At the outset I want to make clear my intention is not to criticize or excuse any player, coach, or manager today. I aim to be fair, neutral, objective, and merely to raise questions over which you can debate the answers.
While “fundamentals” are, by their very definition, basic that does not make them easy. Or at least it does not make them easy to execute even when they are easy to comprehend. Why is this?
Whether it’s the art of throwing the ball at the cutoff man’s chest, properly engineering a rundown with an economy of throws, securing one out before trying to pursue two, many players struggle to do what they know — or certainly ought to know by the time they are playing in front of thousands of fans at the highest level.