Elsewhere on this site, you can read about the stepover as a football skill. Sometimes, though, you need to look to embellish a skill a bit in order to take things to another level, which is where these skills come in. It is important that you’ve mastered the stepover itself before you try to add something else in, so go back and clarify what that skill is before looking here to see what else you can do.
Adding some flourish to your stepover game can really help to elevate your playing skills to another level, which won’t please the people and teams that you’re going up against on the pitch.
A Stepover Plus Another Move To Confuse
What we’re talking about here is performing a stepover, then adding something else to the end of it. In its simplest form, another stepover or two following the first one can keep your opponent bamboozled whilst you wait for the opportunity to put a cross in or add a burst of pace to your dribbling and leave them behind. A stepover and cut can confuse defensive players initially, then cut the ball off in a different direction that leaves them standing around and trying to figure out where you’ve gone. A stepover with a drag back can get yourself some space when you’re being pressed.
If you choose to perform a stepover with an inside or outside push, that will gain you more space and also look to deceive your opponent. If you want to sell a move wide before doing something different, you can use the stepover alongside a heel flick, which can see the ball move to a teammate, for example. It is also worth bearing in mind that you can combine numerous versions of the stepover plus, such as a double stepover alongside a drag back if you feel as though your opponent is going to be expecting the single stepover but you still want to keep possession of the ball.
Regardless of what skill it is you fancy adding onto the end of a stepover, the most important thing to make it work is to ensure that you’ve made up your mind about what you want to do before you begin to perform the skill. In spite of how common it is to see players doing a stepover, it is still a really complex skill to pull off, so what you don’t want to do is decide you’re going to do a stepover with no follow-up move organised in your thoughts. That is when you are most liable to trip over the ball and end up not only giving it away to your opponent but also looking quite stupid yourself in the process.