Rayan Cherki and the rabona paradox
Monday Night SCOUTED counters Pep's post-match plea for simplicity.
Rayan Cherki’s rabona assist deserves thousands of words far more poetic than I can summon. But what I can do is show you how special his performance against Sunderland was, explain exactly why that’s the case, and illustrate the paradox of Pep Guardiola’s plea for simplicity.
We’ll start with the post-match interview. When asked about the rabona, Guardiola was typical in his haste to reference Lionel Messi and bring everyone back down to earth - never too high, never too low… never Messi.
“Crosses are fine, right or left or which part of your feet, it doesn't matter. If it is effective it is fine but I like the simplicity because I learned from Messi that he never makes a mistake with the simple things. The simple things he does perfectly - then he dribbles past four or five players.
"I want players to do the simple things well and after that you have special talent and he can do whatever he wants but if he doesn't work now it will be a problem. He will be in trouble. We like to tell them to move in those spaces but when they have the ball do whatever they want.
"Before the cross was done, I didn't tell Rayan to put the right leg behind the left leg and cross. They have to play. We tell them for the way the opponents attack and defend what they have to do.”
The core theme of this response is the desire for effectiveness beyond all else: I agree… to an extent.
