Combination Play

Chelsea Prove The Point

A couple themes that have been steady companions this spring with the LMSC teams:

1. Limit turnovers in our half
2. Use give and go, 1-2s, wall passes, whatever you want to call them often
3. Once a pass is played, the passer should move to offer to have the ball back
4. If an attacker can't get to goal with the ball, get as close to goal along the goal line as possible

It's not to say that sessions have been built around these notions (though the 1-2 thing it certainly is) but that they are coaching points I make often in a variety of settings.  Here, in a single attack, we see Aston Villa lose the game in the 88th minute to Chelsea's ability to take advantage of not one but two balls lost in the AVFC half, use two kinds of combinations to get behind the defense, and a "short cross" to create the goal.

The play in pictures after the jump:

 In essence, Lampard and Hazard run a 1-2 with one another, it's just that Hazard involves a third teammate to get into position to find Lampard on the return pass: