Page:Football, The Association Game.djvu/74

 self and one's side to the exigencies of each situation as it arises.

I have given at some length the general requirements to form a really good centre. The inner wing players require, in a great measure, the same qualities, as their mission is, in the ordinary course, to feed the outside men, as well as to keep thoroughly in touch with the centre. The aim of all the forwards should of course be to have the line of the advance as complete as is possible. By this I mean that when one player has the ball, the others should be able to anticipate with some degree of certainty to whom he will pass, and the time at which such pass will be made. The latter will depend in a great measure on the positions of his own forwards, on the one hand, and on the other the amount of the opposition he is likely to meet on his way to the enemy's goal.

The player on the extreme outside, known as the outer wing, should be possessed of speed, for he often gets a chance of showing his pace, and very frequently a long pass out either from the centre or even the other side of the ground enables him to get well away almost without fear of opposition until he reaches the last line of defence. The fault of many even of the best outer wing players is to stick too long to the ball in the hope of getting ultimately well within range of the goal-keeper. As a rule, such delay is fatal, for it enables the enemy's back to return in time to cover their posts, and the attack is in every sense a failure. An experienced player would instead have foreseen this possibility, and have got rid of the ball to the centre before the opposite backs could have recovered their positions sufficiently to be able to hamper him. That side is the most dangerous in attack in which the passing shows the least hesitation. Precipitancy is as much to be avoided