“Toni Kroos, The New Nils Liedholm” Once upon a time, there lives a midfielder by the name of Nils Liedholm who played for AC Milan from 1949-1961. According to legend, it took two years playing for Milan until Nils Liedholm misplaced his first pass at the San Siro, the rarity prompting a five-minute ovation from the crowd. Wow! This is hard to believe, but let me borrow from Mino Riola, the agent of Sweden Captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic to convince you. After the Sweden international scored a spectacular long-range volley against Nantes in the Ligue 1 cup semi-final last season, his agent in an interview with France Football asserted that “When he scored that [first] goal, I laughed. It looked like he was playing with my children,” “I said to him after the game, Please, stop scoring goals like that because otherwise people will think French football is really easy; its like youre playing with kids.” The 46-year-old then recalled a myth surrounding Nils Liedholm, the famous Swedish midfielder who played for AC Milan for 11 years. There is a legend in Milan that Nils Liedholm never misplaced a pass, he explained. One day, it happened! And then the whole stadium gave him a standing applause because people had realized he too was human. “Well, the day Zlatan scores a normal goal, I will rise and applaud. With that being said, fast forward to the last decade of the 19th Century, a legatee to Nils Liedholm’s throne was born by the name of Toni Kroos. It is no denying that the modern game has seen some exceptional passers of the ball like Xavi Hernadez, Ronaldinho, Paul Scholes, Xabi Alonso, David Beckham and Andre Pirlo, but Toni Kross pass accuracy ratio is out of this world. In a match between Bayern Munich and Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the 2013/2014 Champions League group stage, the German completed 72 of the 73 passes he attempted, more than Yaya Toure (33 passes) and Fernandinho (32 passes) combined (65 passes), thus clocking a pass accuracy ratio of 99% (Squawka); a stats only bettered by Nils Liedholm 100% pass accuracy ratio. That said, during the just ended 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he completed 537 of the 633 passes he attempted chalking up an accuracy ratio of 84 %( FIFA.Com). In addition to the aforementioned, before his Real Madrid debut against Sevilla in Cardiff last night, the German left Cristiano Ronlado with a twist knickers after mystifying the Portuguese Skipper with his eye-catching passing abilities during a training ground ball drill that led the Portugues to say “Kroos is slippery”. Having said that, after the UEFA Super Cup match against Sevilla last night, CR-7 was named the match of the match by his former coach Sir Alex Ferguson. However, if we are to view the game from a ‘counterfactual’ perspective, by saying if Toni Kroos had not dictated proceedings from the middle of the park accurately well, and being in the buildup play for Ronaldo second goal that put the icing on the cake, was the game going to end 2-0, a reason for which Ronaldo won the man of the match award? Interestingly, I won’t answer this question, but rather leave it to conscious minds to analyze. The 24-year-old played as a holding midfielder, sitting in front of the back four with Modric playing as a playmaker to his right and James to his left. His varied passing style was on display with accurate short and long passes and he was also on corner-taking duty when required. The German showed the very best of what he can offer, hardly losing possession at all and dictating play with consummate ease. Kroos is running the Real Madrid engine room from day one. Kroos completed 73 of the 77 passes he attempted over the ninety minutes, chalking up a passing accuracy ratio of 95%. If last night was his test to be a starter, I think he over impressed his manager by leaving the Italian open-mouthed with his exceptional ball passing quality and defensive tenacity. Is Toni Kroos the new Nils Leidholm? Keep tune… Hala Madrid!!!!!
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:29:56 +0000
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