Power vs. Placement
They come in many sizes. They can either help or hinder your life. They might not have any effect on you at all. Some you make and regret later, but one of them could change your life forever.
Decisions.
So the A-league is back and everyone is happy. First game Sydney FC vs Newcastle on Friday night and yes, the goal from Del Piero was truly breathtaking, but it’s actually the 2nd goal from Joel Chianese that actually sparked an idea in my head.
Del Piero disposes Caravella (my MOTM for Sydney FC) from around the half way line, runs down the pitch, on the break, space to his left and Chianese to his right, does something only a player with Del Piero’s quality could do, angle his body as if he was going to go to the left and go for goal himself, but play a no-look pass to Chianese, thus confusing opposing Newcastle Jets defender Kew Jaliens, and creating space for Chianese, to strike the ball high and hard above goal keeper Birighitti, right in the roof of the goal.
This goal was nothing but 100% power and Joel could’ve so easily gone for a simple little chip and ensure he beat the keeper, why did he choose Power? Was it the confidence he had or just natural instinct? Was it taught by Del Piero? Plausible because I’ve seen Del Piero score lots of goals, and he is an expert at both placement at power. But what makes a striker choose between the two?
Then on Saturday afternoon the Western Sydney Wanderers played the Central Coast Mariners in what was an interesting encounter, two very evenly matched teams from last season’s grand final, played in what was an entertaining game that finished 1-1. But it was Mitchell Duke’s goal that caught my attention and made me want to compare it with Chainese’s powerful finish from the night before, you see, Duke chose placement.
The goal started from some interesting sideways build-up play, Central Coast’s new number 10 Marcos Flores with a heavy first touch, but a beautiful defence slicing ball in front of Mitch Duke, who latched onto it and chipped keeper Covic (the chip itself was a little heavy because it basically hit the top corner of the goal mouth) with aplomb. So what makes Mitchell Duke choose Placement? Why didn’t he just smash it into the back of the net like Chianese did?
Decisions.
Then I start thinking about world football in general, and realised how some key decisions have changed the way the game was being played, and the paths of many footballers, managers, coaches, everyone’s lives.
Why did Gareth Bale choose to go transfer to Real Madrid? Why does Wayne Rooney insist that he wants to play striker at Manchester United until he gets his role? Why did Mesut Ozil choose to play for Arsenal? All these questions of course are debatable, but at the end of the day, they came down to the decisions made by either themselves, their coaches or even their families and friends.
But what about on the field? One of the clichés in sport and in football is that it is 90% mental 10% physical, I am a firm believer in that, and that’s why a coach/manager’s role is so important. It is the coach/manager’s job to get the players out on the field in the right mindset and if he’s unable to do so, then he should think about swapping him for another player. A footballer makes decisions all the time on football field, went to move forward, when to move back. When to dribble, to pass, to shoot, when to use a trick and beat a player or simply knock the ball on and try and beat an opponent.
There are YouTube clips of a young Lionel Messi as a child dribbling past 4-5 players in a tight space much like he does today, many watch him in awe and wonder how does he do it?
At the end of the day, it becomes instinct, natural habit even, he basically makes the right decision 99.5% of the time on the football field and that is exactly what is so special about him. He knows when to pass, dribble or shoot.
There are some players out there who don’t have this natural instinct, most of them don’t in fact. Alessandro Del Piero is a legend of the game and amongst the top 100 to have ever played the game. Yet I believe his talent has come down to hard work not instinct, he actually started his career late compared to most footballers, at the age of 13 but people could see that he was working hard on the training pitch. He is the sort of dedicated player who would be first to arrive for a training session and last to leave, The sort of player to practice his free kicks over and over and over again until they are perfect. He has in a way, practiced his way into making the right decisions, over and over again.
Now I’m going to make what could be a controversial, maybe even ludicrous claim. The difference between a terrible/average player like let’s say Gervinho who I’ve seen do some magnificent things on the football pitch (see the game against Southampton last season where he scored 2 goals) and the best players in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – is decision making. Heck, I’ll go one step further, the difference between Emile Heskey! And Ronaldo/Messi is decision making.
Players are only in-form or out of form because they either have confidence in the decisions they are making, or they simply don’t.
The difference between myself and Lionel Messi, is that one decision, where Messi decided he was going to be a star in football. He had the burning ambition to go for his dreams when he was very young; when most kids at that age are happy to be playing Pokémon.
So let’s go back to the start of the blog. Placement vs Power. Which one is the best? Which one should a footballer go for when going for goal? Well in my opinion, as long as they score a goal, it doesn’t matter! Whether you do a 520 degrees, pirouette, around-the-world before crouching to head the ball, all that matters is that it goes in the back of the net right? (okay might’ve been a bit of an exaggeration)
Whether you shoot with power or placement, it doesn’t matter, what matters is having confidence and using your instinct. That is what makes a top, quality footballer.
Google+