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Composure

E

Eaglehamster

Member
Location
Storrington
Country
England
A mate who watched the game V Wolves is a neutral and I respect his view. He thought if Palace had won by three goals it would have been a fair result.

The chances that went begging were numerous. It comes down to composure when the chances come. How do you teach it? If someone new, they'd make a fortune. Players can have it and scoring is easy, then one is missed and maybe another, suddenly the anxiety is felt and scoring is nigh on impossible.

If a couple of our front men suddenly found it, we'd be up the table like a rat up a drain pipe.
 
It's not only composure, it's also having the technical ability to chip it over an onrushing keeper, or take it round him, rather than blast it straight at him. It's something Glasner could work on in training.
Think Romario. Think Totti. Think Bergkamp.
 
I don’t think you can teach this.
I’ve seen all the great finishers like Greaves, Owens and Fowler and they had this ability to finish from their youth days.
You don’t learn it in your mid twenties.
Sarr will never be a great finisher.
 
It's a mysterious thing that I suspect can be learned but is very difficult to teach. In other sports, darts, snooker, golf, etc, practice is a huge factor allied with concentration and technique. Of course some players will have a more innate to stay...what's the word sportsmen use? Centred? They may be the ones who go on to be the most successful.
Football is different because it's physically more demanding and so much is instinctive but rugby players face similar challenges in handling and goal kicking - Clive Woodward used a concept he called T-CUP (Thinking Clearly Under Pressure) where again practice was key.
Hope there are some people on here with more knowledge of sports psychology who can explain more about this.
 
That’s why Ian Wright was so good, also Clinton, Dougie and AJ. watching some of the strikers we’ve had floundering in recent years costing us points makes me appreciate what we had back then even more, natural goalscorers with a bit of composure in front of goal are worth their weight in gold
 
BromleyMonkey said:
That’s why Ian Wright was so good, also Clinton, Dougie and AJ. watching some of the strikers we’ve had floundering in recent years costing us points makes me appreciate what we had back then even more, natural goalscorers with a bit of composure in front of goal are worth their weight in gold
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also glenn Murray, king of the 2 yard tap in.

our current lot would sky it everytime.
 
BromleyMonkey said:
Yes Muzza as well

Sometimes tap ins are made to look easier than they are, would we have had the same outcome if Sarr had been on the end of Munoz flick on yesterday instead of Guehi?
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As Jimmy Greaves, for my money the best close in goal scorer, used to say - it's not about being in the right place at the right time. It's about being in the right place every time.
 
Teddy Eagle said:
As Jimmy Greaves, for my money the best close in goal scorer, used to say - it's not about being in the right place at the right time. It's about being in the right place every time.
Click to expand...

Definitely, Greavsey had to skip across ploughed fields to put the ball in the net as well.
Lineker was a master at putting himself in the right place as well, nothing spectacular with him, just putting the ball in the net when he got the chance
 
Greaves was undoubtedly the greatest of his time, but the game then was different to the game of today, certainly much slower, no pressing - imagine Jimmy Greaves being asked to press by his manager...
*edit* thinking about it, the defender in those days always had the back pass from which the keeper could pick up the ball. Energy expended by pressing makes no sense without the rule change.
 
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I remember watching Nketiah for the Gooners and thinking he had that instinct to put the ball in the net but sadly it seems to be missing. Sarr just seems to be technically poor in front of goal. His first miss was awful. As Clinton said, if you lean back the ball is always going over the bar.
 
I really hate modern footballers blasting the ball instead of placing it.

Greavsie was composure personified, he never lost control by smashing it.

He would pop up in tbe 89th minute and score, twice.

I saw a clip of him the other day having a drag at half-time, so today he would probably struggle to keep up.

Memories......


🙂
 
As we were playing wolves it reminds me of the great Steve Bull, that man knew how to put the ball in the net. Although he didn’t do it in the top flight, it gained him England caps and I always remember him scoring against the Jocks at Hampden Park
 
Palacesince64 said:
I remember watching Nketiah for the Gooners and thinking he had that instinct to put the ball in the net but sadly it seems to be missing. Sarr just seems to be technically poor in front of goal. His first miss was awful. As Clinton said, if you lean back the ball is always going over the bar.
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He scored a hat trick in a European game if I remember right and they were comparing him to Ian Wright 🫣
 
I think composure is learnt when you’re 8 or 9. Some kids develop the art of side-footing the ball past the keeper whilst others just rely on power, head down and blasting it in the general direction. It’s the side-footers who develop the guile, composure and ability to outwit the keeper in an evolving cat @ mouse dual whilst the blasters keep slogging away relying on a large dose of luck to find the net.

Ian Wright, Glenn Murray, Robbie Fowler, Clinton Morrison, etc etc are all good examples of a striker with guile/composure.

Unfortunately we seem to have picked up a couple of unsubtle ‘head down, blasters’ over the summer. It’s no coincidence that these type of strikers anxiety levels go through the roof when they can’t find the net as they rarely have a Plan B. Benteke was another good example of this and Liverpool found him out very quickly unlike us who persevered with him to ridiculous lengths because he cost so much. I just hope to god history doesn’t repeat itself with Nketiah.

I wonder if Parish and Freedman really know what they’re doing when it comes to choosing strikers.
 
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Some of it is confidence. For a long time Mateta seemed to have very little composure. Then suddenly it clicked in the latter part of last season and he was finishing them from everywhere. Having said that what we are seeing from Sarr and Nketiah is exactly what they’ve shown throughout their career. I can understand the Sarr purchase as he adds things with his general play. £30m for Nketiah though …
 
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