lo zio
International
- 24 October 2005
- Team
- Palermo
Re: Liverpool Thread
thank u guys
talking about teams attitude on the pitch, while serie a is becoming something different from what it used to be (with every team, even the weakests, try to display their own football), premier league is nowadays quite similar to what serie a was in the '90s.
the weakests teams, but also the mid-table teams will happily leave the initiative to the top club, they will let them free to dictate the script of the game, while they sit back.
they tend to display the midfield personnel and the defence in 2 parallel lines, in order to create some sort of a "spider web", very tough to penetrate.
they will just sit back, watch your players freaking out trying to figure out how to get to the box, and hit u on the counter, whenever they get the chance.
this tactical script makes the game extremely boring for the fans and extremely difficult for the top club. because it doesn't matter how good your players are.... when u have to deal with what seem to be 2 difensive lines (u wouldn't even call that a midfield line anymore as they just don't care about building any sort of plays), good luck finding your way to the opposite goalkeeper.
there's just one thing u can possibly do: catch them off guard, confuse them.
how u do that? here are a few simple suggestions; don't allow any of your players to hold the ball for more than 2, 3 touches (tops) and don't allow any of your players to stop moving, once they passed the ball.
get the ball - find a target in a very short time (3 ball touches tops) - pass - keep moving and find a different spot to make yourself a good target again.
that's the sequence. it all comes down to quick triangulations and off the ball movement. theese 2 expedients will allow u to keep those "2 defensive lines" moving continuously (in order to adjust their individual positioning to the ball movement and find an opening for a tackle). but since we're not talking about top players (their defenders aren't nestas or chiellinis and their defensive midfielders don't have the positioning of de rossi or cambiasso), they can't keep moving AND mantain the right distance between each others in the same time.
so, if u keep doing this, if u keep having them moving, trying to follow the ball(with quick and simple triangulations or one-twos), that spider web is gonna collapse. u will wear your opponents out with that endless network of short first\second touch passes.... u will stress them both fisically (by having them following a ball wich moves continuously) and mentally (not having the ball possession for a long time will make them loose their coolness).... and that's how u will find a breach in that spider web.
and that's when a player like aquilani comes into play.
just take a look at how aquilani's former team used to take advantage of this. in this play dinamo players are doing exactly what i said earlier....... there are 8 dinamo players in their own midfield.... basically there's no midfield at all, it's like facing 2 defensive lines... and that's how roma goes through that spider web:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Rfc7ktVBk
at first glance this looks like an awesome play.... but if u pay attention, it's not like roma players are doing anything fancy. it's a very simple, very basic network of short first\second touch passes. it's not something that requires particular skills (well actually it does, but sure with benayoun, gerrard, aquilani and torres, u don't lack of skilled players)....... but it's something that requires practice, lots of practice. don't touch the ball more than twice, don't stop after u pass the ball, have the fullbacks following the play as it unfolds until the opposite box.......this is something u get used to with practice..... it becomes natural
if u pay attention, there are always at least 2 dinamo players on pressure on the ball carrier..... but they just cant get that ball as the passing game is just too quick and they don't have the time to find the right positioning to perform a tackle. and the more they follow the ball, trying to put more and more pressure on roma players, the more they get tired and loose coolness.
at some point, when aquilani performs that through ball on the sideline for tonetto, dinamo players are completely out of position; there's nobody covering tonetto and the box is completely empty.
that's how u catch off guard an opponent which parks the bus in front of the box.
it's nothing fancy really (although the result is pretty impressive). but to get to this point, you must get your players into a specific state of mind: don't hold the ball, keep it on the ground, and, most important, keep moving, once u got rid of the ball with a pass.
that's where liverpoool players fail. and that's why a player like aquilani, regardless where u line him up (as a central midfielder or as an advanced midfiender) becomes pretty useless in this system. he needs his teammates to move around him, in order to play his game.
in the 2 first games aquilani played as a starter i noticed a pattern that used to happen pretty often. let me make an example:
insua is going along the sideline with the ball, before he reaches his marker he passes the ball to aquilani. at this point, that's what should happen. in order to go through that spider web, aquilani's first instinct will be to go for a first touch through ball deep along the sideline. insua's marker will concentrate on the ball movement as soon as emliano passes it to aquilani, so insua could take advantage of those 2 seconds to loose his marker with a quick acceleration and offer himself as a target for that through ball.
this is what should happen...... but what actually happens instead?
once insua gets rid of the ball, he stops. he doesn't follow the play. aquilani already knew what to do with that ball even before he got it: going for that deep through ball. but as soon as he notice insua is not moving, he's got to kill that instinct and look around for a new target. that means he will have to hold the ball for more time than he expected to.
since insua stopped following the play, his marker, along with one of the central midfielders, goes on pressure over aquilani, while the other central midfielder tracks back in coverage to intercept a direct pass to gerrard, torres or kuyt.
and here u go. aquilani has no other options than going for an horizontal flat pass, wich will give even more time to the opponents to cover their own midfield...... and he probably won't even have the time to perform that useless side-pass, as in a few seconds he will have 2 players over him.
that's the biggets issue with liverpool's offensive game right now.... and that's probably also the reason why liverpool has much more troubles facing weaker opponents. because, unlike man utd, chelsea or arsenal, the other teams don't feel the urge to impose their script to the game. top teams tend to force the opponent to play "their game". that means trying to "produce some football" but it also means loosing something in terms of field coverage. english mid class and low class teams instead don't care about creating football. they rather let the opponent choose the script of the game and focus on coverage. they occupy their own side of the field by leaving the fullbacks and both the central midfielders deep in their own territory (creating that spider web) and try to hit u on the counter.
and since liverpool passing game is quite slow, and the off the ball movement is non-existant, the reds just can't find their way through that wall.
sorry for the long post guys
thank u guys
talking about teams attitude on the pitch, while serie a is becoming something different from what it used to be (with every team, even the weakests, try to display their own football), premier league is nowadays quite similar to what serie a was in the '90s.
the weakests teams, but also the mid-table teams will happily leave the initiative to the top club, they will let them free to dictate the script of the game, while they sit back.
they tend to display the midfield personnel and the defence in 2 parallel lines, in order to create some sort of a "spider web", very tough to penetrate.
they will just sit back, watch your players freaking out trying to figure out how to get to the box, and hit u on the counter, whenever they get the chance.
this tactical script makes the game extremely boring for the fans and extremely difficult for the top club. because it doesn't matter how good your players are.... when u have to deal with what seem to be 2 difensive lines (u wouldn't even call that a midfield line anymore as they just don't care about building any sort of plays), good luck finding your way to the opposite goalkeeper.
there's just one thing u can possibly do: catch them off guard, confuse them.
how u do that? here are a few simple suggestions; don't allow any of your players to hold the ball for more than 2, 3 touches (tops) and don't allow any of your players to stop moving, once they passed the ball.
get the ball - find a target in a very short time (3 ball touches tops) - pass - keep moving and find a different spot to make yourself a good target again.
that's the sequence. it all comes down to quick triangulations and off the ball movement. theese 2 expedients will allow u to keep those "2 defensive lines" moving continuously (in order to adjust their individual positioning to the ball movement and find an opening for a tackle). but since we're not talking about top players (their defenders aren't nestas or chiellinis and their defensive midfielders don't have the positioning of de rossi or cambiasso), they can't keep moving AND mantain the right distance between each others in the same time.
so, if u keep doing this, if u keep having them moving, trying to follow the ball(with quick and simple triangulations or one-twos), that spider web is gonna collapse. u will wear your opponents out with that endless network of short first\second touch passes.... u will stress them both fisically (by having them following a ball wich moves continuously) and mentally (not having the ball possession for a long time will make them loose their coolness).... and that's how u will find a breach in that spider web.
and that's when a player like aquilani comes into play.
just take a look at how aquilani's former team used to take advantage of this. in this play dinamo players are doing exactly what i said earlier....... there are 8 dinamo players in their own midfield.... basically there's no midfield at all, it's like facing 2 defensive lines... and that's how roma goes through that spider web:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Rfc7ktVBk
at first glance this looks like an awesome play.... but if u pay attention, it's not like roma players are doing anything fancy. it's a very simple, very basic network of short first\second touch passes. it's not something that requires particular skills (well actually it does, but sure with benayoun, gerrard, aquilani and torres, u don't lack of skilled players)....... but it's something that requires practice, lots of practice. don't touch the ball more than twice, don't stop after u pass the ball, have the fullbacks following the play as it unfolds until the opposite box.......this is something u get used to with practice..... it becomes natural
if u pay attention, there are always at least 2 dinamo players on pressure on the ball carrier..... but they just cant get that ball as the passing game is just too quick and they don't have the time to find the right positioning to perform a tackle. and the more they follow the ball, trying to put more and more pressure on roma players, the more they get tired and loose coolness.
at some point, when aquilani performs that through ball on the sideline for tonetto, dinamo players are completely out of position; there's nobody covering tonetto and the box is completely empty.
that's how u catch off guard an opponent which parks the bus in front of the box.
it's nothing fancy really (although the result is pretty impressive). but to get to this point, you must get your players into a specific state of mind: don't hold the ball, keep it on the ground, and, most important, keep moving, once u got rid of the ball with a pass.
that's where liverpoool players fail. and that's why a player like aquilani, regardless where u line him up (as a central midfielder or as an advanced midfiender) becomes pretty useless in this system. he needs his teammates to move around him, in order to play his game.
in the 2 first games aquilani played as a starter i noticed a pattern that used to happen pretty often. let me make an example:
insua is going along the sideline with the ball, before he reaches his marker he passes the ball to aquilani. at this point, that's what should happen. in order to go through that spider web, aquilani's first instinct will be to go for a first touch through ball deep along the sideline. insua's marker will concentrate on the ball movement as soon as emliano passes it to aquilani, so insua could take advantage of those 2 seconds to loose his marker with a quick acceleration and offer himself as a target for that through ball.
this is what should happen...... but what actually happens instead?
once insua gets rid of the ball, he stops. he doesn't follow the play. aquilani already knew what to do with that ball even before he got it: going for that deep through ball. but as soon as he notice insua is not moving, he's got to kill that instinct and look around for a new target. that means he will have to hold the ball for more time than he expected to.
since insua stopped following the play, his marker, along with one of the central midfielders, goes on pressure over aquilani, while the other central midfielder tracks back in coverage to intercept a direct pass to gerrard, torres or kuyt.
and here u go. aquilani has no other options than going for an horizontal flat pass, wich will give even more time to the opponents to cover their own midfield...... and he probably won't even have the time to perform that useless side-pass, as in a few seconds he will have 2 players over him.
that's the biggets issue with liverpool's offensive game right now.... and that's probably also the reason why liverpool has much more troubles facing weaker opponents. because, unlike man utd, chelsea or arsenal, the other teams don't feel the urge to impose their script to the game. top teams tend to force the opponent to play "their game". that means trying to "produce some football" but it also means loosing something in terms of field coverage. english mid class and low class teams instead don't care about creating football. they rather let the opponent choose the script of the game and focus on coverage. they occupy their own side of the field by leaving the fullbacks and both the central midfielders deep in their own territory (creating that spider web) and try to hit u on the counter.
and since liverpool passing game is quite slow, and the off the ball movement is non-existant, the reds just can't find their way through that wall.
sorry for the long post guys
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