Time on the ball even under pressure with the ability to find space for yourself and others. Recognising a run and pass quicker than a defender.
In short defence is a reactive position, creativity is the ability to do something (normally but not necessarily for a teammate) that's either different or faster than they can react.
What do you think it is?
Well I would certainly agree with your first paragraph but not the second.
I once read an article on football, it could have been in 4 4 2, and creativity was one of the discussion points; creativity was described in the article as the “invention of something new which adds value”
My immediate reaction to that was “well that is total rubbish” and I am still of that view point today; creativity is evident in each and every game played to one extent or another; the imagination, originality and uniqueness needed to invent something new is only evident at the very highest levels, and then very rarely.
What you describe in your first paragraph, I would describe as spatial awareness; the ability to find time on the ball, the ability to find space both for yourself and your team mates, the ability to recognise what is happening around you and to act accordingly – you do not need to be in possession of the ball to be creative.
This for me is the bed rock, the foundations for all creative play; whether it manifests itself in the pass and move game, or you have a player spraying passes around, or you play with two quick wingers, the same principles apply.
You describe defence as a reactive position; whilst defending can be reactive, particularly if the side is put under pressure from a mistake or good play from the opposition, I certainly do not think that all defending is reactive.
Teams that press and force the opposition into areas where they can deal with any potential threat more comfortably employ proactive defending; so defending can be both proactive and reactive.
Our perceived lack of creativity is exaggerated by having a dearth of attacking options; we played the entire season with one player who displayed sufficient attacking nous, this despite being isolated for large parts of games, both home and away.
The two players who should have been providing attacking support to Grabban did not show the slightest inclination of wanting to get into positions in advance of him, even less so of getting into scoring positions inside the box.
This makes the job of defending against our attack relatively simple, and it will remain so until the situation is rectified; the knock on effect stunts our build up play.
We have players who can and want to play forward balls, the problem is, when they look up to make the pass, there are no options available and end up making a sideways or backwards pass.
When there are no forward passing options the side does not move forward as a unit and gets stretched giving the opposition plenty of space to play in.
Watsons lack of mobility did not help matters even though he played consistently well; at least the signing of Colback will allow us to defend ten yards further up the pitch.
