The Third Man concept – How to find the free man

The Third Man concept is probably one of the most important elements of positional play in football. The main objective of Positional Play is to find the player who is free with an advantage to receive the ball and progress forward either by passing or dribbling. The term which is heavily used in Positional Play is usually “Third man“. This is because, in the majority of the situations, in order to find free play, another pass between the other two players must precede to attract the opponent’s attention.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below area affiliate links and at no additional cost to you I will earn a commission. Know that i only recommend products services and brands i have personally used and stand behind. When you use one of my affiliate links, the company compensates me, which helps me run this blog and keep my in -depth content free of change for readers (like you). Read our disclosure for more info.

What is the Third Man concept?

The third man concept is a tactical term that is used to describe the team’s effort during the possession phase to find a free man that is not directly reachable using quick passing between three different players.

In this situation, we have players 1, 2, and 3. The 1st player is the ball possessor who wishes to pass the 3rd player but can not due to the fact that the passing lines towards him are blocked by the opponents.

So, the alternative is to use the 2nd player as a linked player to find the 3rd one. The passing sequence can be two. The first one is when the opponents, after the pass to player 2 will not press him and he will have the opportunity to pass directly to the 3rd player. The 2nd sequence is the well-known, Pass-Back-Through. The specific passing sequence is used when the near opponents press aggressively the 2nd player who is forced to pass back the ball to the 1st player who now has a clear passing line to give the ball to the 3rd teammate.

The Third Man concept is used when a direct pass to the free player is not feasible because of an opponent blocking the passing line.

During the Build up

The idea of using the Third Man concept during the build up is to beat the opponent’s 1st line of pressure. To successfully use the Third Man concept, there must first be specific movements from players with but also without the ball so that supporting triangular passing lines are created and maintained.

There are lots of variations. For example, if the midfielders are heavily pressed, the Third Man concept can include passes to more advanced players who will lay off a pass back to the midfielders who are facing forward. Another key principle of the Third Man concept is that when a player has the ball, should look as far as possible for the link player (2nd player).

Static Build up – GoalKick

The runs on the opponent’s blind spot are so effective for this concept. The Third Man player should recognize the opponent’s weakness to create a space advantage for himself.

Below is an animated passing drill for Third Man runs.

To look for the free man is, for example, the center backs have the ball and one of them is always free because you always have more defenders than strikers. In this case, Puyol dribbles up with the ball until an opponent steps up to him. If my mark is the one that tries to stop him, then I become the free man. If Iniesta’s man steps up to him, then Andres becomes the free man. And like that, we look for superiority in any area of the pitch. You create three versus two, you win it, and now you have a free man. We advance up the field.

Xavi Hernandez

The third man can be used either to create goal-scoring opportunities, to progress the ball forward with safety, or to break the opponent’s lines of pressure. Many great coaches like Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola use extensively this concept and this shows the importance of any possession or positional play teams.

See below the Positional Game in animation from the FootballCoach365 Youtube channel

• FootballCoach365

Find below some interesting videos on Youtube for the Third Man concept

And The famous video from Guardiola’s Masterclass!!

Conclusion

The third man concept is a powerful tool to progress forward and find a free man with positional superiority to give continuity in the ball possession. In the beginning, it will be difficult to implement it and requires a lot of skill but the end result is definitely worth it. Using this concept will help the team to pass the ball to the most dangerous players who will have on many occasions the space and time to execute a dribble, 1 v 1 situation, score or give a key pass.

For more theoretical and practical information on Positional Play you must read the below books:

Positional Play in Modern Football