Euro 2012: Spain-Croatia 18 June (R)

what a pass from Cesc to Iniesta for the goal

Thing is, this result will "justify" his decisions. And with how stubborn he is, he won't change.

We'll probably face England next and they will be just as tough to break down. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us go out.

We were so ********ing conservative it hurt. We were just waiting until Croatia made their subs to a less defensive lineup to find spaces and content with the 0-0 until then. It may be smart against teams that bunker to reduce the threat of counter-attacks, but it's beyond exasperating and very risky.

Seriously, what did Llorente do to not deserve a chance? Why bring in somebody who crosses the ball in when he has nobody to cross to? Why play without a striker when we need a goal, and right after we score sub in Negredo? Why start with Torres when you won't play against a team as easy as Ireland anymore?

Del Bosque must be thinking the Spanish supporters have been having it too good in the last few years, and wants us to experience the good old seleccion-rage of ye olde times.

It's that time again where we look at Del Bosque's fcuk ups:

1) Doble Pivote (OBVIOUS)
No comment, everyone knows this removes width from the team and Alonso does not suit the team's style and only removes space from Xavi and Iniesta.

2) Arbeloa's Presence (OBVIOUS)
This guy offers nothing in defence and nothing in attack. Bring on Juanfran.

3) Bringing on a winger but removing a striker
Spain needed width so a winger was needed but Del Bosque decides to remove Torres so that Navas can cross the ball to all of the midgets of the team who won't get the ball.

4) Removing the man of the match Silva
I need to make a substitution so I will obviously remove the player who is looking the most dangerous.

5) The refusal to play Llorente
Llorente, like Soldado and Adrián, scores a lot of goals, which automatically means that Del Bosque doesn't like him, he only likes the players who never score like Paquetorres and Inutil-Negredo. The thing that sets Llorente apart from Soldado and Adrián is that he scores loads of goals from headers, THE THING THAT SPAIN NEEDED THE MOST TODAY.

Vicente Del Bosque is an appalling manager, absolutely useless, unbelievable.

Oh, please... If Arbeloa is playing badly, Xavi wouldn't know what to do with "space" in his current form. On the other hand Alonso is playing well and Busquets is gifting balls to the opposition, divibng and missing sitters.*
And feck the team's style. If we are going to use Navas and Llorente, as would be logical, we don0t need to stick to a 100% short, boring passing game.

* And both are whining about the state of the grass and embarassing the team in the process.

I think both players are great but yeah, the whining is embarrassing.

Judging by your avatar you must be an over the top Real Madrid fan... But if you actually look at the statistics, Xabi Alonso gives more balls away than Busquets and Busquets recovers more balls than Alonso.

Even the commentators in England said Arbeloa is useless.

Don't be blinded by your club pride, this is the national team, fcuk Madrid and fcuk Barcelona (fcuk Valencia, Málaga and anyone else too).

EDIT: One more thing, " Xavi wouldn't know what to do with "space" in his current form" You do realise Xavi is a centre midfielder who organises the team and controls the match right ?

Where does Del Bosque play Xavi ? he plays him as an attacking midfielder and puts Alonso as the organiser... So thow how the fcuk Xavi can emulate his Barcelona form when he's not even played in position ?

I can't stand this whole "Madrid vs Barcelona" sh*t when it comes to the Spain team, both teams piss me off, but I know that all of the best Spanish players are from the Barcelona team and the only ones worth anything from Madrid are Casillas (the only reason we're still in this fcuking tournament) and Ramos. There's a reason why Aragonés always left Alonso on the bench.

I was going to say this as well !
In all honesty, Alonso hasn't been good so far and the same goes for Arbeloa.
Ramos and Pique (Ramos in particular) are often shaky behind too

I'm sorry, but it was Alonso who set up Torres with two long passes that he should have done more with, and again it's Alonso who is the only player who gives the (long) pass into the open space. Of course Alonso is going to give up more balls than Busquets, the very fact he gives passes going forward as opposed to Busquets who mostly gives a side pass would already increase the turn over rate.

That's why I can see Del Bosque's point of view with those 2 in the midfield: one gives a different gameplan as opposed to the constant trying to pass it around in the small spaces between opponents to go through (I am a fan, but it won't always work as can be seen by 90% of today's game) and one recovers more balls from the opponents.

That we play without a striker, to what seems to be to appease the egos of Torres and Cesc (why not look at his turnover this match?) is my main gripe.

Wait... Isn't Torres (supposed to be) a striker???

As for Cesc, he shouldn't be played as a striker but no one can deny his contributions so far when he's on the pitch

Torres stopped being a striker years ago.

Cesc can contribute, but not as a striker. My problem is not that he plays, but that we need to play without a striker to let him play.

Spain does not need long balls, it wants to play tiki-taka but can't do it properly because Alonso forces Iniesta and Xavi out of position. If they want to play with Alonso, play the English style with this line up:

Llorente

Silva - Iniesta - Navas

Alonso - Beñat

Jordi - Piqué - Ramos - Juanfran

Casillas

BTW a near identical line up to this was used against Korea where Spain looked 100000000x more dangerous than against China, Italy, Ireland and Croatia. The only reason Spain didn't score more against Korea is 'cause Negredo sucks.

If Spain wants to play the tiki-taka system, Alonso needs to piss off, Xavi and Iniesta need to control the midfield and a winger needs to come on to provide width and open up the defence.

I actually think Cesc would be better suited in Xavi's spot than Xavi. Xavi and Xabi have never really worked well together. They make it work since they are great players but you will never have the best of them when both are playing at the same time.

Another thing, if Stark wanted to help Spain so much, why couldn't he give yellow cards to Alonso and Arbeloa and a red card to Del Bosque ?

That is because Cesc provides more of an actual attacking threat from the AM position.

PS... and some one tell DB to knock it off with this no striker shit formation.

Right now, the best way Spain can play is:

Torres

Silva - Cesc - Iniesta

Xavi - Busquets

Jordi - Piqué - Ramos - Juanfran/Arbeloa

Casillas

Have Silva and Iniesta constantly switching positions.

I would probably say Juanfran over Arbeloa. Arbeloa can't attack or defend, Juanfran attacks well but is pretty average at best defensively from what I've seen...

The key substitutions would be Pedro or Navas coming in to replace Silva or Iniesta or Cesc , the other one would be Llorente for Torres.

Xabi Alonso would be used the way he was under Aragonés, some matches he would come on to add a different aspect to the game, other matches he would just stay on the bench where he belongs really.

The biggest problem is that Llorente owes Del Bosque money... or he tried hitting on the guy's daughter and as punishment he's being left on the bench.

The fact that Negredo has played more than Llorente is a fcuking insult.

I was trying to say that, for future reference, if Del Bosque is so in love with Alonso and wants to play him, Spain should just use the "English system" and I see that as the best line-up to do so.

For me though, I want the Barcelona style.

He made a great save but Rakitic has to bury that chance..If he scores Spain is probably going home..Despite there huge edge in possesion Spain could not create a clear chance unitl then end when Croatia was caught pushing foward..Good luck the rest of the way..Hope you guys make history..

Question to the refs on here, for the spain goal, did Navas not gain an advantage by being offside and continuing towards the goal, and would that not have affected the play the goalie made on the play? I know the pass he got to score the goal was onside but the first pass to Iniesta is the one i'm wondering about.

If you guys wanted to pick the most dramatic way to win a game this was it...

Geez

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/12/15/offside-goal/

I'm no fan of Spain but I love Navas. Always been a favorite of mine. I wish Italy had him.
He should always play. Llorente too.
Enough boring tikitaka. If it wasn't for Iniesta I would fall asleep watching this Spain.
Also, Xavi needs to stop trying to own break his own record for five-yard pass completion in one match and try those killer through balls like he used to. He is way too conservative nowadays. If Xabi or Busquets has to be dropped to accommodate him, fine. This is Xavi we're talking about here. Like Pirlo, you structure the whole team so he can dictate play from deep. Duh.