The Summerville Trick - The Square Ball 28/8/21
JOKES
Written by Rob Conlon
When reflecting on the death of Diego Maradona, Marcelo
Bielsa lamented a decline in the art of dribbling. “What makes me really sad is
that people like Maradona and Messi, who showed their individual brilliance
through dribbling, they are versions of players that stop repeating
themselves,” he said. “For example, Kylian Mbappe could be said to be the best
player in the world right now, but his art is not comparable to that of
Maradona’s.”
Don’t worry about Mbappe, Marcelo. You’d only be telling him
he’s not worth €200m if we signed him anyway. So let’s talk about Crysencio
Summerville instead.
Summerville scored his second goal in three games for Leeds’
Under-23s in Friday night’s 3-2 win over what’s left of Derby’s reserves. With
a bench to warm for the first team, Summerville has only played 45 minutes of
each game. That’s been more than enough time to leave a creche of traumatised
full-backs contemplating their life choices.
Dovetailing with the equally dynamic Cody Drameh on the
right wing, Summerville chooses from three options for beating the poor soul
marking him. There’s the flurry of stepovers, sending the defender one way
while he goes the other. When space is in abundance, there’s the simpler route
of knocking the ball past the full-back and using his pace to run around the
other side and continue where he left off. The third option, also known as The
Max Gradel, is the most endearing: running and running in a straight line
towards goal, the ball pinballing off defenders’ legs while somehow staying
under Summerville’s spell. He opted for the latter while scoring against Derby,
and his goal against Crystal Palace was similarly direct. Both began when Summerville
was running with the ball at his feet outside the box, and ended when the ball
was in the net.
Summerville’s skills remind me of what Bielsa said after
Raphinha gave Gary Cahill a nervous breakdown last season, when he was
reiterating that players like this are becoming harder to find because such
talents are refined organically on streets rather than in the laboratory of
formal coaching.
“To dribble is to trick your opponent, show him you will do
something and do another,” Bielsa said. “It’s something you can’t teach. It
belongs to every player and the talent they have. Traditionally how a player
would learn to play was without any rules and with many hours, with a lot of
situations to resolve. Everyone would find their own solution. Nowadays kids
don’t spend as much time with the ball. What they learn is not by themselves
but it’s transmitted to them. For me football, as a creative spectacle, every
time has less beauty. As time goes on it’s not that the quality decreases, it’s
just there are fewer good players. Football in general hasn’t been able to
develop this so it becomes more efficient.”
Which might explain why Bielsa felt it necessary to send Ian
Poveda on loan to Blackburn, knowing Summerville was waiting in the wings with
his rare ability. Bielsa is often criticised for being stubborn about using
young players, but 45 minutes in an Under-23s game are more than enough for
Summerville to take the piss out of moody teenagers. Now it’s just a matter of
finding the correct Premier League full-back to point and laugh at when
Summerville is finally given his chance.
Of course, Bielsa would never be so cruel to an opponent as
to hand out a debut with mocking an opponent in mind. But if he did, he’d just
tell you it was in the spirit of Maradona, Messi, Summerville. Show your
opponent you will do something. Then do another.
