Dribbling and technique skills question/issue.

[Arsy]

This is something that has been bugging me for quite a while and this player reminded me of it. How can you have technique 8 and dribbling 13? The way it works in my mind is that you shouldn't be able to dribble well unless you were a technical player in the first place. Good technique is a prerequisite for good dribbling skills. Good technique means stuff like being able to receive and control a difficult long pass or being able to run with the ball at your feet without tripping over yourself and losing it. Also being good at dribbling is like the next level in technical ability. We see many defenders with decent technical abilities but that doesn't mean they can dribble successfully.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that maybe a player should not have a dribbling skill higher than the technique, if dribbling is 13 then technique should also be at least 13.

[Marc Vaughan]

Technique is their skill with the ball and how well they control it (it can also affect which of the PPM's they'll get as they develop), dribbling is their speed and general effectiveness when dribbling.

The two are very different in concept - for instance you'll see some fairly effective dribblers (especially in the lower leagues) who are good at dribbling with the ball but have poor technique. Brighton had a player in the late 1990's called Peter Smith, he was a tall, lanky guy who won player of the season twice for us ... played at right back and was prone to explosive dribbles down the wing sporadically ... he'd make good progress and rarely lost the ball ... 

HOWEVER he had absolutely no technique (neither did most of the team at the time we were in free fall through the divisions at that point) - he dribbled by kicking the ball ahead of himself and chasing it, he was fast enough and had good enough judgement that he normally retained the ball, but it didn't look as pretty as someone with high dribbling and high technique doing it.

It's important to show the difference between the two because someone with high dribbling and low technique will be effective in the lower leagues where you can kick and chase more easily, in the upper divisions that approach is far less likely to be effective and close control is more important in most situations because you're likely to be closed down far faster.

(exceptions are perhaps if you play the person as a winger and look to 'break' on the counter against teams)

Hope that helps

[Arsy]

Thanks for answering!

 

To be honest, I can't say that it makes much sense to me. Your first paragraph, where you describe technique as "their skill with the ball and how well they control it", isn't that like an obvious prerequisite for good dribbling skills? How can you even attempt dribbling without having those skills in the first place? I mean, you can, but you almost surely won't succeed... Because, as much fun as it must have been to watch that football player you mentioned, I'm not sure I would describe his attempts as "dribbling", lumping the ball forward and trying to outrun the opponent. That sounds like something a player with no technique and no dribbling skills would attempt.

 

I understand the need to have those two separate skills in the game as they mean different things, nothing to object here, it just doesn't seem logical to me that they should work as they do, with dribbling possibly being higher than technique. But thank you again for trying to clear it up!

[Alari Naylor]

Technique also reflects how cleanly a player strikes the ball - for instance at the club I support (Southend) one of our wingers is a great dribbler, can play ok short passes but simply can't strike anything further than about 10 yards well.