Ball control and passing behind players

[ross_mac]

Two things that have infuriated me about our play this season.

Seems many of our players have forgotten how to trap a ball with one touch. Two, even three touches required to control the ball, after the first touch puts it three feet off the ground. Kills the momentum of a move stone dead, and we don't exactly have pace to burn to begin with.

Also when we're building a move, so often a pass under little pressure is played behind the receiver. Again stops all forward momentum as the receiver has to check back and start again.

Still pissed off at last night.

 

[Brian_Fantana]

It’s confidence.

players scared to lose the ball play safe passes and panic makes them miscontrol.

 

[Blue seventy two]

Two things that have infuriated me about our play this season.

Seems many of our players have forgotten how to trap a ball with one touch. Two, even three touches required to control the ball, after the first touch puts it three feet off the ground. Kills the momentum of a move stone dead, and we don't exactly have pace to burn to begin with.

Also when we're building a move, so often a pass under little pressure is played behind the receiver. Again stops all forward momentum as the receiver has to check back and start again.

Still pissed off at last night.

100% agree on the passing thing, I was saying that very thing last night, that this passing a half yard behind the recipient is killing any momentum we have when attacking, its basic stuff and so frustrating to watch.

 

[skorn]

Agree about the passing to behind a team-mate.
Really annoying, especially when there's acres of space for someone to run / move into.

Also .... the "must pass back and forth" routine of our central defenders and even midfielders becomes ever more tedious.
Don't just pass it to somebody erlse for the sake of it -- pass to / for a team-mate in a better position, preferably ahead of you.

We see a lot of our more "forwards" players dropping back to receive the ball, immediately pinging it back to the first player, as they turn to go back upfield again.
That sort of play is to draw marking opponents out of position and only pays dividends if our other players make capital of the space afforded.
Instead, what we usually see is the ball heading out to the sidelines.

Another thing ... some of our players don't half "telegraph" where they're about to hit the ball.
It doesn't help, of course, that we know the usual chain of passes anyway, before they even start.

There are some good parts of our passing game -- Goldson's diagonal balls last season were always dangerous (I'm not sure if it's the recipients up front this season that aren't making the best of them now?)
Tav's ball up the line is also usually well-hit for Alfie or Aribo to get onto.

What I miss is someone in midfield to swiftly look and see where our players are and play a low, central, splitting ball.
Difficult against packed defences certainly, but if we played quicker they wouldn't hace such time to re-organise. And Alfie and Hagi are pretty good at drawing fouls in central areas outside the box.

Phew -- off for a lie down after that.

 

[Riccles]

I would like us to deploy someone wide at corners/free kicks. How many times does a ball go long and there is no one to pick it up and drive it back into the box?

Like wise when we defend a corner/free kick we need someone out wide to tidy up long balls and get a counter attack moving quickly.

Then we need midfielders who are prepared to carry the ball and run into the box/run at defenders instead of reverting to a backward/sideways pass that leads to nothing.

We need more one touch football. We need to attack quickly and catch the opposition defence flat footed.

Watching the game last night we always seemed to be a player short, or a foot or two off the pace.
We are guilty of playing in tight clusters, passing the ball to and fro with little of no advantage. We leave wide open spaces for the opposition to utilise, and it's costing us.

Other than that we're looking ok......

 

[TheSqueakyWeiner]

I'll add throw-ins to the list. How many times do we lose possession from throw-ins? It's shocking, and they never seem to learn.