“Passing the ball is communicating with another person; it’s being in the service of another person. It’s crucial. For the pass to be a good one, the player has to put himself in the position of the person who’s going to receive it. It’s an act of intelligence and generosity, what I call technical empathy.”That was the former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger writing in his autobiography, My Life and Lessons in Red & White, about the third topic in our series.After looking at how to dribble and shoot, we’re now turning our attention to passing and crossing.There are so many different way of delivering a ball to a team-mate and we’ve covered half a dozen of them here, including the trivela that has become Lamine Yamal’s trademark, the flamboyant assist that infuriated Pep Guardiola last season, and the unique sound of the pass that defines Chelsea’s new manager.Tom Huddlestone, who made close to 300 appearances in the Premier League and knows a thing or two about playing a longer pass, is leading the way with our demonstrations, ably assisted by YouTuber and content creator Eman SV2, the former Everton midfielder Tom Davies, and the king of the showboat Lee Trundle…Long diagonalTwo words: Hakim Ziyech.If you haven’t seen the pass, where have you been for the last eight years?Ajax were playing Bayern Munich in the Champions League at the Allianz Arena when Ziyech received the ball close to the touchline and just inside his own half.The Moroccan took a touch, looked up and hit the sweetest left-footed diagonal you can imagine, switching play to the opposite flank with a ball that was so beautifully delivered that it deserved to have a bow wrapped around it. Ziyech’s Ajax team-mate Nicolas Tagliafico didn’t need to break stride.