Happy New Year — Sretna Nova Godina!

I hear what you are saying Anon. Your logic is sound and your creative problem solving is a breath of fresh air.

What I’m saying is that people who haven’t played good level football (and also many of those who have but lack the intellectual capacity to analyse what they themselves are doing) don’t seem to understand what the actual mechanics are in a game of football. This has always been the case, but in recent years it has become exacerbated as a result of the technocratic bourgeois take over of football culture. Among the factors involved in this take over is the obsession with statistics. Because if things can be mapped quantitatively allows educated geeks (who have never played football, because football is a working class game) to express an expertise over the game. The reality is that the “eye test” of a person who understands the game is infinitely superior to any statistical model.

The hardest part of playing in any position. (Ok maybe not “the hardest” but rather the subtle key.) are the small small elements of body positioning, timing and movement and first touch which are uniquely useful for a player ONLY in that position. For example, let’s take defending crosses as a central defender. You can be big, powerful in the air, fast and with technique like beckenbuar, BUT you will still be a rubbish central defender if you do not have it in your muscle memory to position your body automatically so that you can see the attacker you are marking and at the same time the ball on the wing. This is a tiny detail, but it means absolutely everything. If you don’t do that the striker will lose you and they will score. It doesn’t matter how big strong fast good at tackling you are. All of that means zero if you lose your man. That is not something you can teach quickly. The game moves so fast it has to be automatic.

It’s the same for any position.
Striker:
The striker has to do something where his/her steps take the defender a step towards the ball and create the space to receive to the side of the defender. It’s like a ballroom sequence. It’s one step towards the ball, one step backwards, (lateral pitch wise) and a third step forward. This is how strikers make space. Then the touch has to be right for a striker. The runs and moves have to be timed perfectly. The runs have to be curved with the right arc. All these things have to be unconscious and instant. You can’t be thinking about it, there is no time, it has to be natural. Mario pasalic has those striker movements and touches. They come naturally to him. I can see it when he plays. It doesn’t mean he is GOOD at them, it just means he DOES THEM. a player who doesn’t move in that way can’t play in that position. It’s a simple as that. It’s got nothing to do with the quality of the player or their attributes. It’s about what their natural movements are.

Of course any player can play anywhere. If livakovic played as a striker in Sunday league he would probably be quite good. We’re talking about the World Cup here bro. Lmao