AJ’s goal (more good coaching)

Here for now (but it’s YouTube so may not last).

And my own version:

This gives me the chance to use my much-neglected coaching notebook (with pitches on the pages!).    Taking frame grabs from the video would take forever and not really convey the passing so well, so I thought I’d just draw the thing.  I’m an artist and a half, as you can see.

Stuff to note:

Fredrik Stoor is well forward.  How often do our fullbacks usually attack away from home?   Not at all often is the answer.  He was right on the corner of the box when he received Murphy’s initial pass.

Lovely quick interchange then: Murphy to Stoor to Zamora to Murphy.  Then Murphy turns and threads a perfect pass through, almost without looking.   Hmmm:

This from page 37 of Massimo Lucchesi’s book on Attacking Soccer.  Okay, it’s not the same goal, but you have full-back to centre-forward 1 to midfielder to centre-forward 2.  It’s the same sequence.   Again, it’s likely that this is the sort of thing the team works on in training all the time.

From page 32 of the same book:

It is essential that the play should be quick, crisp and adapted to opponents’ weakness.  In the finishing touch phase it is vital that the players should move quickly and in time with each other…. It is important to see how the joint movements of two or more advancing players can create space for another teammate to take possession and attack from there.

Indeed.  Stoor high on the right to pull defenders out of the middle; Zamora drops off and pulls two defenders; Johnson attacks the space; bang!  Still needed a high degree of skill to make it work, but again, that’s where the practice comes in, right?  Good work, team!