball was considered in-play.

This stifled the ability of teams to employ such a strategy, as the defenders could very easily be marked by opposition forwards, risking turnovers in highly dangerous positions.

The logic behind why a team would play out from the back is quite simple. You can guarantee your team will be the first to touch the ball from a goal kick.

Doing so invites the opposition to press, which in theory creates space and overlaps up the field, providing a higher chance you will have possession closer to midfield.

The alternative is the classic long boot from the goalkeeper into a crowd of players in and around the halfway line, which does not guarantee your team will get possession, or that you will retain it from the first touch if you get to it first.

Like any change in world football, as more and more teams adopt a new tactical approach because it becomes the “in” thing to do, there are sides that do it incredibly well, sides that do it incredibly poorly, and sides who have mixed results.

The Dangers

When playing out from the back goes wrong, you are at an increased risk of conceding a goal because you are inviting your opposition into the 18-yard box to try to create that space further up the field, but that brings pressure, something you generally want to avoid.

When it goes wrong, you get a situation like the Western Sydney Wanderers faced in Round 11 of the A-League Women against the Central Coast Mariners.

Geoff Abrahams, who is currently the interim coach for the Wanderers, likes his sides to play out of the back.

Graphics: Jacob Stevens, created with Flourish

In this first passage of play in the 10th minute of the game, the goalkeeper Keely Segavcic passes the ball to Gemma Ferris on the edge of the six-yard box, who immediately passes it back to Segavcic.

Segavcic then attempts to clear it past Mariners striker Brooke Nunn, but instead kicks it directly into her due to the strikers positioning, and it rebounds off Nunn into the open net, giving the Mariners the first of their three goals in the game.

Despite conceding the first goal, the Wanderers did not shift from the game plan of playing out from the back, although this second incident happened in a different way to the first, but the intent was the same from Abrahams side.

Starting from a goal kick, the ball finds its way into midfield, before coming back to Segavcic, who makes a monumental error and almost concedes a second goal in the space of five minutes.

Graphics: Jacob Stevens, created with Flourish

The Advantages

When playing out from the back is done right, the main advantage is keeping possession for an extended period as you begin your attack.

If your side can get up to the middle third of the pitch or the half-way line with the ball, you put yourself in a good position to create a quality attacking opportunity.

Looking at another side coached by Geoff Abrahams in Sydney Olympic, who Abrahams coached during the 2024 NPL Women’s NSW season before signing with the Western Sydney Wanderers to become the Wanderers’ Women’s Academy Technical Director, there are numerous examples of Olympic playing out from the back.

The focus choice here is a passage of play in Sydney Olympic’s Round 19 game against NWS Spirit at Valentine Sports Park.

With 21:05 of the game having elapsed, defender Aya Yamahata begins the play from a goal kick, passing the ball across the face of goal to Sarah Langman, who holds it before passing to Ebony McCue-Shore.

McCue-Shore then passes it back to Langman, who then waits for NWS Spirit attacker Clare Holder to close in before passing it out of the 18-yard box to one of her Olympic teammates, which results in a throw-in for Olympic.

Graphics: Jacob Stevens, created with Flourish

From here, Olympic sends the throw-in backwards towards their defensive goal, welcoming some pressure from the opposition as they pass the ball around, before Yamahata is able to thread a pass through to Demi Koulizakis, who shifts the play forward into the attacking half at the 22:00 minute mark.

After a brief battle for possession with the ball loose on several occasions, Olympic re-gain possession, and the ball is passed to midfielder Taylor Ray, who takes a shot and forces a save from NWS Spirit goalkeeper Mio Nemoto at 22:35 of the first half.

By playing out from the back, Sydney Olympic were able to begin the play with a goal kick and 90 seconds later, force a save from the opposition keeper, whilst retaining possession for the majority of the two passages of play in the attacking sequence.

Even though Olympic were unable to score on this play, they kept possession and did not allow NWS Spirit the opportunity to get the ball in any meaningful area of the field, or have more than a few seconds of possession, which is the goal of playing out from the back.

The difference

So why did it go so right during the Sydney Olympic game, and so wrong during the Western Sydney Wanderers game for Geoff Abrahams’ sides?

On the surface, playing out from the back seems like a rather simple strategy to employ. Rather than hoof it long, you play it short.

But everyone reacts differently under pressure, and when you welcome that pressure, it is critical to make sure as a player you do not feel it, which requires training and repetition of being able to execute the tactic.

At Sydney Olympic, the Round 19 fixture was well into the season, and the side had been training with and utilising this tactic throughout the season, and were well skilled in its execution.

With the Western Sydney Wanderers, Geoff Abrahams had been in charge for less than two weeks.

Trying to implement a tactical change in such a short period of time can be difficult, particularly when you look at the ongoing complex nature of playing out from the back with all of its intricacies.

The passes need to be quick and crisp. The response time to the pressure needs to be measured in milliseconds. The spatial awareness required by the player on the ball to identify each opposition player and their distance is not something that can be learnt overnight. It takes time and practice.

You also need the personnel to execute it. Not every defender and goalkeeper has the skill-set to pull this off, and it also requires cohesion amongst the backline and the goalkeeper which can only be developed with time.

With the side already having only played two matches under Abrahams, and missing its first choice goalkeeper (Sham Khamis) through a red card suspension, perhaps implementing the tactic was not the best idea for Abrahams.

But as the weeks go on with Abrahams in charge, and their first choice keeper in Khamis being back on the field, the Wanderers should get better at playing out from the back and could be quite successful with it.