Analysis of football match played on 17 January 2009

Citibank 3 - 0 Social Frees

This is the first away game played by Social Frees and it was played at the Technics Institute football field as this was the home ground of the Citibank team who has played there for several years.

We tried a conventional 4-4-2 formation to try to break down the Citibank team who is well known for their rather accurate passing and high rate of ball possession. However, the Social Frees lacked strike-minded players for this match and there were hardly any effective shots taken against the opponent's goal since most had a midfielder mentality and were content to maintain ball possession and passing it around without actually planning to take any shots towards goal. I have always maintained that a pure striker is one who must be selfish, who goes for glory himself by taking on defenders and making sure he gets a shot at goal. Our "strikers" that day were reluctant to take on the defenders and regularly back passed the ball whenever defenders challenged them. Secondly, the idea behind the playing of the ball appears ineffective. My personal view is that the effective way in which a ball should be played is that defenders should make early and accurate passes to midfielders who should maintain brief but effective possession of the ball before passing it to a more forward midfielder. However, I do not think midfielders should pass the ball directly to a striker, rather they should place the ball in a position which threatens the opponent's goal and allow the strikers to seek out the ball and drive it towards goal. Citibank played well and scored one goal late in the first half and another in the second-half while they were gifted with an own goal towards the end of the 2nd half.