Rule 1
Before and after catching ball, you should always turn your head left and right to observe situation on field. At same time, you should also pay attention to whether teammate you are going to pass ball to is then defender opponent.
From animation below, if you watch Harvey's head carefully, you'll see that he turns his head left and right to look left and right as he runs to answer.
Rule Two
Keep a position that always keeps a certain distance from all opposing players so you can easily handle passes from your teammates.
After observing, I found that there was no teammate on left side to answer, and there was an opposing player next to my left side.
At this time, Harvey chooses a certain degree of flank run to increase his distance with his opponent.
At a certain distance, Harvey can easily receive a pass from teammates.
Rule Three
When you have ball and an opponent is not approaching, you must immediately turn to face opponent's goal so you can see position of each teammate in frontcourt.
Even though you already know there are no opponents around you, do you still need to look around before catching ball to see if there are teammates in front of you who are in best position to catch ball at that time?
Normally, if a defensive midfielder doesn't observe himself in advance when he receives ball in animation below, he will usually decide to pass ball back to his right back again.
However, since Harvey was constantly turning his head left and right to get best view of situation behind him, he knew that there was a safe zone behind him, so he decided to turn around and move forward after receiving ball.
Two principles apply here:
Always watch field.
The ability to quickly change options after better ones are found.
Rule Four
Pass ball to a teammate who can receive it 100% of time.
In animation below, Harvey can pass ball to a teammate above screen when he holds ball in this position, but since he sees an opposing player approaching that teammate, if he passes ball to that teammate, teammates on team will be due to fact that we often stop passing ball to teammates on TV.
Each of opposing players has a 50% chance of getting ball.
The smartest approach is to pass ball to safest teammate in a position where attacker can't move forward.
For example, pass ball to a central defender or goalkeeper, but you must master power of the pass.
Rule Five
When ball is received by an opposing player, it is best to pass ball to another teammate within a foot or two.
One hit on ball.
Throw ball with both feet.
It mostly depends on form on field and whether there is a good and reasonable exit point.
Rule Six
After catching ball, opponents will immediately surround you, and if you can't find exit point first time, you need to protect ball with your body until you find exit point.
Before you receive ball, you find that opponent is already approaching you, and you have not yet found a suitable release point.
You need to use any kind of dribbling technique, such as inside and outside turns that you are good at, small movements, etc. to get around pressing opponent,
It is also better to keep your back to pursuer so that opponent has almost no chance to steal ball.
Rule Seven
During a crisis, ability to make decisions in a fraction of a second.
For a midfielder, both offense and defense play a key role in team, so ability to make intelligent choices at critical moments is one of essential qualities.
As to which choice is more sensible, everyone should watch more games, play more games, and sum up more. Later, gentleman on home page will also elaborate on this topic.
Rule Eight
Have ability to accurately pass a long pass.
When opponent has amassed a large number of defenders in center, leaving almost no room to advance in center, you need to use your own accurate long pass to shift direction of attack to the side.
Unconscious factors
In addition, to become an excellent midfielder, you also need to have superhuman physical fitness.
The image below is a heat map of Harvey during race, where we can roughly see area covered and distance covered.
And he always tries to stay close to ball (especially on right half of court) in order to better help whole team maintain control of ball.
If you don't have a certain level of fitness, you want to connect past and future in game, as well as communicate and interact with your teammates. Needless to say, everyone knows that this is almost impossible to achieve.
Everyone knows how accurate Xavi's pass is, whether short or long.
Harvey retreats to rendezvous with his teammates.
Harvey's front fork meets his teammates.
Source: Eleven
Your attention is Xiaobei's biggest motivation!
May 15, 2023
