Technical Skill

Skill & Training

Gervinho played the full 90 versus Sunderland this weekend for Arsenal.  As a winger, he rightly led the team in "dribbles attempted" according to OPTA stats.  However, he also took the high water mark for the entire league stretching back to February, 2006.  How many times did he dribble with the ball?

20.............

In almost seven full seasons, the most times a player has run with the ball against an opponent (versus into open space) is 20.  Each of the 20 teams play 38 matches per season (EPL only, not FA Cup, Carling Cup or European tournaments) which gives us 4560 games over six full seasons.  410,400 minutes played by 11 (usually!) players: Four point five million man-minutes played.  20 dribbles leads the pack.  By comparison, Gervinho out-dribbled the entire Fulham side by more than double (9 attempted dribbles as a team) and the Cottagers were enjoying a 5-0 romp over Norwich (click the Sunderland/Arsenal link above, and scroll down past the bit on Gervinho to see the Fulham/Norwich numbers).

Now, those of us who believe that the best way to learn to take a player on is by playing more games...please.  The sheer ridiculousness of such a notion is laid bare here.  In 10 minutes, an organized coach can get 10 players 20 dribbles each, under pressure - to goal if you like!

Watch this clip of Christiano Ronaldo being tested in some creative ways on Sky Sports.  Imagine the number of times he has to be in these situations to establish the level of precision and mastery he demonstrates.  Sport skill, in the final analysis, comes from correct repetition...and it is both far easier and efficient to engineer training situations than to let the competition phase provide the volume needed.