Racing Santander: Rejuvenation and Relationism

In this article, we analyze José Alberto’s revolutionary tactics behind Racing Santander’s push for promotion.
"In relationism, players move closer to the ball carrier - instead of spreading out - to create quick passing combinations and break down opposition defences by confusing them," explained relationism expert and tactics writer Jamie Hamilton to BBC Sport.
"It's not really planned, coaches aren't training certain passing sequences or patterns, although general concepts like 'diagonals' or 'ladders' help to guide player interactions."
From a base 4-2-3-1 that subsequently morphs into several different shapes, the Cantabrian outfit's players have relished the immense freedom afforded to them to engage with one another in close proximity and to form relationships across the pitch.

Due to the players being positioned closely together (essentially tilting to one side of the pitch with up to nine players), this lends itself to rapid passing exchanges to move the ball swiftly to carve open defensive structures and effectively unbalance them.

Pulling opponents all over and excellent at populating ball-near areas, giving the ball holder and the receivers a plethora of options to progress upfield or maintain possession, there's no doubting José Alberto's men have been an impressive exponent of relationism.

While the astute tiering of players brings a nice element of verticality and diagonality to really inject speed and impetus into attacks, how Racing pass and move so brilliantly adds to their menace to ensure plentiful options for colleagues, but to also continually discombobulate opposition rearguards.
Forever overwhelming and altering reference points for stopping units, it can be a real nightmare for opponents to combat them when they're firing and have their passing combinations dialled.

Although encouraging this connectivity and synchronicity all over the pitch has worked wonders, having many technically excellent players who make quality decisions has been integral towards bringing José Alberto's ideas to life, as the system requires players to be inventive and precise with their movement and work in possession to slice through their foes.
"We think that [by playing closer together] we can make our players shine due to their characteristics," José Alberto told BBC Sport.
"We want to exploit the characteristics of our players so that they have greater advantages in each game situation."
A strong tactical understanding and awareness is key too, which the Verdiblancos certainly have, to navigate most instances in these reduced space and densely populated conditions.
While they're wizards with their intricate passing sequences — which include some masterful one touch passes, flicks and layoffs — it's been important to note how they implement many other interesting concepts to add some extra variety.
This tilting consequently opens up the weak side of the pitch due to the opposition shifting heavily across. Racing notably take advantage of this by launching switches of play to isolate teammates on the opposite flank, where they can thrive in 1v1s and surge into oceans of vacant space.
The player on the ball can then also whip in crosses and have a host of options that attack the box at different heights and depths to aim for, with many coming in from the blindside so they can enjoy a dynamic ascendancy over more stationary, ball-watching defenders.

The way this clever clustering of players helps facilitate rotations, up-back-throughs, opposite movements, third and fourth man runs, and the aforementioned overload to isolate principle, significantly elevates their scoring menace — even though they are underperforming their XG substantially.

Moreover, the issues faced by opponents are compounded by how superbly Racing players dynamically occupy space and how alert they are to markers, courtesy of their slick and persistent scanning to guarantee they have a constantly updated mental imagery of their surroundings.
So good at supporting one another, creating passing angles, and manufacturing space with their varied movement, it warrants praise how Racing’s close quarters class ensures they are not solely a threat with short link play, but also opening up room for runners in behind to stretch backlines to generate more possibilities for vertical, horizontal and diagonal passes.
Their cohesive dovetailing and the players' knowledge of how to form ideal conditions to progress sees them get details spot on, such as when receiving the ball in ideal forward-facing postures so they can instantly attack without needing to turn.
Indeed, given defenders are often in dilemmas about who to mark and are pinned by the chaos going around them, receiving possession in this way is a huge boost to their offensive armoury.



Boasting a host of quality players with a nice blend of youth and experience across the pitch, the likes of Iñigo Vicente, Unai Vencedor, Andrés Martín, Jokin Ezkieta, Javi Montero, Aritz Aldasoro, Clement Michelin, Juan Carlos Arana, Pablo Rodríguez and Jon Karrikaburu have been instrumental in bringing José Alberto’s plans to life.
Allowing the fans to dream of a long-awaited promotion back to LaLiga, it's clear how motivated and determined José Alberto is to repay the support of the fans when talking about the prospect of going up:
"What they make us feel from before kick-off, from the moment we leave the dressing room and head to the tunnel… for us it is impossible to start a match disconnected from the atmosphere they generate," insisted José Alberto.
"It would be an immense, indescribable joy for the city and the province. The fans could experience it as a liberation and it would be a consolidation of the project, that Racing has returned to stay and dream."
Refreshing, pulsating and capturing the attention of the wider European football landscape with their revolutionary relationism philosophy, watching if José Alberto's captivating team can propel themselves back to LaLiga will be an unmissable storyline to follow in the second half of the season.