Freedom comes with Responsibility

We must not take our teammates freedom away by avoiding or abandoning our own responsibilities.

As a functioning member of a team each individual player has a role he must buy into and fulfill through his play. There are expectations for positions within a system and for the players that fill those positions.  While we encourage freedom of movement on the pitch we also stress the increased responsibilities that come with such movement. In essence, we seek free-thinking game watchers. Some players eagerly embrace this concept while others really struggle before "getting it", if they ever do.

Those who struggle with freedom of movement and the associated responsibilities are the players who seek to infringe upon their teammates freedom of movement. These players tend to be ball watchers instead of game watchers.  They follow the ball about the field with their eyes without seeing the game in its entirety. Their body also often follows the ball about the pitch without consideration or regard for their teammates. Essentially they steal their teammates rights to freedom of movement by avoiding or abandoning their own responsibilities.

The selfish, ball oriented player, takes their freedom of movement without accepting responsibility for the freedom they have been given. In doing so, they restrict their teammates freedom of movement.   Teammates are forced to "cover" for the wandering teammate. The selfish player also transfers a greater burden of responsibility onto their teammates by ignoring or eschewing their own responsibilities.

One ball watching, ball chasing player can disrupt an entire system of play. 

This cannot be allowed to happen.