Watching clips of him I notice that he’s so good at using a dummy to fool defenders. It’s something I always wonder - why can’t all technically gifted attackers pull off a good dummy? It hardly seems a very demanding skill. Alright someone like Messi is so obscenely talented that he just uses body feints and close control so he doesn’t need it. But I remember even someone like Gerrard who wasn’t particularly a great dribbler used to be quite efficient with a dummy. Then you have players like Sancho and Antony who Ive barely ever see doing it ? Sancho did it twice once to VVD/ Milner and then this past weekend I think. Both were so effective.
His swerves work for a number of reasons:
- he can go either way, which means him standing a defender up already has them in his spell because he uses their discombobulated state to determine which side he'll actually break out on. Only players with great feet, balance or both can genuinely go both ways as opposed to trying to find the opportune moment to use their favoured foot, which is where a canny defender can ignore some of the swerves knowing the illusion is more about getting the ball onto their favoured side/foot.
- he's aggressive, which means defenders have to be equally committed to every swerve because if they are not, he's already beaten them. His conviction deviates from the norm because few players can burst through at any given moment to make those dummies so sellable and believable.
- fear. Simple as that. His reputation as a dribbler precedes him, which has defenders on hot coals the moment the engagement begins. The fear connects all previous points together because the mental load he puts on them is way above the norm - if every commitment you make is potentially the wrong action, it leads to the comical brain freezes that make it look like the matrix. Most defenders lag when faced with exceptional dribblers, or, they overcommit in panic, both being the wrong answer, but not something they can help doing.
- there's also the issue of how you win the ball against someone like him. He is strong, he has very good acceleration and his turn sleights are absurd, which means if you don't hit his central mass, he'll literally power past you regardless. Defenders can either attempt to go for the ball itself or attempt to take out the man; most times skilful dribblers are knocked off the ball by touch tight defenders rather than tackled - to nail kvaratskhelia with enough bodily force to stop him, you've got to line up well enough to knock him out of his stride. He doesn't give defenders the chance to try that very often, and has a penchant for rolling them with 360's or various degrees of spins when they do. This means they are scared to get close enough for that kind of engagement, which again leads to comedic standing off or confused, momentary pauses that seem to simply let him by.
None of this is unique to the player, just dribbling 101 beyond a certain level, just we don't see it engendered often because dribblers of that calibre are rare. Figo might be a good comparison for the height, build and the way he'd slalom without challenges seeming to come his way as often as they supposedly should plus the fact he too could and did go either way as the scenario determined.