What on earth do our coaching team do?

Wing Attack Plan R said:
Why are we playing with inverted wingers in the first place? Rashford and Antony couldn’t score in a brothel, maybe play them on the same side as their dominant foot and see what happens, can’t be a whole lot worse.
Click to expand...
I'd be somewhat up for this when Hojlund gets back, but nobody available is that big on crosses.
 
Antony's biggest problem is his left foot, not right. If his left foot was good then he could've mitigate the weaker foot. But this guy can't kick a ball, passes are undercooked or overcooked, the accuracy is hit and miss etc. He's barely a professional footballer.

I also think and I've said this many times in his first few months at United - it's unreasonable to expect him to improve significantly on his weaker foot. Not at the age 18+ if he's been playing football for over 10 years.
 
Borys said:
Antony's biggest problem is his left foot, not right. If his left foot was good then he could've mitigate the weaker foot. But this guy can't kick a ball, passes are undercooked or overcooked, the accuracy is hit and miss etc. He's barely a professional footballer.

I also think and I've said this many times in his first few months at United - it's unreasonable to expect him to improve significantly on his weaker foot. Not at the age 18+ if he's been playing football for over 10 years.
Click to expand...
Didn't he launch a really tasty right-footed cross in preseason? Technically, he can use his right foot, but seems he doesn't care to.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Didn't he launch a really tasty right-footed cross in preseason? Technically, he can use his right foot, but seems he doesn't care to.
Click to expand...
Against Fulham he also went on the right outside of his left back and put it in the box with his right foot. It was a dangerous move that yielded a corner kick. So he can definitely use his right foot when he needs to.
 
Antony is just not very good. There is little our coaches can do when a player doesn't have the necessary talent. I'm sure Antony did say that working on his weaker foot is a goal of his, though. If learning to use both feet was easy, there would be no elite level players that struggle to use both.
 
This is such a bizarre idea, that a one footed footballer (which is most footballers) at the elite level can just do a bit of extra training and then be good with their other foot. He does cross, rarely, with his right but his issue seems much more about decision making (which is coachable) and a lack of confidence/ability.
 
Stig said:
Just try wiping your arse with your opposite hand and see how easy it is.

But with practice I would get better at it. In two years he has not improved one iota with his right foot. I am not asking for miracles, just for a professional athlete to be able to kick a ball about 15 to 20 yards into a space about 12 * 12 yards at a reasonable height at a reasonable velocity. I'm not asking him to learn a new fine motor skill and go and compete at the Olympics. He is a professional footballer and if in one week of intensive practice they can't get him to a standard of being relatively poor at it within one week, and relatively OK at it within a month something is wrong. They have had two years.

I've seen him hit a right foot shot from outside the box that went high and wide, so he can use it. I think I can recall 2 or 3 kind of crosses with his right foot. We are not starting with absolutely nothing here. We are starting with a top level professional athlete and sportsman who with a little direction could improve both his ability and confidence with a weakness that he has. Why has it not been done ? That's my question.




.............. Antony added: "It has been a period of a lot of learning. I try to learn from each criticism and understand where I can improve. I have been working silently to evolve and show my football on the field. I have also been training my right foot, to make it better. I know my potential and I know why Manchester hired me. I want to repay all of this on the field."
  • 21:31, 18 MAR 2024 - It seems that he needs to spend more time on it and have a bit more support from the coaches.
Click to expand...
Listen mate, I agree with you. I've always said that kids need to learn to play with both feet from an early age.

The problem is, once they go down a route of being either left footed or right footed, mentally that's all their brains adapt too. It's like writing with your other hand, it's bloody hard when from age 0, you've probably written and favoured one hand.

But I do agree with some of your points. For us mere mortals who just enjoy a kick about, trying to play with the opposite foot will be really hard, but for these pros, they've got tons of time on their hands to practice it, its all they can do if they want, they should really be much better at it. Football is all they do.

I think Anthony's (and probably many other footballers) problem is, once they hit the pitch, they don't want to try something they could screw up, so they instinctively stick to what they know best. But technically, there's nothing stopping them re-training their brains, they have another leg, muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves...a lot of it is in their heads, so they probably shy away from it.
 
Stig said:
This may sound too basic to be reasonable but; Antony has been at United now for two seasons, I think. He shows absolutely no confidence or inclination to kick the ball with this right foot. Why on earth have we not had specific training sessions with him running down the righthand side of the pitch and crossing the ball with his right foot ?

How long can it possibly take to teach a professional footballer to kick the ball competently with his other foot ? We made my youngest left footed in 4 days when he was 14 months old. A chap, where I live, who is in his late 50s has lost his place on the right hand side of midfield to a youngster* so practiced a bit with his left foot and now plays on the left.

It's so absolutely basic - why are our coaches not addressing the problem ? He's not the only one that would benefit from this training.

Yes Giggs couldn't use his right foot, but he wasn't an inverted winger and it never hampered his game. Most players are predominately one footed, but for Antony and and a couple of others it really hampers their game and we do nothing about it, and it is a very simple problem to solve. I am sure that in one week Antony would be a better play, more productive for the team, and increase is market value when people saw him beat his man and cross with his right foot 5 times in a game.
Click to expand...
I have said this many times over the years, why ain’t all footballers coached to use both feet? It would increase their usefulness to play many positions and to be comfortable playing the ball from whichever direction it came from, whether trapping tackling passing or shooting. Garnacho and Bruno’s misses in the last game are evidence of this
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Why are we playing with inverted wingers in the first place? Rashford and Antony couldn’t score in a brothel, maybe play them on the same side as their dominant foot and see what happens, can’t be a whole lot worse.
Click to expand...
I agree. Or at least have two left or two right footers out wide as you have an option of cutting in and crossing. They could swap over during a game.
 
I’m pretty sure the 1st thing Antony did after coming on Saturday was cross it with his right ?
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Why are we playing with inverted wingers in the first place? Rashford and Antony couldn’t score in a brothel, maybe play them on the same side as their dominant foot and see what happens, can’t be a whole lot worse.
Click to expand...
Rashford has played on the right quite a lot over the years. He's worse there than he is at striker, and he's fairly poor at striker.
 
MadDogg said:
Rashford has played on the right quite a lot over the years. He's worse there than he is at striker, and he's fairly poor at striker.
Click to expand...
He sure is. Amazing the lengths we'll go to just force Rashford into the team, instead of doing the only sensible thing; Drop him permanently and get rid.

It's like some fans are more focused on Rashford's success over United's.
 
Red00012 said:
I’m pretty sure the 1st thing Antony did after coming on Saturday was cross it with his right ?
Click to expand...
You've absolutely fecking destroyed the op with one single sentence

But that would be implying that anyone in this or most threads actually watch the games and players they complain the most about
 
You must log in or register to reply here.