Passing is extremely poor. Sloppy as a -beep-. Our poor passing exposes our poor defense a lot more. Berna's poor pass today that lead to their goal was just one of many each game. Pirlo needs to make them find focus. Passes in general are always on feet, typically behind. Never in the space in front. Not just on counters or in attacking phases but in all phases. So many times a very simple pass 1-2 meter further forward would have opened so much space in defense to allow a counter or escape opposing pressure.
Pirlo is clearly not risk averse (as he states) but there's a difference between risk averse and proactive/risk-seeking. You can't just push everyone up to "own spaces". Even Pep and all other gegenpress/total football coaches set ups shapes to cover ("occupy") all relevant spaces. If the first press doesn't work the shape is there to ensure there's cover. We look like we just run headless and when it doesn't work there's acres of space between the 75 players pushing up and the 1-2 players left back. I understand it is Danilo's duty to cover that supposed space, but we need a shape and better cohesion. It's way too early to assign all these wrongs to Pirlo, I just hope he takes it seriously. He seems knowledgeable so I trust he will be able to take care of it over time. It's just annoying to see it right now, given we come from a year with no shape, no cohesion and so on, just relying on the brilliance of Dybala and Ronaldo.
Pirlo is clearly not risk averse (as he states) but there's a difference between risk averse and proactive/risk-seeking. You can't just push everyone up to "own spaces". Even Pep and all other gegenpress/total football coaches set ups shapes to cover ("occupy") all relevant spaces. If the first press doesn't work the shape is there to ensure there's cover. We look like we just run headless and when it doesn't work there's acres of space between the 75 players pushing up and the 1-2 players left back. I understand it is Danilo's duty to cover that supposed space, but we need a shape and better cohesion. It's way too early to assign all these wrongs to Pirlo, I just hope he takes it seriously. He seems knowledgeable so I trust he will be able to take care of it over time. It's just annoying to see it right now, given we come from a year with no shape, no cohesion and so on, just relying on the brilliance of Dybala and Ronaldo.
