Identification of the strengths of my performance

In my brief history in football, I have played for three football teams, Comet Rangers and Hatfield Youth at a young basic stage, and Potters Bar Crusaders at an older, more advanced stage. At the moment I am currently not signed up for a team, although I am hoping in the year 2004 to sign up for a local team playing Sunday league football. Eventually, I would like to be in the squad for the school team, or to be playing for a Sunday league team. I will need to improve my fitness as I have spent a lot of time out with various injuries, which has stopped me from progressing much further.

In football there are many strengths that are required in a game situation, to ensure that you have a good game and ultimately, to ensure that your team wins the game. In this section of my personal performance portfolio, I will analyse the strong points of my performance, and indicate why I and others feel this is a strong point of my game. Firstly, I feel that my biggest strength in football is my work rate. My manager at Potters Bar commented that ” even if I don’t have great technical skills, I always give 100%”. In a game situation, a player needs to work to their full potential to have a good game.

If a player is putting in the effort, then the rest of his game should come naturally to him. I feel that this is my biggest strength in football, because I hassle people and put in maximum effort for the team, which then makes me feel more assured that I have done my best to try and win the game. Also, when someone on your team sees you putting the effort in, it inspires them to try their hardest as well, which can only be good for the team. The player who I believe is a great model to look at in terms of work rate is David Beckham of Real Madrid. He never stops trying, and continues to hassle players until the last minute of the game.

Another good point of my game is my tackling. At Potters Bar I used to play centre midfield or centre defence, because my manager said that I am a ” hard tackler”. I am good at winning the ball when on my feet, and also when I make a sliding tackle. This is an effective quality for me, as I play either centre back or centre midfield, and these are areas on the pitch where making good tackles is vital. However, I could improve my tackling by trying to stay on my feet, because I have a tendency to go to ground, and sometimes I give away silly free kicks for innocuous challenges around the penalty area and in dangerous positions.

The perfect model to look at in terms of tackling is Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand. Most of the time when he has to make a tackle he will win the ball whilst on his feet, and he very rarely gives away fouls. A quality in my game which ties in with the more defensive qualities is my marking. At Potters Bar, when we had given away a corner, I was usually man marking their biggest player. This is because I was one of the bigger players in the team and I could overpower him with my strength. I am fairly good at man marking, and can usually mark a player out of the game using my strength and positioning.

However, this is less effective when the player I am marking has lots of pace, because they can turn me and I wont be able to catch them up, and may even commit a foul. The player that I think is a good marker is Arsenal’s Martin Keown. He can mark almost any striker in the world out of the game, and most strikers hate to play against him because he is such a good marker. Also a good quality for defence is communication. I am good at this, because I usually shout at my team mates in defence, to let them know when they are doing well, when they are doing badly, if they are out of position, etc.

This is good because it gives people someone to look to when they need advice on ho to deal with a tricky player. However, sometimes this can be a hinderance, as I have a tendency to get carried away and over criticise my team mates. A player who is a good communicator is Chelsea’s John Terry. He organises his back line very well and he is good at letting people know when they have done well or when they have done bad. This ties in with a quality that I feel is very important to my game in particular, leadership.

At Potters Bar I was installed as captain when our regular captain was out injured, and I felt I did a pretty good job. I feel I am a good leader, and often give others on my team encouragement when they do well, and constructive criticism when they do something wrong. This is a good quality to have because it sets a good example for others in your team. The perfect model that I look to for leadership is Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira. He is good at encouraging his team mates and his leadership qualities often make players on his team raise their game.