Speaking off crosses

[saabrian]

Speaking of crosses, there's something I've noticed at seemingly all levels of the game.

Let's say the ball is wide in the attacking third. The wing beats the defender 1 v 1 and has a direct line to the goal. Rather than angling inward toward the goal, he stays wide so he can loop a high cross and someone making a run. I've never understood this.

If he goes inward, he gives himself the option of both a shot and a pass, which forces the keeper to take him and the defender to mark the runner tight. If he shoots and it's saved, there's someone making a run for the rebound. If he does pass, it's probably going to be a higher percentage pass to the feet. By staying wide at that point, he only gives himself one option. And that one option is a lower percentage aerial cross.

"Give your teammate two options" is something I preached all season to my U-14 kids to reinforce off the ball movement. But by staying wide like this, it seems you're taking away one option from yourself. Nevertheless, I see even professionals do this so I'm wondering what the logic is. I mean, obviously staying wide makes sense if the defender has two or three teammates backing him up but if you've got a direct line, why not take it.

[Elninho]

My guess is that, by angling inward, one gives the beaten defender a greater chance to recover. Even after being beaten, a defender can still create enough pressure to force the attacking player outside. If the attacking player angles into the box, a defender who recovers quickly after being beaten has the advantage of being inside the turn and has less distance to cover. Because I'm usually a striker, my own habit, when playing on the wing, is to always look to cut inside as my first option, but often defenders have recovered enough to at least cut off any chance to pass across the box, forcing me to either shoot or pull the ball back outside. By staying wide, the attacking player may be looking to put more distance between himself and the defender.

[goyoureddevils]

There are two ways of looking at this and they both deal with the individual player's strength and weaknesses, and how the wide player is reading the defense.

When a player go directly to goal from a wide position, time compresses - speeds up - as you have fully commited yourself. As you said, you now have two options, shooting or passing. Think about the shot for a moment... what do keepers like most. Bad angle, near post shots that are easy to cover without coming off the line. Trying to hit one of these shots is difficult at best, and if you do the rebound usually comes off away from the goal to the side it came from, negating any back post chances, (those that result in so many goals). How many times have you seen a player cut in, decide to shoot, only to have the chance smotered by an astute keeper, at best put out for a corner.

Second, I think a lot of the wide players who choose to play the early ball do so because they spot a central defender pulling wide to help cover their own run, and decide that now is a better time than any to serve a ball... #1 because they don't want to be double teamed and lose the ball, #2 because they have faith, (sometimes unfounded) in their forwards ability to challenge for the ball in the air. Just look at some of the passes that NFL quarterbacks heave up into the air, into a pack of db's, knowing that a Terrel Owens, or Marvin harrison will come down with it.

All this said, I agree with you that it is best to take another touch or two, make the defense and gk move to reposition, then play the ball. The problem you will have to work on is not the passer though. You are going to have to convince the palyers off the ball to not overcommit and take themselves out of the play by getting in too deep, too early. They will have to learn to stay out of the targeted area until the ball is played. Good passes are made by the player with the ball...... but great passes are made by the players off of the ball.