When an ant can’t carry a large leaf back to the colony alone, the others step in to help. The ants are not spread apart; they are close together. In football, midfielders can starve an attack if the spacing between players is too big.

This is the human equivalent: one ant can carry a Mini Cooper; six ants can carry a delivery truck.

This is the football equivalent: if one midfielder can’t force his way through two lines of outstretched legs, the spacing between the midfielders and forwards must shrink.

Pedri, Florian Wirtz, Phil Foden, and even a powerful mazing dribbler like Jamal Musiala or Morgan Rogers would benefit from decoys, other players to distract the opposition, a wall to bounce the ball off, other players to play one-twos with, and more than one passing option.