[dlan4327]

This thread is basically exactly as the title says. In football these days, especially after all of England's recent woes, two words have been doing the rounds once more. Technical Ability. Now there are some players whom we can all agree either have it or had it, as it were. Zinedine Zidane, no brainer. Frank Ribery, yep. Pretty much every Brazilian ever born, more or less. Luca Toni, Andrea Pirlo & maybe even Joe Cole, to a lesser degree of course. However can anyone cook up an exact ,textbook, definition of what Technical Ability is? If you can do a million step overs is that technical ability? What if you still get tackled after the step over, does that mean, you don't have it after all? Maybe it fancy footwork. Maybe it''s just being able to beat your man whether or not your need flash tricks to do so. Maybe just gliding past opponents sans any tricks is good enough. Ball control? Shot placement? The ability to produce defense splitting passes? If you aren't a flashy player is it still possible to have technical ability? I'd love to hear opinions.


P.S. Also something to talk about might be English players "Alleged" lack of technical skill. I've heard it said that the climate may be the legitimate reason. Capello once tried to coach in Scotland and remarked "How are you supposed to train in this?" with reference to the blistering crosswinds. Wind, rain all combining to create exceptionally muddy i.e. torn and ragged, pitches. Is this why English football differs so greatly from the continent? Again Love a good discussion, please.