In one of his typical post-match conferences last week, Grant made a mention that we don’t play long balls anymore. Of course, he did not say that in a ‘statement-of-fact’ manner. He sounded rather proud. This brings about some vital questions – What do we mean by ‘long balls’? Were we playing long balls? Should we stop playing long balls?
We don’t play long balls. We now play with a lot of combinations and short passes. If you look at the games we create two or three times more chances than the opposition. We try to be organized between our defence and midfield and our forwards.
This is where I lose it. What’s this thing about Chelsea ‘now’ playing with combinations and short passes? I’ve seen most of our matches of the last three seasons many times over and over again. We have always played with combinations and stuff. Did you see JM’s last match in charge? That 1-1 draw against Rosenborg? Anyway, let me stay on topic – long balls.
As far as I know, by ‘long balls’ we refer to those hopeful hoofs from own half to the centre of the final third, which normally results or expected to result in a fifty-fifty header. Were we playing too many ‘long balls’ before’? My answer is no, a big resounding NO. All our attacks were through either flanks with our attacking midfielders let loose. Of course we did make many early crosses to take advantage of Drogba’s presence and that was perfectly logical and tactical. Ashley Cole and Drogba had terrific chemistry on the pitch, which proved very effective several times. If Drogba is upfront, the opposition would be hoping that we don’t attack in the air because Drogba wins the ball in the air more often than not. The long balls were never from the centre backs, they were from the wing backs from the side midfield area. So if these early crosses are being termed as ‘long balls’, that’s a very unfortunate understanding of the game.
Grant proclaims that we won’t play long balls anymore. That’s ok but wait, if ‘early crosses = long balls’, then I don’t think that’s right. Do you realise why we are not playing any so called long balls nowadays? It is quite logical because we don’t have anyone with strong aerial skills, in the absence of Drogba. To say this in Drogba’s absence is very opportunistic. But why is this ‘long ball’ a bad thing? Rafa never got branded like this when he was using Peter Crouch upfront which gave him a big advantage in the air. This season Arsenal have scored so many goals this season using those looping long balls. What is David Beckham? Longballer with no skill? Are we going to value those long shot screamers any less than the goals scored by 21 passes? To shoot from 35 yards, to get it on target and to beat the keeper, it takes tremendous amount of skill. That’s the same with ‘long balls’ too.
Even if we are going to play ‘long balls’, how many times would we be trying? Hardly a few times, which is what the top European teams would do, if they have a striker of Drogba’s quality. When you know that your opponent weakness happens to be your strength, what should you be doing?
Lots of those jealous rival fans who could not stomach the fact that we are superior to them in the air, did make silly remarks about our aerial prowess. Certainly I did not expect our own manager to mock our tactics. It is a tactic that our players and coaching staff believed in, and to disparage it while they’re all still around is not a good idea. I’m all to support Avram. In order to retain his job or to win the confidence of all (especially that of the owner) or prove himself, he need not show that his predecessors were bad. It is one thing about not playing long balls (which I don’t agree) and the other about going to the press with such remarks (which I hate!).
My verdict on this matter is very clear. The tactic that we employ depends on the strengths and weakness of our players and the players that we play against. That means if an aerially strong striker is upfront, I’d always prefer to trouble the opposition with early crosses.
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SPOT ON BC.
At last a good article about the so called “long balls”
Is a corner kick a “long ball”?????
Maybe now, since AG says we won’t play “long balls” the corner kicks will short ones.
Thanks for the article BC.
this thing about long balls is a bit inflated. i would never call chelsea a long ball team.
your new mr.manager is trying to gain some mileage over jm with the help of the press propaganda. if you look at the statistics, you’ll be surprised to see that a lot of very big teams play more long ball than chelsea.
all said, mr.grant himself seems to be a believer in long balls!!!
lol Kevin!! that’s a surprise, well that’s not a surprise in fact. knowing avram, this is certainly something he is capable of. he is the biggest hypocrite that i’ve ever known. he is a sneaky . . .
how can a manager say that he won’t play long balls? leave alone long balls . . how can a manager say he won’t play ‘X’ (whatever that may be), he is limiting his threats unnecessarily. even barca play so much of long balls but when they do it they call it nicely as weighted lob or something and when we do it, it is long ball. i knew that rivals and press were taking the mickey but how can our own manager talk like this.
avram is a big embarrassment for many of us. i wish he leaves tonight.
Is grant trying to drum it in to fans ears that this is “beautiful football”?does he think that roman will believe this s*it?
thanks a lot BC and kevin. for the benefit of others, in the last line of kevin’s post (comment#2), there is a link that shows that grant is very well known for his long ball tactics. zero tactics and all hypocrisy!
I live in Switerzerland for the last 15 years and i watched the match between Switerzerland v Israel some years ago, when Mr Avram Grant was the israel manager.
Guys I am telling thye defensive style and the long balls that the israel players used was unbelievable, they always had 10 men behind the ball defended very very deep, and the only way out was kicking the ball anywhere. Switerzerland is hardly a top team in europe but made minced meat of the israel national team, but the ball wouldnt go in, so it finished in a draw and you should see,the israel players and is manager jumping up and down as if they had won, what a crap team they were.
I can not understand how the owner of a football team replaces a successful manager with Mr avram grant, only 2 explanations, 1) he is of the same faith as the owner, or 2) he wants to select the players that play and the manager just does it as he is told.
Now he is talking about long balls, it makes laugh this Mr A grant, really clueless and talentless, but very very LUCKY, even in the CL he got the easiest of the teams in the pot.
Had he drawn another team from spain or italy I would love to see his expert tactics in action, I bet he would go completely defensive but since he is going to play olympiakos he now may use a few long balls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ball
Thats the link provided by Kelvin
@BC,
I dont know if the problem is from the browser( Mozilla) I use. I cant see the link provided by KELVIN very well. it does not look like a link until I read his second post. So i have to put the link back on so it will be more visible. Avrant Grant is the master of long ball.
I hope AG focus on his work and stop talking nonsence about JM’s era. He should try and match his achievements.
LOng balls are mine (H)
Just figured out how to add small thumbnails of our images under our name in the comments area. If any of you want your images to added as well, send me your pic.
Important: This image would appear only if your logged in (for which you have to be registered)
Look to be perfectly honest I see nothing wrong with playing the so called “Long Ball”. To me when it comes to football there are only two things I care about 1- Winning 2- Sportsmanship. Everything else is of far lesser concern. If Ashley Cole want’s to intercept a pass deep in our defensive line and thrash the ball 40-yards down the pitch onto the chest of Drogba or Anelka only for them to control it onto their feet, turn and put that ball into the back of the net who cares? They can do this every week if they want, as long as it continues to get the desired result.
BC it seems you and I are never going to agree on the whole Jose and Avram thing. I don’t particularly like Avram however he is all we got at this stage so in the interim regardless of how he may be portraying himself in the press a little encouragement towards our miserable looking Israeli couldn’t hurt.
For those of you who care my ‘local’ team Melbourne Victory the former A-League premiers failed to even make the finals this year. What a disgrace, we have Chelsea’s very own Joe Keenan on our list.
blue_victoryAUS @ 10 – I live in Sydney, thus support Sydney FC. I am going to the Sydney – Melbourne match this Sunday!
gaffer @ 5 – Lol …. that is all I can say really. No wait, it isn’t. You actually think that since Wikipedia of all sites says Avram Grant is a manager of long balls, then it is true?! Sigh … Anybody can update and change what every information page on wikipedia says. Obviously some anti-AG man or woman has just logged in, pressed the edit page button and include Avram Grant with a link to his page. Ignorance is bliss, after all.
On the topic – long balls. After reading your post BC, I can say there are two definitive types of “long balls”. The first type is when a defender or midfielder is deep into his own half and boots the ball up field. This can be seen as a clearance or an attack, as they are hoping the centre forward can do something with the ball if it reaches them. The second type is a long pass. This is when a player on the field is moving towards the attacking third and either crosses the ball into the box or puts forward a long pass to somebody in a better attacking position.
You can’t say that using these is a bad tactic, however if you rely on them as you’re sole attacking option it can be viewed in this way. If it works 9 times out of 10 and you score enough goals then it is effective. It just is seen as a negative tactic as you are relying on one player’s ability, rather than building up with slow passes, sometimes one-touch passes than lead to breaking down the defence.
Under Avram Grant we hardly see the use of the long ball tactic, even if Didier in the side. This is what AG was alluding to in his interview. He did not say anything about Jose Mourinho. He just said “we don’t use long balls”. And that is his way of playing football.
Nubskeh – BOOOOO Sydney. Great rivalry though, should be a solid turn out I shall also be at the Dome supporting the boys and boooing Ernie.
Have to admit even as the Sydney fan you are nothing compairs to the Victory fans.
Utter garbage again from Grant. Very rarely the Cole-Drogba combination plays what could be considered a long ball. Rarely. This will not change under Grant, nor should it. Cole can pick the big man out from range and leave him one on one with a defender on occasion. Works for me.
Grant is full of rubbish. It is annoying to see him try this stupidity to some of the most knowledgable fans in the world. Just say “we won again and played some good short combinations” and leave it at that. Don’t try to bash Mourinho at the same time.
I think the real problem with Avram Grant is he in insecure about his perception and role at the club. The general sporting public firstly viewed him as a Judas like spy, then they saw him strictly as the interim coach just there to fill a void and finally he is being perceived as a puppet to the rich Billionaire who sits up stairs. So every chance he gets he tries to convince the public that things are changing and point out facts (sometimes when he is the only one who sees them) to try and prove his worth. As times goes on and people being to accept that he may well be the coach for a while, he will get more comfortable with his position and have more confidence that the players can do the talking for him on the pitch.
@BC
Who are you trying to kid? if you start sayin sun rises from west will it start rising from west………..lol……….don’t ask cfc-less jose-more fans they will agree with you…………ask rival fans or post the question on a rival blog………you will get your answer
tbf your question was answered already.
[...] Long Balls — Good or Bad? Category: Chelsea Team News Tags: Chelsea Team News, Tag Index « Report: Keane secures Sidwell loan deal | Home | [...]
I would personally wish that you don’t include small thumbnails with the ID’s.
As you said this theme gives a nice “official ,serious,thought provoking” feel.That feel will be completely destroyed with the introduction of the thumbnails.
Hope you take it into consideration.
Thanks Gun The Blues. Good piece of advice. I have observed quite a few sites that use thumbnails. Believe they all looked good. But I see your point. Given that most of us do not actually login, this idea could never fly. But I intend go on with my own ‘Jumping Jose’!
TBF – im as rival as i can get, for you. i support the reds through and through. my second favourite team happens to be your first. chelsea’s football has always been about quality and spirit.
my questions:
1. do you think chelsea was a long ball team before avram came in (if you say yes, avram has made you believe that sun indeed rises from the west)
2. what’s the wrong thing about a few long balls? have you seen evra and neville play?
avram in his time in israel was known for his negative, hyper defensive 11-men behind the ball football and his loads of luck.
nubskeh – wikipedia does not work that simply. of course you can edit stuff as you like but that won’t stay long if the update is not properly supported by evidence. there is a massive team of people monitoring all the updates and edits. that’s about wiki.
now about avram. irrespective of what wiki says, i know about avram in his pre-chelsea days. he was the most boring (i mean his team) and most lucky in the israeli league. one thing he was always good at was his billionaire connections.
roman is not the first billionaire to fall for avram. do you all know that?
i think that ag is really desperate to get out of jm’s shadow, and this is getting really obvious. you can also feel sorry for him, because he has to fit into really big shoes. I think he noes a little about football, but probably his assistant coaches are drawing out the plays… one thing that can be credited to him is his ability to not polarize… with jm it was either you love him or hate him… with ag, everyone is not that heavilly opiniated. about the long ball thing, it is seriously crap… sometimes its quite brilliant when cole sends a ball drogbas way, and drog with his chest control expertly slots it in.. it is also a goal…. something that is at a premium in any game of football
The Lucky One AG should just shut the ##@%%^# up, cos even his admirers can’t handle or digest his shite
@Kevin aka xyz
very lame attemp to impersonate………………check the below post
@BC
You are right…………..i am sick of the football which arsene has brought to arsenal………………………mourinho was better………..how i wish he was the manager of arsenal…..we would have seen more of trophies
@TBF
I think you must have got my views………
@Kevin
how easy is it to impersonate………thank god i have gunners and devils as my friends[real]so i can rely on their views………lol
tbf – it shud be easy for you to impersonate as you always do it and we know that. what’s the guarantee that tbf and nubskeh are different people? BC is there anyway to prevent this?
@gaffer
first thing……………..i don’t impersonate…………..it was the first time i did it and let others know it was me…………………..bc i don’t think can really get to know who is whom even if registration becomes the norm caus there is no way to prevent a person from regestring n no of times each claiming to be a different person………….there u go………..online world is deceptive…….gaffer thanks for lettin me know it was you…………..
I’m my own person! Check my IP!
@BC
Lots of those jealous rival fans who could not stomach the fact that we are superior to them in the air, did make silly remarks about our aerial prowess.
THAT CAN BE SAID IN OUR CASE THAT WE ARE UNABLE TO DIGEST FIRST TOUCH FLAIR CREATIVE FOOTTY
tbf – but they (wenger) are not saying that they will not do it any longer, because we mock them.
TBF – if i ask BC to prove my existence with my unique ip address, will you keep away from this blog? BC pls help me and red card TBF.
Why “red card” TBF? Just curious, because even though it was suggested that he and I are the same person before, I can assure you we are different people. I am Nubskeh from Australia
why kevin?
On the topic of prevention of impersonation, here is a solution. Drop your comments in that article about what you feel about the solution.
Notable Long Ball Managers
damn
kevin you tricked us all and you your self are a Notable Long Ball Manager?
guys – avram’s name was always there in the notable long ball managers. wikipedia don’t let your edited crap stay there for too long. wait for a few days, they would set it back. god honest truth is avram’s name was in the long ball list always.
israeli press also gives the same story about avram’s only strategy of using hoof ups, not even long balls.
Robin @ 6 – i completely agree with you and sympathise with you.
gaffer
you dont need to be honest with us but you need to be honst with your self
so go to that wikipedia and see that around 2 weeks ago someone have put AG name there
today i was playing with it and i have put you name there
some one took it off and redid it again
gaffer you still a Notable Long Ball Manager!!
00:27 my time
It is irrelivent if his name is there or not. Currently the ‘long ball’ tactic is rearly used. So in my opinion he cannot be classified as a ‘long ball’ manger because his style at Chelsea is different.
“it dosnt matter how u score aslong as u score”(paulo or ashly long ball to drogba he chests or flicks it on some one gets on the end of it,not in all cases) ……..JM followed this until RA started breathing down his neck about beautiful football ………JM may have tried some thing else to improve the quality of our football at the start of the season which resulted in conceding more scoring less but now it is a different ball game no drogba so less long balls ……..
now that RA wants chelsea to play attractive or so called sexy football, his puppet AG is trying to reduce the long ball, wants to keep the ball at the feet and he succeded in doing it we are scoring and conceding less but there will be atleast one long ball per game so grant can shut up and stop boasting abt the footy we play
@gaffer
does it really matter if he played long balls with israel national team………….do u know their quality?????????????????and do you know what is the quality of the players we have here at chelsea
Come on BC by now you should know good old Uncle Avram. He’s talking utter twaddle as normal, just to (a) have another dig at Mourinho and (b) promote himself as bringing something so much better to Chelsea which we have never seen before (which we have actually). As if long balls equal “bad football” and give the impression that is all we did prior to his arrival – play bad football.
And where does all this “we NOW play with combinations and short passes” come from? Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there? Sorry Avram, hate to tell you this but you are insulting my intelligence with this guff! We have won games in many ways over the years I have been watching Chelsea play – some good games some bad some so-so and we have used both long balls and combinations and short passes before and done it often! You are not teaching the players anything new much as you would like to give the impression you are doing so.
As you so rightly summized BC we play “long balls” (a rather subjective term at times) depending upon whom we played against, whom we had in the team upfront at the time, our injury situation and so on. Grant has obviously been watching none of Chelsea’s football over the last three years, of course no one wants to rely on one style but the thing is we never have done. Great teams simply don’t and we are and have been a great team for some time now.
Every time I try to respect this guy and yes honestly I do try, he says something once again that makes me raise my hands to heaven in frustration.
I also appreciate the comment from Robin who watched Israel against Switzerland he confirmed to me two things which I have also heard about Grant from other sources from Israel who regularly watched games (when he coached the national team and ordinary teams in Israel) and they have posted about Grant not on this site but elsewhere.
(a) he renowned for his outrageous good fortune. You want a penalty in the last minute, a goal out of nowhere when you never looked like getting one? Or an offside goal given your way? Then Avram is your man! He was (and continues to be by the looks of things) always the beneficiary of incredible slices of luck at key moments during games to get him results which in turn made him look better than he was. I think the term the journalists/fans in Israel used was “Avram’s lucky arse” or something like that and it was a standing joke amongst local journalists about the sheer luck he brought with him.
(b) he played the most defensive and cautious football he could to ensure a win and took few risks unless he could get away with it. When one UK journalist was asked about Grant’s attack minded philosophy which had obviously drawn Roman to Grant they just burst out laughing!
Quite how he convinced Roman he was the ace architect of attacking football I will never know (and neither did the journalists) but he has done and we are seemingly stuck with a man who repeatedly insults my intelligence and continues to tell me that we are NOW doing things which we either didn’t do before or we should not really do AGAIN.
Do me a favour Avram, continue to win games, I can’t take that away from you and it’s great work but do me a favour put a sock in it after the match will you?
It might just stop you looking like a mug.
Correction to my last post: that should be when one Israeli journalist was asked by a UK journalist at the start of Grant’s tenure about the type of football he regularly practised they burst out laughing when it was suggested he must be very attack minded.
And yes I know he had poorer players to work with but you should still be able to ascertain a coaches style from how he puts a team together in his own ordinary league against similar levels of players surely? Seems Grant’s fame for attacking football only carried as far as Roman’s ears and no further, what a surprise.
Is it my imagination or has the edit feature gone?
just because he had israeli team does not mean he has to play 11-men behind the ball football! did wenger play defensively in monaco and in J-League, did fergie play defensively in aberdeen – those were small clubs. israel team of today is technically more sound than those monaco, J-league and aberdeen teams.
Israeli and the rest
quit talking about the wiki link. that’s not the topic now.
answer these questions?
what is long ball as per your definition?
were we (israeli, i mean chelsea here, not haccabi maifa) a long ball team before?
should we stop playing long balls at all?
don’t hide behind the wiki story conveniently.
BTW guys, I’m a new admin here. You’ll see more stuff coming from me in future.
avram is a fool no doubt ……….but i dont think he deserves the title TLO ok wigan and olympiakos(not in our hands not in avrams hands) dec jan 2006 07 we were drew most of our games now we won most this is no luck (appart from newcastle) if he was so damn lucky almunia would have got injured lehmann plays ARSENAL 1 2 CHELSEA or atleast we would have got a draw
[...] remarks on various running topics – Ivanovic would be a success, Bridge will move to Liverpool, long balls are not negative and Drogba will move to [...]
Further remarks on various running topics, Ivanovic lets hope will be a success but who will he replace? Bridge will stay, long balls are not negative it depends how and when you use them, Drogba will leave and Grant still annoys when he opens his mouth, be cautious with wiki as a source of accurate info!
Blue Devil and the rest
It was a fair question to ask me about the real topic here (long balls or not)
As you see I usually don’t comment a lot here dew to my bad spelling ‘
and it’s only when I see a 100% stupidity then I must comment. (Like this wiki links about AG is a long ball manager)
Knowing AG for so long I knew that’s cant be right, he never played long balls, so I went over to Wikipedia and learned there that any one can edit it as much as he want.
Many times here I see comments that I 100% don’t agree with but they are fair for the eye of the writer but they are nor evil or stupid.
Any ways if you ask me as you did, I will answer that it depend’s
1. The quality of your players (if they are capable of playing short passes)
2. The quality of the team you’re up against (if they allow your team to play short passes)
3. The dynamic of each game – you always know how you start and you always start with 11 guys, but the nice thing about this game we all love so much is that every game is deferent
So when wining is so important you need to see the dynamic of the game and if needed you better play long balls even if it’s not so nice.
Knowing AG (believe me I do) he will play long passes just when there is no better way at that time.
You all give here samples about the Israeli national team where Tal Ben Haim is the best player and u usually play against much better teams some times (more then you like) you don’t have any better alternatives.
Long balls is a qulity strategy implored by good managers and it takes incisive and accurate timing to use….TSO was a master of this and it paid off well thanks to Drogba and his marvelous chest….but for grant to play that that strategy instead of applying it to his game plan shows he’s just a shallow and stupid man and i think he’s just a sneaky cunny man.
LOL @ Blues_Godson.
@israeli:
Nothing wrong with long ball or short passes.
Israeli, if you real know him tell him to shut his GOB after the matches,
and to concentrate his view of the game rather then having indirect pops at JM.
He could live for another 1000 years AG will never achieve what JM has, and for
the knowledge of the game forget it.
Also tell him to take the FIFA/UEFA qualifications otherwise he may not be able to
manage chelsea in Europe next season.
Coming from Israel I am sure he can find someone to sit the exams on his behalf. lol
used2gonwatchcfc
2 bad stupidty dosent hert
@ USED2GONNWATCHCFC
I follow you around.
Now you must explain your wise comment :
“Coming from Israel I am sure he can find someone to sit the exams on his behalf. lol “
I am sure you know somwthing that most of us don’t – so please the stage is yours :
[...] Tough game. Birmingham have been playing pretty decently of late. They’ve been causing problems to likes of Man Utd and Arsenal. So we should have expected a tough fight, play at their ground. It was such a physical battle that at one point of time when I looked back all that was happening was hard tackles, loss of possession, hard tackle, loss of possesion and so on. There was considerable use of ‘long balls’ from Chelsea which was fine by me because ‘I’ don’t see them as a bad thing. [...]
[...] don’t know if it’s a curse. The day since Grant said we don’t play longballs anymore, we have been scoring in lobs, chips, high throughballs, highballs etc. As such, aerial attacks as [...]
Come again?. Barca playing long balls ?. This obvious lack of understanding about the game is the biggest problem with English fans. Barca DO NOT play long balls , my friend, they play long passes.There is a huge difference between the two.
A Long ball is a “Hopeful” ball played by the defence or midfield , “hoping” one of the attacking players wins the header to create a shooting chance. Its percentage football-No team , even with a great center forward is going to win all the aerial balls. It is basically “Hoof and hope” football, which requires very less “footballing” skills so to speak.
A Long pass is an accurately weighted aerial pass to one of the attackers. This is not a “hopeful” ball forward , it is a pass which tries to to take advantage of unmarked space around the atatcking player. The forward “Chipped” ball over the defence is another variation of this , making full use of a pacy forward and a slow defence.
Barca play a lot of long passes , so do Milan , so do Man Utd.
I have lived in Spain for the last 7 years and I know what passing football is all about. Grant is trying to do the right thing by playing football the way it should be played. Whats the point in having a great squad and playing Boltonesque football?. None.
[...] tactics. There is no point in making references to anything before and claiming improvement (that long ball discussion was unwarranted and boomeranged back). First reason is, it is certainly not a level playing field [...]
? love terry.? want to your’s form
Tactics, what tactics? Do we do tactics anymore? Thought they were a thing of the past!!! We just muddle through now, don’t we, in the hope we can remember the wise words of JM? I hope he’s coaching the lads by phone, and on the internet. See BBC Bitewise for more info!