As is the way with threads when they have the appearance of being dense and/or circular, the point is often lost.
In some quarters there seems to be an almost hysterical hatred of any pass that is longer than 10 yards...no idea why, surely the point of football is to seek a team-mate no matter where they happen to be on the pitch? I grew up on a diet of great passers such as the wonderful Johnny Haynes who could send a pass on a sixpence (apologies to those who, through no fault of their own, don't recognise the analogies), and deliver with such accuracy as to cause this wide-eyed youth to consider whether he might be able to emulate his hero.....of course it was just fantasy on my part. As much as I loved football, and still do, I eventually realised that to become a professional footballer required far more than ambition, a modicum of talent was also needed, as was the capacity to combine hard work with said talent and maintain the belief that a canny scout would notice me.
I digress.....the type of pass is unimportant as long as it's the right pass, short, medium, or long, that's all that matters. I've seen posters on this forum wet themselves over the great Italian player, Pirlo. What a player, possessed of the full range of passing talents, and could deliver a pass in whatever way made the recipient's job easier to exploit the situation he found himself in. Often the receiving player didn't have to break their stride, they knew that the pass would be so perfect, weighted so well, as to make their job so much easier.
So why some of us appear hostile to a long pass baffles me. Naturally, if a player attempts something they're not equipped to perform then their ambition will outstrip their talent, and of course those who've paid to witness great skill will get the hump with such a clear failure of talent, but it doesn't mean that the notion of the long pass is wrong, just that the player concerned could never deliver such a pass if they tried this a thousand times over! So please, if you happen to be one of those who too easily deride a long pass, try and consider what a player was intending to achieve...was the recipient unworthy of said pass? If they failed to control/collect said pass then it's their skill that needs to be polished, not that of the player who made the original pass. There is nothing sweeter, more awesome, than a pass that spans 30 yards plus, it's a thing of beauty, it changes the pattern of a game, in short it's worthy of our appreciation rather than to chortle on about 'hoofing' the ball.
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