In this blog, The FA’s regional PE officer, Will Morford, breaks down one of the most famous goals in premier league history to highlight some key components of finishing an attack.  

‘Aguerooooo’ – yes you guessed it, I am talking about THAT Aguero goal in the last minute of injury time which clinched the title for Manchester City in 2012. Perhaps one of the most famous finishes to an attack, game, and in Premier League history! 

But what if;  

• The referee had given a free kick for a foul on Balotelli? 
• Or if Taiwo had tripped him for a penalty? 
• Or the shot was saved, deflected for a corner, or missed the target?  

Would you consider all these scenarios part of ‘finishing the attack?’ 

For me, they are all positive outcomes of an attack however as coaches, are we too often influenced by the outcome rather than the process? 
Had he not scored, how many of us would have still praised;  

• The penetrative pass and movement into Balotelli? 
• Or the clever combination with Balotelli? 
• Or the piece of individualism to jink past Taiwo to create a better goal-scoring opportunity?

These are 3 of the 5 different ways the England DNA suggests you can create and score a goal when finishing the attack. The other two being crossing & finishing and shots from distance. 
Going back to ‘that goal,’ if we delve a little deeper into the build-up (process part!), how many of us would have considered Aguero’s;  

• initial recognition of space and timing of movement to receive the pass from Fernandinho 
• technical ability to receive the initial pass to face forward  
• risky decision to try and combine with Balotelli, who was closely marked in a tight space, rather than the easier option of playing wide to Nasri who was in space on the left to perhaps score from a cross & finish 
• awareness to slightly change the direction of his run, in anticipation that Balotelli would manage to poke the ball into space before the two retreating QPR midfielders could intercept 
• decision to take responsibility for the situation by not passing to Silva who was arguably in more space and a better goal-scoring position  
• decision, body movement and technical ability to deceive the defender to create a better goal-scoring opportunity for himself 
• honesty and decision to stay on his feet despite a late tackle being made 
• awareness of the GK position and the gap he had left at his near post 
• composure and technical ability to strike the ball cleanly 
• resilience having already missed two good chances in the match 
• confidence to make all these decisions and perform them in a high-pressure situation.  

Aguero did all of this over a 6 second period in an ever-changing environment.  

Breaking this all down enables us to see that finishing the attack is a far more complicated process than just a player’s shooting ability and is heavily influenced by a player's psychological resilience. 

Therefore, if we want our players to have more successful outcomes, when attempting to finish the attack, we need to consider designing finishing practices that create repeated opportunities for them to develop all 4 corners of the FA 4 Corner Model and not just in the technical corner. 

It’s frightening to think that we have only looked at an individual here and not considered the rest of the team’s role in finishing the attack!  Perhaps after reading this blog, why not go back and re-watch the goal and start to identify how the rest of the team contributed to that famous ‘Aguerroooooo’ moment. 

Let us know what you observe in the comments below!