Hear the words ‘Hollywood pass’ without any context and you might well wonder whether someone is making reference to a studio head deciding not to put a film into production, or an actor turning down a role that they’ve been offered.
When given the context of it being said during a football match, however, someone who knows and understands the sport will almost immediately surmise that a player in the game has tried to play a pass that looks amazing but stands little chance of reaching its intended target.
This so-called ‘Hollywood pass’ can be the bane of a manager’s existence.
Trying to Achieve the Virtually Impossible
There are some players that are extremely adept at playing passes that would be extremely difficult for someone with less talent to pull off. The likes of Thiago Alcantara, who won major tournaments with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, was a midfield maestro who could play ridiculous balls through to teammates. Virgil van Dijk, the Liverpool captain, could play incredible balls out of defence that made him more like an American football quarterback than a central defender. Generally speaking, though, most players will struggle to be able to pass it more than a few yards successfully.
The result of that is that players looking to do the spectacular are hoping that they will suddenly develop the ability to pull off passes that they’ve rarely done previously. These passes are given the moniker of being a ‘Hollywood pass’ because they look really good when they come off, but more often than not they fall short of the expectation. There tend to be two moments within a game that a player is likely to try such a ball, which is firstly if the team is winning comfortably and therefore misplacing such a pass will have no real consequence, or if things on the pitch are getting desperate.
@ollyhud David Beckham was the King of pinging a football 👑🎯 Name a better passer, I’ll wait… #creatorsearchinsights #acmilan #forzamilan ♬ Crystal Waters Gypsy Woman (Live) – Dj djacky mix
Whilst a manager is unlikely to be too upset with a player trying to pull off the spectacular when their team is winning, provided it doesn’t result in them conceding a goal, coaches will find players aiming to hit a Hollywood pass when their team is losing frustrating in the extreme. Generally speaking, players know of their own ability and will be more than aware of which passes they can hit that will reach their target more often than not and which ones are Hail Maries at best. The Hollywood pass could look brilliant, but it could also result in you just giving the ball away cheaply, which no one wants.