In football there are two challenges. Complexity and difficulty. On a very elementary level you could argue complexity refers to the understanding and decision making of players, whereas the difficulty lies in the execution of technical action.
In a microcycle like this it would make sense to prioritise difficulty further from the game (MD-4) to work with less numbers and duels/execution. In the middle of the week it makes sense to overload complexity. From then towards MD both should be managed to recover brain/muscle
When you see football played (or trained) in different leages/countries it often looks different. My hypothesis is that it's often down to the balance of complexity - difficulty. The framework has strong links to one of control (complex) - intensity (difficult).
When Guardiola came to England he brought an extremely complex oriented methodology and many were sceptical. Klopp came with a difficulty-oriented methodology and was quickly embraced as it's an easier cultural fit. Read more in a related article here:
jonasmunkvold.selz.com/nb/blog/contro…
This could also be applied when analysing players. Messi needs a complex style, and could drown in a chaotic difficult environment. It wouldn't be fair to assess him based on his performance in Atleti or Man Utd. Similarly, it is hard to imagine J. Henderson in the same system.
Traditionally, in Northern Europe & UK, football is trained from difficulty pov, then with added complexity once they master the different techniques. My impression is that Southern Europe start with complexity and teach through principles. Interested in hearing some practices!
