Passes, runs, carries, presses, lofted balls and lines

Step by step

1. 1

   Say what you mean, not how to draw it

   Pick Pass or Run at the top, tap the player it starts with, then tap where it goes. Line draws a line across the pitch with no arrowhead: the height of the press, the line they hold.

   You choose the intention. We choose the line, the arrowhead and the colour, so every board you make looks like the ones on the channel.

   A gold lock on a button means it comes with a paid plan: Carry, Press and Loft, shaded areas and text on the pitch. Press one and it tells you what it adds.

2. 2

   The arrow says it. The next phase does it

   An arrow on its own moves nobody. It is what you are telling whoever watches, and the movement still comes from the next phase.

   Draw it with two taps and that next phase is posed for you: the ball arrives, the runner gets there. Drag it instead and you get the arrow on its own, so move the players on the next phase yourself.

   Bow an arrow and whatever it describes takes the curve, on Play and in the film.

3. 3

   Every arrow is yours to shape

   Select an arrow and drag its middle to bend it. Turn on S-curve and it bends twice, so a run can go round a defender instead of through him.

   Its colour, thickness, line and ends are under Style, and Arrow type changes what it is without drawing it again.

Pass

A ball played from one player to another.

Use one per pass, and let the chain of them tell the story of the move. If the ball travels, it is a pass.

Tap the passer, then tap who gets it. Or drag between them to draw the line and move nobody.

Run

A player moving without the ball. Drawn as a dashed line.

Use it for the runs that make the pass possible: the winger in behind, the full-back overlapping, the striker dragging a centre-back away.

Tap the runner, then tap where the run finishes. Or drag to draw the line and move nobody.

Carry

A player travelling with the ball at their feet. Drawn as a squiggle.

Use it when the point is that nobody passes: the centre-back stepping into midfield, the winger taking someone on.

Tap the carrier, then tap where they let it go. Or drag to draw the line and move nobody.

Press

Pressure going on to the ball.

Use it out of possession, to show who goes and, just as important, from which angle they approach.

Tap the player pressing, then tap who they go after. Or drag to draw the line and move nobody.

Loft

A ball struck off the grass: a cross, a switch, a goal kick, a clipped ball over the top.

Use it when the ball leaving the floor IS the point. A ball that beats people by going above them is a different idea from one that beats them along the ground, and a board should not draw the two the same. It was called Switch, which named one thing you can do with it; a cross and a goal kick are the same event and neither is a switch.

Tap the player striking it, then tap who attacks it or the space it drops into. Or drag to draw the line. Height, in the panel, sets how far off the grass it goes: low for a cutback, high for a goal kick.

Line

A plain line across the board, with no arrowhead on it. It divides; it does not move.

Use it for the heights and the edges: the line of confrontation, an offside line, the halfway split between who presses and who holds, the point past which you do not follow. Anything an arrow would be lying about, because an arrow says somebody is going there.

Drag from one side to the other. Hold Shift and it comes out straight. Drop an end on a player to tie it to him.

Letting an arrow move the player

Drag either end onto a counter to attach it, or out onto the grass to let it go. Drag the middle to bow it, or the line itself to move it.

A bowed arrow is a bowed path. Whatever it describes travels along the curve you draw, on Play and in the film.

Revealing marks one at a time

Hides every arrow on this phase without deleting any of them. They stay in the list above, they keep hold of their players, and you bring back the one you want to talk about by selecting it and turning its Strength up.

Puts every arrow on this phase back to fully drawn.

Taking a mark off

Everything you have drawn on this phase. Click one to pick it out on the board, or remove it on its own without clearing the rest.

Removes this one mark. Everything else stays.

Removes every arrow from this phase.

Questions