I remember Alan Hansen once said about defending, if in doubt LAUNCH IT!
It’s something we didn’t do in the mid-nineties and to be honest, was something of an issue.
Under the Frenchman, such a policy was encouraged, and it worked. Simply because it suited our basic style of play.
Under Rafa, we play a much more sophisticated game which is based around ball retention and paced build-up.
Hyypia, was the most obvious example of the Frenchman’s Hoofing. Time and time again you’d see 50-60 yard punts in preference to a 10yard pass to a central player. Now I’ve got nothing to base this on, but I’m pretty sure that Rafa had a word in Sammy’s ear. “Short simple passes, let the midfield do their job, no long balls unless you are 100% certain of the pass, no”
I can see this in his game, his distribution is much better these days, once or twice he will go to hoof it, stop, blink, and play a 10 yard pass. There a good boy. To be fair, he also occasionally plays a blinder of a long ball, and he has been allowed that!
Carragher suffered the same affliction. Unfortunately we haven’t seen such improvement in him. Time and time again, when under a little pressure, we get aimless punts either straight up in the air or high into the centre circle.
Sure it is great to have a no risk policy, but we are talking about the NEXT level of football here. Agger is an excellent exponent of careful distribution and to be honest Jamie is capable of it as well, he has after all played as a holding midfielder on several occasions to great effect, for club and country.
Sort it out lad!
It’s something we didn’t do in the mid-nineties and to be honest, was something of an issue.
Under the Frenchman, such a policy was encouraged, and it worked. Simply because it suited our basic style of play.
Under Rafa, we play a much more sophisticated game which is based around ball retention and paced build-up.
Hyypia, was the most obvious example of the Frenchman’s Hoofing. Time and time again you’d see 50-60 yard punts in preference to a 10yard pass to a central player. Now I’ve got nothing to base this on, but I’m pretty sure that Rafa had a word in Sammy’s ear. “Short simple passes, let the midfield do their job, no long balls unless you are 100% certain of the pass, no”
I can see this in his game, his distribution is much better these days, once or twice he will go to hoof it, stop, blink, and play a 10 yard pass. There a good boy. To be fair, he also occasionally plays a blinder of a long ball, and he has been allowed that!
Carragher suffered the same affliction. Unfortunately we haven’t seen such improvement in him. Time and time again, when under a little pressure, we get aimless punts either straight up in the air or high into the centre circle.
Sure it is great to have a no risk policy, but we are talking about the NEXT level of football here. Agger is an excellent exponent of careful distribution and to be honest Jamie is capable of it as well, he has after all played as a holding midfielder on several occasions to great effect, for club and country.
Sort it out lad!
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