Our Why is Your Why

Few players in the modern era embody the true value of off the ball movement as completely as Lionel Messi. While most people focus on the dazzling things he does with the ball (and much of it is pure magic), it's what he does without it that is equally influential and often overlooked.

• What exactly is he doing when he doesn't have the ball?
• Why is he walking so much?
• What is he calculating?
• How do his observations change his positioning on the field?

To most viewers, this is a mystery but for those with a trained eye, it isn’t. The real challenge is how to represent it, teach it, and replicate it.

Messi is deliberate with every moment off the ball. He’s constantly identifying new opportunities, conserving his energy, and maximizing the space available to him. He is a master of off the ball play, giving himself advantages that players who are bigger, faster, or stronger simply can’t match; no matter how imposing they might appear. Remember: Messi is 5'7" and 165 pounds. Size can matter in football, but it isn’t everything.

Ultimately, how any player, regardless of size, manages space and movement on the field is far more important.

Pyramids are everywhere in football. Promotion or relegation can come down to a single point at the end of a season.

So here is the real question: if you are only tracking what everyone else is tracking, how do you expect to rise to the top of the pyramid? The truth is, you won’t.

At Impact, we understand this. That is why we are deeply focused on space management and how it shapes everything: matches, individual players, teams, recruiting, training, and even the interaction between both teams on the pitch. It is the 87 minutes Johan Cruyff talked about for decades at Ajax and Barcelona, the moments when players do not have the ball but the game is still being won or lost. That is what defined the truly great players. <--That is the essence of what we do.

If you want to break that cycle, climb the pyramid faster, develop your players, recruit the most influential talent, and truly differentiate your team, let us show you a better, more efficient path forward.

Even the best clubs on the planet struggle with understanding space. In this clip Everton gives up a goal to Manchester United in what is a clear collapse of the defense, a lovely pass/through ball, and then is left with no actionable data in real-time or near real-time to adjust.

You'll see Frank Lampard go behind the bench, watch a video replay of what happened with another coach, and he is left with only a visual display in his head of what went wrong and very little data-wise to analyze what to do next other than the visual of watching the replay. 

They ended up losing 3-1

White boards are cheap and pretty simple to operate but after you've shown a situation you can never go back and do anything else with it. So the teaching moment happens and then its gone. 

Basically our philosophy is: you get what you pay for.

Keep the white boards for now but after a using our application for matches or practices; you'll be waltzing around with a tablet in a matter of days and waxing like Pep.