Lol, paraphrasing what you say isn't "putting words in your mouth". But I guess everything I say doesn't accurately reflect your views, so let's hear it from you.
What point are you making here? You're trying to undermine the idea that City convincingly defeated the 2 big teams they've faced up to this point in the season. Do you think that if Mane didn't get sent off and that Morata didn't get injured, the most likely outcome would've been City losing/drawing those games? That's speculative horseshit but unless you're saying that, you're not making a point at all. City were the better team overall in both of those games, largely independent of losing those players, and asserted their dominance. What do you mean by Chelsea being "effective". With or without Morata they were getting smothered by City and 8/10 times would walk away with a loss in a game that played out the way that one did.
Now this part screams utter BS and trying to deflect by pointing to nonsense word choice LOL.
You're saying my definition of long balls is incorrect? And that you're correct in saying that "long ball" tactics refer to just breaking the press and relieving pressure anywhere on the pitch and with passes in any direction?
Don't take it from me, read for your own damn self:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ball
https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/boring-winners-long-ball-england
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/performance/tactics/graham-taylor-playing-long-ball
http://outsideoftheboot.com/2015/02/25/long-ball-ruin-english-football/
These are all the first results from google, didn't have to do any digging whatsoever. Each of these articles uses the term long ball SPECIFICALLY in the context of using it as a direct attacking tactic. They also specifically mention English teams using the long ball approach and the flaws associated with that. YOUR definition of long ball is incorrect and you were the one using it in an incorrect context.
Quotes from the articles:
"In association football (soccer), a long ball is an attempt to move the ball a long distance down the field via a cross, without the intention to pass it to the feet of the receiving player. In Continental Europe the style is called kick and rush.[1] It is a technique that can be especially effective for a team with either fast or tall strikers.[2] The long ball technique is also a through pass from distance in an effort to get the ball by the defensive line and create a foot race between striker and defender.[3] While often derided as either boring or primitive,[4] it can prove effective where players or weather conditions suit this style; in particular, it is an effective counter-attacking style of play in which some defenders can be caught off-guard"
"The long ball strategy has often been criticized as a method that has held back the England national football team. Hughes became the head of coaching at the FA in the 1990s, and used this position to promote his theory of long ball, which followed on from the work of Reep."
"The long ball is sometimes criticized as being used by weaker teams with less tactical skill"
"West Ham’s coach had accused van Gaal of playing “long ball,” a tactic that involves repeatedly sending long, searching passes forward to opportunistic strikers, hoping for a lucky bounce or knock-down near the goal. Long ball eschews the beauty of intricate passing play and coördinated counter-attacks for trial and error: more often than not, the passes are headed out of play or kicked back down the field by the opposing team, caught by the keeper, or go out of bounds."
"The stigmatization of the long ball in England is so strong that it’s not only blamed for our international failures, it’s also blamed for our inability to produce technically gifted players and even cost Tony Pulis his job at Stoke.
Thankfully, in the last decade England recognized the error of their ways and transformed their repulsive football into a more attractive, possession-orientated style."
etc.
There are plenty of other quotes directly backing up what I said. Literally google "long ball football" and you'll see a huge number of articles in which the term "long ball" when used in reference to tactics ALWAYS refers to long balls as a direct attacking method to transition and create chances. Also that those tactics are infamously associated with England/EPL and their poor technical play, just as I've said numerous times in previous posts. All these articles seem to mention long ball with the same reference and the same intention independently, only you have come up with this blatant misunderstanding of what it means and tried to shove that in my face lol.
YOU were the one using the term long ball incorrectly with regards to tactics to describe some BS about switching the play to relieve pressure.
