est wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
To be honest, despite praising him previously, Connor isn't my kind of midfielder at all. Takes an absolute eternity to do anything, and plays too many long range passes for my liking (not based only on this video).
What's wrong with that?
If he sees an open man on the wing or a striker making a run in behind the defence, I'm all for players to try and pick them out. If they can execute the pass, that is. The Denilson/Diaby type 'one-touch, roll it to the next man' players are the reason we take an eternity to switch the ball to the other flank and hence we almost never achieve numerical advantage in wide attacking areas.
There's nothing wrong with playing a long range pass to switch the play or to someone making a good run, but only when it's the right thing to do. Xavi, Fabregas and Wilshere play plenty of long passes throughout a match, but it's when the percentages tell them it's the best move (although Fabregas can definitely overdo it occasionally, especially when he's trying too hard). Others drive me MAD when they try pass after pass, when it's clearly not the right move at that moment. Xabi Alonso is a definite one that annoys me when I watch him, especially when he was at Liverpool, 5 out 10 reach their target, the rest are applauded as a great effort or great vision, but all they achieve is in gifting possession back to the opposition. I hate it. Charlie Adam is another one. Problem with those kind of players too is whenever they get the ball they hold onto it for an eternity looking for a long pass, it slows the game down, and if you're a quick passing team that's a problem.
To be fair to Hendeson, and Xabi Alonso, they know how to play short, quick and clever too, I just think they overdo it big time on the Hollywood passes - Henderson is a nightmare for that for the Reserves. Although, I'm far from writing him off or anything - there probably was a touch of what I said above about Cesc in his performance there; trying too hard to make the difference and to impress. If he could learn to make better decisions his passing range would become a massive plus in his (and our) game.
