Sunday, August 22, 2010

Thierry Henry's Confidence Issues



One would think that a player of Thierry's Caliber would find it rather easier to play in a league like MLS than he currently is . Form and Fitness can only be blamed for so much, but a player suffering from confidence issues can be poor despite his fitness level. If  a player looks lazy, leggy and awful with ball control, that is a form and fitness issue; however if a players looks good running at people and still has a bounce in his step, yet he continues to miss sitters, its a confidence issue. Henry was and still is one of the worlds best ball handling players, he takes on world class defenders leaving them in the dust no problems in and out of season. His finishing has been also one of his better assets, how else would you explain his goal scoring ratio?
Henry has not been playing regular soccer for over 6 months after suffering injury early in the 2009 season.

This created major form issues, which then lead to low production and his benching at Barcelona. Coming off a particularly good 2008 season scoring 26 goals in all competitions, Henry was expected to continue at the same if not a better production rate. These high expectations were canceled when his form took a big hit due to injuries. The benching as a result did him no favors as Pedro the Catalan product rose to prominence within the team scoring important goals and setting up others. Pep Guardiola knowing that Henry would leave the following season saw no need to put Pedro back on the bench in favor of the Frenchman, this was his opportunity to grow as  a player and replace Henry the following season .
During the Champions league game where Barcelona struggled to find the back of the net Pep Guardiola gave Henry Zero minutes officially telling everyone where he stood in the pecking order. Sure a quality player like Henry could have provided some help but Pep did not budge.
These are some of the things which i think has lead to what we currently see in New York. He still has a bit of speed, still dribbles like a don, but his finishing has been piss poor. (CONFIDENCE ISSUES) . Its clear as day that Henry is not in tip top shape but that has now become a  poor excuse for is lack of finishing. Missing clear sitters, open goals and breakaways.
Watching the game vs Toronto showed again that he still has his football brain and his body still functions its his mindset that prevents him from finishing his chances, that game in Houston did him no favors where he missed 2-3 clear cut opportunities, he then dropped back and started playing provider which shows his unwillingness to go for goal. When a striker looks for a pass before a shot its a sign of confidence issues, great strikers are greedy players that will look for a shot even when his teammates are in better positions than he is .
In the last game at Toronto Dane Richards made a few good crosses that would have ended in goals had he been on his game. A penalty that resulted from a Dane Richards cross to Henry could have been given to him, to get him off the mark but his greedy partner up front Angel never thought of that. That's a great striker, really greedy , only thinking about their own goal tally. It might seem odd to on lookers but what Angel did was what most great strikers do.
I'm looking forward to the next game at Redbull Arena which i will be watching in person. If Henry gets off the mark with a good goal then all Hell will break loose, his confidence coupled with his speed, skill and experience will pose huge problems for defenders.

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1 comment:

  1. What you're missing is, the guy scored in his first game with the club! argument moot...

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