Overpassing the ball

[CheeseGromit]

The over passing , if that is true would be a consequence of combination of things that some of the above issues highlighted in other posts
We have a lack of quickness (speed) in the team; thought and running. None of our players midfield/attacking players with the possible exception of Soldado want or play the ball into angled forward or space , It is played to feet when players are standing still and in front of the opposition defence lines ( where ever drawn) and go side ways. This to keep possesion of the ball and not taking risks. It should be safer but we have seen poor passes and isolation of players result in the opposition having a free run at the back 4

Although unable to execute well enough, his fault or the others, Holtby was the hub of shorter passes where get, give and move was the style he used. it cannot just be shorter passes.

 

[ajspurs]

I really don't think this is our issue. We are giving the ball away too much still.

Both goals on Sunday started with careless losses of possession when we had many players forward allowing Stoke to break on us.

We are still not as good at retaining possession as we need to be.

I don't think retaining the ball is our problem either though. We could have all of the ball in a match and we still woudn't really know what to do with it, or how to build meaningful attacks. Even against Villa, when they went down to 10 men, I still for the life of me coudn't see where a goal was going to come from, it ended up coming from 2 set plays which says it all.

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

passing for the sake of passing, plus I notice one (AT) takes to many fucking touches, pass the fucking ball quicker you prick grrrrrrrr

 

[robin09]

I completely agree. We pass for the sake of it. Then immediately shout to the team mate to pass it back to us. We've gone 5yds sideways, back and forth.

This is the sort of thing I'd have thought you could see changing with coaching.

Poch surely has to tell them, when not under immediate pressure, don't pass the ball unless the receiver is in a a better position to attack. Think about how useful the pass is.

You look at players like Mason and Soldado, and they tend to only pass the ball forward, where the pass itself puts us in a better position. It's a shame that they stand out so much from the rest. It should be what's being drummed into us as a philosophy.

 

[CornerPinDreamer]

ffs

in some matches our atatck has been awesome but with numpty level finishing.. Man City game for example

Poch & team should be asking why were we able to move the ball so fluidly (albeit without actually fucking scoring) in that match? Why can;t we replicate it?

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I really don't think this is our issue. We are giving the ball away too much still.

Both goals on Sunday started with careless losses of possession when we had many players forward allowing Stoke to break on us.

We are still not as good at retaining possession as we need to be.

This is far more relevant and a problem than "overpassing" is.

Our movement is often poor as well, as others have said, but this carelessness thing with the ball is rife and is frequently costing us.

The other thing is we aren't giving our attacking players the best environment to operate in. The idea I thought with Poch would be to get us pressing better higher up and catching the opposition on the hop, attacking with tempo.

What's happening is the opposition are walking through that first line of defence, this is pulling the CM's all over the place and exposing our very frail back four. Even when we do win the ball back it's in much deeper areas and we have the problem then of transitioning from deeper positions by which time the opposition are set and it's harder to break them down, especially as our movement is so poor at times and our passing so careless.

 

[Bobbins]

ffs

in some matches our atatck has been awesome but with numpty level finishing.. Man City game for example

Poch & team should be asking why were we able to move the ball so fluidly (albeit without actually fucking scoring) in that match? Why can;t we replicate it?

Because he very rarely plays the same players in any positions two games in a row, and he almost never plays our best, most creative combination of attackers, which by common consent is something like:

Soldado
Chadli/Eriksen Kane Lamela

It also helps that City simply outplayed us at the same game - other teams know they just have to sit back with two banks of 4, lets us bounce off them for a while and then quickly counter against us and score.

 

[StartingPrice]

Not just instinct, but in my opinion then its a lack of what I would call 'pattern play' that you work on at the training ground. Things such as Well if player A has received the ball, B should make that run and I (C) push into the space left. You don't see enough of our team playing and linking up in little mini-units of three or four players and making movements in tune and complimenting others around them.

My post in no way precludes your argument.

I will give some clarification, however: In my final sentence, I mean that the waiting to see where the ball is going to be played before moving is down to nerves and lack of confidence, not the whole thing, including your argument, can be reduced to just nerves and lack of confidence

 

[Flobadob]

It's nothing to with passing the ball too much. It's the fact that we don't move the ball fast enough (IT'S SO IMPORTANT!) and we have terrible movement. The first pass a player sees is the right one 95% of the time. I hate to break it to some of you, but this 'we must pass forward!' stuff is bollocks. You can pass the ball in whatever direction you like, as long as you keep it moving quickly you will create spaces. That way forward passes naturally open up. If a player isn't going to try and dribble with the ball they shouldn't have it at their feet for more than a second or two, if they can help it, and I constantly see our midfielders fucking around on the ball under no pressure for 3 or 4 seconds (Capoue does this all the time). It's stuff I learnt when I was 8 years old for fucks sake! It infuriates me to see it at that level

 

[DOX]

I concur... It's called the lackofmodrić-effect.

 

[Blake Griffin]

there's no such thing as overpassing, every pass is beautiful and should be cherished.

- avb chapter 5 verse 6.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

And thou shalt be afraid of the ball, for it is verily a potato of great hotness.

-The FA Coaching manual, old testament.

 

[Tyler24durden]

The biggest problem for me is that we have Capoue who isn't a great player anchoring our midfield as dm and who is often too far forward.

He doesn't have any pace so when he gets caught out of position he cannot recover.

This leaves our defence, which is poor and unorganised, exposed.

Selling Sandro, who for me was one of our best players and who is an incredible dm, was and still USA huge mistake.

People don't give him enough credit for his passing but his stats were in the 80% - 90% accuracy mark and more importantly, he played more forward passes than most of our team.

He did get injured and is taking time to come back to fitness but he's okay about 26 and I bet he'll get bought by a bigger club sooner rather than later.

That aside, we need to get Pulis in as a defensive coach as our lot simply do not look like they're taught or trained defensively at all.

Chiriches has everything to be a top cb if, he is trained correctly but he's learning a new league with no organised defenders and who don't show leadership.

 

[idontgetit]

Anyone else out there who feels we are too often guilty of this, especially in 'non aggressive' areas of the pitch?

We're a million times better than we were last year with the chuckle brothers in midfield. Mason and Capoue have looked quite adventurous in their passing to me. The problem is more to do with the front 4 playing very narrow which doesn't stretch the oppo or pull them out of position. It means we have to knock the ball about at the back for a bit waiting for an opening

 

[whitesocks]

Well the answer seems quite simple; when this overpassing occurs moan and groan so that Kaboul hears and then feels the need to pump it aimlessly upfield, thus losing possession. Jobs a goodun.

I'm not saying he was wrong, but the person I saw screaming 'second ball' against stoke was MP himself.

 

[paulcumpstone]

It is largely to do with our lack of movement.

ithink this works both ways, half the times the ball is passed when under no pressure or before even looking to see if anyone is on the move, if you make runs only to see the ball going square after a while you start making the runs so they are both linked for me

 

[richard_gleeson]

problem at home is they play to much at the back, and then when they give it to capoue he has no options. too easy for opposition because they can all regroup. its too patient, and the wrong players are playmaking.

 

[RButch]

I have never been sold on the idea of having two inverted wingers, it just makes to pitch way too narrow and with our movement thats a recipe for disaster. It also makes our full backs the most important players on the pitch as they are expected to generate the width whilst not placing themselves in a vulnerable position.

 

[Sevens]

Anyone else out there who feels we are too often guilty of this, especially in 'non aggressive' areas of the pitch?

We pass too much to feet. I don't mind patient probing attacking play but our biggest problem for me is that we seemingly can't switch tempos when required.

We're also far too congested in the middle of the park making it harder to pass balls into space. This isn't due to the pitch size either. It's because our lack of width just doesn't stretch the opposition defence to create larger gaps to thread the ball through.

Basically our current system will never work unless we have wing backs who can cross the ball like Christian Ziege. All opposition teams have to do at the moment is condense the middle of the park because they know we won't go wide and on the occasions we do go wide the full back will put in an inadequate cross. They'll let us take 25 yard pot shots all day long from people cutting inside. The odd one will go in and look marvellous but most will go harmlessly over the bar, wide or be cleared by the defenders.

 

[jesh]

I posted this the other day as a laugh, but it isn't actually far off what we see:

Too many players wanting to do the same thing, no runners off the ball and a lack of options apart from to play it into an absolutely swamped centre of the pitch where, to be honest, you wouldn't exactly get favourable odds on the likes of Lamela or Eriksen holding on to the ball under pressure.

We need to play wider and make the pitch as big as possible to open it out a bit, and have players in roles and making runs that compliment each other, not just all standing around in the same area of the pitch.

We can't play wider as our pitch is too small
Perhaps our training is done on a 5 a side pitch, that's why the players are always clustered together in the centre.