It has become a norm among football fans to underrate tap-in goals. For beginners, tap-in goals are goals scored from the nearest position to the goalpost.
Ronaldo was called a “tap-in merchant” for a while and the energy has now shifted to Erling Haaland.
Not only do I find this silly but hypocritical. Many of these critics would tear their shirts if a tap-in was scored by their club’s player.
Would a United fan sit idle when Rashford scores a tap-in against Chelsea or would a Chelsea fan shake his head in annoyance if Kai Havertz scores a tap-in for a winning goal against Arsenal, which is how hypocritic these lots can be?
A goal is meant to be scored, irrespective of the way it is scored. Be it a tap-in, header or a belter, goal na goal and no type of goal would be counted as two goals or more. Let that sink in! This is not basketball!
Now if you take a deep breath and think about why some players score a lot of tap-ins, is it down to luck or intelligence?
It can be either, but more often than not, it has to do with the intelligence of a player. How well can he anticipate where the ball is going to come for him to score a tap-in.?
Players like Ronaldo and Haaland are masters of positioning and that explains why they score a lot of tap-ins. This is not to say of course that Ronaldo and Haaland only score tap-ins, I am only appreciating their knowledge of positioning.
If you also take a look at players that score tap-ins regularly, they score a lot of other goals and that is why they end up winning the golden boot ahead of others.
I must also say that as easy as it is to score tap-ins, it is equally easy to miss. A player needs to maintain composure and not overthink when the opportunity presents itself to score a tap-in.
Nobody will give a player who has scored 20 long-range shots the golden boot ahead of another who scores 25 tap-in goals and a club would not be denied victory because their player scored a tap-in.
At the end of the day, the goal is to score and win, irrespective of how beautiful or ugly the goal is. We all love Puskas-worthy goals but the obsession with criticizing players for scoring tap-ins needs to be stopped.
I rest my case.
Discussion about this post