Jeff hit it square on the head, it is a joy to play... and I would take tight games like last night over a 20-3 trouncing anyday. But I too had some late night ponderings, sadly, not over any soft porn. Here's 3 items to consider...
1. I think we all understand the check to the ball principle, but what I think is lacking more is simple movement off the ball. When someone makes an ill-advised pass, dribbles that extra step, forces something: most of the time that is caused by lack of options. Example, if Steve is making 2 moves with the ball just to clear attackers before playing a long ball into the corner, I have personally failed (no matter where I am on the field) to provide Steve options. We as a team need to understand that at our skill level, keeping the game simple and supporting each other's play is what wins soccer games. Our attitude and actions when we do not have the ball at our feet dictates how the play will evolve. Think about this, you spend 80-90% of your time on the field without the ball. When the ball is 20+ yards from you is not the time to relax your brain or your feet. Waiting for the play to come to you is REACTIONARY. It's a trap that we all fell into the last 2 games.
2. A shorter game opens up the quick transition or long strike, not vise-versa. Long balls are easy to defend because the time it takes to play the ball gives defenders time to react and read. Retaining possession is harder and strings out our midfield making a counteract much easier for the other team. At TPW, the narrow field and lack of walls make playing that switch the fields ball very tough, you have less margin for error. Support each other by providing options in 10-15 yard increments, then play the quick strike ball.
3. Energy... Hustle and Flow. Up until the last 2 games, ES has had 1 person bring energy to the field throughout the game. We've all shared that role. Now I ask you, who will it be tonight? I hope every one of you answered, ME.
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2 comments:
Yes, it is definitely a joy to play. And eventually we will all reach the stage where it is no longer possible. Soccer is one of the things I'll miss most when I'm dead.
Funny that Gary said that to win games we need to keep the simple passing going. That has always been my mantra but something that happened last night made me rethink it slightly. It seems that when we play a good team that is well-organised and quick, like last night's worthy opponents, we need more than just simple passes and movement off the ball. A good team can defend it. Our goal last night came as a result of me not being able to play an easy ten-yard pass. My underlying philosophy told me to play the easy ball to Billy and let him try to play us out of trouble. But in the situation I was in I knew that would be suicide. So instead I tried a ridiculous turn almost in the corner of the field, and as a result accidentally beat two of their players, thus taking them out of the game and forcing a third player to try to close me down. This left Val open and he played a great ball to Nick who finished clinically. If I had tried to play an easy ball, even if it were on, we would never have scored that goal.
The question is, when should we play the easy ball and when should we try something tricky? If I knew the answer, I would be the coach of Real Madrid. I heard on Radio Five Live last week that Jose Mourinho has convinced Joe Cole not to deliberately get himself into difficult situations just to show off his skill, because those difficult situations will occur naturally within the course of the game anyway. (Any similarity between Joe Cole and myself are purely coincidental - or imaginary.)
My feeling is that when we play the lesser skilled teams, our easy ball quick passing and movement off the ball will win us games. But when we play better teams, we will find ourselves in situations where we are isolated or double-teamed. If we can't shield the ball and wait for support, this is the time to try something tricky (a quick turn, a back-heel, a mazy dribble) and see what develops.
Some more ponderings:
Execution. We were limited to about five real chances last night. We only took one of them. Our opponents probably had more chances and took three. So if we want to win games against good teams, we have to raise our conversion rate. This way we can win games even if the other team creates more chances. One of the problems with playing poor teams is that we create so many chances we can afford to squander most of them and still win by ten points. Too many of our shots are from 10-15 yards, on a poor angle, and the ball is kicked about three feet off the ground. These attempts will never be successful unless we absolutely blast them. Either we have to shoot low into the bottom corner or high into the top corner. Difficult, I know, but if we don't, we simply won't score goals from this range. Most of the time we take these shots because we don't have the confidence to hold the ball up and then lay it off to a team-mate running into space, or perhaps we are thinking we won't get any support so we'll have to do it on our own.
Mistakes. Most goals that are scored at any level of soccer can be traced to a mistake (ball given away, ballwatching instead of marking, failing to control an easy pass, committing to an unwinnable tackle or whatever). To increase our chances of winning we have to reduce our mistakes.
Focus. When the ball is out of play we are very poor at keeping our focus. We tend to be slow to mark opponents at their restarts and on our restarts we are slow to provide support to whoever is kicking the ball in. We are especially bad when we shoot wide or the opposition keeper gets the ball. We put our heads down and slowly walk back, afcing away from the ball. This is a very likely time for our opponents to score or at least create a decent chance.
Complacency. I'm not talking about overall complacency, when a team thinks it just has to walk onto the field to win. I'm talking about when we give the ball away in our attacking third. IMHO giving the ball away there can be worse than giving it away in our defensive third, especially when the opposition are quick to transition. It can quickly lead to a 4 v 2 situation. So we have to strive to maintain possession and if we lose it, we have to get back quickly.
Going back to our goal last night, it started almost on our own goal line. One turn, one easy pass, one measured cross and one well-taken shot later, we had scored. If we can do it, so can our opponents.
Ethereal Silence: We were very quiet last night. We need to talk all the time. Tell the player on the ball if he has a man on, time, can turn, where you are or if someone else is open. When you're going up to head, tell your team-mates so they don't go for the same ball. If someone is unmarked, get someone to pick them up. And when you pass, tell the intended recipient, every time, even if it's a short and obvious pass. This way if you don't play the ball properly at least your team-mate will be ready.
Well, that's my advice. Now I just need to follow it!
Very well and comprehensively said, Steve. Let creativity abound.
From now one, you are our "Special One"
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