| Football Intelligence. 12:44 - May 13 with 4297 views | PhilmyRs |
The word is used a lot by pundits, by players, by fans. I could be wrong but I see football intelligence as knowing what to do during those key moments in matches.
If you lose the ball in a dangerous position for example, you’ll occasionally be forced to take a yellow for the team (Man U home). Sometimes when 89 minutes are on the clock and you’re winning, you don’t have to go for goal. Take the ball into the corner and kill time (Wigan home). If the opposition are attacking and it’s in injury time, stay on your feet and don’t give any needless free kicks away (Wigan at home). Just before half time if you find yourself winning and controlling the game, try and see the half out, don’t give the ball away cheaply and get caught on the counter (Villa away). If you’re winning and in total control of a game don’t give a needless penalty away (Newcastle home). In the 1st minute of a game try not to play yourself into trouble (Arsenal home). In a must win game try not to gift goals away by needless penalties and over playing near your goal, especially if you’re a defender that’s not the greatest with the ball (Fulham away). Don’t dive in and try and win the ball when you’re on a yellow, or jump in for a ball you’ll never win with studs up in a must win game (West Ham home and Wigan home)
The above are examples of the big incidents, ones that led to goals and caused us to drop points. But there are so many more examples where football intelligence has been abysmal. Throw ins — feet and back — it’s not hard to do. You win a free kick and the centre backs come forward, don’t play it short and end up playing yourself into trouble. If you have a corner try and clear the first man. If Adel is up front with Remy don’t launch high balls to their heads...
This season I’ve seen a lack of Football intelligence that defies belief. Players earning good money but not understanding the first thing about decision making and what’s required to win Football matches. I’m not of the Harry view that all our players are just not good enough. I think the problem is that we have a very unbalanced squad. What we need to do is become more street wise. I don’t believe a total squad change is necessary, we just need a few more players that understand what it takes to win games. It’s contagious, you get winners in, the others start to learn what’s required. We’ve got too many sheep, we need a few more shepherds.
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| Football Intelligence. on 12:49 - May 13 with 4269 views | peejaybee |
You do not really expect us to get players that can THINK do you,What next.!!! |  |
| If at first you dont succeed, pack up and f**k off home. |
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| Football Intelligence. on 15:27 - May 13 with 4241 views | JonDoeman |
Good post Phil, spot on, ..... thick as shit & sloppy. |  |
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| Football Intelligence. on 15:33 - May 13 with 4229 views | MedwayR |
100% agree. For most of the last 5 or so years we've lacked leadership, and a lot of the time the intelligence comes from the 3 or 4 leaders a team will have on the pitch, this year we haven't had any leaders except Nelsen so our football intelligence has been virtually non-existent. Hill as captain says it all, he's a tryer but he hasn't got the footballing brain at premiership level to be a leader. |  |
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| Football Intelligence. on 16:32 - May 13 with 4177 views | TacticalR |
It depends what you mean by 'intelligence'. Take a player like Hoilett. He is skillful and can carry the ball, but seems to have no idea when to pass. This is what Arrigo Sacchi said about 'knowing-how-to-play-football' (in a discussion about Gerrard):
"When I was director of football at Real Madrid I had to evaluate the players coming through the youth ranks" he said. "We had some who were very good footballers. They had technique, they had athleticism, they had drive, they were hungry.
But they lacked what I call knowing-how-to-play-football. They lacked decision making. They lacked positioning. They didn't have the subtle sensitivity of football: how a player should move within the collective. And for many, I wasn't sure they were going to learn.
You see, strength, passion, technique, athleticism, all of these are very important. But they are a means to an end, not an end in itself. They help you reach your goal, which is putting your talent at the service of the team and, by doing this, making both of you and the team greater.
In situations like that, I just have to say, Gerrard's a great footballer, but perhaps not a great player."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/10/the-question-steven-gerrard- |  |
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| Football Intelligence. on 16:47 - May 13 with 4149 views | Toast_R |
A very true assessment of what has been a catastrophic over site since Bolton at home August 2011.
This is essentially again down to the manager. He should be drilling the simple rules of winning into these blockheads.
Practice, practice, practice.
Set pieces, get the loons on the training ground hours at a time until the get it right every time.
Roy Keane’s account of a dodgy back pass whilst playing for Nottingham Forest which led to a goal, Brian Clough laid him out at half time and told him not to do that again. He didn’t.
Look at Sam Allardyce for example, well drilled teams with a plan and who know what they are going to do. Its then down to the opposition to work round it. QPR go out there and simply hope for the best and end up with the worst.
I’ll give Hughes his due, he did get some form of ethos for the backend of last season which scraped the club out of trouble. But he quickly forgot this when he got lost up his own arse in the summer.
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| Football Intelligence. on 16:57 - May 13 with 4132 views | TacticalR |
| Football Intelligence. on 16:47 - May 13 by Toast_R |
A very true assessment of what has been a catastrophic over site since Bolton at home August 2011.
This is essentially again down to the manager. He should be drilling the simple rules of winning into these blockheads.
Practice, practice, practice.
Set pieces, get the loons on the training ground hours at a time until the get it right every time.
Roy Keane’s account of a dodgy back pass whilst playing for Nottingham Forest which led to a goal, Brian Clough laid him out at half time and told him not to do that again. He didn’t.
Look at Sam Allardyce for example, well drilled teams with a plan and who know what they are going to do. Its then down to the opposition to work round it. QPR go out there and simply hope for the best and end up with the worst.
I’ll give Hughes his due, he did get some form of ethos for the backend of last season which scraped the club out of trouble. But he quickly forgot this when he got lost up his own arse in the summer.
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I don't think managers lay out players these days (political correctness gone mad I know). However, it was probably the only thing Roy Keane would understand. | |
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| Football Intelligence. on 19:21 - May 13 with 4084 views | derbyhoop |
He was never the greatest footballer in the world when he was 10 years younger but it was interesting to watch the way Derry played on Saturday. To me, that was intelligence. |  |
| "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky |
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| Football Intelligence. on 20:13 - May 13 with 4049 views | GloryHunter |
When Gandhi was asked what he thought about British Military Intelligence he is reported to have replied, "That would be a good idea". |  | | |
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| Football Intelligence. on 20:21 - May 13 with 4038 views | kensalriser |
A lot of the failures you've identified could and should be addressed by coaching.
All season, under both managers, we've looked like a team that doesn't have any coaching at all. |  |
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| Football Intelligence. on 12:42 - May 16 with 3981 views | TacticalR |
I am not sure if we are really talking about intelligence in the sense of understanding the flow of the game at the deepest level in the way that that Arrigo Sacchi described.
What we are talking about here is basic professionalism, craftsmanship and organisation. We seem to have at least one player who self-destructs every game. | |
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| Football Intelligence. on 15:55 - May 16 with 3899 views | DesertBoot |
The youngsters last night passed it around better than our first team.
When they did give it away they did their damn hardest as a team to get it back. |  |
| Wish I could be like David Watts |
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| Football Intelligence. on 21:16 - May 16 with 3862 views | baz_qpr |
| Football Intelligence. on 15:55 - May 16 by DesertBoot |
The youngsters last night passed it around better than our first team.
When they did give it away they did their damn hardest as a team to get it back. |
IMHO you get the odd player that has it naturally but it is a learned skill and like anything you can only gain it by experience and making mistakes, and the problem as I see it is that money and foreign imports has pervaded to such an extent is that players are not getting this experience at the highest level early enough in there careers, I think their is less intelligence in the modern game, less freedom to express . Make mistakes and learn from them, players need to be playing 1st team football at 16 / 17 /18 so by the time they are in there early 20's they have accrued the experience whilst there bodies are still able to use it and of course there is less motivation to improve when you can become a millionaire being a very average player. |  | | |
| Football Intelligence. on 10:07 - May 17 with 3825 views | canaryfan |
What amazes me about football intelligence is that a lot of footballers that DO possess it are so dim off the pitch that they struggle to formulate a coherent sentence.
For example... Wayne Rooney, a guy with an exquisite football brain, yet will respond to the slightest stimulus by regressing to a troglodyte. You can almost see the hamster going round the wheel when interviewed, realising that without his expletives his vocabulary only encompasses 17 words and 23 footballing cliches.
And even more baffling, the footballing genius Paul Gascoigne. There's a guy who possessed almost divine gifts, vision and the ability to spot a perfect pass, yet can only be trusted with rounded scissors. | | | |
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