Very rarely so. It's not generally true that we have many moments when pass is available but we lack players to make it. Basically, it's not great service that we're lacking. What we're lacking is teammate access. A player like Arthur or Semedo carrying the ball simply does not have viable passing options because we have some grade A lazy players who just stopped giving any shit when there is an opponent willing to dig very deep and give extra effort. Every time the other team ups the intensity, some of our senior players just go missing in a shameful way. Main culprits are Suarez, Messi, and Busi.
We rarely play ballsy short passes because there is no movement to make those passes consistently manageable. Again, player quality is a non-issue. Best squad in the world probably atm. The big issue is not that we lack ballsy players to make those passes. It's that the attacking players have way too much freedom to do basically whatever they want. Messi and Suarez have too much freedom and Valverde is a total spineless clown for accepting their chaotic movement.
What are ballsy short passes? You mean passes that have maybe a 50-50 success rate? Those are ballsy passes? We are not equipped to deal with fast counters that might come from all of those failed passes. You're basically talking about the EPL style here. EPL teams have almost no risk-management tactics. Everything is ballsy as you say it. The solution is not to play ballsy passes. The solution is to move off the ball and make those passes look not that ballsy anymore.
Agree here. But then this is probably what is wanted. Or else, why would you allow Messi to drop deep and do that? It's obvious that when Messi drops deep he is passed to no matter what.
About your theory that there are passes that are available but somehow we lack courage, here is a full action build-up from the back up until the ball is lost. Now look at this and tell me if we're lacking ballsy passes or we're simply lacking support for the man on the ball.
Photo 1)
Pique has the ball and plays a simple, usual pass, to Semedo.
Photo2)
Semedo receives and goes forward a bit, trying to figure out what to do. He is not pressed initially.
Photo3)
There is a great pass option available down the line. But Messi and Suarez don't care. They aren't even facing the game. They walk. Messi in particular is walking with his face down as per the image.
It is especially interesting how easy it is to mark Messi. Here he is marked with 2 players, and only 1 player does tight marking. Another player just stands between the ball and Messi, basically hiding Messi from Semedo's vision with his cover shadow.
Players can mark Messi this way and still press the ball carrier. Basically it's a two man job that, if done right, has very very high chances of blocking Messi. Just watch him and stay in front of him. He will not move very fast, so it is not very hard to track his movement and place yourself in front of him. Very rarely will he move left and right to get out of this situation. If he, for some reason, does move, have another player nearby who can intervene.
Semedo sees he has no option and passes the ball to Arthur. Other option would've been to bomb the flank on his own dribbling 2-3 Sevilla players with ease. But this, sadly, isn't FIFA on semipro level.
Photo 4)
Arthur receives and does the same thing as Semedo. Looks up to see who can he play with. Now if someone could explain me, what pass is there in picture no4 and Arthur doesn't use it? Messi and Suarez are still not showing any intent in participating. Messi is even with his back to the ball carrier.
Ball is, logically, played to the open man, Alba.
Photo 5)
Here Alba doesn't see, or he is instructed not to be adventurous, that his marker has gone towards Coutinho too soon, basically allowing Alba to drift inside if possible. But Messi and Suarez are still not moving to help anyone.
Photo 6)
Now ball is very much isolated with Coutinho on the left sideline. At this point, even if they want in on the action Messi and Suarez can't participate. This allows Sevilla to lay off the marking on them and crowd the left side.
Photo 7)
Sevilla closes that zone, ball is played back in midfield, where Messi goes way back to receive the ball and try some fancy lofted ball which against serious teams has never worked in years.
