That's a refreshingly intelligent write up about football.
Forgive me for the copy and paste job.
"[size=small][font='Harriet Text', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]Take this play against Monaco. Özil plays a pass to free up Sánchez in the opposing penalty box for a great scoring opportunity. It seems simple since it’s the one stat we know Özil reliably generates, but the whole sequence is much more complex.[/font][/size]
[size=small][font='Harriet Text', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]Listening to the tape, you can immediately hear commentator Gary Neville criticize Özil for the pass being behind Sánchez. On the one hand, Neville seems to be suggesting that Ozil’s chance-creation should be devalued since a more accurate pass would have improved the Chilean’s chances of scoring. On the other hand, you might look at that clip and conclude that Ozil actually deserves an outsize portion of the credit for Sánchez getting any shot because, considering the arrangement of the defenders and the timing of Sánchez’s run, without playing exactly that ball in exactly that manner, there would have been no shot at all.[/font][/size]
[size=small][font='Harriet Text', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]Things get even murkier if you rewind the tape back to the beginning of the move, where we see Özil’s off-the-ball impact. As Sánchez starts his run at the halfway line, Özil sprints ahead of him and pulls out to the left, behind attackers Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck, to receive the pass from Sánchez that he then plays back once inside the box. That off-ball movement is crucial. Without it, the space for Sánchez’s initial run might not exist, and the space for Sánchez inside the box — the room he needs to get his shot off when he gets the ball back — certainly wouldn’t.[/font][/size]
[size=small][font='Harriet Text', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif]This might seem trivial, but it’s not. Özil has plenty of options: He can peel off to the right and offer more width, he can check his run and wait behind Sánchez to provide an option to retain the ball should his teammate get stuck, or he can charge forward right at the defenders and present himself as a target for a through ball. All of those different moves would change what happens next. What Özil chose placed him in a position that allowed him to receive a pass in front of the defensive line, with enough space and three attacking options to choose from."[/font][/size]
