Editorial note: Apologies ahead of time for the amount of repetition in some of the words used for the video (especially during the last section). I didn't realize this until afterwards and it was too late to re-record certain parts, but hopefully you still enjoy the product :)
Good stuff, I’ve always felt we are too critical of Jackson because we look at his gaffes rather than good production. The “worst hat trick ever” against spurs last season is a good example… he still scored a hat trick even if he missed a chance at more
Excellent. Will definitely give the links for the last part a read. Think we’re too harsh on Chelsea and Jackson. You allude to this but it’s almost as if football fans value finishing from a “moral” / aesthetic perspective rather than practical / outcome of game perspective. As if we only want “pure ballers” to succeed. Intelligence in terms of off ball movement is undervalued compared to its actual influence on winning games. This goes for intelligent pressing as well - Havertz is starting to get praise but is way more than a goal scorer in terms of what he brings to the team. Saliba and Gabriel essentially receive the praise for his hard work and the overall structure of the press - not that they’re bad players. Sorry for the rambling; great video!
I think people are just way too definitive on finishing ability when the reality is it's more of a grey area until further notice. Off-ball movement in possession and out of possession help so much when scaling up to the best clubs, Havertz being an example which you mentioned
I think that highest risk posed to those high volume shooters is mainly in the area of self-confidence and ability of staff, club management and coaches to shield them from those media and fan backlashes. A big part of shooting technique is an ability to automate certain decisions and self doubt placing strain of extra miliseconds on certain movements. You mentioned Sterling and for me it is a good example to support that - his best years coming in City system that was all about creating a truckload of those neat cutbacks every match with an assumption that if you can get 1 or 2 or 3 out of, let's say 7 of them you still did a great job. This would also mean that his most important contributions to the team were not directly in "ruthlessness", "clinical finishing" and other buzz words but off the ball movement, bursts of speeds and agility - you don't have to ponder if some classic striker would finish more of his chances if the whole issue of that 9 even getting in those shooting positions seems doubtful. Part of his rougher patches at Chelsea and English NT could be down to their systems placing more emphasis on different kind of chances being created, but I do think there is also a matter of support and shielding a player from his own self doubt, reinforcing in him that confidence, where even after taking 5 bad shots he does not hesitate when given the ball 6th time. I think another good example that eliminates technical aspects from this line of thought would be Morata vs Lewandowski - my gut feeling is that the former would have slightly more interesting highlight reel of training pitch tricks. But RL seems definitely more able to just keep banging his head on the wall, while I can think of several cases where early miss would derail the whole match for Morata and give him that extra half a second of hesitation in penalty box. Same goes for Timo Werner who I absolutely do not consider *great* finisher but I would not call him *bad* one either - it is more a matter of how pressure of CFC transfer, different league and different expectations influenced him and created a feedback loop, starting with him missing a couple of chances which then evolved into not getting those chances at all, or, in recent THFC matches, going for the safest types of shots and decisions. Sadly, mental confidence and its floors and ceilings cannot be measured by any kind of objective indicator so all of that remains in the area of gut feeling.
its really hard to work on his shooting motion, but you can train the final contact before the the shot so takes less of his shots off balance and slightly better locations and then improves this way. I think he could really profit from hiring the right retired striker as a coach to work on this.
Editorial note: Apologies ahead of time for the amount of repetition in some of the words used for the video (especially during the last section). I didn't realize this until afterwards and it was too late to re-record certain parts, but hopefully you still enjoy the product :)
Good stuff, I’ve always felt we are too critical of Jackson because we look at his gaffes rather than good production. The “worst hat trick ever” against spurs last season is a good example… he still scored a hat trick even if he missed a chance at more
Excellent. Will definitely give the links for the last part a read. Think we’re too harsh on Chelsea and Jackson. You allude to this but it’s almost as if football fans value finishing from a “moral” / aesthetic perspective rather than practical / outcome of game perspective. As if we only want “pure ballers” to succeed. Intelligence in terms of off ball movement is undervalued compared to its actual influence on winning games. This goes for intelligent pressing as well - Havertz is starting to get praise but is way more than a goal scorer in terms of what he brings to the team. Saliba and Gabriel essentially receive the praise for his hard work and the overall structure of the press - not that they’re bad players. Sorry for the rambling; great video!
I think people are just way too definitive on finishing ability when the reality is it's more of a grey area until further notice. Off-ball movement in possession and out of possession help so much when scaling up to the best clubs, Havertz being an example which you mentioned
Great video. It's nice to listen to a nuanced take on him when most people seem to harbor extreme thoughts about his play (both good and bad)
Appreciate it! Thankfully I don't support any clubs so it's a bit easier to not have slanted takes. All I care about is being right 😂
Great analysis
Appreciate it!
I think that highest risk posed to those high volume shooters is mainly in the area of self-confidence and ability of staff, club management and coaches to shield them from those media and fan backlashes. A big part of shooting technique is an ability to automate certain decisions and self doubt placing strain of extra miliseconds on certain movements.
You mentioned Sterling and for me it is a good example to support that - his best years coming in City system that was all about creating a truckload of those neat cutbacks every match with an assumption that if you can get 1 or 2 or 3 out of, let's say 7 of them you still did a great job. This would also mean that his most important contributions to the team were not directly in "ruthlessness", "clinical finishing" and other buzz words but off the ball movement, bursts of speeds and agility - you don't have to ponder if some classic striker would finish more of his chances if the whole issue of that 9 even getting in those shooting positions seems doubtful. Part of his rougher patches at Chelsea and English NT could be down to their systems placing more emphasis on different kind of chances being created, but I do think there is also a matter of support and shielding a player from his own self doubt, reinforcing in him that confidence, where even after taking 5 bad shots he does not hesitate when given the ball 6th time.
I think another good example that eliminates technical aspects from this line of thought would be Morata vs Lewandowski - my gut feeling is that the former would have slightly more interesting highlight reel of training pitch tricks. But RL seems definitely more able to just keep banging his head on the wall, while I can think of several cases where early miss would derail the whole match for Morata and give him that extra half a second of hesitation in penalty box.
Same goes for Timo Werner who I absolutely do not consider *great* finisher but I would not call him *bad* one either - it is more a matter of how pressure of CFC transfer, different league and different expectations influenced him and created a feedback loop, starting with him missing a couple of chances which then evolved into not getting those chances at all, or, in recent THFC matches, going for the safest types of shots and decisions. Sadly, mental confidence and its floors and ceilings cannot be measured by any kind of objective indicator so all of that remains in the area of gut feeling.
its really hard to work on his shooting motion, but you can train the final contact before the the shot so takes less of his shots off balance and slightly better locations and then improves this way. I think he could really profit from hiring the right retired striker as a coach to work on this.
That's totally fair. That + cleaner footwork would be very helpful for him to make his shooting more resilient/consistent