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Richards role in Eintracht’s game winning goal:
Executive Summary: the line screwed up but Chris did not react well to being targeted with two runs through his zone, even if it may have been futile, which is an open question.
1. Richards is physically on the scorer pre-kick:
Executive Summary: the line screwed up but Chris did not react well to being targeted with two runs through his zone, even if it may have been futile, which is an open question.
1. Richards is physically on the scorer pre-kick:
2. Right before the kick the scorer slides behind Richards on his back shoulder while the decoy run comes across his front shoulder to get ball-side, note the depth/angle of the “line”:
3. At the time of the kick Richards seems to be leaning upfield while his closest teammates are dropping. The line has been abandoned. The scorer has a big step while the decoy run is level. Also note the balance of cover to runners across the line:
4. Richards is well behind the scorer while the next most ballside teammate is touch close to the jumping runner who came across Richards’ front shoulder, all 3 were at roughly the same depth at the time of the kick:
Discussion:
We don’t know how strict the line was supposed to be or if the original plan was to step. We can see that the players actively marking runners were not static and were dropping, both behind and in front of Richards. The players behind dropped too early while the one
We don’t know how strict the line was supposed to be or if the original plan was to step. We can see that the players actively marking runners were not static and were dropping, both behind and in front of Richards. The players behind dropped too early while the one
in front does a better job of timing his move to chase the runner who comes through Richards’ zone into his and is relatively close when the cross arrives. Richards is flat footed. He has hesitated not knowing which guy to cover, he has been targeted. The guys dropping early
behind him means that the scorer has the chance to get a step. Richards being static and not recognizing the broken line, maybe a tough read with the decoy run, means he can’t recover and isn’t anticipating a break in on goal.
Conclusion:
Eintracht picked on Richards and he didn’t maintain his focus as well as he should have. The line dropping behind him allowed the scorer to get free enough and if anything Richards could have read the need to drop/track and tried to recover. He probably only gets
Eintracht picked on Richards and he didn’t maintain his focus as well as he should have. The line dropping behind him allowed the scorer to get free enough and if anything Richards could have read the need to drop/track and tried to recover. He probably only gets
there if he also breaks the line (based on a shout from behind or doing a very tough job of reading and trading off the decoy run while moving to close his original mark and reading the line has failed). I don’t think he catches the blame when his team looks at the tape but they
work on trading off runners and reading the line with him.
