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The Specialist: The Through Pass

March 16th, 2009 | By: Jan | 27 Comments »

The Master…

Some teams need a lot of work, a lot of passing, a lot of space or a lot of long opportunistic deep passes to enter the opponents’ box.
Other teams have a player with the vision and feet for a killer through pass. AZ’s Maarten Martens is one of those players. With him, we look at the infamous Through Pass.

The Art
Every great player – Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, Beckham, Ardiles, Gascoigne, Willem van Hanegem – mastered the art of breaking open a defense with one simple, controlled through pass. A simple pass, allowing another player on the move to show up suddenly behind a defensive line eye to eye with the goalie. “Vision is the key thing. You only have seconds – or less – to see the opening, to see the player go and than you need the perfect timing and the perfect touch to execute it well,” says AZ midfielder Martens. “You need to assess the pace of the pass, how much space is there, do you need to go through the air or simply over the ground? How’s the pitch, is it wet….dry? Does the ball need to drop “dead” or do you need to pace the ball or put a spin on? You want your team mate to be able to finish in one go…. Is the goalie a line-keeper or does he leave his line quickly…?”

The Superduo
The Belgium born knows that it’s also dependend on the connection and understanding between two players. “For me, it’s a big difference who plays up front. Pelle, Ari, El Hamdaoui or Dembele, they’re all different in their skills, runs… With Ari’s speed, you can be more opportunistic. When he’s off at the middle line, he won’t be overtaken anymore. With Pelle, you want to be closer to the box,” Martens continues. Superduo’s, like Wim Jonk/Dennis Bergkamp or Luc Nilis/Ruud van Nistelrooy are legendary twosome’s who were unstoppable due to their mutual understanding. Wim Jonk: “I know instinctively what Dennis did. How he moved. I didn’t even have to look. You can train it, work on it, but it has to be there from the start. You can tell easily at training if you have that click. It’s a wonderful thing when it clicks…” Ruud van Nistelrooy takes it a step further. “Luc and I never ever discussed it. It wasn’t something we needed to do… It just happened from day one. I sometimes felt sorry for the defenders… We’d cut through defenses so easily sometimes. Luc and I almost could read eachother minds on the pitch. How he moved, his body language, how he watched the space…it told me everything I needed to know. And vice versa, I guess.” Maarten Martens understands that. “With some players you have connection than with another. It’s something you’ll need to find out and work on at training. You can, but it sometimes just happens to be good from day 1. I had that with Shota Arveladze. Whenever I got in possession, I’d check where he was and he’d immediately responded with a little move or nod. I also look at how other players do it. I watch players like Deco, Ronaldinho. Lampard, Guti… I feel this is one of the areas in football where you can improve by watching others do it… And train it constantly with your mates…”

AZ’s Maarten Martens

The No Look
Martens: “I’ve always been more focused on preparing a chance for my strikers than going for goal myself. I guess it has to do with your skills. Van Gaal always used me as the provider, so to speak.” So, who’s the King of Through passes? Martens: “Pfff…Kenneth Perez is definitely up there, I’d say. Wesley Sneijder is very good, but I think he favours shooting himself. That’s it, when you have that skills too…you tend to go for goal first and if that doesn’t work, you go for the pass… Xavi and Iniesta are world class at this level. Deco, as stated… I guess Michael Laudrup was the benchmark. No one saw the game so well and so quickly as he. And he had that special version too… The No Look pass. He’d look to the left, but in his peripheral vision he had seen the player on the right, and he would pass the ball without looking, i.e. without allowing the opponents to prepare for it. Lethal. Some players use the telegraph, as we say. You can tell that they’re going to give the pass and where… That’s relatively easy to defend then. Ronaldinho does the no look as well, and that’s just magic to behold. But, it’s not about art, it’s about efficiency. The best through pass I ever gave… Hmmm…some years back against Feyenoord. I was with my back to the goal, but Shota Arveladze yelled that he was off. I played the ball blind into his direction and it was a perfect pass. He was totally free facing Timmer. He hit the post…”

Training
Passing, dribbling, shooting, long balls…everything is trainable. But is a through pass trainable? Martens: “Sure, everything can be improved by doing. You need to make it a natural thing to do, and repeating actions does that. It becomes second nature. And you need to do that ad nauseam with the forwards. To understand how they run, when they go, the look in their eyes… But watching games is important too. Watching others do it. And sometimes you can see great potential passes that aren’t given… And you improve your vision when you are aware that you can. See, I was always a small and lean player. I needed to think quick, otherwise I was flat on the grass. Louis van Gaal always says: the man without the ball determines what happens. So, I needed to pay extra attention to my mates.” So, vision can be trained as well. “Yeah, but only slightly. You see it or you don’t. When you do, you can better yourself, but when you don’t….”

Tags: De Boer, Deco, Group C, Laudrup, Martens, Oranje, Redondo, van Nistelrooy, Zidane

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 27 comments.

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By sonneveld | March 16th, 2009 at 7:10 am

well the good news is we are still in good shape

just read a funny article that joked that while are coach was moaning about van der vaart and huntelaar’s amount of time on the bench meanwhile he wished he could have problems like that.

they think fletcher is the only chance of beating us if he controls the game….haha i should hope not

the bad new is that apparently huntelaar and robben are fighting!!! huntelaar thinks robben doesn’t pass enough

By Michel-Olivier | March 16th, 2009 at 7:37 am

the non flying dutchman was the best

Posted from United States

By Alex | March 16th, 2009 at 9:07 am

Huntelaar has as point, Robben just needs to take it like a man and try to do something about it. But , I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. footballers curse at each other all the time.
I really want tot see V.Persie-Huntelaar as a sort of duo, V.Persie around him in a free role, a bit like Babel did with Rigters in the U-21 EC. With V.Persie around him, i bet Huntelaar won’t evn notice Robben not passing, cause VP does pass when he needs to and above all, has a brilliant pass in his feet.
BTW Heitinga played a good game against Villareal(3-2 win). Was the most convincing Atletico defender for me, he might be re-earning himself a spot in the startintg line-up. Loovens played 120 minutes for Celtic against Rangers, and won 2-0.
Boulahrouz lost 4-0 with Stuttgart, but of the goals, one penalty, a free-kick and two goals where he was not to blame. Made a strong impression on me despite conceeding 4 and losing horribly.

Posted from Netherlands

By Kevin | March 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am

Berkamp – Anelka
Berkamp – Henry
I love the Iceman

By Mario | March 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Bergkamp-Kluivert was a great partnership also.

I think that today van Marwijk would have to try with Huntelaar as deep striker and van Persie as the shadow man. Huntelaar has scored six goals for Madrid in ten games and those six goals were scored in the six games he has started and has a better goal ratio right now than Raúl and Higuain comparing minutes played vs. goals scored. Van Persie for me is his better partner and I think it has been a mistake to play Robin in the right wing in the national team and even playing there he has scored many goals for Oranje. It´s time to put him as our shadow striker, he has played a few games there in the national team and also a deep striker and it´s clear he is more dangerous there. For the wings we got players like Kuyt, Babel, Robben…

By Jeroen | March 16th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

Yeah i’ve been saying to people for a while now (before EC) that Robin should be shadow striker. he’s a very similar player in style to Bergkamp (albeit not as good yet). Huntelaar is a real striker. I think it’s wasteful to put RVP on the wing, especially when we have Robben and Kuyt (and Babel) which can fill those spots. How about:

—–Steks/Vermeer—-
—Marcellis—Boula—Braafheid (not sure about the D at all, who is haha)
—–De Jong—–Schaars—-
Robben/Kuyt—–Sneijder/VDV—-Robben/Babel
———–Van Persie————-
—————-Huntelaar——-

Nice 3-2-3-1-1 formation.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sam | March 16th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

I love Martens!

Posted from Canada

By Kevin | March 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

@Jeroen: that will be a perfect formation if we have world class defenders, unfortunately our defenders are not good

By sonneveld | March 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

van der sar(fingers crossed)
boulahrouz mathijsen heitinga bouma(he’ll recover)
de jong van bommel
robben van persie sneijder
huntelaar

van persie free role, robben seems best on the left and sneijder played great on the left duting euro’s

By Jan | March 16th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

I think we all agree on Van Persie’s role…

The Robben No Pass is a wonderful idea Clock,

By sonneveld | March 16th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKd-O1ukJ8U&feature=channel_page

my video on our team

makes you realize defence isn’t that bad

By Mario | March 16th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

Excellent link Sonneveld, after watching that who can think Holland is not a strong candidate, I think they are but it would be extremely tough…let´s wait and see.

By finnster01 | March 16th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

Huntelaar needs to spend the summer with me in Manhattan. I’ll talk to his dad about it. I live in Harlem, and people know how to move here. He needs some of the homies up here to show him some proper moves after he scores.

Hunter & the Gangsta Move has a nice sound to it though. Could sell a few extra tickets.

And Oranje needs to beat the absolute crap out of Scotland or I will be in a complete mental breakdown mode until 2010…

By Jan | March 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm

Haha , and I also think all Dutch fans should learn this routine for when he scores and we can all do the Hunter on the stands…

By Jan | March 16th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Hot news:

Marc Overmars will retire for good now. He enjoyed his little stint but wants to make space for the younger generation.

Mark van Bommel will sign the 1 year deal with Bayern and not return to PSV

Ruud van Nistelrooy also claimed to retire at PSV, but he recently said he doesn’t think that will happen. Ruud will end his career in Madrid.

By Alex | March 17th, 2009 at 3:40 am

I think someone unexpected has been reading this blog> Michel Platini has stated in an interview that he wants a Dutch-Belgian competition and combined first, second and lower divisions, i think it’s good news if UEFA involves itself. Also he opted for a Balkans competition.

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | March 17th, 2009 at 4:25 am

Happy St Paddy’s day everyone!!!

Today I will not be at work, but watching the parade on 5th Ave, with my girlfriend and too many beers.

How about the rest of the Oranje universe, anyone else take Paddy’s day seriously out there? It is complete mayhem here in New York.

By tiju | March 17th, 2009 at 4:34 am

@sonveld superbwork man,thank you,it showed all the secret weapons of orange but one man is missing ie..(Romeo castelen) soon he will get fitness and will be back in business.

Posted from India

By tiju | March 17th, 2009 at 4:35 am

@finni i would like to know abt paddy day

Posted from India

By finnster01 | March 17th, 2009 at 4:55 am

@tiju: Just mark your calendar. 17th of March is St Patricks day, the patriot saint of Ireland. We call it st Paddy’s day because every Irish is jokingly called a paddy. In any event, due to the fact there are so many people in New York of Irish descent, it is by far the biggest parade and hoopla each year. Especially the firemen and the cops gets wasted in a big way because they are all Irish anyway.

It is a great day of fun, party, and drink. It is the one day of the year being out of control and misbehaving is perfectly all right.

By tiju | March 17th, 2009 at 5:42 am

@finn thank you .

Posted from India

By tiju | March 17th, 2009 at 5:43 am

@fin ha ha Misbehaving is perfectly alright—-to orange angel?

Posted from India

By Jeroen | March 17th, 2009 at 6:17 am

“Also he opted for a Balkans competition.”

That won’t happen any time in the foreseeable future. Every time Croatia and Serbia play, there’s barely enough riot police to stop that from getting completely out of hand.

Posted from Netherlands