I think, I'm not the smarter one...
...but you can create one catching-animation for a direct-pass, one for catching the ball over the had and one for picking it from the floor.
Now you can move the player to the position where the ball is in the equal high as the hands of him. Then turn the player to the angle of the ball and play the
"direct-pass-animation". It's only an Idea...
(I hope there are not sooo many mistakes with grammar...
)