Long range shooting

[lucio 5,418]

someone on these forums made me think about this.

Last time we won the league, we had players who could score outside the box in abundance.

We had drogba , anelka , malouda , deco , beletti , ballack , lampard , essien.

Now we have no real long range threats. Even costa , one of the best strikers, almost never scores from far out.

Hazard and oscar can to some extent, but not regularly. Remy can but dosen't play.

Is it a problem? I think it limits how we can beat packed defences. maybe we could beat sunderland and newcastle, if our shots werent coming from the likes of willian.

another thing i noticed (might not be true). I dont see many goals from crosses in open play. I remember cole , malouda , anelka setting a lot up.

playing luis would help this.

I think our attacking options needs a boost in january. reus , lavezzi or someone who has a great shot

[The Rising Sun 711]

not too sure long range shooting is that much of a problem, considering we have more points and more goals than we have had at this time of the year over the past 10 seasons.

However, regarding crossing, you are right. Ashley cole provided width for crossing which Azpi doesnt. Luiz cant cement a starting spot.

We are great at corners though, only second in attacking corners met with headers on target behind Stoke.

Considering we have this ability we should be doing that a little more, but i think its one or the other, cant have both.

The possession one-two play which we do will be disrupted if we start crossing the ball too often.

But against teams which park buses i think we should be tactically set up with 2 strikers and continuously put crosses in , as that will disrupt the other teams bus organisation and make it a 50-50 on which team players the cross gets to.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

someone on these forums made me think about this.

Last time we won the league, we had players who could score outside the box in abundance.

We had drogba , anelka , malouda , deco , beletti , ballack , lampard , essien.

Now we have no real long range threats. Even costa , one of the best strikers, almost never scores from far out.

Hazard and oscar can to some extent, but not regularly. Remy can but dosen't play.

Is it a problem? I think it limits how we can beat packed defences. maybe we could beat sunderland and newcastle, if our shots werent coming from the likes of willian.

another thing i noticed (might not be true). I dont see many goals from crosses in open play. I remember cole , malouda , anelka setting a lot up.

playing luis would help this.

I think our attacking options needs a boost in january. reus , lavezzi or someone who has a great shot

Exactly, I said this too in the stoke city pre-match thread. Park the bus always existed, its just because our ways of scoring has become too limited over the years.

We have lost long range shooting and powerful dribbling through the middle of the midfield. We had Essien who could make driving runs past players through the middle with the ball. And like you said the long range shooters have all disappeared.

Mancity have yayatoure who can dribble through bodies in the middle when people park the bus and he has bailed them out of difficult matches with his long range shooting too.

We have one way of scoring which is to shoot from the 18box or 6yard box or we don't score. Luckily our setpieces have helped us this season compared to last.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

What are you talking about? We have Mr 30 yard screamer Ivanovic.. Who almost scored in in the 94th minute v Newcastle, because he's done it so much before

(yes, I'm still mad at him.)

[cosmicway 1,333]

If you are harassed by the defender you can't do it.

Also it depends on the body's momentum and the ball's momentum, the instantaneous motion vector of the centre of gravity of the system ball-player. When those two are not right it's difficult. So you see some good looking rebounds ending up in the roof of the stadium, with the pigeons, because the ball is moving from the goal posts outwards.

However Luiz scored a nice free kick against Derby County and Willian tried three or four times against Stoke but he was unlucky once again.

[Madmax 9,219]

the instantaneous motion vector of the centre of gravity of the system ball-player.

[lionsden 4,689]

Technically our players can shoot. it just never goes anywhere close to the direction of the goal or intended target

This problem started when we adopted the Arsenal post invincible strategy of going after more nimble attacking players instead of the physically imposing and well rounded ones. we went from Essien,Ballack,prime lampard et al to Mata,oscar,hazard. . . . Even our centreback, Alex, was an expert at long range shooting back then. You always sacrifice something when you ditch robbustness for nimbleness and creativity.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Schurrle is capable of lots of blockbuster too, probably is for everyone he scores another 20 go over the bars so no one give him the chance. Watch his goals for Bayer a couple of years ago and they are full of long ranges shots.

[cosmicway 1,333]

The Brazilians know everything about the Physics of ball games (notwithstanding the 1-7 defeat in the hands of Germany).

At the opposite end of the spectrum you will find the Scots who believe it's about who kicks the ball higher in the air.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

Miss it too. Nothing better than a nice powerful 30yard screamer or a powerful towering header. But football has changed you simply see less of those screamers these sides. Even though some guys like Ronaldo, BAle, Robben are still there. They are also good example why you can do both, dribbling and shooting. I am pretty sure Schürrle, Oscar and even Fabregas will recover some of their prowess from range, but not with the consistency our former collection of all-round midfielders displayed.

IMO Willian's position should be taken by someone who is capable of producing that direct threat.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

What do you define as long range? I'd say somewhere between 20-25 yards and beyond, which means Schurrle, Drogba, Oscar, Hazard, Fabregas are all players who have scored lots of goals long range before. Even Ramires and Matic have scored long range goals. To say we lack players who shoot well from long range well is odd, we really don't, our footballing style has evolved the last 5 years, players prefer to go between the lines, play in tighter spaces, work one twos and combine more than the other players we had 4 or 5 years ago did but thats due to the different philosophy we have now. Its nothing to do with bad distance shooters, just how we are playing, much more passes in the final third, much more reluctance to shoot as say someone like Cesc/Oscar/Eden like to get his heads up when they're in potential long range shooting positions, find someone and move again and at times we are guilty of overplaying it a pass too many.

[quickpassnmove 924]

What are you talking about? We have Mr 30 yard screamer Ivanovic.. Who almost scored in in the 94th minute v Newcastle, because he's done it so much before

(yes, I'm still mad at him.)

He keeps trying to hit it first-time too often.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Problem is that our players either lack balls or have specific instructions not to shot from distance.

Schurre, Eden, Matic proved through their career that they can make long goals but neither did score for us in past year. While Eden and Matic could score,it wasnt their main strength. However Schurrle...who had dozen of long shots for bayer but he doesnt even try. He cut of one of his best abilities completely. And he doesnt develop or try anything to improve. We bought him for his long shot ability and he does fuck all with it.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

High school physics, Jai, high school physics...

[supporter 3,088]

We have a real problem with long distance shots and plays from the touch line. We signed Diego Costa and he perfect for play on a team coached by Mourinho when spaces are generated. So at the beginning of the season Costa scored so many goals. However, since we played against Manchester United and Van Gaal put to Mata to make an aggressive marking to Fabregas becoming his shadow then began our problems. From that day our rivals put their players in the box only to defend and they try to suffocate Fabregas and there begin our problems because we have less space for Diego Costa and less mobility for Fabregas.

The option of opting for long distance shots can be good. Sometimes we abuse of possession in excess and we should try that possibility. In fact Matic try shot many times whit long distance shots against Sunderland and Newcastle I think for Jose´s indications. I think Matic could be that player, meets the requirements to get goals from long distance. He has a great shot.

The other big problem we have is that if we did not score quickly we become obsessed by the game of touch and possession. That's good because we have great players with great quality, but also we should use the plays from the touch line and bottom line in certain plays sporadically. When we do that with Ivanovic (for example) we create plays with too much danger and can give us goals in situations with short/adjusted results. Having a Left winger at times it would help us a lot.

[yuvala 2,167]

I'm more concerned about the crosses.

High crosses (for heading) - we're pretty limited because Costa is probably the only target for that. But the problem is we barely even go wide, we never really have that option and its limiting. Sometimes we try with Iva but it never works out.

[Madmax 9,219]

school

[Fernando 6,585]

as @lionsden, mentioned we have adopted the Arsenal approach of trying to make a million passes to get that amazing goal.

Sometimes the most simple stuff is the most efficient.

Yesterday against the Saints more long range shooting would have maybe helped us against that tight defense.

I mean really, how do you beat a parking bus?

The 3 best solutions have always been a set play. Like corners, free kicks and such.

Stretching out the game via the wings.

And long range shots.

We are lacking on the last one because as mentioned we are going the Arsenal way of making 30 extra passes to get to the goal....

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Just lay the ball back for someone to shoot from the edge of the box once in a while. We must enter the box to shoot this season,very annoying when even the bigger teams like Southampton can park the bus too and succeeded.

[The Chels 2,502]

Just lay the ball back for someone to shoot from the edge of the box once in a while. We must enter the box to shoot this season,very annoying when even the bigger teams like Southampton can park the bus too and succeeded.

These kind of opporunities mostly fall to Willian but his shooting is rubbish.