You can't coach pace

[Jangle]

Joshua King of Blackburn Rovers is killing Stokes' backline with his pace. He's like a fox in a hen house.

[Stonigut]

Yet we insist on developing slow players in our system all the way throughout, the skilled cool dude who don't want to run and tackle and is a midfield god in communities across Jamaica, not one has cut it outside Jamaica except Andy. We insist on developing these type of players, I would love to see two prototypes of the DM and cm being rudi Austin with better passing and cazorla at top. We should have these type of players running off the production line, these are the most important positions in football and these two positions we have the worst track record in producing even Mls level quality.

[Karl]

We have them...but like Herod we kill them young

[Stonigut]

Did you see the article on the literal obliteration of males (I exaggerate) but close to it and the rise of the female management/administrators in jamaican business and any place where something needs to be actually done. Well reggaeboyz football culture and the seems to be the very embodiment of that negative trend, which is a part of the reason why outside of speed our players are plain uncompetitive in the various world leagues.

[Assasin]

Stony can you show me these players in Jamaica that you are talking about???

Over the years Jamaica had some good midfield general ala Skill Cole, Tappa, Andy etc. Andy was the last one, Hue was decent but wasn't given the chance but after Hue, show me that player today. You need speed but you also need a deceptive man on the field or two to feed the speedster. Speed by itself without the ball and outlet is no good. Currently we are in a desperate state where we have no midfielder and the speed can't get the ball or can't deliver the output. We have Shelton, Brown, Dane, Mattocks, Powell, Demar to name a few, all speedster but just pushing the ball with speed without deception can be VERY easy to defend.

[Stonigut]

I am looking specifically at our golden era which is 1994 to 2015 we have exported a total of one attacking mid that has contributed in a meaningful way in a top twenty world league, Andy, look at all the other positions we have multiple players everywhere else with dm and centre half probably the next worse areas after am. Austin is really the only dm is we have produced in last thirty years who has contributed steadily in a decent world league and at ch we had a few championship and epl player. Centre half and dm actually require speed and physicality in a way that am does not but the guys we have produced at am just have not been athletes in any true sense of the word, the best being tappa, Andy and hue over this period with only Andy being productive as a day to day player in a top league, even Tappa in the third division was not productive in a measurable way thus never really got that far. Andy was always slow, hue very slow and they were weak defensively as well. Look at guys like Toure and diame, CaZorla, rodriguez, Ozil all are fast or much better than average speed.

It is not the speed itself that matters it is the advantage that the speed confers to the player, if you are always arriving a microsecond later then you have lost the advantage, so if you are faster and also think faster you are combining advantages. We are producing players with slow reaction time and just plain slow speed that combination means no advantage so when you get to better players you have shot yourself in the foot twice, against rspl it looks great, against others it looks like you have no business playing thus no pro clubs want any of our am players at all, our advantage is producing fast, physical players with some skill so we do well producing wing backs, wingers, flank mids and forwards, our best players there are consistently faster than players even in the best leagues.

What we need is Andy skill and vision in a superior athletic body, that player will dominate. We were very excited about jevaugh it seemed like he had it all, size, speed, skill but still missing something to play that position.

[Assasin]

I the big problem with our midfielder is we have no one who can make a accurate 15 yard pass. The last good pass we had was from Hue to Dane Richards in the qualifiers. We need a midfielder who can pass over the top and switch wings quickly and accurately.

It seems like Jason Punceon is the been recruited, I like his game, and passes accurately. Hopefully he can bring that to the team.

[Willi]

Tell dat to the pace bowling coach!

[Don1]

Stony can you show me these players in Jamaica that you are talking about???

Over the years Jamaica had some good midfield general ala Skill Cole, Tappa, Andy etc. Andy was the last one, Hue was decent but wasn't given the chance but after Hue, show me that player today. You need speed but you also need a deceptive man on the field or two to feed the speedster. Speed by itself without the ball and outlet is no good. Currently we are in a desperate state where we have no midfielder and the speed can't get the ball or can't deliver the output. We have Shelton, Brown, Dane, Mattocks, Powell, Demar to name a few, all speedster but just pushing the ball with speed without deception can be VERY easy to defend.

Excellent Sass

Jamaica desperately needs a couple midfield organizers who can hold the ball, turn in tight spaces....creating space, time and passing lanes for strikers in the final third...then have the the vision & skills to execute passes resulting in goal opportunities.

Is that too much to ask???

Snow ballas generally don't have those close, creative skills... it's bred out of them in the manicured but robotic Babylon environment

Develop di yutes mi seh

[Jangle]

Yet we insist on developing slow players in our system all the way throughout, the skilled cool dude who don't want to run and tackle and is a midfield god in communities across Jamaica, not one has cut it outside Jamaica except Andy. We insist on developing these type of players, I would love to see two prototypes of the DM and cm being rudi Austin with better passing and cazorla at top. We should have these type of players running off the production line, these are the most important positions in football and these two positions we have the worst track record in producing even Mls level quality.

Spain and Barcelona don't play with defensive midfielders. All their players are comfortable on the ball and attack and defend as a unit. Barcelona's philosophy is to win back the ball when they lose it in 5 seconds.

[Stonigut]

We can't play tegat type of ball, would be nice though. We must play to our strengths, speed and roughhouse tactics. Otherwise known as 'hold the fort, harass and disrupt and counter fast and hard upon winning the ball with the opponent in disarray'

Perfect for our kind of athletic players who with discipline of the highest order would be extremely hard to beat.

[Karl]

Yes, I saw the article...but tell mi sumting, are you saying a woman should lead the JFF?

[Karl]

We have the talent...always have had and currently still do. Unfortunately we lack the teachers.

[OJ]

Yet we insist on developing slow players in our system all the way throughout, the skilled cool dude who don't want to run and tackle and is a midfield god in communities across Jamaica, not one has cut it outside Jamaica except Andy. We insist on developing these type of players, I would love to see two prototypes of the DM and cm being rudi Austin with better passing and cazorla at top. We should have these type of players running off the production line, these are the most important positions in football and these two positions we have the worst track record in producing even Mls level quality.

This is a great example of mixing up pace or raw speed with speed of play. Jamaica has pace but lack speed of play which is quick ball movement and support to achieve one touch play. They are different things. Barca is one of the slowest teams pace wise but one of the quickest in terms of speed of play!

[Stonigut]

OJ I think you miss my point on this, I am saying our attacking mids are slow of pace and slow of mind, a wikid double whammy, so when they get into leagues with better athletes they cannot compete at all, pace or speed at least buys you an advantage, we have not yet figured out how to identify players with quick reactions and thus faster speed of play, so we must find mids who are actually faster and more combative to make up for the disadvantage we already have on identifying the players with best brain to body reactions.

What we do know is that speed, aggression and desire can shut down Spain and Barcelona for all their vaunted speed of play and thought, a little body and lots of speed change the physical dynamic, that is why I am always advocating for choosing the best athletic footballers we can find and play the defensive, pressing counter attack game perfect strategy against the skilled teams.