28 Jul 2024 08:33:55
Hi Ed001, why was there such a fixation under Klopp to have opposite footed-players playing on the wings? I know it is a common theme in football now and to be fair we were blessed with Salah and Mane who weren't totally one-foot dominant but Diaz does not have a left foot and is sooo predictable and none of our wingers off any true width.
I feel that style of play just leads to more congestion on the edge of the box or countless potshots from the edge of the box, of which we have a poor conversion rate.
I know we don't have a target man to aim at in the air but I love a low, hard cross in the box that defenders can turn in just as easily as an attacking player. I don't feel we do that enough and play too many high crosses into the box that sail over everybody.
{Ed001's Note - it is about ball retention, crosses by wingers tend to be to only forward/s in the box, so it is preferred to have widemen cut inside. Then if there is a cross they are in position to attack it. It is about stats - stats say crosses by wingers give a low percentage chance of scoring, so they have become something modern coaches prefer not to utilise. It is felt to be better to keep possession instead.}
28 Jul 2024 09:52:29
Won’t be any different under Slot.
28 Jul 2024 09:59:42
I did ask the same question a while ago and ed gave a similar reply regarding wingers putting in crosses has a low percentage of goal scoring opportunities. But what is to stop the wingers exchanging sides and mixing things up. Would someone like Darwin not thrive on crosses, maybe he would benefit from instinct with less time to think.
28 Jul 2024 10:59:38
Well we do cross the ball Gaga? To say we don’t cross the ball isn’t true.
I think what ed001 is saying having a winger with opposite preferred feet gives the option to cut inside and have other options rather than just swing a cross in. Equally a full back or overlapping player could receive a pass and put a cross in, or the ball could be set back by the winger to the same player to cut a cross into the box.
28 Jul 2024 11:02:12
V noticeable in modern game there a lot less crosses than there used to be. Pity as nothing as good to watch as a good headed goal.
28 Jul 2024 11:22:52
Navy
I didn't claim we don't put crosses in. My point is a right winger who is left footed generally will not cross with his right foot, he will tend to cut in or roll the ball back to a team mate. Defenders will take this into account when defending. So why not give defenders more to think about and change wings from time to time. How often does Mo put crosses in from the left with his favoured foot.
28 Jul 2024 12:13:12
You’re right Mo never puts crosses in from the left wing.
I wouldn’t want him to. It doesn’t suit his game and negates a lot of his strengths.
28 Jul 2024 12:06:53
Our wingers didn't need to put crosses in the box because our full-backs did that. By having our wingers cut inside, the opponent full-back would then need to decide if they should follow the winger in or try and block the cross from our full-back. Either way, they have to deal with an extra body since we'd have both wingers and our CF in the box.
Have to say, we stopped doing that when our FBs started inverting though since when they did, we would become extremely narrow and have no one out wide providing any significant width.
28 Jul 2024 13:14:45
Inverted wingers are great if you let your full backs overlap them
Then the defending side can’t predict whether to hold a high line or not as you get the option to play balls in behind the back 4
It’s what we used to do so well but stopped doing in order to have an FB in midfield.
28 Jul 2024 20:45:21
Exactlly, Paisley79. Klopp created a system where it was out FB's that were crossing the ball from wide with our inverted forwards occupying the space btw the FB and the CB essentially attackiing the CB one v one while our FB's go one v one with the oppo FB out wide. A brilliant system that terrorized the whole of the PL abd CL. Also, Sadio and Salah crossed the ball a ton as well (Sadio could do it with both feet, too) so not sure what @Gaga is saying here, tbh.