made hard work of that !. only listened on radio but you could tell from the lack of ooh's and aah's, very few big chances for us.
Santos with 1 or 2 clangers too. I was thinking about him..ways to rate a defender. doing 7 things great and 2 things really bad does not a defender make.
Strikers or creators can get away with that. miss 3 or 4 but stick 2 beauties away...and the rest get quickly forgotten about.
same with defence splitting passes from a creator. or a great dribble. they can afford to risk giving possession away high upfield,
defenders can't. they've got to do the basics well and not take too many risks. I remember hearing Guillem Balague talking about defenders vs attackers
mentality from the Spanish football culture.....mentioning the view of Di Stefano. defenders are like workers on a demolition site....it's easy.
it's a lot easier to smash the Mona Lisa up than to paint it. forwards and strikers are the creators....creating little masterpieces...you can't
expect them knock a masterpiece out every 5 mins. all about moments. one piece of magic..win the match. ignore what's not worked.
you can't judge defenders like you judge strikers. OohMac rightly said on the Plymouth thread..defenders have to be consistent 7+ out of 10, not 4 one week and 9 the next.
bit fed up of this excuse of bad pitches. prepare for what you're likely to face. to take the argument to extremes, Pele didn't have lots of perfect surfaces when he was growing up..
dust bowls, beaches & mud, yet he'd got amazing 1st touch. why can our lot not hack it unless it's perfect.
ever heard Lineker refer to the state of the Azteca pitch in 1986. Maradona glided across it to Lineker's amazement. quality of your touch is how you deal with a bad pitch, not a good one.
it's not impossible ( i'm possible
) .
it seems to be an expectations thing. i've heard Neville Southall say he'd have odd mornings training when he avoided using his hands/arms and just made saves with his body/legs.
just with pens...as a striker , i'd always suggest practicing in smaller goals ( as well as std sizes) to make it seem like a luxury when you faced normal ones. practice adversity.
practice 10 v 11 etc.
watch Romario playing Foot-volley at 0.16.
perfecting your touch without the ball touching the ground. clips before aren't bad either.
that perfect touch in real match scenario's. the 2nd one is exceptional. ball never touches the deck. frighteningly good talent !!
.
or these. 2nd in last collection is the first in these. speaking of mini masterpieces above, this is pure Football Art- "futebol arte"
Baka now on to 8 lge goals.
still Dapo and Dion not really on top of their games. who do we reckon for Player of the year. I would say Dapo but this season end is NOT helping him.
other contenders... Jones, John ? ( had a very slow start ) , Santos ( not my choice but think others would offer him as a contender ) .
can't really count the likes of Fossey, Dion with only coming in, in Jan & Dion now off form anyway, and Fossey injured.
in many ways I can see the result could act as a springboard, especially with other results going our way. just the faintest of faint glimmers.
but it is concerning how off-form many players are. neither Bod or Baka seem to play well when they start. Fossey inj is a loss to creation of goals.
& dapo/dion off-form.
round up of other results :
Mk win 1-0 at Cambridge.
Alfie May scores again (19th lge goal) for Cheltenham as they win 3-1.
Sheff wed drop points at Gillingham. 0-0. only 2 on target for Sheff. 6 for Gills. despite Sheff have 70% poss'n.
Sunderland drop points at Lincoln 0-0. still no goals for Defoe.
Oxford 1 Ipswich 1. so both drop points, although someone was bound to !
Plymouth firm up their play off place by beating Accy 4-0. 1 for Ryan Hardie there. (16th of season)
Pompey 0-0 with Wycombe. more dropped points for both.
Rotherham an uncharacteristic 3-0 home defeat to Shrewsbury. Shrews keep up their good scoring form after smashing Morecambe in the week. they normally struggle to score. Rotherham did
have a man sent off quite early but still don't expect a collapse like that. Shrews had 10 on target to just 2 by Roth'ham.
they'd be a bit sick to hand the title to Wigan after their outstanding consistency.
Wigan kept the pressure on by beating Morecambe 4-1. 1 more for Will Keane - now on 19 for the season.