Does "Parking the Bus" Work?

    Well this so-called tactic really annoys me when watching a game of football as it provides no excitement, in my opinion this tactic should not even be allowed to put into use by managers. Enough of my opinion, let’s start the debate off with looking at the positives of ‘Parking the Bus’ and then contradicting each positive with a negative.

     I suppose one good use for this tactic is that it can help protect a slender lead in a tight game of football that is coming to an end. By ‘Parking the Bus’ you have all players behind the ball which makes it hard for the opponent to break you down and can easily frustrate the opponent. Despite this by doing this you have serious amount of pressure on your players to concentrate and even the slightest of mistakes could prove costly, also if the team clears the ball there is no-one upfront to start a counter.

    Another positive is that ‘Parking the Bus’ creates a solid defensive unit for an opponent to force through. With the full team behind the ball it creates a wall to goal which inevitably makes it hard for the opponent to push through and score. If you have a striker pushed up the field a counter attack is possible but if everyone is behind the ball, clearances soon lead to more pressure put on the team. However the negative side to this is that it is hard to maintain a strong defensive unit for so long without cracking to the opponent’s dominance, one error in defence from a set piece or open play can ruin a team’s chances of gaining points or progressing in a tournament.

    A good example to show that ‘Parking the Bus’ does indeed work, is the Champions League Semi-Final match between Barcelona and Chelsea. When John Terry was sent off for Chelsea and Barcelona gained a 2-0 advantage, Barcelona look set to see out the game by 3 or 4 to nil but it just wasn’t to be. Chelsea were forced to simple ‘Park the Bus’ in the hope of counter attacking when they could but defend their hearts out when Chelsea came under pressure. This counter attack worked for Chelsea just before half-time as Ramires chipped the ball expertly over Valdez’s head from a sublime through ball from Lampard. Going into the second half Chelsea came under immense pressure which meant concentration had to be at its highest for the ‘Park the Bus’ tactic to work. Soon enough Chelsea cracked and gave away a penalty, up stepped Messi but blasted his penalty onto the crossbar keeping up the record that Messi had never scored against Chelsea. This didn’t stop Barcelona from mounting serious attacks but Chelsea kept on frustrating them with their excellent defensive qualities. Going into the dying seconds of the game, Barcelona were winning 2-1 but drawing 2-2 on aggregate, which meant they would be out if they didn’t score another goal. Barcelona pushed forward and from a huge clearance from Ashley Cole, Torres bearing down on goal with no one around him, calmly rounded Valdez and slotted home the equalising goal to send Chelsea to the Champions League final winning 3-2 on aggregate. This shows just how well ‘Parking the Bus’ can work, Chelsea carried on this tactic into the Champions League final which they went on to win so what Chelsea proved is that ‘Parking the Bus’ can work.

    However, there are times when parking the bus can go horribly wrong, for example, Greece against Germany in the Euro 2012 quarter final match. Greece knew that it was going to be a very tough game against an in form Germany therefore there only tactic was to ‘Park the Bus’. From the very start of the match this proved costly as Germany piled on the pressure and scored but only for it to be offside, this was a sign of things to come as Germany were getting in behind the defence and creating chances which they wasted. Greece didn’t really have an outlet for a counter attack so it was hard to see where they could score from. Inevitably Germany broke through after a superb goal from Lahm. Greece now had a tall mountain to climb, Germany still piling on that pressure couldn’t force a second goal as the ‘Parking the Bus’ tactic was frustrating them. Yet from a German attack Salpangidis ran down the right wing to cross to Samaras who slid the ball into the net despite Neuer getting a touch to it. So Greece now drawing 1-1 had to hold out and try and grab a winner but things turned from good to bad in the space of minutes. Defensive lapses and goalkeeping errors led to Germany going 4-1 in front with goals coming from Khedira, Klose and Reus. This showed that ‘Parking the Bus’ can go horribly wrong if errors occur. Greece did manage to salvage a consolation goal after scoring from a penalty, which was given harshly by the referee after Boateng had hand-balled, even though his back was to goal.

    Two good examples there of how ‘Parking the Bus’ can either go brilliantly well, or go horribly wrong. It all depends on the concentration of the players and how long they can hold out for, in Chelsea’s case, they can hold out very well, as for Greece, they didn’t hold out that well. Like I said at the start, ‘Parking the Bus’ isn’t really a tactic I like to see being enforced in a match. It reduces excitement and leads to a one sided game. Even globally not everyone likes ‘Parking the Bus’ as they know what it can do to not only to a football match, but also to the team that uses this tactic. As a conclusion I think that this tactic evens itself out as there are both positives and negatives, it has its critics however, but managers who use this tactic are obviously aware of the consequences if it goes wrong, but if it goes right, the manager looks like a tactical genius.