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Progressive passes.
Commented on this in the player’s thread.
Predictable, slow, highly risk averse - it's always the sameWe've talked at length about how our inadequate midfield personnel are seriously hampering our possession play and overall control of games; but every-game sequences like the ones I'll break down below strongly hint at a group of players that are being coached to assess the risks and rewards of different options that they have in a highly risk averse way.
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This has been a rather routine attempt at playing out from the back this season. Players shift the ball from one side of the pitch to the other before trying to achieve a breakthrough right along the touchline, often ignoring option(s) in the centre in the process.
Davies obviously couldn't have passed the ball to Gray before even getting it himself; but he could've very well used that half a second to scan his surroundings to recognize how open Gray was. Straightforward pass to an open player who would've had his options. Doesn't get simpler than that.
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VDV ignores Bentancur to give it to Vicario instead; who was going to kick it long in the usual fashion had he not spotted Porro there.
Bentancur is not exactly the gold standard of playmaking; but other things being equal, I'd rather have him on the ball than Vicario.
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A simple pass to Bentancur in the centre is once again on; and getting ignored in favour of going wide
Yeah I know, the second screenshot is slightly misleading. Vicario had already turned his head in other direction. But that's the point: if he wasn't so fixated on seeking the wide option, he would've seen how Bentancur's defender stopped following him to leave him competely free for a simple pass.
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Could simply be an instance of an individual player suffering from some serious tunnel vision; could equally be another instance of being fixated collectively on the single option of going wide. Hard to tell.
--------------Let's contrast all these with a rare sequence where we went with the option in the centre
Could've gone wrong, but went quite right eventually. That's why you take calculated risks, such as the one Davies took when he chose to pass it to Gray in the centre although Odobert was equally open out wide.
This sequence led to this by the way
----------------For me, one word to describe our attempts at playing out from the back would be stiff. Players, instead of taking what the defenses give them to evaluate in real time potential risks and rewards of different choices they can make, look like they're faithfully following a rigid set of instructions.
I can't sense the following kind of calmness from them that I sensed from a team that're ranked 19th in possession.
This is not a plea for trying to play through the centre at all costs; but we definitely can mix it up a little bit to keep the opponents guessing. Our play is highly predictable as things currently stand.
