- Jan 20, 2013
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Yep, it's definitely the most frustrating thing, because if you're quick (i assume you are) and you get ahead of someone you know there's little chance of them getting back at you, but then 'Oh, that stride didn't quite work out as normal? Wtf? Oh, that big bastards pulling my shirt again!' haha. Once i got to mens football i knew that it really pissed the opponents off to have a 16 year old lad make a mug of them and they obviously targeted me more as i was an easy target, being only about 11 stone at the time. I saw my friend do it in training and i just thought 'Oh wow, that could work so well for me!' because i was strong enough to keep big men at arms length but i didn't have the size or weight to stop them affecting me once they got close enough to grab hold of my shirt and now i would recommend doing it to any young player in an attacking position because it completely takes away that opportunity once you get good at doing it.
From what i've seen of Alli he has already started the transition to a deeper position over the last year or so as he has got taller and started to fill out more, and in my opinion i can only see Onomah moving in the same direction. I can see him working out as the ideal creative box to box midfielder once he's fully developed, but that's just my opinion!
I was a swimmer my whole life and lifted a good bit in college, so I had good upper body and core strength enough to fend off guys as long as they weren't huge, which made it all the worse because as well as the fast twitch speed in the legs due to the swimming, that prompted all the more shirt-pulling. I also never was good at handing players away as you seemed to figure out, because I had grown up relying on my speed to get away. You do notice though that at the higher levels, the speedier players do seem to do well at doing it just enough not to attract ref attention but be efficient nonetheless.
Yeah Onomah will be very interesting to see what happens. Really hoping he keeps his agility and technical versatility, and then goes on to be a very valuable player in that versatility.