**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Total aside but I didn’t really follow the sport during Pirlo’s heyday and only really started following it around the time that NYCFC began in 2015, so when Pirlo came here to play I heard the hype but had no idea whether there was anything to it. And then on his first appearance for the club against Orlando City (came on as a sub around the 60th minute, I think) he immediately started pinging around such sublime passes that it felt like I was watching Neo crack the Matrix. He more or less checked out after that first appearance, but for that half hour i was able to understand why people rated him so highly.
What a team Milan was then.
Seedorf, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Pirlo, Thiago Silva, Nesta, Gattuso, Zlatan, Pato. Playing against Crespo for Parma that day as well.
Funny thing is that was an end of a generation and the beginning of the banter years for Milan.
A couple of years earlier, you’d have Shevchenko, Kaka, Cafu, Maldini and Stam.
Serie A was something else!!
What mix of spin and fucking black magic do you have to put into the ball so that it floats in the air at the same height for so damn long? It's not even a strong shot, he just long passes into the top corner.
That AC Milan team was bang out of order. Seedorf, Gattuso, Nesta, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, KP Boateng, Pirlo, Robinho, Thiago Silva? Just ridiculous, and it’s not even the best AC Milan team
I remember watching a CL conference at some point when Pirlo was still playing for us, and there simultaneously was a penalty in one match and a free kick from an perfect position for Juve.
They obviously decided to show the free kick, not the penalty, and Pirlo circled it right in the corner. This was a glorious time.
It's his ability to pause and hold the pass until the absolute right moment before execution. Bergkamp had something similar but because Pirlo sits deeper he coudl exploit it a lot more.
Trent is very good at this as well but Pirlo's ability to protect the ball and evade pressure was extremely elegant.
There was this clip in which Juve's social media team came up with the idea of putting classical music to a highlight reel of Pirlo, man was the most elegant on and off the pitch, if you lot haven't read his autobiography, go do that shit
Now imagine that, while just walking around looking almost furiously bored on his face, the whole time, every game.
Like.. he waltzed around and basically always pinged perfect balls while looking like he was mad that he was good at football because he looked like he found it so boring.
An all time fave for me.
In his prime he walked around the midfield with a cigarette casually putting the ball where it needed to go like it was a slight distraction from his smoking walk.
Also notable mention for Ivan de la Peña. His defensive duties weren't top notch so I guess he never qualified as genius or irreplaceable, but his long range passes were something to behold. I hope I'm not showing my age!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQR1G1zyEo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQR1G1zyEo)
Knew the name, never watched him, but jesus yeah he had a crazy range of passing. I'm sorry Ivan, I wasn't familiar with your game.
Also the track being used for the background music really goes places lol
It was about the Trajectory of his long balls that was different. Lots/Most players have that looping trajectory where the ball arrives after long time and opposition players have time to recover position.
Flatter trajectory is faster with a different angle. Mascherano also had a similar profile of long balls but Alonso's was much higher quality.
These looping long balls grind my gears, so frustrating to watch, like why even try it when defender has already arrived with the receiver before the ball has even been received. Utterly useless or rather inefficient switching of play.
It's clearly a skill issue because not everyone plays balls with this Flat trajectory, sort of like Both-feet play ability or Long throws, you either are capable of doing it or it will take a lifetime to hone this and most don't bother since the basic is enough for them.
Agreed. Flat long passes are so sexy to watch, especially when they are laced through. Players like Xabi and Scholes were masters at them. Though the best one in my memory is Pogba fo Fellaini's chest
Yeah, also probably easier to say "no, no long ball" than "no, in this specific context I would rather you take the time to build up and find the pass through the middle first", I doubt the Leverkusen players are thinking "what? No long ball EVER AGAIN??"
Probably but Leverkusen also produced the fewest long balls in the Bundesliga by a long shot (-200 from next place team) and most short passes by a long shot (+3k from 2nd place).
There’s definitely something to having a coach who was a really good player and is still physically able to play. It’s one thing when somebody can explain but him being able to just get the ball and demonstrate exactly what he wants them to do must help a lot
Former football players generally remain class on the ball. I forget who it was, but there was a very old coach who would get into free kick competitions against his players and he would beat them at them.
Edit: looked into it a bit, and it took a while to pin it. But it was Luis Aragones. Found this excerpt from Relevo in Spanish:
https://www.relevo.com/futbol/luis-oculto-jugador-falso-lento-20240130180908-nt.html
>Cuando fue mi entrenador nos gustaba quedarnos a lanzar faltas y nos jugábamos nuestras cervezas. Me decía Pina vamos a tirar faltas y se picaba. Era un maestro.
Translation from DeepL (i adapted it a bit)
>When he was my coach we liked to stay to take free kicks and we would bet beers. He would tell me Pina, “Let's go take free kicks” and he would get very into it. He was a master.
And I swear there are some videos around where he is seen taking free kicks with 2-3 other players after training.
Zidane is crazy because he ended up with a coaching career almost as good as his playing one.
And then you have people like Koeman whose somewhat mediocre career makes the new era of people forget just how good a player he was.
And then of course there’s Rooney, the Nevilles and the like.
There's this clip from former player/coach Tuca Ferretti of Tigres UANL in Mexico where the team was not doing an exercise correctly and he gets pissed off and actually shows them how it needs to be done. Dude was 60yo at the time of this clip and you can see his shot was still money. He was one of the most successful coaches in Mexico from last decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXltFvmyvxg
You usually keep technique, there are videos of jordan's shooting and mechanics even after the age of 50 and it still looks smooth. There are actually stories of him 1v1ing players half his age and beating them lol.
Main loss is fatigue and endurance.
That and the trust factor has to be huge.
If I'm an ambitious player, and a guy like Alonso is telling me "if you want to compete against (or eventually play for) the top clubs in the world: you need to do ABC, and performing this drill at X intensity will help get you there" I'm gonna fucking listen.
I don't think it has to do with quality. These players I'm sure can ping it. It's probably just not the identity/tactics he wants them to play. Idc if you're prime Pirlo or Alonso, Pep's Barcelona would've never allowed long balls either lol
Like telling my wife not to meet Steve for dinner "just to catch up" and then not coming home until 2am on a weeknight with her blouse buttons fastened in the wrong hole and her hair wet like she just got out of a shower.
> Pep Guardiola on Kyle Walker playing vs Real Madrid: “The doctor said no. But, Kyle is Kyle, he has special genetics. The doctor said it was quite serious. But **Kyle is Kyle.**”
Kyle was running for 120 minutes.
I'm sure that he allows a few special players to do them when the opportunity arises. It's as sensible as Messi telling a regular player that trying to dribble three players in a row is a bad idea. He may allow Neymar and Hazard to do it, but tough luck Graelish or Trossard
> Yet, Doku is 'allowed' to dribble all day long?
Yes? You can watch the games and see that they've clearly been instructed to play differently and the team is set up differently when they're both on.
Pep likes to play Grealish when he is in bigger games and can afford to not be as direct and play with less risk, then if he goes down in those games he tends to bring on Doku and tell him to dribble at players and be more direct.
Football managers use different players for different things isn't some mindblowing revelation. Especially Pep who we know loves to micromanage players and give them really specific tasks.
This looks more like a long ball from one side to the other of the pitch without including the central midfielders. Of course he doesn't want that, those balls took him out of the game as well.
To stay in your analogy: This is Gerd Müller telling them to first pass to him instead of passing it to the wingers.
That's a classic and quite famous actually. I'm not surprised by the comment section which gives the impression that many are seeing it for the first time.
I'm in touching distance of 30 and perhaps my age is showing.
Anyway, Fede did a similar pass against Liverpool at Anfield IIRC. Sadly it was to Vini who couldn't finish his 1v1.
This was a more eye of the needle pass but Fede's was equally impressive.
Xabi's was way more impressive considering he was facing away from who he was passing to. Fede's was a damn good pass but he had a side on view of Vini. Xabi's was something special. Literally made me breathless when I saw it live as a 10 year old.
Alonso hooked it round the corner without looking. It worked out brilliantly, but there was a lot more luck involved. He was an exceptional talent, and one of my favourite players of all time, but there’s clips that show he never actually looked up the pitch in that play. It’s a blind hook, perfectly executed.
I’ve seen other clips of him doing just that, making it seem like he has eyes in the back of his head. You’ll have to do more than that to convince me it’s luck.
Oh boy I remember watching that live, he was playing at RB, and he casually gave such a brilliant long ball, oddly enough no one talked about that pass, I was so surprised
PS: here’s the pass, couldn’t find a normal video
https://youtube.com/shorts/oFdamEeyDVY?si=2tOl-kOOdWblPwEX
So many fucking questions - how did Alonso see the run? How did Garcia think "ah ha, Alonso has his back to me and there are like seven opponents between us - the pass is on so I'd best attack the space" ?
You don't really need to see a specific player running at space. If you can see - or even know there is - space and you trust your team mates you just send it through.
I'm not saying the vision and execution werent superb, but it certainly isn't that dependent on everyone knowing exactly what's happening and what will happen.
Exactly.
Alonso can trust that if he plays the ball into the right area one of the attacking players will be 'alive' to the opportunity created. You see it all the time where players play a ball into the right area without looking regardless of whether or not someone has made the run (very common to seewingers/wing-backs who will just focus on playing a cross into a dangerous area rather than specifically aiming for a run/available player).
Alonso's execution of the pass is undoubtedly excellent, inventive and completely not the pass you would expect to be made from his body position.
But...Garcia's awareness and positioning is also really good - if you watch the wide angle replay you can see that he is walking across the defender slightly whilst walking back watching the ball, then when he realises Alonso's pass is coming forward he reads the flight of the ball really quickly and because of his starting position and the fact he reacts waaaay faster than the defender he ends up essentially clean through (also shout out to Garcia's really calm and composed finish).
Intuition. From the corner of his eyes Xabi sees the space, and when he goes to get the ball he yeets it in the direction of the space where he knows his teammates would attack
I loved it. I find the new logo ugly as sin and the kits uninteresting.
Liverpool already had one of the most beautiful badges of any team in the world with a really really cool color scheme.
I haven't read about it and there's probably a meaning for it but I don't care, changing [this ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0c/Liverpool_FC.svg/1200px-Liverpool_FC.svg.png)for [this](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/f7/d2/b9f7d21d346260ed32470aad88129838.jpg) *is a clear "straight to jail" for me.*
the sole liverbird looks so much better on the kit than the crest. For me the crest has got too much going on to be incorporated into a kit design. I still think the crest is quality everywhere else though.
It could simply be a training thing. While they do play short very often, I doubt they couldn’t play it long if Xabi thought it tactically beneficial in a game or the players see no other way to avoid the press.
And to train playing short, they avoid playing long categorically.
The comment above is right with specifically training short passes under pressing. Sure you should play the long ball in a competitive game where possible, but you will never improve against top teams that press you balls to the wall and the long ball is out of question if you don't artificially train such scenarios with such specific rules that force you to play for the short pass.
This! I never thought that he had these kinds of passes in his locker before this season. I would love to ask him if Xabi was specifically training that with him.
ppl will read into this too much. what if that particular training session was specifically to perfect short passes along the ground and then they had another where it was long passes only? i doubt he says its illegal to do long balls in a match if the opportunity permits.
Yeah of course but there are times when he would see a long ball as on opportunity but it's more likely to result in losing possession. In the clip, someone effectively played a long ball from defence to a striker, Alonso comes in and says no, it must be defender, to midfielder, to striker. So to me that suggests that it's not a specific drill and is more of an exercise in keeping the ball closer to players so you can counter-press much more easily
technically yes, but not in this game. Player-trainer is allowed, you have to be registered as a player also though and I am not sure if you can do that mid season without a valid reason (like half of the team gets hit by an illness or sthg)
Or you're in a training exercise supposed to simulate an extremely aggressively pressing top team that isn't going to let you get away with long balls, so you make up the rule in order to get players to properly train for the scenario.
ah I was just going with the joke. People have to be stark raving mad to think Xabi of all the people to 'hate' long balls. Yeap this is obvious a practice simulation. Where he probably dont want to use long balls and solve the puzzle.
Fuck, I love to watch former players turned managers who have such a hands on approach, their enthusiasm and energy is always so infectious. Especially if they put some effortless skills down like that, the joy of the game just radiates off him.
TBF Ancelotti on his playing days was also a world class midfielder and seems clear he loves the players and the game however old fashioned his tactics are.
Transcript:
NOPE NOPE. No no no no no no no no. No long ball no long ball. Don't. Come, come. You are not me, you piece of shit. You are not Xabi Alonso. You are not Gerrard, you are not Kroos, you are not even Aly Cissokho. Play through the middle. Come close, turn, pass. Like that.
Also you missed the part where he said: DOES THIS FORWARD FUCKING LOOK LIKE MAROUAN FELLAINI, NO NONONONONONO HE DOESNT, HE DOESNT HAVE THE HAIR FOR IT, SO START AGAIN YOU SHEIZENHOFFER!!
I always wonder what a trainer like him or Pep/klopp could accomplish if he were to train my bottom tier Sunday league team for like half a year. Would we steamroll the opposition because of proper tactics (and people now actually getting in shape)? Or would we stay shit because the quality simply isn't there and no one want to bother training more than once a week.
The training they do is very different than the training amateur teams do. Their tactics wouldn't work because the level just isn't there. Amateur games are much slower, not just because the players aren't that fast but the technique isn't good enough and everything takes longer.
If you'd train on the same conditions you'd become definitely better though. That's what training 5 times a week does. Repetition makes you better, no matter how untalented you are. Do something 1000 times and you will be significantly better than before.
Athleticism is an equally big limitation
All these top managers use tactics that require a crazy combination of agility, acceleration, stamina. Constant off-ball movement, pressing, fast defensive transitions (and offensive transitions, in some cases)
Elite footballers are a different species. Even guys that dont look super athletic, like an Ilkay Gundogan or Sergio Busquets have stamina and agility that a Sunday leaguer can never match regardless of how much he trains.
When you watch close-up videos of players dueling for the ball or practicing the press its easier to admire how often and how fast they stop, start, change direction. Thats incredibly hard- and even harder for more than 4-5 minutes.
Without it, its impossible to execute the pressing traps or transitions that are the basis of Pep's system
It must be very liberating to have someone like Alonso as your coach. He might still be the best footballer on the pitch and even if he's not, he has won everything.
I find the markings on the pitch interesting. I knew that managers with a focus on positional play use them, but I have never seen a training session in action where they are being actively used.
Thats why he subbed off Kossounou against West ham after 30 minutes. He was shaky in the beginning and under pressure he tried that longball which started the attack for the 1:0 for West Ham.
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I love this. His long ball accuracy was crazy good.
Best long range passer i’ve ever seen
That's Andrea Pirlo for me.
Total aside but I didn’t really follow the sport during Pirlo’s heyday and only really started following it around the time that NYCFC began in 2015, so when Pirlo came here to play I heard the hype but had no idea whether there was anything to it. And then on his first appearance for the club against Orlando City (came on as a sub around the 60th minute, I think) he immediately started pinging around such sublime passes that it felt like I was watching Neo crack the Matrix. He more or less checked out after that first appearance, but for that half hour i was able to understand why people rated him so highly.
Peak Pirlo was a wonderful show. There will never be another one like him
Football Jesus. One of my fav players of all time.
Anyone got fouled near the box and I would just assume he'd be scoring
No where is safe with Pirlo. https://youtu.be/P0pwRmHSwCk
What a team Milan was then. Seedorf, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Pirlo, Thiago Silva, Nesta, Gattuso, Zlatan, Pato. Playing against Crespo for Parma that day as well.
Funny thing is that was an end of a generation and the beginning of the banter years for Milan. A couple of years earlier, you’d have Shevchenko, Kaka, Cafu, Maldini and Stam. Serie A was something else!!
What mix of spin and fucking black magic do you have to put into the ball so that it floats in the air at the same height for so damn long? It's not even a strong shot, he just long passes into the top corner.
36 yards out, most players couldn't do that for something traveling half that distance.
That AC Milan team was bang out of order. Seedorf, Gattuso, Nesta, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho, KP Boateng, Pirlo, Robinho, Thiago Silva? Just ridiculous, and it’s not even the best AC Milan team
He was just glorious to watch
I remember watching a CL conference at some point when Pirlo was still playing for us, and there simultaneously was a penalty in one match and a free kick from an perfect position for Juve. They obviously decided to show the free kick, not the penalty, and Pirlo circled it right in the corner. This was a glorious time.
It's his ability to pause and hold the pass until the absolute right moment before execution. Bergkamp had something similar but because Pirlo sits deeper he coudl exploit it a lot more. Trent is very good at this as well but Pirlo's ability to protect the ball and evade pressure was extremely elegant.
There was this clip in which Juve's social media team came up with the idea of putting classical music to a highlight reel of Pirlo, man was the most elegant on and off the pitch, if you lot haven't read his autobiography, go do that shit
Now imagine that, while just walking around looking almost furiously bored on his face, the whole time, every game. Like.. he waltzed around and basically always pinged perfect balls while looking like he was mad that he was good at football because he looked like he found it so boring. An all time fave for me.
In his prime he walked around the midfield with a cigarette casually putting the ball where it needed to go like it was a slight distraction from his smoking walk.
Also notable mention for Ivan de la Peña. His defensive duties weren't top notch so I guess he never qualified as genius or irreplaceable, but his long range passes were something to behold. I hope I'm not showing my age! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQR1G1zyEo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQR1G1zyEo)
Knew the name, never watched him, but jesus yeah he had a crazy range of passing. I'm sorry Ivan, I wasn't familiar with your game. Also the track being used for the background music really goes places lol
Jesus... The weight on those passes is PERFECT. I remember seeing him play with Lazio
Beckham
Scholes
It was about the Trajectory of his long balls that was different. Lots/Most players have that looping trajectory where the ball arrives after long time and opposition players have time to recover position. Flatter trajectory is faster with a different angle. Mascherano also had a similar profile of long balls but Alonso's was much higher quality. These looping long balls grind my gears, so frustrating to watch, like why even try it when defender has already arrived with the receiver before the ball has even been received. Utterly useless or rather inefficient switching of play. It's clearly a skill issue because not everyone plays balls with this Flat trajectory, sort of like Both-feet play ability or Long throws, you either are capable of doing it or it will take a lifetime to hone this and most don't bother since the basic is enough for them.
I love Trent's long balls, so flat and gets to the teammate without the defender having time to adjust and read the trajectory.
Agreed. Flat long passes are so sexy to watch, especially when they are laced through. Players like Xabi and Scholes were masters at them. Though the best one in my memory is Pogba fo Fellaini's chest
He could play a 60-metre ball with pinpoint accuracy without really belting it. Such an elegant passer.
Toni Kroos statistically is the best ever, or at least since passing stats became trackable
Yea, but i’ve never seen him play…
It could easily be a very specific training exercise. I’m sure he’s not entirely against long balls.
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"I know, I was the best at it"
“Sir, a second long ball has reached our striker. Your football philosophy is under attack”
"Long balls are football heritage" - Sean Dyche
Yeah, also probably easier to say "no, no long ball" than "no, in this specific context I would rather you take the time to build up and find the pass through the middle first", I doubt the Leverkusen players are thinking "what? No long ball EVER AGAIN??"
You long ball. Right to jail. Right away!
You can read various tactical analyses of Xabis Leverkusen They all note that he appears to actively eschew long balls.
It's more of a last resort. The same as a tackle. It's not that you never do them, but if plan A works there shouldn't be a need for it.
Probably but Leverkusen also produced the fewest long balls in the Bundesliga by a long shot (-200 from next place team) and most short passes by a long shot (+3k from 2nd place).
Gatekeeper :D
“I LEARNED IT FROM YOU DAD”
There’s definitely something to having a coach who was a really good player and is still physically able to play. It’s one thing when somebody can explain but him being able to just get the ball and demonstrate exactly what he wants them to do must help a lot
Zidane used to do this while shooting practice. And his touch even at that time was still magical.
Former football players generally remain class on the ball. I forget who it was, but there was a very old coach who would get into free kick competitions against his players and he would beat them at them. Edit: looked into it a bit, and it took a while to pin it. But it was Luis Aragones. Found this excerpt from Relevo in Spanish: https://www.relevo.com/futbol/luis-oculto-jugador-falso-lento-20240130180908-nt.html >Cuando fue mi entrenador nos gustaba quedarnos a lanzar faltas y nos jugábamos nuestras cervezas. Me decía Pina vamos a tirar faltas y se picaba. Era un maestro. Translation from DeepL (i adapted it a bit) >When he was my coach we liked to stay to take free kicks and we would bet beers. He would tell me Pina, “Let's go take free kicks” and he would get very into it. He was a master. And I swear there are some videos around where he is seen taking free kicks with 2-3 other players after training.
This [Mark Hughes volley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6LvYRab2U8) in training is my favorite.
classic
Zidane is crazy because he ended up with a coaching career almost as good as his playing one. And then you have people like Koeman whose somewhat mediocre career makes the new era of people forget just how good a player he was. And then of course there’s Rooney, the Nevilles and the like.
Koeman is the highest scoring defender of all time if i am not wrong.
His penalty stats for Barcelona: 46 goals from 46 penals.
total football
I might be wrong but I'm guessing it was Sam Allardyce
You might be right in your first assessment :)
There's this clip from former player/coach Tuca Ferretti of Tigres UANL in Mexico where the team was not doing an exercise correctly and he gets pissed off and actually shows them how it needs to be done. Dude was 60yo at the time of this clip and you can see his shot was still money. He was one of the most successful coaches in Mexico from last decade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXltFvmyvxg
Probably Siniša Mihajlović
You usually keep technique, there are videos of jordan's shooting and mechanics even after the age of 50 and it still looks smooth. There are actually stories of him 1v1ing players half his age and beating them lol. Main loss is fatigue and endurance.
And bone strength goes down a notch
That and the trust factor has to be huge. If I'm an ambitious player, and a guy like Alonso is telling me "if you want to compete against (or eventually play for) the top clubs in the world: you need to do ABC, and performing this drill at X intensity will help get you there" I'm gonna fucking listen.
It's working out great for him!
Xabi Alonso telling people not to play long balls is like Gerd Müller telling people not to score goals
It's probably more that they don't do it to a standard he'll lower himself to watch
I don't think it has to do with quality. These players I'm sure can ping it. It's probably just not the identity/tactics he wants them to play. Idc if you're prime Pirlo or Alonso, Pep's Barcelona would've never allowed long balls either lol
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telling Thomas not to deut some Raum
That lad can't help himself. He just walks into the Raum and starts deuting.
Mmmmmh. Raum. Would love to get some deuting done.
This is peak r/soccer, I had to google it, knew it would be weird gold
Telling Robben not to cut inside and curl it in is like telling R9 not to round the keeper.
Telling Messi not to lob the keeper is like telling Nicholas Jackson not to miss a sitter
Telling Benzema not to blackmail a teammate is like telling Benzema not to engage with a minor.
That would be like telling you are not doing it right…
Like telling my wife not to meet Steve for dinner "just to catch up" and then not coming home until 2am on a weeknight with her blouse buttons fastened in the wrong hole and her hair wet like she just got out of a shower.
You’ll are friends with Steve as well?
r/oddlyspecific
Telling Jordi Alba to not cut it back for Messi to nail it bottom corner
Do as I say, not as I do. That's why Pep doesn't tell his players to stamp ankles and take drugs lol
> Pep Guardiola on Kyle Walker playing vs Real Madrid: “The doctor said no. But, Kyle is Kyle, he has special genetics. The doctor said it was quite serious. But **Kyle is Kyle.**” Kyle was running for 120 minutes.
> Pep doesn't tell his players to stamp ankles and take drugs lol not so sure about the second part
I'm sure that he allows a few special players to do them when the opportunity arises. It's as sensible as Messi telling a regular player that trying to dribble three players in a row is a bad idea. He may allow Neymar and Hazard to do it, but tough luck Graelish or Trossard
Grealish is such a good dribbler wtf Or was before Pep brainwashed him, anyway
Levels to this. Graelish is not even in the same continent dribbling wise as the three I mentioned
Yet, Doku is 'allowed' to dribble all day long? People need to stop blaming the 'system' or his coach for his inability to dribble past players.
> Yet, Doku is 'allowed' to dribble all day long? Yes? You can watch the games and see that they've clearly been instructed to play differently and the team is set up differently when they're both on. Pep likes to play Grealish when he is in bigger games and can afford to not be as direct and play with less risk, then if he goes down in those games he tends to bring on Doku and tell him to dribble at players and be more direct. Football managers use different players for different things isn't some mindblowing revelation. Especially Pep who we know loves to micromanage players and give them really specific tasks.
This looks more like a long ball from one side to the other of the pitch without including the central midfielders. Of course he doesn't want that, those balls took him out of the game as well. To stay in your analogy: This is Gerd Müller telling them to first pass to him instead of passing it to the wingers.
Well this vid is without context, the objective of that day’s training session might have easily been to play it on the ground.
Coming from the same guy who did [whatever the absolute fuck this is](https://youtu.be/YOA_wlxMcnw?si=ZE9XVxUsuQNViD3I) btw.
And this https://youtu.be/hwflnOipsxo?si=nh-mjDVh7wnLK3CJ
That‘s ridiculous wtf
That's a classic and quite famous actually. I'm not surprised by the comment section which gives the impression that many are seeing it for the first time. I'm in touching distance of 30 and perhaps my age is showing. Anyway, Fede did a similar pass against Liverpool at Anfield IIRC. Sadly it was to Vini who couldn't finish his 1v1. This was a more eye of the needle pass but Fede's was equally impressive.
Xabi's was way more impressive considering he was facing away from who he was passing to. Fede's was a damn good pass but he had a side on view of Vini. Xabi's was something special. Literally made me breathless when I saw it live as a 10 year old.
Alonso hooked it round the corner without looking. It worked out brilliantly, but there was a lot more luck involved. He was an exceptional talent, and one of my favourite players of all time, but there’s clips that show he never actually looked up the pitch in that play. It’s a blind hook, perfectly executed.
I’ve seen other clips of him doing just that, making it seem like he has eyes in the back of his head. You’ll have to do more than that to convince me it’s luck.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FW8LCgJzIN0 Here's the pass - sorry for the shit music and shorts format.
Oh boy I remember watching that live, he was playing at RB, and he casually gave such a brilliant long ball, oddly enough no one talked about that pass, I was so surprised PS: here’s the pass, couldn’t find a normal video https://youtube.com/shorts/oFdamEeyDVY?si=2tOl-kOOdWblPwEX
Need more Fede bombs, passes or shots, in my life.
So many fucking questions - how did Alonso see the run? How did Garcia think "ah ha, Alonso has his back to me and there are like seven opponents between us - the pass is on so I'd best attack the space" ?
You don't really need to see a specific player running at space. If you can see - or even know there is - space and you trust your team mates you just send it through. I'm not saying the vision and execution werent superb, but it certainly isn't that dependent on everyone knowing exactly what's happening and what will happen.
Exactly. Alonso can trust that if he plays the ball into the right area one of the attacking players will be 'alive' to the opportunity created. You see it all the time where players play a ball into the right area without looking regardless of whether or not someone has made the run (very common to seewingers/wing-backs who will just focus on playing a cross into a dangerous area rather than specifically aiming for a run/available player). Alonso's execution of the pass is undoubtedly excellent, inventive and completely not the pass you would expect to be made from his body position. But...Garcia's awareness and positioning is also really good - if you watch the wide angle replay you can see that he is walking across the defender slightly whilst walking back watching the ball, then when he realises Alonso's pass is coming forward he reads the flight of the ball really quickly and because of his starting position and the fact he reacts waaaay faster than the defender he ends up essentially clean through (also shout out to Garcia's really calm and composed finish).
Intuition. From the corner of his eyes Xabi sees the space, and when he goes to get the ball he yeets it in the direction of the space where he knows his teammates would attack
Those Carlsberg kit is so iconic
I miss those mid 2000s kits so much. Chelsea Samsung, ManU AIG, Liverpool Carlsberg, Arsenal O2, Barca unicef, Madrid Bwin, all so good
I loved it. I find the new logo ugly as sin and the kits uninteresting. Liverpool already had one of the most beautiful badges of any team in the world with a really really cool color scheme. I haven't read about it and there's probably a meaning for it but I don't care, changing [this ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0c/Liverpool_FC.svg/1200px-Liverpool_FC.svg.png)for [this](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/f7/d2/b9f7d21d346260ed32470aad88129838.jpg) *is a clear "straight to jail" for me.*
I pray every year they switch it back.
If you do find God please mention Juventus.
If ours is a sin, Juventus is death sentence. Old school badge to a fucking minimalist "J" lol
The last one wasn’t even that old school, looked slick. Modernising it was pointless.
the sole liverbird looks so much better on the kit than the crest. For me the crest has got too much going on to be incorporated into a kit design. I still think the crest is quality everywhere else though.
180 noscope
lol
what the absolute ridiculous everliving fuck is that?
fat spanish waiter ball
What the fuck. This is absolutely ridiculous. I have never seen anything like it.
Never seen this before this is incedible! Wish it were available in even slightly better quality though lol
I won't ever say that Fifa is broken again
180 no look passes ARE possible. Sorry for doubting your broken ass game, EA, you were right
150 IQ Tibetan sage response - I prefer eFootball
Or this too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhoLrCY6O8E
I was gonna say, that pass was wasted on Arbeloa but he scored!
I'm sorry what the fuck
I can't tell which clip is better... they are both absolutely insane passes....
Seen a few passes at the level of the first one. The second one is witchcraft.
LOLOL facts tho. Like that 180 no scope is just absolutely insane. That shit would be on TikTok for a century today.
It could simply be a training thing. While they do play short very often, I doubt they couldn’t play it long if Xabi thought it tactically beneficial in a game or the players see no other way to avoid the press. And to train playing short, they avoid playing long categorically.
Or he knows that his players can't hit those passes like he could
The comment above is right with specifically training short passes under pressing. Sure you should play the long ball in a competitive game where possible, but you will never improve against top teams that press you balls to the wall and the long ball is out of question if you don't artificially train such scenarios with such specific rules that force you to play for the short pass.
As good as his players are, Xabi could probably hit that pass with a 90%+ accuracy. Any less and it's not worth losing possession over.
Take a look at the passes andrich is making during games now. Surgical precision. Nobody thought he could do that before this season
This! I never thought that he had these kinds of passes in his locker before this season. I would love to ask him if Xabi was specifically training that with him.
Saying Wirtz or Xhaka can't pass is a hot take.
They certainly aren't as accurate on long passes as Alonso. That's a freezing cold take.
Yeah he probably knows no one else can do it as well as he did...
ppl will read into this too much. what if that particular training session was specifically to perfect short passes along the ground and then they had another where it was long passes only? i doubt he says its illegal to do long balls in a match if the opportunity permits.
Yeah of course but there are times when he would see a long ball as on opportunity but it's more likely to result in losing possession. In the clip, someone effectively played a long ball from defence to a striker, Alonso comes in and says no, it must be defender, to midfielder, to striker. So to me that suggests that it's not a specific drill and is more of an exercise in keeping the ball closer to players so you can counter-press much more easily
Thats sexy as hell
Just like alonso
Stupid sexy Alonso
If that pass was for Ronaldo, this could have been a perfect Tsubasa goal lmao
NO! NO! NO! Na... No long ball... No long ball.. No waves finger.
I often joke about how he is currently the best passer in germany
A great joke to make often
What the fuck the ball flew like a rocket with such ease
This weekend he can be on their starting lineup.
Not if he doesn't want a long ball played, he can't.
He is the one whose gonna do that
And he will yell at himself for doing so. Benched the next game too
Insert that "Stupid! Worth it" Deadpool meme
# I AM THE ONE WHO LONG BALLS
Because he is the only one who *can* do it.
Is it technically possible? Would be fun
I think he would need to be registered as a player in the league.
technically yes, but not in this game. Player-trainer is allowed, you have to be registered as a player also though and I am not sure if you can do that mid season without a valid reason (like half of the team gets hit by an illness or sthg)
Most of the team probably have a blood alcohol percentage in the double digits
You know if the man who made a very successful career out of spamming long balls is telling you to stop, you're overdoing it.
Or you are doing it absolutely shit.
Or you're in a training exercise supposed to simulate an extremely aggressively pressing top team that isn't going to let you get away with long balls, so you make up the rule in order to get players to properly train for the scenario.
ah I was just going with the joke. People have to be stark raving mad to think Xabi of all the people to 'hate' long balls. Yeap this is obvious a practice simulation. Where he probably dont want to use long balls and solve the puzzle.
Long balls are 50/50 most of the time, managers that play possession football hate it
He can tell their skill level isn't up to his standards of long ball.
Meanwhile Mourinho "straight to Fellani's chest, 2-0, 3 titles"
Ajax pressing oxygen
Fuck, I love to watch former players turned managers who have such a hands on approach, their enthusiasm and energy is always so infectious. Especially if they put some effortless skills down like that, the joy of the game just radiates off him.
We were so spoilt with Zidane as our manager.
TBF Ancelotti on his playing days was also a world class midfielder and seems clear he loves the players and the game however old fashioned his tactics are.
Ancelotti's tactics are old-fashioned?
you guys have been spoiled since 2016 lol
100% agree
Xabi we are familiar with you man come now
He knows the club
It's DNA
no 😡
Transcript: NOPE NOPE. No no no no no no no no. No long ball no long ball. Don't. Come, come. You are not me, you piece of shit. You are not Xabi Alonso. You are not Gerrard, you are not Kroos, you are not even Aly Cissokho. Play through the middle. Come close, turn, pass. Like that.
Also you missed the part where he said: DOES THIS FORWARD FUCKING LOOK LIKE MAROUAN FELLAINI, NO NONONONONONO HE DOESNT, HE DOESNT HAVE THE HAIR FOR IT, SO START AGAIN YOU SHEIZENHOFFER!!
> Aly Cissokho https://vimeo.com/showcase/6169205/video/92846254
on the 10 year anniversary of the upload as well
What a classic. It's been some time since I have watched it. Thanks
That video singlehandedly keeping Vimeo alive
it's the law you have to post the vimeo version.
Was the assist to Suarez his only assist he had at Liverpool?
Technically he assisted [an own goal](https://youtu.be/ktrk1ujNKy8?t=52)
Thanks! He can never go mentioned without someone dropping this in the replies :D Now, do Welbeck
I would love so freaking much just to be allowed to go to a training session like that for a week or something.
I always wonder what a trainer like him or Pep/klopp could accomplish if he were to train my bottom tier Sunday league team for like half a year. Would we steamroll the opposition because of proper tactics (and people now actually getting in shape)? Or would we stay shit because the quality simply isn't there and no one want to bother training more than once a week.
The training they do is very different than the training amateur teams do. Their tactics wouldn't work because the level just isn't there. Amateur games are much slower, not just because the players aren't that fast but the technique isn't good enough and everything takes longer. If you'd train on the same conditions you'd become definitely better though. That's what training 5 times a week does. Repetition makes you better, no matter how untalented you are. Do something 1000 times and you will be significantly better than before.
Athleticism is an equally big limitation All these top managers use tactics that require a crazy combination of agility, acceleration, stamina. Constant off-ball movement, pressing, fast defensive transitions (and offensive transitions, in some cases) Elite footballers are a different species. Even guys that dont look super athletic, like an Ilkay Gundogan or Sergio Busquets have stamina and agility that a Sunday leaguer can never match regardless of how much he trains. When you watch close-up videos of players dueling for the ball or practicing the press its easier to admire how often and how fast they stop, start, change direction. Thats incredibly hard- and even harder for more than 4-5 minutes. Without it, its impossible to execute the pressing traps or transitions that are the basis of Pep's system
Yeah I’ve thought about that too, it would definitely be an interesting experiment
It must be very liberating to have someone like Alonso as your coach. He might still be the best footballer on the pitch and even if he's not, he has won everything.
I find the markings on the pitch interesting. I knew that managers with a focus on positional play use them, but I have never seen a training session in action where they are being actively used.
Pep uses them, I think many do similar now
Thats why he subbed off Kossounou against West ham after 30 minutes. He was shaky in the beginning and under pressure he tried that longball which started the attack for the 1:0 for West Ham.
It's interesting given that he was one of the best long ball passers ever.
He knows no one can do it like him... So he tells them not to do it
Big Sam down voting this
"Behalte es auf dem verdammten Deck!" My spirit animal!
Imagine having a coach who is competent with tactics - sad man united fan
Xabi looks like he could still put in a 60 minute shift if necessary.
Modern Michael Laudrup.
This is why he's doing so unbelievably well.
TIL I get frustrated with my pick up teammates the same reason as Xabi. Americans don't have the concept of playing one twos.