What People Underrate About Kosovare Asllani
She's got that dawg in her.
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Through their overwhelming quality and years in the sport, great footballers have managed to infiltrate and root themselves within the collective consciousness of football fandom. As a result, any rando will be able to capture the essence of these figures in a manner that largely concurs with shared conceptions.
This represents a triumph in the diffusion of footballing knowledge and the power of image-making in sport to a degree, but there is a flip side — nuances tend to be lost through this mass understanding, resulting in perceptions that can be misleadingly-reductive on one extreme or simply incomplete on the other.
Notions of Sweden’s Kosovare Asllani tend to fall closer to the latter spectrum; people generally have a pretty good idea of who she is, possessing an appreciation of her rounded technique and silky aesthetic. For example, when Asllani pops into folks’ heads, they imagine clever passes like this:
Or nifty footwork like below:
Her ability to do the unexpected and create from tight spaces has steadily built her reputation as an elite needle player.
Indeed, most recognize Asllani as a #10 who constantly finds pockets between the lines, particularly in offensive transition, where she becomes a lethal passer.
Less acknowledged is the special care she takes to receive in ways that protect the ball, thereby lowering Sweden’s risk when attempting line-breaking deliveries.
Asllani’s bread-and-butter revolves around understated off-ball actions that hinge on quick assessments of defensive positioning and a textbook understanding of dangerous locations. At times, she merely has to do nothing but wait or lurk opportunistically at the edge of the box in order to produce a chance.
But I think there’s something more to Asllani’s play that isn’t quite captured by the admiration of her pleasing style or high-brow assessments of her movement and body shape. By viewing her solely in those terms, it’s easy to conjure up a languid persona who appears to float above proceedings at her own pace, only descending to execute a liquid touch or percolate through a seam.
On the contrary: there is a grit and forcefulness to her performances that envelop her surroundings in a frenetic sort of energy. Asllani is always present and always hunting — looking to break the tempo rather than settle it. She is an intense optimist, continually believing in the potential for transition in any passage of play. This mindset makes her remarkably reactive in the event of a turnover.
The first clip shows off her savvy, but the second displays a brutishness that exemplifies the core of Asllani’s approach. When her skill failed to split the defenders, she simply followed up and battled to regain possession.
On certain occasions, the sheer physicality of the new AC Milan signing can be striking.
I love the first sequence of the following GIF for so many reasons, including the fact that it ultimately results in nothing, which is the reality of a lot of defensive work. It takes a very engaged and aggressive player to snap at the heels of opponents for ninety minutes without the guarantee of a reward. There is no shortage of stars who would give up after the initial pressing effort, let alone prime themselves on their tippy toes, frothing at the scent of a turnover.
Asllani’s enthusiasm and lightning-quick responses to triggers have cemented her as a critical piece of Peter Gerhardsson’s high-pressing system.
On top of recovering loose balls and applying pressure on center-backs from all the right angles, Asllani is responsible for tracking back into midfield once Sweden usher possession to the wing, thereby completing the almighty sideline trap.
For all of Kosse’s offensive qualities and Sweden’s growth as an attacking force, the latter’s identity still centers around this kind of defensive work — there’s a reason no other squad in EURO 2022 has produced more high turnovers than the Blue and Yellow.
In a sense, Asllani represents the tactical soul of Sweden. Beneath the star power and sensitivity to the finer things lie a fiery intensity and urgency that manifests as a powerful marriage between imposing physicality and front-foot organization.
For both player and team, playmaking isn’t just about threading through balls — it encompasses an entire defensive outlook, where vision, technique, and a high off-ball motor are applied just as vigorously and purposefully to win the ball back.
This, more than anything, makes Asllani the complete playmaker, and Sweden a force to be reckoned with.
great! thanx..