I regret saying that playing from the back is overrated. That was a poor choice of words and was born out of frustration. I like playing from the back myself and tell others to (unless there is a clear long opportunity or there is too much risk/no good options near goal). I think it is more the case that players often times lose focus too easily (or perhaps are temporarily blinded by the pressure) in playing the ball back and they give up goals that could have and should have been prevented. From studying these cases, the main lesson seems to be that the keeper or defender, once played back the ball, holds on to it for too long. It may be held too long by only 1 second or less but that makes all the difference. Latest example was a couple days ago: Chelsea vs Liverpool @ 5:35 The Chelsea keeper, with Mane fast approaching, held the ball a split second too long, costing a goal. Happens every week. To play it back (and play out of the back) the players should pass quickly. If teammates are not getting open then the long ball or playing out of bounds may be the best option. I do believe there are moments where the thought process should turn to "ok now just avoid a goal" rather than "I must find a pass no matter what" even at the pro level.
Actually the problem often is, especially at lower levels, bad positioning and bad facing. In other words--fundmentals. Speed of play is always, always a concern, not just when making a negative pass. "Be quick but don't hurry". --John Wooden.
True. In this case the keeper had a couple options but did not act quick enough. A good option would have been to pass it right back to the guy who he received the pass from, in the corner. Many other things he could have done obviously but I know it is easier said than done. You feel you have time and then all of a sudden you don't.
Some good play-it-back/POTB fails this past weekend... When it's crowded in your box, probably don't try to head it back to your keeper, just clear it.
Same match... MU falling apart: Commentator: "I can't believe what I'm seeing"..... "if you want to play out from the back just make sure of your passing, don't take any chances"
First goal for Aston Villa, @1:41, comes off POTB fail. Did this set a demoralizing tone for Liverpool, get them in a funk resulting in their worst loss ever? Be careful!
Meh. Liverpool won the league building out of the back like that plenty of times like that last season on their way to 99 points, winning the league by 18 points, and conceding the fewest number of goals in the league. Liverpool should learn how to not let shots deflect off their defenders. /s
yeah the number of deflections was uncanny. This season looks like it's anyone's for the taking. hotspurs are looking really good to me.
I've coached away some points getting my teams to play the ball back on kickoffs. But that's recreational ball, you have a player who is just hanging out and shocked that someone passed the ball back to them. they freeze and the other teams ace runs 20 or 30 yards down, steals the ball, shoots, scores, dances, etc. The parents cry about the backwards pass. but, the positive... the player isn't as surprised the second time someone passes the ball back to them, because it's established, that's the way we as a team play possession.
I guess you have to learn it sometime. Probably the sooner the better. Like getting your wisdom teeth pulled.
Just sayin...5 options within 20 yards... ouch!! tough one for Deer Lakes. #WPIALSoccer pic.twitter.com/Zu8qo7gRmu— John Krysinsky (@JohnKrysinsky) November 5, 2020
A few play-it-back fails in this recent Champions League game: @3:20 bad pass back. Juventus intercepts, nearly score (should have) @4:56 bad pass back to keeper who flubs. Juventus for easy tap in @6:20 Juve thow-in. Ferencvaros get possession and seem very intent on keeping it; play all the way back to keeper who tries and fails to play out of back. Another easy goal for Juve.
I think the key is, in your back 1/3, the angles that your teammates have to offer you should be wider than on the other end of pitch (ie safer passing options near own goal). This requires more movement. Just a couple steps can widen the angle enough. Keep the risk low by getting more distance (passing lane) from opponent. If you have the option to play out of back then do it, otherwise go long. Sometimes I play short and sometimes long. One of my teammates in particular hates when I boot it, but if no one is open near me and there's an open guy down field who is calling for the ball I have no problem going long. This guy is hispanic; I think they like to play out of back 100% of time it seems. I also think it's good to mix it up a bit. If you POTB all the time it becomes too predictable.
This was just horrible play. It happens. One general rule, don't make a pass to the keeper that is on frame. Another general rule, don't make square passes across the front of the goal--on the ground the ball rolls much slower. I see coaches that design exercises to teach players to make square passes on the ground in front of the goal inside the penalty area, even inside the goal area. Sounds insane to me. In my view the whole objective of "build out of the back" is to break the opponent's forward line with the first or second touch. That puts the ball in a gap between the defensive lines and in a good positon to break a press. When I played fullback in the 80's we did that without having a coach tell us too. It was just the best way to move the ball up the field into the middle third. I really think this whole build-out-of-the-back thing is over thought and over coached. All the players need to know is how to play good soccer. Fundamentals. It doesn't matter if it is breaking the 1st line, 2nd line or 3rd line. Same tactical problem, same solutions. All "build out of the back" means to me is a preference for advancing into the middle third by combination passing rather than by a 50-50 keeper punt. But what really forced this change was the keeper pass back change to the Laws. Before that any press could be broken simply by passing to the keeper who picked up the ball. That became a central tenant of defense. The rule change was a good thing, making the game more exciting. I might add in the 80's keepers could pick up balls passed to them, but we still preferred to use combination passing rather than punts.
This is fundamentally what my teams do. Since the rule change my #2 and #3 set up on the corners of the goal box. Our #7, #11 are out wide at the touchlines at good angles. Our #6 and #10 sit in any gaps between the forward lines. Opposing teams "once they figure it out" rush in off the goal kick. But, as you pointed out, they are quickly beaten by a 1-2 touch pass to our midfielders. Playing to the correct foot, bodyshape, and receiving with your back foot are super important here. Get those 3 details wrong and it all breaks down really fast. But once you do it, then you've eliminated 3 defenders with one pass. Conversely, we "slow press" their back line if they take the goalkick short, so we don't get beat by one pass. Most teams will boot it long. Strangely, most teams put their weakest on-the-ball players at full back (no offense to your history, of course). So we wait to press those players.
@elessar78 No offense. I was one of the weakest players on that adult team, although I was good enough to always start somewhere, but not in the spine or at right mid, which was my actual position. Everyone else on the team was a Latino immigrant from either Central America or Europe and had played their whole life. My advantage was that I was extremely quick and 2-footed. The second year I was the left winger. The coach told me that I was easily the most improved player on the team. That was the high point of my soccer, being one of the weaker players on that team. So no offense taken.
@ 1:25 Played back to keeper. Keeper to leftback. Back to keeper. Keeper holds it a tad too long, and goes for ping which is blocked. Great first touch by striker and put in back of net. In my opinion, the leftback should have accelerated into space a bit and passed upfield, rather than play back to keeper who was clearly under increasing pressure. I still maintain that this is poor risk management. The higher the risk the more time and space is needed. In this case, time and space was decreasing yet ball was put into increasingly risky place. Also, I get that keepers are sort of seen as a 11th player, last defender, but let's face it, they generally aren't as adept at footwork, especially compared to the forwards that are heading them down.
Isn't the exact problem is that the keeper panicked and tried to play it long? If she plays a negative angle pass to her right back they keep possession.
That was a nice shot... on your own goal Be careful when playing back. In this case he had to play it fast as he had pressure. But with so many in your 1/3rd, probably not a great choice. I say, go forward if your 1/3 is cluttered, even if that means losing possession, as it buys you time and lowers risk. It's a fair tradeoff I think. Defender also should have check his shoulder to see his goalie's position before passing.
That was poor tactics and skills. Overall the team was playing poorly before the own goal. (I already addressed earlier about avoiding passing the ball back on the frame of the goal. That is why the keeper moved left of the goal.) I am guessing that the back (Sawyers) is right footed and therefore adopted poor facing and not even looking for opportunities to make a left footed pass. If he had better facing, he could have easily made a pass inside to the CM in good position. That would be better than the pass back to the keeper. In rec play I have seen many 1-footed players who only pass with their right foot to their left side. If you only play them on the right flank the weakness is not noticeable. But on the left side of the field, the weakness is glaring and easy to exploit. It isn't that these players are intentionally favoring the left side, it just works that way out of bad habits. There is no quicker way to improve the game in the US than developing 2-footed players.
GK was in the right spot to support him too. Would’ve been a much easier pass than the one he attempted.
Some nasty play-it-back and POTB situations in recent Premier League games: In this one Chelsea's Rudiger tries to tap it back to his own keeper but puts it in his own goal. Credit to Sheffield for applying pressure. In such a tight situation should you kick the ball sky high? Or just out for a corner kick? I think ideally he would have felt the player on his right side and turned left, but otherwise I say just blast it away/out of bounds if necessary. Then Liverpool vs Man City. Nightmare game for Liverpool keeper Alisson. He really needs to work on operating under pressure, was very much out of form here. At first (0:54) he fumbles around with the ball too much and nearly gives it away, then later in the same sequence he gets it back but passes it directly to Man City's Foden who passes to Gundogan for an easy goal. Then at 1:23 he basically makes the same mistake again! I know this the exception, but it seems it's just a bad idea when the pressure is so tight that it necessitates a one-touch kick by the keeper. One-touches are more prone to mistakes and doing it so close to your goal is very high risk.
Some good discussion about Alisson mistakes starting around 2:20: "you live by it, sometimes you die by it"