So, continuing from yesterday, the structure of the training sessions in these two sessions brings me to my next point. A rule was implemented in the games whereby if a team concedes a goal they must
run a lap of the pitch they’re playing on. Even though a team can only score
with a one-touch finish within the penalty area, I feel teams adopt a fearful
attitude towards defending. There isn’t a lot of hoofing but play is very
rushed – it’s back to front very quickly with not a great deal of slowing
things down, ‘recycling’ or changing direction. The main flaw is that if a
player wanting to build a move from within his own third rather than rush it
forward loses possession near his own goal, giving the other team a clear
opportunity, he is punished for trying to keep possession, even if there's nothing on in front of him. Admittedly, sometimes there are some lovely bits of interplay in quick transitions from defence to attack, but the move quite often breaks down after a few passes. The best option might be to check back towards your own goal into a bit of space and then calmly play a square pass across the pitch. If this goes wrong, however, there's a high risk of conceding as the ball is lost in such a dangerous area. But players who are discouraged from trying this won't try it, and therefore will never improve in executing it. Most footballers at my level can pass, but there is a difference between looking to pass
and not just passing for the sake of it/making the earliest available pass
seen – as my mate put it, "actually realising the ball is a football and not a fucking
grenade." Even in a training match, players resort to a
panicky attitude in defence as they are playing with added pressure – obviously
neither team wants to run a lap of the pitch for conceding a goal, and even
more so given that they have 30 seconds to get round before the ball is thrown
back into play. And believe me you don't want to be the one that fucks up and makes your team run round the pitch. The safety first mentality that develops brings players to
think “well at least we didn’t concede and don’t have to run”, which is a
dangerous attitude to bring into future competitive games.
Even though a number
of players are technically skilled, the need to play the ball forward quickly
and go from there rather than pass around the back and the middle, giving
everyone a touch, probing patiently and seeking openings, causes more turnovers
of possession, as it requires a lot of work from the midfield players and even
the fullbacks to get up into the correct positions to support the attack. This, I feel, is where many grassroots clubs across the country go wrong – our problem isn't as simple as not being technically proficient. Whilst it can be, and often is an issue, many players at all levels of the
pyramid are technically skilled, but
the problem extends itself to mentality also, how we view possession football. Obviously it's not just players either, fans and paid journalists are guilty too. At this point I'd like to say it's a lazy assumption that supporters would just prefer substance over style, so to speak. Whilst yes, most would give 3 points for their team greater importance than how they play, I feel many would prefer to see their team play attractive football. However, more often than not it would have to be fast-paced play rather than patient passing - I've been to enough games where a side is probing in midfield and looking for an opening where people around me begin to shuffle about uncomfortably in their seats and the odd shouts of "forwards!" and "you won't score playing with it there!" are heard, but 'aimless' (I put this in inverted commas because they often seem aimless but there probably will be an idea behind them) balls forward which sail harmfully to the opposition are met with similar groans of disdain. So quick, more direct passing football gives the best entertainment - this is perfectly captured by the reaction you'll almost certainly see if a player has the ball out wide in a decent position to cross but chooses to pass back inside to a team-mate - and you only have to look at how supporters and journalists for top sports sites view Spain and Barcelona's style of play as 'boring'. Honestly, during Euro 2012 I saw a tweet from a top BBC Sports journalist written in a rather patronising way which went something like "so would anyone like to tell me what subtle intricacies of brilliance [from Spain] I've missed during this match so far?" Seriously? And furthermore, although not a very good indicator of opinion I accept, the BBC ran a vote during the Confederations Cup this summer on Spain's style being boring or brilliant, and you can guess which of them won. I feel true understanding of the value of patient play, rather than being rushed most of the time, is sadly lacking for the most part, and that's shown in mentality.
The question of mentality brings me nicely to my next point
about how it affects our perception of what is happening on the pitch. How we interpret certain instances or passages of play. First of
all, it is undeniably frustrating to see one of your team-mates not trying, but what constitutes 'not trying' is very subjective. Probably my biggest hate in football is
the saying that a player ‘isn’t showing enough passion’ or ‘looks
disinterested’ (what a terrible word that is) if he doesn’t run around a lot or
have a full-blooded style – this doesn’t confine itself to moronic supporters
either; players and managers not just at a lower level still hold this view,
and TV and radio pundits (i.e. retired ex-pros) come out with it on quite a
regular basis. Of course, it can be the case that a player who isn’t running
much or very hard does lack interest, and no player plays at 100% effort all of
the time (we’re human, after all), but it isn’t anywhere near that simple. During the training match that Tuesday, feeling shattered from all the
running, pressing and squeezing I’d had to do as a wing-back, there were a
couple of loose balls which I couldn’t get to quickly enough to win – this
would make me look lazy to those with the mentality just alluded to. One player
in our team (not the organiser of positions) was very vocal; constantly talking
to others and telling the team what they needed to be doing and where they
needed to be – not in an aggressive way, indeed it was helpful and beneficial
to listen to him. However, he didn’t particularly like the fact that I hadn’t
managed to get to a couple of balls that he felt I should have won, and told me
“mate, you need to make more effort when you go in for those” and “you just have
to go in mate! Just GO IN!” I snapped back at him and told him it was fatigue
that hadn’t enabled me to move any faster in these instances rather than a lack
of effort, and he repeated “you just go IN!” A player on the other team, whom I
think I’d in fact been involved with in one of these supposed 50-50s, patted me
on the back and told me not to worry, that I was doing well and that he agreed
with me. I don't like generalising on the basis of one small incident, but the player who told me not to worry was French. From my experience in football, it said something to me. What’s more,
the team-mate with whom I had the altercation is certainly no lumbering clogger
– on the contrary, he’s a very, very talented player, who’s very comfortable on
the ball in tight situations and seems to be able to relax in possession and
maintain it with ease. In fact he was one of those encouraging what I mentioned
earlier; to rest in possession rather than attempting to play forwards as
quickly as possible. Yet he still had this odd perception of effort. It was at
this point that I realised that such an attitude towards this area of football
does not confine itself to players trying to compensate for a lack of ability. Dispositions
to playing with the ball can differ from those to playing without the ball –
the two certainly don’t have to be synonymous.
All that aside, the fitness work was tough as ever, and the
benefits I’m sure will be splendid. The main running was working in groups of 3
taking it in turns to do 10 sprints to a pole placed about halfway up the pitch
and back, and whilst recovering doing sit-ups, press-ups, squats, volley passes
or headers. The 10 laps in 10 minutes whilst having to get to each corner in 15
seconds was also done again. As well as this was working in groups of three,
with one player working very hard for 45 seconds and in some cases one minute.
This involved sprinting from cone to cone to receive a two-yard pass, then
stuff like volley passes, headers, sit-ups with headers, press-ups with headers
and dribbling the ball to the end cone before passing to the end player whom
you would loop around before he laid it off back to you. Good stuff.
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