Casemiro has to cover the gaps left by everyone. That's balance for me; to make sure the game doesn't go mad.
In England, you might have a possession game of six v. six, and it's like headless chickens: people running around everywhere just trying to keep the ball and be strong in tackles. But in Spain, you always stay in your position. You're still in your shape for every drill.
When teams train now, it is about what they do with the ball and, if they lose it, how quickly they press to win it back.
You can't play man to man against Liverpool and out-pass them. You have to keep your shape and stop them.
When there's pressure on the ball, you can go man-to-man on your striker; you've got the advantage because the ball pressure means it'll be a difficult pass to play.
When I've watched teams that play with five at the back and wing-backs, I've looked at their starting positions and positions out of possession because that comes a little bit more unnaturally to me.
I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.
I don't like getting pinned back with a line of four in midfield. You risk losing too much space.
Most teams - whether they like it or not against Manchester City - you're going to find yourself quite often penned in your own half.
When you play the top sides you cannot afford to be as open as 4-4-2 can leave you. Consequently teams adapt their formation.
At Tottenham, we are just bombing on as wing-backs, but sometimes on the international stage, where there is so much quality, you need to be more careful about the distance between yourself and the right-sided centre-half.
Positional awareness comes with experience, so getting game time helps, but we also work a lot in training as a back-line and also on defensive shape.
I always like the players to be within 10 to 15 metres of each other. When the attacking players try what I am asking them to do, and it breaks down, there are players close enough to then go and win the ball back and counter press the game.
That's the intelligence of football: to see when to be compact, when to counter-attack, or, if you see that you're in the opposite half, you try and win the ball.
As full-backs, we like to get high and wide. It's the style of football that I enjoy playing.
I coach defending an awful lot but I don't think too many teams in the Premier League or in the world of football actually coach defending anymore, certainly not the full-backs.
When you get lots of players up front, sometimes a counter-attack can take you by surprise and lead to a chance for the opposition.
In football, there has always been this idea of having a left-footer and a right-footer in central defence.
