- Jan 20, 2013
- 11,816
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Agree tbh, this idea that it’s all about passing the ball quickly is a bit of a myth imo. You need people capable of playing on the half turn, traveling with the ball and allowing your team to move up as a unit. Pinging the ball quickly to an isolated Alli, son or Lamela is not always the best option.
I think you can see it this year, our games are very up and down, more end to end. We don’t really dominate teams anymore and build up sustained pressure, were finding it hard to back up play and win the ball back as well. Not much prescense in midfield at the moment.
I don't think the change away from "sustained pressure" is necessarily a bad thing, as according to how I view things it seems to have coincided with Poch becoming more tactically flexible. Many teams found that if they simply sat back and forced us into crosses, we could rather easily be dealt with.
As for presence, I do agree that we currently lack it atm. However, I don't think the above two are necessarily associated. For instance, a possession-oriented game can establish the sustained pressure without presence, and does often happen in many leagues around the world. As such, it's actually not a myth that passing quickly isn't important for driving the ball forward. Yes, I would like to see our midfielders push the ball forward with the ball at feet more, but don't let Dembele's uniqueness fool you, as this trait doesn't always correlate with physicality.