Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Now Youngsters Can Learn Skills From Their Reds Heroes

Young footballers wanting to learn from the very best players around can discover the secrets of Liverpool stars in the recently-published book Play Like Liverpool FC.

And for forwards wanting to hone their skills, who better than Liverpool marksman, Fernando Torres?

Liverpool's number nine is regarded by many as the greatest striker in the world.

As he works his way back from injury, here are some personal tips from the Spanish star on how to hit the back of the net and improve as a striker

I used to love hitting the ball against a wall

I see a lot of kids in Liverpool playing football. I was always playing when I was a kid too, hitting the ball against a wall or with my friends and my brother.

He was a goalkeeper so I would practice shooting against him all of the time. It is important to practice. In fact, it’s not even practising. If you enjoy football, you will play as much as you can and then you will get better.

Getting your body over the ball when you shoot

It is very important and maybe even the main thing to get right.

If you learn how to position your body well over the ball it will increase your chances of scoring a goal.

The position of your body can make the difference between shooting inside the goal or missing the target.

It can also make the difference between hitting the ball along the ground or up and over the bar, which you don’t want to do of course.

There are different ways to use your body. If you lean back a little bit you may be able to score in the top corner but you have to learn how to control this properly to get it right. You need a lot of training for this skill.

Going for power or accuracy?

I often use the inside of my foot because I don’t have a really strong shot like Steven Gerrard. For a striker, the inside of the foot is often the best part for finishing past a goalkeeper. You can get more accuracy with the inside of the foot. But sometimes when you are outside of the box it is better to use the top of your foot to get more power.

Chipping the keeper

Sometimes the keeper will go to ground early and when you see him do this you can try to chip the ball over him or place it to the side of him. To chip the ball you need to practise stabbing your foot under the ball to lift it slightly and get it back down so it doesn’t drift over the bar.

It’s not always easy keeping the ball down

Football managers will teach you that it’s best to keep the ball down from a header because it makes it more difficult for goalkeepers to make a save.

That is not always possible though, especially when there are lots of people in the penalty box trying to stop you getting to the ball. Sometimes your teammates can help create space for you, such as against Blackburn in 2008-09 with my second goal. It was good movement from Martin Skrtel to draw my marker. That allowed me to run and jump free in the correct moment.

Even then I couldn’t keep the ball down so instead headed it into the top corner.

It came in really quickly from Xabi Alonso’s free-kick so it was difficult for me to control. Sometimes the ball hits you rather than you hitting the ball. On occasions like this you just have to get your head to it and wait and see where it ends up.

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