by Hoop Blah »
23 Aug 2010 12:53
brendywendy F*ck all point Long or anyone else winning plenty in the air if there is no other player nearby to take advantage of that.
not much else a striker can do with a long ball pumped down in the air to him other than flick it on.
that there was no one running past him, despite him clearly winning more than his fair share of headers, isnt his fault, but its no surprise the long haters are using it to berate him
It does highlight his limitations though.
I don't blame him for a lot of it because he's not being given a hell of a lot to work with, but a player more suited to the role, or just better in the air (not tha Long is shabby at winning flick ons), may have made better runs to give his team mates something better to aim at* or been able to win a few more headers and actually direct it towards areas his team-mates were more likely to be getting into (remember the likes of Ferdinand and his ability to pass the ball with his head as opposed to Long who just aimlessly flicks it).
* a lot of the long balls were pretty desperate clearances from the back in which case Long can't do a lot about it and he did suffer from our lack of composure at the back.
