Coaching: Decision making

Bastian

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There could be so many different things to pick out here, but recently I've been quite perplexed by players' unwillingness to use the foot that works better with the angle presented, whether that's defending or attacking. We keep seeing Bruno taking harder shots with the outside of his right foot rather than trusting his left foot (he missed two glorious chances against Fulham doing that), and he also does this when it comes to passing. We obviously see Dalot tackling with his right which hasn't caught him out so far, and against Fulham he had space quite a few times to put in a cross but he favoured his right foot and played the ball backwards (today we then see some crazy Mihajlović cross with his left only for Amad to completely mess that up). And we saw Hojlund injure himself when he had a great opportunity in preseason to score with his right foot, but made an odd move to get onto the ball with his left (getting caught in that shite American pitch in the process).

Now I know Antony does this in an extreme sense, so the only thing to do with him would be to electronically tag his left foot and give him a shock every time he touches the ball with his left foot in training for a few months and see if he can move from a 50% player to an actual 100% footballer.

But the rest, are they not taught/told that for certain angles they should be playing the percentages?

Maybe Garnacho is the most comfortable of the attackers in this sense.
 
I was actually thinking that during the match. Not just from shooting positions but even to make a simple 5 yard pass they refuse to use their weak foot. And then they have shift their whole body position to make that pass. All these wasters should exclusively train on their weaker foot for some weeks.
 
I thought Dalot was noticeably more prepared to use his left today in general. The cross you mention for Amad early on obviously being the best example.

Antony came on and immediately put in a dangerous cross with his right which I'm sure surprised everyone.

Maybe it is something they're working on?
 
saik said:
I was actually thinking that during the match. Not just from shooting positions but even to make a simple 5 yard pass they refuse to use their weak foot. And then they have shift their whole body position to make that pass. All these wasters should exclusively train on their weaker foot for some weeks.
Click to expand...

I think Mainoo is pretty good at keeping things going even if he's having to use his left, but Bruno does a pirouette even when a counter is on. With the latter I think he's just nowhere near being a dribbler and I doubt he can improve it at this stage. But it's the shooting and the passing. And when you see players attempting some outside of the boot stuff when a simple shot or a cross would do with the weaker foot you start wondering about training.

didz said:
I thought Dalot was noticeably more prepared to use his left today in general. The cross you mention for Amad early on obviously being the best example.

Antony came on and immediately put in a dangerous cross with his right which I'm sure surprised everyone.

Maybe it is something they're working on?
Click to expand...

Yes, I noticed that too with Antony. Surely he will have noticed that himself too, I hope anyway. That it actually was functional, rather than running into traffic or smashing it into a wall of defense or trying to hit the top far corner and watch it sail over the bar, or any number of other less effective moves. I hope he is actually being instructed non-stop to work on his right foot and decision making.

I can't say I remember other left footed crosses from Dalot, but that one was too good to have been a fluke. He might actually be working on it. Let's hope so.

Hopefully we'll see Bruno shoot with his left foot when that is the opportunity next time around.

Would love to hear a journalist ask this of Erik at a press conference. (I'm sure most of them lurk on here, and some of them are posters).
 
Amad let us down but it shouldnt take that long to sub him off. You can just tell when a player is having a bad day at the office.
 
saik said:
I was actually thinking that during the match. Not just from shooting positions but even to make a simple 5 yard pass they refuse to use their weak foot. And then they have shift their whole body position to make that pass. All these wasters should exclusively train on their weaker foot for some weeks.
Click to expand...
Shaw does this all the time. There can be a 5 to 10 yard pass at most to an open player a little higher up the pitch than him. He looks and doesn't make the pass. He uses his left foot to pass backwards because of how he is facing and the right foot pass up the pitch was so simple. It just confounds me.

So many times, with so many players we stop the move or pass backward because they don't want to use the weaker foot no matter how simple the pass would be.
 
Stig said:
Shaw does this all the time. There can be a 5 to 10 yard pass at most to an open player a little higher up the pitch than him. He looks and doesn't make the pass. He uses his left foot to pass backwards because of how he is facing and the right foot pass up the pitch was so simple. It just confounds me.

So many times, with so many players we stop the move or pass backward because they don't want to use the weaker foot no matter how simple the pass would be.
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A lot of the players in our squad are guilty of doing these. It really shouldn't be that hard to use your weaker foot to pass to the man near you. I feel like they unnecessarily complicate things.
 
There it was again today, Bruno with a clear cut chance to shoot with his left and he goes with the outside of his right and puts it off target. Criminal.
 
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