'Micro Tactics': How Will the Newest Tactical Evolution Change the Game?

"Micro tactics" may just be the next big evolution in football. 

Football always changes; it wouldn't be football if it didn't. 

The game changed in 1953 when Hungary played a withdrawn striker who put England into complete chaos.  The rigid full backs were bemused, and so began the first major tactical change in football. 

The game changed in the '60s with Brazil's samba football, and England's inventive 4-4-2.

Johan Cruyff started a football revolution in 1974 with the emergence of "total football." 

Arrigo Sacchi re-invented the 4-4-2 in the '90s, and Barcelona started another football revolution with the introduction of the Spanish "tiki-taka" in the 2000s.

Now it looks like football will experience the next tactical revolution.

Micro tactics is a term used to describe the complete and exact defining of a player's role on the pitch.  No longer are players defined to just one role.

Pioneers of "micro tactics," such as Jose Mourinho, like to entirely clarify a player's role.  Having experienced so many different roles on the training ground, the player will be able to adapt when needed during a game. 

This then transfers into a team situation.  The team can change formation with consummate ease.

Looking at some of the good, modern teams of today, they have a tactical flexibility that has not been seen before.

Real Madrid can change between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 like they have played each all season.

Borussia Dortmund have three different levels of play, and Germany, under Joachim Loew, adapt perfectly to how the opposition is playing.

What will occur now is the gradual progression toward completely reactive football.  Players will be in a base formation, but their individual instructions will change. 

Allowing for an infinite level of possibilities, football will turn into an absolute, large-scale chess match.

The fact that managers don't have four or five years to mold a squad may lead to this evolution spreading throughout world football.  They may have to abandon their ideologies and adopt micro tactics. 

That said, there can be no replacement for flair and passion.  No matter the tactics, a team that wants it more will win most of the time.