Why is Lamine Yamal so good at scoring from distance but so inconsistent at converting easier chances? It has to do with his peculiar shooting technique
It has both good and bad sides.
Everyone has long noticed the way Lamine Yamal's body leans to one side when he attempts long-range strikes. The supporting leg 'freezes' at the same level as the kicking leg, as if he is about to slip.
What is this peculiar technique, why does Yamal's torso take such a strange pose?
It's because his hips are too stiff. Yamal can't rotate them freely when he stops to hit or pass the ball. Yamal's body compensates for his hips' limitation – and he does it by leaning in that way. He has to use more muscles to correct his posture.
Most football players don't have such rigid hips, and they can adjust their torso position when they stop for a kick. In Yamal's case, when he stops, his hips 'freeze' – and the rest of his body works harder than usual. This creates the rotational momentum of the torso. Without it, Yamal would not be able to hit accurately and hard – he would lose control over the shot direction and power.
There are two sides to this trait. The good one – Yamal has an amazingly stable supporting leg and a coordinated and smooth swing + he gets into that position quickly. All of this makes his long-distance strikes so awesome. Outside the box, he has plenty of time to prepare his shot, especially when cutting inside from the right side. In this trajectory, his body is aligned with the goal and this particular position is natural for the shot. No adjustments need to be made. Shift to the right angle, take aim, stop, shoot.
The bad side is that Yamal has problems inside the box. There, he's not given that much time and space to adjust his body for a shot. The penalty box is dominated by players with flexible hips who can quickly tuck the ball, twist and make micro-adjustments. And they shoot accurately from all angles.
Yamal, on the other hand, struggles to make any adjustments to the ball to hit it. He tries to make adjustments, makes a lot of extra touches, but they are rather poor. He scurries around, not understanding how and where to hit the ball. By habit, he often tries to hit it beautifully into the top corner, but it's not the most effective choice at close range.
And even with his stiff hips, he can fix the short-range problem. It's the bottom corner shots that need to be honed – so that when the ball is in front of the goalkeeper, it will fly off Yamal's foot and down towards the bar.
Source: Number 17
