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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 01 2003 : 2:26:47 PM
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Football Commentary - with Rudolph Speid
ROEN NELSON – The marksman with no skill?
“Roen Nelson has no skill? He cannot dribble and he has no passing ability.” These are some comments uttered by some highly trained coaches, referees, football team managers, football administrators and football players from every league – Division I, Division II, Under 20 players and Under 17 players, Masters League players, Business House players, Corner League players, and even Church League and Women’s League players have had their say.
Well to hear from persons who follow the league, I did a poll at work. I interviewed a sample of thirty (30) persons out of six hundred (600) and asked this question, “Does Reon Nelson have any football skills?” A resounding 76.6 per cent said “No”.
Then I asked another question, “Would you prefer him to be on your team or the opponents team?”
Seventy per cent said they would want the man they considered as having no skill on their team. I then asked the remaining 30 per cent who said no if they were sure, and gave them the option to rethink and respond on the following day. Seven per cent did not answer, 13 per cent changed their answer to “Yes”, while 10 per cent still said no.
So Roen’s total endorsement was that 83 per cent wanted the man with no skill on their team. Six per cent did not answer and only 11 per cent did not want him at all.
If you excluded the six per cent who did not answer (the uncommitted), then more than 90 per cent of the persons interviewed wanted him on their team.
I posed the same question regarding Roen’s skills to a football team I coach and got roughly the same response.
I did further research and found that 500 goals were scored in the Premier League during the 2002-2003 season – Roen scored 30, an astonishing six per cent of all goals scored last year and 50% of goals scored by Hazard (renamed Portmore United)! I also checked the premier leagues worldwide and the leading goal scorers in these leagues scored less than two per cent of all goals scored.
Let us now analyse a player to determine if has any skill.
Football coaches and students of the game have always been fascinated with what makes a player skilful or what makes an individual a good or exceptional player.
It used to be generally accepted that:
(a) if you cannot pass, you cannot play
(b) control is everything - once you have it (control), everything else seems to falls into place.
Modern students of the game came up with different versions of what makes a good or exceptional player. However, everyone agreed that you had to possess “skills” but not only the two listed above. Of course, there are other theories, however, I will not go into those.
My theory is that, to be a good or exceptional player, a player’s skill level must be higher than the other players in the particular league. This applies to attackers, defenders, midfielders and goalkeepers. A player must be able to execute the basics of football, that is the seven tenets.
The seven (7) tenets of Football
Each time you watch a game the following seven tenets of football, are always on show: -
1. Running – as the situation requires – whether it is running off the ball, on to the ball, with the ball or just running into space. (or a player with great pace or work rate).
2. Passing – in this day of Collective Systematic Play where there is less reliance on individual brilliance, an excellent passer is worth his weight in gold.
3. Heading – a good header of the ball is an asset to any team whether in attack or defense.
4. Control – this is of utmost importance – see (b) above, and is even extended to control of oneself.
5. Kicking – this technique is often overlooked - this is the ability to shoot at goal in a variety of ways, that is kicking on the run, volley, half volley, bicycle, taking of corners, defender’s ability to clear the ball, and kicking the dead ball (ie. free kick, penalty, etc.).
6. Conducting – Jamaicans refer to this as ‘kick and run’, however, it is really the art of running at full speed by pushing the ball far in front of you but still having it under control.
7. Dribbling – this one was left for last because this is what most person think demonstrates whether a player has any skill on not – this is the ability to go pass opponent after opponent while still in control of the ball. This is very pleasing to the eye of football spectators.
No game of reasonable standard can be played without the above-mentioned principles on which the game is built; and all drills employed by football coaches are designed to aid players in improving their skill level in the execution of these tenets.
To assess a player’s skill really depends on how well individual players are able to execute the tenets of football in the particular league he plays in. Reason being is that if you are better than every other player at any one (1) tenet of football you will be a star in the league and if it is the Premier League, the national coaches will show interest in the player.
Analysis of Popular Players
Before I dissect Roen’s game to see if he has any skills, I will digress a little and discuss some players both local and international.
Local Players
Shorty Malcolm (may his soul rest in peace) and Paul Hall – the one (1) tenet they did better than every other player on the Jamaican National team was? You guessed it – RUN
Onandi Lowe – I say kicking and heading – he is always one (1) strike away from scoring due to his exceptional ability to find the goal using these two (2) tenets of football - One could never say that he is an exceptional dribbler, passer or runner.
Walter Boyd – In the Jamaican scenario, he is the best dribbler and conductor of the ball that Jamaica or the Caribbean has seen in the past ten (10) years. He also has very good ball control.
Theodore Whitmore – passing, dribbling and ball control – better than most players in the national team.
These players were able to make the national team consistently by being better than the average player at executing one (1) or more tenets of football even if their skill level is not of world standard.
International Players
Ronaldo – dribbling, kicking, conducting, running and control – this makes him a world-class player.
Beckham – Kicking and passing – this makes him a superstar who is able to earn an exceptionally high salary.
It should be noted that many international players only really master one (1) of these tenets. However, the real superstars (showstoppers) master two (2) or more. These include Zidane – 3, Rivaldo – 4, Ronaldo – 5, Maradona – 5 and Pele – 7.
No local player in the past decade has mastered more than two (2).
Back to Roen Nelson
When I watch him play he reminds me of Gary Linekar of England, Ian Rush or his clone Aldridge of Liverpool, Juergen Klinsman of Germany or Paulo Rossi of Italy. These players are not crowd pleasers but are very efficient at poaching goals.
Roen can: -
ü run – his many moves on the ball, off the ball and his tireless running makes him exceptional.
ü kick – he can shoot the ball from distance and angles, and arrive just in time to tap home the ball; he uses the pace of the pass to steer the ball into the goal, and knows just when to use the ordinary and unspectacular toe poke.
His execution of the pleasing dribble, conducting and defence splitting pass is not the best, but he has identified his limitations as a player and has maximised his output to the betterment of his team.
Skill level is relative to the league in which you play, and Roen is better than most players in his league at running and kicking. Hence, one could not rationally say he should not be the Wray and Nephew National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) based on his contribution to Hazards (now Portmore United) effort to win the National Premier League.
I could have made this article very short by just stating this anecdote: -
A commentator at the 1990 World Cup asked his colleague if Diego Maradona had any weaknesses in his game. The colleague’s answer was yes - he cannot use his right foot. The first commentator’s replied, “Well, with a left foot like that, he does not need a right foot.”
So does Reon Nelson have any skill? A possible answer would be ‘well if he can score thirty (30) goals from twenty-one (21) matches in a season without any skill, does he need any?”
So there you have it – You judge for yourself.
Next week
Rudolph Speid is a Certified Level II Coach
and Technical Director of Cavalier Soccer Club
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Karl |
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ROEN NELSON – The marksman with no skill?
