When teams back the box, they'll have 11 players behind the ball. You can break it down with quick, accurate passing and players being able to take on defenders and beat them one on one. Basically, two skills which are front three don't possess aside from the player you're asking to be dropped. So while it all sounds great, it worked for Barca because they had the personnel to employ it and we don't. Not sure what you're referring to, he's been playing central for the majority of the second half of last season and this season up to the re-employment of the BBC. Because we don't have players that can exploit through the middle and create their own spaces aside from Isco. We have players that are great at passing the ball, both short and long, and we have excellent full backs. The personnel you have dictate how you play. Exploit a high quality midfield how? You're trying to get players to do something that is not in their skillset.
This exactly. And as good of a dribbler as Isco is he isn’t the quickest when it comes to taking on defenders. We kick the ball out wide so often cause cause we don’t have the personnel in our starting 11 to slice through teams centrally. This is a big reason I’d like to see more of Ceballos and Kovacic and less of Kroos and Casemiro at times.
The single most important thing in such tight situation is build up play / creativity which comes from midfield and not from forwards. Considering the latter and midfield personell we have, which involves Kroos who can find a sweet pass in final third and is a great shooter, Modrić highly dynamic player with fantastic football intelligence and Isco who is basically depiction of "joga bonito"; i think it is clear that we have personell to break down bunkering opponent or any other opponent. Feints in such situations are less important considering congestions. But if you have a player with serious feinting ability then of course the latter provides a massive added value. But that value means nothing without a base. And base is creative passing which is built upon proper positioning and movement = individul, group and team tactics = coaching staff. Instead we are opting for limited creativity, being static instead of dynamic and going away from the most dangerous position on the pitch - center towards flank to provide crosses. I think the latter depicts perfectly Zidane`s performance this seasons and how much of a straw-man is to say "we don`t have personnel to employ it". Based on the games i have watched, CR7 spends substantial amount on flank / close to flank. It would be interesting to see heat maps. I profoundly disagree. You don`t create space for yourself just by feints. You do it by positioning and properly timed movement especially between the lines which are crucial. We absolutely suck between the lines and it`s not because players don`t have capacity to create space for themselfs or others. It is coaching problem. Specifically group / team tactics. Come on man. Modrić is unable to create space for himself let`s say by continuing his movement into depth? Or Kroos, Kovačić or especially Ceballos?
Who are the midfielders going to pass the ball around to? Just between themselves? If the opposition is dropping so deep, there is no such thing as "runs behind the defense". That means you're breaking them down with runs from the midfield and into the box, which means your forwards need to be capable of receiving a pass and having the vision and the understanding of playing that quick ball back to the player making the run from deep. That is not a skill set our forwards have.
Depends in what part of the pitch. In final third of course forwards will need to get active. And i imagine CR7 and his Brady bunch is capable of making a simple back pass or double pass and possibly continue their movement into the box. Or we have come to a point that the only thing they are good for is standing in the box waiting for a cross to happen and convert that once in 100x? As for runs behind defense. Of course there are runs behind defense even in such deep situations. Defense usually stands on 16m mark in a line. Midfielder can continue his movement into the box behind opponents. Full back makes overlap behind opponents back line and provide back pass towards the center. You are basically defending the position of this squad not being able to play anything more than a pass to dancing Marcelo who ships it in. In reality this team has a tactical problem which got exposed massively with CR7 disappearing.
Except the passes in those situations are actually tougher to play than passes in from the midfield. You have 0 space and time. So yes, I don't think they're capable of making those passes because they've shown they aren't capable of making those passes. You are basically simplifying the way we play down to that, just like a lot of people do here, which is fine. That's up to you.
Agreed, if you’ve been watching this team for awhile even when we were winning that’s not something that our forwards are good at , it’s just not one of their strengths, more often than not when they try it it leads to a turnover , it’s why we make such a big deal of it when plays like that actually come off, IMO it happens once in a blue moon for us, this is not something Ronaldo or Gareth is particularly good at, Benz occasionally, but in those tight spaces quick one twos trying to break down defences, not the best, space and pace and they’ll pretty much kill everyone though
If you think CR is playing as a striker you need to get you eyes checked. 80% of his time he starts from flank, waving his hands to get the ball and then just do nothing when he gets the ball.
Through passes in heavily congested area are easier than a backpasses or double passes from a forward? Two rebound boards could do that effectively let alone fckin Ballon D Or player and his successor. I would not describe substantial tactical problems as "simplyfication". But okay, i look forward for your in depth explanation as to why we are playing like mid-tier Premiership team.
That's the problem.. people assume that he would play striker but I don't think that's happening. At least not while he plays with us.
He's not. And zidane/Perez let him do whatever he want. As long as he scoring left and right it was ok, but now it's hurting the team.
I don't have that much of a problem with cross cross cross. We did a CL repeat with cross cross cross. What I do have a problem with, is losing our best crosser (James) and our second best header (Morata), and thinking it will not affect its effectiveeness.
Do you remember when we used to struggle like 10 years ago against anyone decent? Some of us used to think it was mental, like the players don't know how to play together sometimes. The thing is, some of these players are suddenly excellent when they leave Madrid, and most were excellent before they got here. So if you think recall hard enough, you perhaps may see some validity in that we don't have "it" at certain times, and people aren't playing up to their potential or ability. This club is the best example that sometimes in life, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.
I recall that we won a title 10 years ago with substantially weaker team. 10 years fast forward, we are 19 points behind Barca in fckin january and just dropped out CDR with our coach not even benching CR7 and Bale in a competition which was easily the most realistic option for a trophy this season. Tactically we are a mess. That is a coaching problem and you can invent hundred more straw-men and it won`t change facts. Also, big part of this seasons failures rests on summer transfer period. But then again, whose fault is that? Solely Flo? Was Flo the one who completely mismanaged Morata and James season prior to that, and then sold them when ironically they would fit perfectly in Zizu`s Cross x100 tactics? Look, Zizu is one of the greatest and one of my favourite players of all time. But the apologetics that he is receiving in this seasons is getting absurd.
It was Morata who misjudged his own abilities and now blocks people on twitter and instagram cause they troll him 24/7. Coincidently, Chelsea fans are blaming Conte for mistreating Batshuayi and giving him no minutes ahead of Morata because of favoritism. In fact, instead of giving him minutes, he's keen to ship him out mid season. Morata was better last season than he is now with more minutes on his feet. To me it seems like Zidane knew exactly how to get the best out of Morata while Conte doesn't really seem to know that. Zidane has outcoached Simeone multiple times where Ancelotti with all his experience has completely chocked against him on the regular.
From golden lambos towards twitter and instagram... Massive arguments! Morata scored 15 goals in 1,3k minutes last season and this season in Chelsea he has 10 goals in 1,5k minutes which is more than CR7 and Benzema combined in substantially better team. It seems to me that Zidane fcked up massively.
Which means he's doing worse with more minutes. Good night. Benzema also has 2 goals to Morata's 1 in the CL while having played about 100 minutes less. Last season Morata had 3 goals in about 1/3rd of the playing time he got in the CL. Maybe Morata doesn't know how to work with a master tactician yet.
I don`t know about you, but i would take his worse which is still substantially better than anything CR7 and the French connection produced this season. But hey, considering Zidane knows how to use him while Conte does not as you have stated, i imagine Morata would score much more goals in Madrid with 1,5k minutes.
Was Morata doing better last season yes or no? Plays more this season, scores less. If you even think that he plays better this season, then by those standards Benzema is having the season of his life. He's either playing worse, or he was better suited to the way "amateur tactician" Zidane had the team play.
Morata is not a good player and never will be. He contributed positively to our success last season, but he grossly overestimates his ability and has an aggravating tendency to shift the blame of his limitations onto coaching staff wherever he has been. Now that he is an undisputed starter at Chelsea, there is no excuse to run to.
No matter how many goals he less than Benzema, overall he played better. In the match against Arsenal when he missed 4 great chances, he created 50% of them by himself.
You forget of course to mention it is Morata's first year in a new team and that previously he had the best midfield in the world playing for him, while this year his midfield is a major downgrade compares to our. You can hate as much as you like Morata and that he requested a move because he felt he deserve more minutes (which of course he does), but the fact is that he would have been a major upgrade over benzema this year and benzema and his man love for benzema is the only reason Morata left. (And will probably be the reason Marco and maybe isco will ask to leave as well).
It was Morata's first year at Real Madrid with this set of players. He had spent two seasons at juventus, and joined a set team that he was dropped into, just like he joined the Premier League Champions in England with and just replaced Diego Costa in the lineup. The situation is very similar. Even Conte admitted that he's having trouble adjusting to the demands, something that Buffon said about him at Juventus as well, that he needs to get stronger mentally (after Morata started crying after a training session). The mental blockade is not there in Madrid, because he's playing at home. He's 25, on his way to play 3000 minutes this season and should be bursting with confidence before the world cup.