Quote Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn View Post
Nobody needs to be able to trap a long ball, they just need to be able to run and time that run. Besides, Nwaneri is superb at trapping the ball, as we saw last night. Any of them can play a long ball, except Raya who seems to be particularly poor with distribution beyond 2 yards. Nobody is saying keep hoofing for the whole 90. But FFS, just mix it up a bit. Take the painful predictability out of our play. That moment last night when the wide man (was it Trossard?) got the ball on the left and the overlap was an underlap - ridiculous, absurd, frustrating, boring, tragic, should be illegal. It's sad to see Nwaneri already learning to play with his back to goal. Horrible. At one point last night I noticed every player beyond the carrier at the halfway line had his back to goal. It's like they are allergic to pressurising the opposition defence, like they are our mates and we're patiently waiting for them to get their shit together before we launch a vulgar and unprovoked attack against them. Surprised we don't issue a written apology when we get the ball in their box.
Of course you need to be able to trap a ball that’s been launched at you from half way up the pitch, are you expecting it will just land neatly at your feet without having to cushion it with your head or chest or bring it under control with either feet.


You also need to have a degree of physical strength to hold off the opposition players who get paid to make sure you don’t receive that pass unimpeded.

Honestly it defies fucking logic the way some people speak on here. You act as if turning base metal into gold was a scientific breakthrough rather than a magical fantasy