Pace is the obvious fix when a game feels like it’s being played in treacle, and you can see why people point straight at it. If you’re missing quick options out wide or up top, the pitch suddenly looks smaller and every second ball comes back at you.

But truth is, pace on its own doesn’t solve the bigger issue. You can have runners all day long, making the right movements in behind, and still end up watching the ball go sideways. That’s the bit that really grates, because the run has done its job and we just don’t cash it in.

The early ball just isn’t there

This is where the frustration comes in. When the space is on and someone’s spinning off the shoulder, you want the pass played early, before the defence can set its feet. Instead, it often becomes another touch, another carry, another safe pass into traffic.

Ryan Gravenberch, for all his quality, looks like a carrier first and foremost. He can eat ground with the ball and he’s useful for dragging us up the pitch, but he doesn’t naturally lift his head and punch that pass over distance. Too often the run goes and the moment’s gone.

Curtis Jones is a different type, and he’s got real strengths in the deeper areas: taking it under pressure, keeping the ball, helping us escape a press. In a pivot, that matters. But if we’re being honest, he’s not the one fizzing diagonals or clipping a pass into space from deep either.

When Virgil gets boxed in, we need another route

There’s also the knock-on effect at the back. When Virgil is closed off, or the opposition decide they’re going to block that main build-up lane, the progression can look a bit one-paced. You end up with possession, but not the kind that scares anyone.

What helps in those moments is having another centre-half who can step in and break a line, either with a punchy pass or by carrying into midfield to force a decision. Not every attack has to go through the same outlet. In the Premier League, teams are too well-drilled for that now.

Two tweaks that change the feel of the side

So the solution isn’t simply “add speed”. It’s “add the pass that unlocks speed”. A genuine passer alongside Gravenberch in the double pivot would change how quickly we can turn pressure into chances. And a ball-progressing centre-half would stop everything stalling when the obvious option is taken away.

Get those two pieces right and you don’t just look a bit better. You look like a side with more answers, more variety, and a lot less sideways football when the run is crying out for the ball.

Written by PatrikBurgher: 14 January 2026

Tags: efl tactics