Do players get bonuses for passing the ball back to Friedel?

[NewYorkSpurs]

 

[Charlie]

What a stupid thread. Sunderland worked really hard to close us down today and played 11 men behind the ball almost all the game. So, I guess that you want all our defenders to be like Atouba. Trying stupid dribble just not to pass back to Friedel.

 

[iheartvanbasten]

No, they do it to pull the opposition forward, however sunderland never once crossed into our half all game, so passing it back was pointless and resulted in us losing the ball

This. Passing back to the keeper is a legitimate way of retaining possession and bringing the opponent out. Most teams strikers will attempt to close the keeper, with their other forward lying players pressing our back four to try and force a mistake or a hoof.

In Sunderland, we found a team who neither wanted to press Brad or our back four when the ball went back. They simply regained their structure and allowed us to try and pass through them again, resulting in a stalemate given that none of our creative players were on their game.

Much as I thoroughly dislike the manner in which teams like Sunderland play against teams like us, it gets them points. So they persist.

 

[braineclipse]

What a stupid thread. Sunderland worked really hard to close us down today and played 11 men behind the ball almost all the game. So, I guess that you want all our defenders to be like Atouba. Trying stupid dribble just not to pass back to Friedel.

Our sideways and backwards passing with very little tempo and movement from midfield was a problem for sure. The backpasses to Friedel was symptom of that. The frustration primarily stemmed from Parker passing the ball back to Friedel in the dying minutes of the game when we had loads of players forward and a chance to go for it.