Ted Hughes wrote:iwasthere2012 wrote:Nigels Tackle wrote:Im_Spartacus wrote:Nick wrote:Mase hearts Kolarov
Missed the game Saturday but I've said it many times before that a lot of his crosses are smash it as hard as he can into the box without looking up and waiting for one of our ambling strikers to get in the box. Whereas Navas gets shit for actually having this awareness.
Hes still a lazy, soft'un though..
Surely the point of a cross is to put the ball in a dangerous area, and for the strikers to attack those areas knowing that's where the ball is going.
Our strikers stand like dummies expecting it put on a fucking plate.
I have sympathy with kolarov on this point, but he's still never a defender as long as I've got a hole in my arse
is fizzing the ball at 200mph into the so called danger area a good cross though?
Call me old fashioned, but back in my footballing days, if you as a winger got a yard on your fullback to fizz in a low and hard ball across the six yard box, that was job done. The onus is on the centre forward or attacking midfielder to get his arse in there. If the ball is played hard enough, all it needs is a toe on it, to direct it goalwards.
If a ball goes in there & nobody is near it, then it is the fault of the other players 90% of the time imo. The kind of positions we sometimes see Dzeko & Aguero take up (right away at the far post or hanging back on the edge of the box), far post would often be taken up by the opposite winger years ago, just in case the ball missed all the strikers (Barker & Nemane do it now quite a bit). Or if you had a player who wins everything in the air, like Niall Quinn, you can just stand the ball up to the far post & he will win it. Dzeko wins about 1% of those & Aguero wins 0. Edge of the box would be Colin Bell, Robson, Gerrard etc.
Imo it's pure laziness on the part of strikers, to so often take those positions. If it misses everyone & reaches you, then you have a piss easy finish & add to your goal tally without having to do much. But 95% of the time, the oppo intercepts it easily. Most of City's attacks are intercepted easily, whoever is on the final ball.
Laziness or cowardice Ted? I have always had the same criticism watching Ireland. In Robbie Keane's case I would put it down to being too chicken shit to make the run across the defender and get in where it hurts. In our case I would tend to think it is laziness or attitude. You have to be totally mentally tuned in as a top centre forward to time your run in front of the defender at the near post or across the six yard area between defenders. Our crew are not switched on for the full ninety minutes and it's a habit they've been allowed to develop particularly since Christmas. It's much easier for them to hang back and expect a ball put on their foot bypassing a couple of defenders on it's way, while the winger is under pressure from a full back. It takes much more effort both physically and more importantly , mentally to make that run every time and gamble on the ball getting across the most dangerous area.
