Does the mark still have a place in today’s football?

• Rens went

  NOS Sport editor

The mark has the power to freeze the ever-accelerating football for a moment.

In the form of creativity, the soccer player slides his toes and touches quickly under the ball. Player, goalkeeper and fan watch breathlessly as the curled ball flies into the goal. Memorable goals came from Johan Cruijff’s goal against Haarlem, Marco van Basten against Feyenoord and Dennis Bergkamp against RKC. Finesse won over beech.

What is the role of the mark in today’s football? “A soft answer, if not a whisper, to many fools.”

Theo Janssen’s only option against PSV in 2011 was a marker. After a rush he ended up on the left side of the goal when he saw the goalkeeper standing just off his line. “If I had shot hard, it would have been saved by the goalkeeper,” said the left-back. “The only option I had to score was to score.”

Janssen didn’t think much of it. “It’s something that happens spontaneously. You see a moment and you do it.”

The problem is in the end. “The feeling you have to put in. It has to get the speed right, sometimes very fast up, sometimes slower. Marking is much more difficult than shooting a hard ball with your stride.”

“You see less people trying it today. In the past, you had a number of players who could do it very well. Bergkamp is ‘Mr. Stift’. Rafael van der Vaart did it sometimes.Robin van Persie. Today’s footballers are generally strong and fast, with good basic technique.

Janssen hopes the brand will not go extinct. “That would be a shame. The marker is something special, it’s almost art.”

The mark will still be there, even in football that is growing, thinks Harald Wapenaar, goalkeeper coach of FC Utrecht. But he sees it so often. Wapenaar has two explanations.

“The Neuer technique”, the former goalkeeper mentions as a reason for fewer marks in 1-on-1 duels. “The goalkeepers are still standing for a long time. Almost in a split, with their arms wide. Like handball goalkeepers. This means that the attacker has a much harder time to to mark when the goalkeeper attacks the ball by diving on it.”

This way of diving is a thing of the past, says Wapenaar. “In the 1990s we attacked balls a lot.” That approach, he explains, has declined because of the dangers of penalties and red cards. “Now goalkeepers are more likely to ‘go into the block’. Look at Timon Wellenreuther and Lars Unnerstall.”

Does a goalkeeper still allow himself to be written from a longer distance? “Our goalkeeper coaches think about positioning and reaction time. Before, we went in to reduce the goal. Today, we step back to the line faster for side shots. -outside the box to increase response time.”

But when a player with technical skill is in front of them, “keepers keep their options more open. ” The notation is still optional.

You can train the signal, says Gerald Vanenburg, former technical trainer at Ajax. “But it’s a trick that is no longer used. “

“Players who find themselves in a situation where they have to score often just shoot, because they don’t have the ability to score. They’ve never used it. Clubs hardly train on it anymore. “

If you want to be able to achieve it, you have to train it. “Repeat a lot. Only then will you begin to look for, see and recognize the moments.”

Due to an increase in tactical and physical training at clubs and a decrease in individual technical training, Vanenburg notices that something like the mark is used less often.

“I train with a lot of players and they don’t even know how to use signals. It’s weird. It’s a shame, a player has to be able to solve everything,” says Vanenburg, who see the mark as a lost weapon. “You can not only put a mark over the goalkeeper, but also behind the defence.”

“Football is about observing, making decisions, implementing decisions,” explains sports psychologist Afke van de Wouw.

The pressure of competition makes these tasks more difficult. “It turns out that your vision narrows under pressure, you become more chaotic and it is difficult to execute because your muscles are tighter.

In the ideal world, the football player reaches a state of “unconscious potential”. “You are then so well trained that you don’t have to think about executing it at the game anymore. So you have enough space to look around you to see if the situation calls for a signal .”

Van de Wouw wants creativity to be brought back to footballers. “Creativity is very hard to find. That’s because we (youth trainers, ed.) chew it up so much.”

“Put the player in situations where he is encouraged to do it. In a 1-on-1 situation with the goalkeeper, for example. It can benefit creativity and self-resolving skills.”

“The unexpected” is what makes the brand happy for fans, says Hugo Borst. “We want to be a surprise. We paid for that. We want to be loved.”

Calling the sign an art form is going a bit far. “More pragmatic. There is no other solution. It’s good to see this pragmatic approach. It’s against rambling. Taking care. A soft solution, if it doesn’t whistle, respond many fools.”

Does the mark still have a place in today’s football? “Of course. This solution will never die. It is like a pair of scissors, ‘Zidane’. The following applies to everything: it must work.”