Greatest Of All Legends-Chapter 653: Solution

’How pathetic, freaking out over something like this. I’m acting like a child,’ Jason scoffed at himself.

"If you’re having problems breaking through, then either you’re doing it wrong or you have somewhere you need to improve," Ronaldo suddenly said.

"Huh?" Jason turned to Ronaldo.

"Which is it? Do you think you’re doing it wrong or is there something you’re not good enough at yet?" Ronaldo continued calmly.

"... Uh, well, I-uh... don’t really know which one it is? I mean, I’m obviously not perfect, but I should be able to get past him in a different situation, but at the same time, I definitely have places I can improve in, like my playing style," Jason explained.

"Hmmm, okay, let’s go back a little bit. What was the problem?" Ronaldo asked, his tone sounding nonchalant, but Jason wasn’t paying attention to his tone.

"Okay, so, in that match, what my marker did was to maintain a distance close enough to hinder my movements, but far enough that I couldn’t dash past him easily,"

"Literally pure zonal marking. If I tried to dash past him, he would just insert himself between me and the ball and hold me away. He never committed to a tackle unless I got too close myself and he was excessively aggressive as well," freewebnσvel.cѳm

"Now, I don’t mean to doubt his professionalism, but Udinese is a bottom mid-table team at best and a Serie B team at worst,"

"If I’m struggling because of this type of tactic when it is being used by someone playing for Udinese, what am I to do if I go up against a team that is way stronger than them?" Jason laid bare his troubles, explaining the problem.

"Hmm, okay. I see the problem," Ronaldo nodded thoughtfully.

"... To solve it, you’ll need three things," Ronaldo continued after thinking for a while.

"Oh, this I want to hear," Mckennie reacted even faster than Jason. Even Cuadrado was all ears as advice from someone like Ronaldo was guaranteed to help any football player, even a goalkeeper.

"These guys," Ronaldo laughed.

"Anyway, three things. First one, watch the game, second, off the ball movements, third, use your teammates,"

"I’ll explain each of them one by one," Ronaldo continued, noting the confusion on Jason’s face.

"Starting with the first one, watching the game. I’ve noticed since a while ago that you don’t watch the game, you watch the ball,"

"Only when the ball is coming forward and it seems like it’s coming your way do you begin to move, other than that, you’re mostly just standing there," he said.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?" Jason asked, even more confused than before.

"Watch for opportunities and create them. Let me give you an example... would you say I’m a game changer? Someone who appears in the right places at the right time, or knows how to start and finish attacks in dire situations?" Ronaldo asked his audience.

"Yeah," Jason nodded.

"Definitely," Cuadrado echoed.

"Thats’s for damn sure," Mckennie replied as well.

"Next example, have you watched Messi play? I’m using him as an example because your playing style is more similar to his than mine," Ronaldo continued his explanation, speaking directly to Jason this time.

"Yes," Jason affirmed.

"Good, I’m guessing you’ve noticed not more than once that his eyes are always darting around the field. As long as the ball is far away from him, his head never stays in one place, but once the ball gets to him, he begins moving like a ghost,"

"You can’t stop him and he moves himself and the ball around without so much as a glance in the direction he’s moving the ball,"

"The reason he can do that is because he’s already informed. He spends his time watching the game like he’s an outsider, and in doing so, he sees a lot of things that others wouldn’t see and with that he can create a chance using what he has seen,"

"So what you are going to learn is how to watch the game like that and then using what you’ve seen to create a situation where you wouldn’t be stopped by your opponent," Ronaldo paused for a breather.

"I also do the same thing, but the way I use the information I have seen is a lot different from how a playmaker like Messi will use the information. You need to find a way to use the information for yourself,"

"The second thing you’re going to have to work on is your off-the-ball movements. This is very important and is linked with the first thing I said. If your opponents have found a way to stop you when you have the ball, you have to find the optimum position you have to be in when you want to receive the ball,"

"However, that’s only part of it. With agility like yours, you can do something even better," Ronaldo’s words got Jason at high alert.

"What?" he asked.

"You’re American so you’ve watched those Americans play that thing they call football... even though they never actually kick the ball," Ronaldo asked Jason.

"Yes," Jason replied quickly, nodding.

"Then I’m sure you’ve seen how those receivers run and dodge their opponents before they receive the ball. You have a similar level of agility like those guys, so I was thinking that maybe you can find a way to make darting confusing runs like that that will make it very difficult for your markers to keep up with you when you start moving,"

"Actually it’s just an idea. It will be very difficult to actually pull it off because not only will you have to perfectly time your runs so you avoid being offside, but you’ll also have to have a very good teammate that understands your playing style and who can send the perfect passes you’ll need. Also, running like that is very stamina draining, so like I said, it will be difficult," Ronaldo explained.

"Oh, that’s a pretty interesting idea. Jason does have very high agility and can easily turn at high speeds," Mckennie said and Jason nodded his head, agreeing internally, after all, that was his only ’real’ talent.

However, like Ronaldo had said, it would be terribly difficult to pull off and implement such a style of running into his gameplay.

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