Let's talk ball

Analysis: What coach Nozomi's words actually mean i.e. the fatal flaw

Although Ao scored a nice goal, Nozomi had some critical remarks for him this episode. For most of you it may look like he's just a hater, but that's his job since he's a coach.
A coach's job is to pick weakness in a player in order to make them work on it and eventually make them improve.

Now for the following analysis on Ao, you doesn't even need any football knowledge, you dont need to read the manga, nor you need to have a PhD in any field (xD), yeah it's that simple.

All you need to do is read Ao's dialogues in the training match.

"I will score a goal".
"I will win my team the match".
"I will cut through".

I think many of you have already got it, it's always"I" and never "we".
It was also stated in the very 1st episode how Ashito was thrown around form one team to another becz of his selfish style of play.

Now I will raise a point of argument, that Ao is a striker and "strikers are meant to be selfish".

(Now this part will require one to have some ball knowledge)

Strikers are meant to be selfish. Now note that the striker in the sentence I'm referring to is a natural striker. An example of a natural striker would be someone like a Lewandowski or a Luis Suarez.

Now a natural striker is a type of player who will prefer to take a shot on goal 9.9/10 times if he believes there is a potential goal scoring opportunity. Thats what you call a "natural striker's selfishness".

Let's look at another striker, called Roberto Firmino.
Firmino plays as a striker for Liverpool. His role is to make space for the wingers (Salah & Mane) to present them goal scoring opportunities. Note that Firmino is not a natural striker. He was actually an attacking midfielder before joining liverpool, and Kloop make the best use out of him. He excels in one touch passing and drawing defenders towards himself and his type of work is often not rated that simple becz people only rates goals. Nevertheless that doesn't changes the fact that he's very important for Liverpool's *tactics.

Now the final piece of the puzzle, lets take an example of Luiz Suarez during his playing time with Messi and Neymar: The MSN

Suarez is a natural striker, no doubt selfishness comes in his blood but but but the difference between his selfishness and Ashito's selfishness is the like day and night.

Suarez is a world class striker, no doubt he can score goals on his own, but if he works with his teammates with the likes of Messi and Neymar he can score a lot lot more goals. He he did exactly that.

The reason Ashito scored a goal this episode was becz he linked up with his teammate. If he had choosen to go the solo route i.e. the selfish route (like he did after scoring) the chances of him scoring goes down the graph.

Tactics: individual and team

What Nozomi said is actually right. Ao currently lacks individual tactics.

Now note how individual and team tactics are interrelated with these following sentences:
-football is a team game,
-football is a game of tactics,
-a team consists of individuals.

A team's tactics comes from the individual tactics of the players of the team.
Every individual in a team has some basic tactics that they develop while playing throughout their lifes.

Since Ashito is too self centred, he fails to fit in a tactical setup, it worked for his school team becz the team's sole tactic was to supply the ball to Ao. And that was the fatal flaw the coach was talking about.
His selfishness won't work here becz this is professional footy.

Hopefully he improves.

Ashito used his karasuno crow raven eye power technique and it can't be used again twice and ashito was just walking with yellow eyes then suddenly that guy passed the ball to ashito and he scored that's his last score

and u my friend certainly have even more time to waste then him as u skimmed thru all 14k of his comments and compare them with already established comments lol.

Ah it makes sense, really easy to understand thank you!

Ashito made a lot of mistake trying to score the ball everytime they pass the ball to ashito and now no one is passing the ball to him what will he do now

This was extremely well said. You expressed everything that I would've wanted to point out to non-football fans as well, and you gave excellent real life examples as well. Ao needs to work on his mentality right now more than anything else. I'm not talking about his will to succeed, because that part of his mentality is immense. But when it comes to his mentality regarding the team, he leaves a lot to be desired. Coach Date was spot on.

I always love your comments, thank you very much. I agree with everything you said; if I may add, I'd say that the fundamental part that ashito lacks and nozomi refers to as Individual Tactics is also plainly: football knowledge. He may be a fan who likes watching european leagues, and he may like playing it himself, but he never really learned theory and/or tried to understand it. (this is also smth that is mentioned much later in the manga when they mention the liverpool vs watford game and ashito said "oh I watched that game but I had no clue that's what was happening"). Basically, he doesn't notice the change in formations, how to react, how he should position himself and the next actions to take. This is something so fundamental to professional football that I understand nozomi's harsh words. In a friendly high school setting, it might not be necessary. But to play professionally, you need to understand the game, and react quickly, always observing teammates and opponents.

In essence you are saying that what Ao does instinctively on occasion, that raven's eye thing, is something he has to learn to do actively and constantly to really be effective at this higher level of play.

Exactly!! his raven eye is essentially him watching everyone's movements and reacting accordingly. He does have that potential. What he lacks is understanding the game theoretically and intellectually instead of instinctively. Not only does he have to do it constantly, but he has to learn more about football and playing football. Even with the raven eye, if he doesn't understand how the defensive line has to move in certain situations, it won't do him any good.

Yeah, soccer is actually cool. There's so much going on and I really like how it's a thinking game. I initially thought that soccer is simply just scoring a goal and obliterating the enemy defender team but after this episode, not anymore.

Togashi pushing that kid with the close eyes and score at that distance it didn't make it just 5 meters away so close

Uhmm uhmm
spoken like a true football lover
However , let me point to some strikers who play there game despite not exactly fitting in a system
Notably Haaland
He is a fantastic striker who has all the ability to retain and make the runs which could create the goals
The difference between Aoi and Haland is the physical abilities between them is a huge gulf
If Ashito is to improve , and remain a forward his best bet is to not play in a system but be given a unique role
I might sound like a Broken record here , but just like the MC in Blue Lock ,the best position for Aoi is that of a false nine , a center forward who can drop down , like the likes of Firmino without sacrificing a lot of goal or assist output while remain the key player
Aoi is not De Bruyne or Ozil or Eriksen , he is not a CAM at all. He is very much of a space interpreter role as evidenced from his first meeting with the coach .
He can be a fine CF , but his skills can be better if he drops down and let's other reign in
He does understand some aspects of it, but even Muller was not the team player type before
Bayern Youth Set up changed him to a marvellous player , an all time great in my opinion
I see Aoi doing very well in that role

You sure know ball! Great job explaing this for people that dont watch footy

many great player are selfish like messie in his prime

I mean it may look like he's a selfish player the way he dribbles but actually he's a team player. He has the most assists in his generation, he's the most lethal play maker of his generation and of all times.
If you are talking about the strikers selfishness, which I think you are referring to then yeah you are right there is noway any player can score a ton of goals without selfishness.
Thing about Messi is prime or not if he thinks there is a teammate in a better goal scoring position then he will pass. But yeah he has the strikers selfishness.
(to non footy viewers assist is the pass which ultimately helped the teammate to score)

Really nice to see someone actually appreciating the work Firmino does for Liverpool. I always liked him as a player and it's sad to see people hating on him for no real reason 🤷‍♂️ Also to add to what you said, i’d say the perfect example for an unselfish team would be Manchester City under Guardiola. If you showed someone how City play it becomes really apparent how football is a “team game”

There is also a big problem outside just "selfishness" Ashito is self taught, He doesnt recognise basic plays that is drilled to a young player growing up. He is competing with people who were trained since they were young and know the basics of everything. Him being all instinctive, Instinct also requires knowledge, His instincts werent develop as no one trained him early on. He doesnt have an instinct for several tactics. No instinct on basic movement, A lot of his opponent doesnt have to think about it, they can instinctively see whats happening and they move without thinking.

The way ashito didnt realise what the defence did is a big problem. They are not even on the level of complicated tactics and he lacks all fundamentals. So for ashito to be servicable, He needs to learn everything with shorter amount of time just to be serviceable in a team. Let's just say each have been playing in a proper team with actual coach since they were young. Lets say 5 years. He needs to get those 5 years experience now just to be able to execute. Catching up is close to impossible. It would have work if he is "talented". Problem is his only real talent is seeing the whole field, and that doesnt directly cover the basics and fundamentals he lack. Ashito is basically a beginner trying to play in a Youth development team where best of the best are experienced and already playing. Thats like trying out for a national team without having formal training ever and being a beginner at the same time. And all of this will be harder for him to realise because of his personality. He cant be a striker unless some magic happens at this point.

Yeah you said it brilliantly.
Ashito's lacks of tactical knowledge arose from his selfishness. He needs to quit this selfish behaviour otherwise it's gg already.

This is fantastic knowledge you have there! Very good analysis! :)

If I may add, there is 1 more point that Ashito needs in order to improve. If you noticed in his encounter on the field with the blonde guy, he is not able to predict the defenders' counter blocks and get pass them. A good striker needs that sixth sense to predict what defenders are doing and get passed them at least 8/10 times. He needs to practice getting passed defenders more often.

The striker part reminds me of what the blue lock manga talked about and it's so true too!

As a manga reader, it's interesting reading the analysis here. (P.s. I'm very happy with the everyone being engaged in the series. Ao ashi definitely deserves to be recognized with how amazing it is<3)

and then the autopilot kicked in

Pretty much XD

Btw If Milan wins tomorrow the scudetto is theirs!
I'm rooting for them, Milan rises again

Togashi saying this youth camp is so softy and now that kid he pushed is not gonna get a chance to show his skills then suddenly That kid with the close eyes suddenly open his eyes that means things is bad and he keeps ordering togashi

Hold play wait I know that but it was so what's with this position and they're not passing the ball to ashito

Unlike tesla autopilot , he doesnt go on a cyclist killlling spree XD

LOL

First fan for Aoi Ashito.
Ashito: "I think you're cute."
Me: "Sus"

Hana is just a fan of ashito because of this player, she really admire/looks up to and that guy reminded her of ashito

Oh, you mean her brother?

Thats sus because?

suspicious*

It's a short word for Suspicious bro ..You don't have to correct it since everyone knows it.

it's not a word.

Then its a term if u're telling me its not a word

then lets correct it ... Short term for Suspicious

Waifu getto da

when you only learn football from blue lock and tries to apply it to real life

theres a big difference in players from blue lock and Ashito
players in blue lock may be selfish but they KNOW what they're doing, each of them have their own special skills and they know how to utilize them. and they're a group of best forwards
Ashito in the other hand, is still in the baby phase. he got less experience in actual-high ranked-matches, less knowledge of individual/team tactics & techniques
sad truth but what the coach said is true, and he need to fix that in order to grow

We know he will, it's just a matter of what will it take for him to learn and then improve?

Nah bro, this mean you got nothing from blue lock ego way of playing football.
In blue lock their selfishness is way different from this.
blue lock way - can I carry this attack? yes i do / no i dont so instead of losing it I pass it to other people and maybe i find another opportunity later with a different situation
Aoi ashito - I can do it alone and he's keep smashing his head against a wall.
The only thing you can compare Aoi Ashito to blue lock is that his ego is the same of the old Baro Shoei "the king" and if you really read the manga you know how it ended up.

it's a joke about how Ashito not understanding team play since he just following his own flow and ignoring team calls, I've only learn about football from blue lock so it was a joke about my pov if I were to play in a match it might goes like this

Ashito though can't even play Blue lock style because when he gets lucky and pulls off the connection with another player he is unable to replicate it afterward at this point and is otherwise a rather average HS player without the constant assist from team mates solely supporting him.

I've heard that they say blue lock is gonna break the internet and they said blue lock is so good I wonder why I'm just gonna wait if it's really good than ao ashi

blue lock is shounen, they play like kuroko no basket GM( don't expect tactics and football knowledge from this series, its all about tricks and shit that even pros cant do in real life)

blue aoshi is the opposite of blue lock. But if u want a series that focus on pro j league go with giant killing, the mc is a coach/manager.

ao ashi and be blues are so good seinen football. i do like some blue lock though for some shounen superpowers.

he's just too s-t-u-p-i-d to play

And it kinda irritate me when he’s playing like that lol