If Clyne was two footed, he probably wouldn't be a full back. I used to play full back in my illustrious Sunday league career, and it wasn't a position I earned because of my great technical ability.
If you are a genius with one foot, there is no need to be two footed, but, I would suggest that for a lesser mortal, it is a huge advantage to be 2 footed (or at least not completely useless with the weaker foot). I remember Adam Lallana talking about how he was encouraged to play with both feet (obviously being 2 faced helps as well ).
I was/am very two footed. I actually believe that it held me back at times. I'll give you one example: As a striker, scoring a goal can be about the slightest marginal advantage. You turn someone, you have a touch to set your angle, you shoot. A one footed player instinctively goes to his stronger side. A genuinely two footed player can be caught thinking about making that decision.
Then you get Matt Le Tissier, who a genius with his right foot, and much better with his left than the vast majority of left sided players. Many players give their footedness preference away in a heartbeat. Giggs, Shaw, Bale, Fabrice Fernandes, for pete's sake [notice all left footers]. Left footers can be incredibly one-sided [the chap below for instance], but that could be because I'm viewing them as a predominantly right-sided person. [Comments from left-siders welcome] Fab for you Fran please log in to view this image Lallana is so two footed I would suggest you can't see any bias at all. I've occasionally said that he was the most two footed player I'd seen since MLT.
But a genuinely two footed player is less predictable, so you will probably get the extra time you need. I was two-footed as well. Natural right, trained left to be as good as the right.
I agree, however the disadvantage comes when you are in a situation when it all happens quickly and your unpredictability hasn't given you more time. I used to miss one v ones with keepers more than I should. Coaches (not me) realized that it was because I didn't naturally make an angle to one side and so I was making the keeps job easy by heading straight for him. The number of times I would hit the keeper was frustrating (I do blame Vince Hilaire for that though, as he told me once that I should aim at the keeper as it'd be on target - which incidentally is what Bobby Charlton used to say too).
I started out as a forward and went backwards - a common problem for those players who lack breakneck pace. But anyway, I used to chip the keeper always. Worked every time, if memory serves. Never really gave it much thought before, but I suppose that if you put it to the left or right, the onrushing keeper can cover the angle more easily. Put it steeply over his head and it bends back into the net under gravity. So you get much more goal to aim at. Besides, the general calibre of keeper I was playing against would not know to stay on his feet as long as possible. I'd probably have had to buck my ideas up if I had.
don't know where that first bit came from... I think it was from a post I started this morning... strange. Anyway, I started in midfield, moved to left back, then moved upfront, then back in midfield, then in the hole and now on the couch.
This forum software remembers anything you write in the reply box and don't post on the thread. It is both highly convenient and a pain in the arse when you've left the computer alone, come back to switch the thing off [let's say], and then later come back to the very same thread. Anything you then write is merely added to the previous saved writing. Hence your confusion. On the subject of pitch positions, I played in every position, at one point or another, except goalkeeper. Being only of medium pace, I was quite proud of my ability to get around a full-back, when I played on either wing. I jinked, as they say.
Clyne started out as a winger. I think one can see why. He has all the pace a winger needs. He just lacks the fine technical skill. But he has a superb tackle on him, so he's one excellent RB. Gary Neville said something interesting about his position once. He said that RBs [or LBs, of course] are failed players. They either fail at being wingers or CBs. He was a failed CB.
Very similar with me, however I did play in an FA Trophy tie as Goalkeeper. Our keeper was ill on the coach to an away game and I had been on the bench for a few weeks. I was one of those players who kept nagging to get my place back, so as I was being kept out of the team upfront, I had been clowning around in goal for several weeks in training and the pre-match warm up, telling everyone I would put the keeper's place under threat... the manager pulled me aside as we got of the bus and said, "Right then gobby, today is the day you show me what you've got" and gave me the gloves I was scared ****less. Quite a good crowd there that day and me in goal.
I believe it was Carragher who said that, I think his exact words were "No kid grows up dreaming of being the next Gary Neville" Gary seemed to take offence if I remember correctly
It was definitely Neville who made the failed player comment, but Carragher made his comment almost immediately afterwards. Neville grinned. I have it on one of my PCs.
