Controversial opinion… but despite being my favorite ever player.. one of the reasons I think Gerrard was better as a 10 under Rafa was it stopped him making those beautiful diagonals..
It’s easier to explain if you watch rugby.. but when a team has a 3 on 2 overlap, the player with the ball can be tempted to make a long miss-one pass to the free winger.. but it’s almost always the wrong action because unless it’s perfectly flat, fast etc it just allows the defence to shift across and kills the overlap…
The simple passes, draw the defender and pass, twice, puts the winger away to score uncontested..
Gerrard did that too often.. the passes looked amazing but too often allowed defence to shift across when a simpler pass was on.
Incidentally, that’s the difference with Trent.. his long passes just have that extra swerve and pace and spin that they put the man away without giving the defence the time to drift accross
Interesting thoughts, thanks for the comment! His evolution and adaptability was crazy. I remember an interview with Rafa a few years ago where he admits that his skill set was so diverse that he had trouble identifying his best position. I believe it was 2005/06 (?) where he even scores 23 goals from the right hand side with Sissoko and Alonso as midfield two. Later in his career he did a very good job of adapting to the holding midfielder under Brendan considering his legs had gone - though I remember it being disheartening when some of those long switches would go out for throw ins.
Lovely article, thanks!
Controversial opinion… but despite being my favorite ever player.. one of the reasons I think Gerrard was better as a 10 under Rafa was it stopped him making those beautiful diagonals..
It’s easier to explain if you watch rugby.. but when a team has a 3 on 2 overlap, the player with the ball can be tempted to make a long miss-one pass to the free winger.. but it’s almost always the wrong action because unless it’s perfectly flat, fast etc it just allows the defence to shift across and kills the overlap…
The simple passes, draw the defender and pass, twice, puts the winger away to score uncontested..
Gerrard did that too often.. the passes looked amazing but too often allowed defence to shift across when a simpler pass was on.
Incidentally, that’s the difference with Trent.. his long passes just have that extra swerve and pace and spin that they put the man away without giving the defence the time to drift accross
Interesting thoughts, thanks for the comment! His evolution and adaptability was crazy. I remember an interview with Rafa a few years ago where he admits that his skill set was so diverse that he had trouble identifying his best position. I believe it was 2005/06 (?) where he even scores 23 goals from the right hand side with Sissoko and Alonso as midfield two. Later in his career he did a very good job of adapting to the holding midfielder under Brendan considering his legs had gone - though I remember it being disheartening when some of those long switches would go out for throw ins.