If we see a false nine, and I still don't think we will but even I am starting to wish we do, I expect we'll still keep our wingers. So either Willian in, Oscar middle, Hulk stays on the right and Neymar as false 9 or something similar. Keep in mind that still allows a lot of switching - Willian can take any of the other mid spots, so can Oscar, Hulk and Neymar can switch. The thing is if they haven't tried that before all that movement is just going to be guys getting in each other's way.
That's what worries me ; that it's too late to change anything too drastically.,all that can be done is tinker around the edges with the personnel.
Having now watched this on TV and being able to have a calm mind about it, I noticed a couple of things: - Webb was fairly good; however, he did let Chile get away with the tactical fouls. Chile stopped 12 of 13 counter attacking opportunities with a foul. Gutierrez was subbed in the game in the second half and finished with almost as many fouls as Fernandinho (who should have seen yellow as well) in less time. - As poor as Fred was, he was miles better than Jô. Jô killed off a number of plays in the final third with poor giveaways. Fred at least was able to maintain possession there. Jo was brought on to play the pivô role and use his height to win the long balls ( ) we were playing. Jô received a ball across the face of goal that he couldn't put a finish on. I would had had more confidence in Fred putting a touch on that ball. I've seen him finish that chance many times at Flu. - Luiz Gustavo's absence will be felt next game. We need our DMs to pick up the slack with winning tackles, making interceptions and playing balls forward. - I wish a journalist would ask Felipão why he continues to play Oscar, Hulk and Neymar on the wrong sides of the pitch. Hulk had his best day of the WC defensively. I feel Oscar is wasted on the wings and is only used there for his work rate. He lacks amazing pace or the strength of Hulk to effectively work down the wings offensively. Neymar had most of his success yesterday when he was able to work from the left and attack the defense. - Alves had a decent day on defense but was a non factor in support outside a shot from distance. I really wish we could see some support up and down the flanks. I'd give a shot to Maicon....
Imagine if Pato had lived up to his hype. He would have been the perfect man to play up top with Neymar and Hulk. I not sure I wouldn't take him ahead of Jo and Fred.
That game was tense. I had perfect seats right by the media section and over the VIP boxes. Right on the first row. I have to say, watching Hulk and Fred live was painful. If they look bad on TV I can tell you it's 10x worse live. The TV here said Hulk was the best player on the field ... really it was just based on the 2 good runs he had, the off-sides goal, and the cross to Jo. But he was really terrible overall. He did not provide coverage to Marcelo ... so the whole thing about him being tactically important was BS on this game. I saw many times him walking while a Chilean opened wide behind Marcelo who was already marking a player. I hope to be surprised, but I don't see us winning this thing the way it's looking. I have to say the game was an awesome experience. Even got my jersey signed by Cafu who was outside the stadium on a private stand. Colombia will be really tough as they are playing really well. Best SA team so far IMO. EDIT: Oh yeah ... and JC was definitely MOTM. David Luiz was also a beast.
This is what gets me... Because of pressure from the media Paulinho is out.. and now that we've seen the horrible quality from Fernandinho (which forced Luiz Gustavo to play Paulinho's role since he can't) that I have been calling out all along, saying.. nobody else can do that job in this team... We are still getting the anybody but Paulinho speech? seriously!? Unless you throw 4 in the midfield Oscar is not the creative player on the team Neymar is.. People have to stop wanting a player to be something he is not on this particular team.. Felipao wants Oscar to do something else other than create, accept it and you'll feel better about how Oscar is doing in this WC, because he's fulfilling his role quite well. Scolari was doing the right thing, we were seriously 4 Ochoa saves away from Brazil being called the best team in the tournament. Then he demolished his blue print which brought him success in the Confederations Cup due to pressure from the media fans and probably from CBF. Fernandinho and Hernanes probably since if he puts in Paulinho he will play like anybody else on that position would, lots of side passes and lots of pulling the opposition into the middle so we can attack the wings, while appearing very little in the games. Fernandinho was horrible last game, we had absolutely no midfield and had to rely on Luiz Gustavo do be our passer, Fernandinho cannot fulfill that role it's really that simple.. He's a marking DM and a direct Sub to Luiz Gustavo, not Paulinho... We never lost our midfield like that while Paulinho was on the pitch, we were always able to mark up the pitch and not get completely involved on the other team's passing game. Because Neymar is the creative player on the field, not Oscar, Oscar is there to press, win the ball on the attacking side... I know it's not what anybody wants him doing.. but that's his role.. just look at how he's been playing on the right side, the amount of tackles and balls he has won. winning balls wasn't his job, his job was to take the pressure off the wings and allow Marcelo and Dani Alves to carry the ball up the pitch. You wonder why Marcelo and Dani Alves were completely gone this past game? The pressure on the defensive half was removed when Fernandinho was brought in, he plays deeper and couldn't take away passing lanes from the players Oscar was closing in on. Little things like taking away passing lanes don't go into the stat book, but force a team to either back track or get tackled (Oscar having so many tackles up top because of it) He shouldn't have changed absolutely anything to begin with, too much pressure from the media probably spilled over into CBF. Time que ta ganhando nao se mexe... Tactically that team was doing great, they were doing exactly the same thing they did it on the Confederations Cup. By the Mexico game they fixed the wing play Dani Alves and Marcelo had ample space to attack. But people bitch about wanting Oscar and Paulinho to participate more on offense.. and honestly if you need more than Fred, Neymar, Hulk, Dani Alves and Marcelo attacking you have bigger issues.
He defended so well that we should have brought another CB into the pitch, parked the bus and hoped for a counter attack!
There was more media pressure to get Hulk out of the lineup since Felipao has taken over for the Selecao and he showed his stuck with him. Paulinho was not removed over pressure. Get over it! Oscar's performance vs Croatia compared to any other game this Cup is night and day. Are you Felipao's nephew or something to know whether he is playing his role well? If that's all Oscar is required to do, we should have just brought Jorge Henrique instead If we managed to break though, we still wouldn't be called the best team. If you want to play the IF game, we were a gift Fred PK away from finishing second in the group. Fernandinho's natural position is segundo volate, not primeiro. He was played "out of position" at City when he had to be the marking DM. We never lost our midfield? That's why Modfic and Rakitic were roaming free in the second half of the Croatia game? Right. Because teams ONLY attack with 5 players at a time. Fred doens't participate in the build up and relies on service. All a team has to do is shut down the flanks (Marcelo and Alves) and who is distributing the ball? Want Neymar to drop really deep to get it and bring it up? Please....
Nada mais chato que o termo false 9... out of all of the new football jargon that came out this one is the shittiest out of them all... Because this ********ing position just doesn't exist, it's a style of play from certain forwards that have existed for ********ING EVER. What David Villa now is a false 9? ******** off... He's a striker, a centro-avante, a forward... Neymar can be our striker, hulk can be our striker, fred can be our striker, jo can be our striker... but because one has a different style of play we'll call him a false 9? What bebeto is a false 9 now? Is Romario from 1994 a false 9, but his number was 11!? and he was also the main ball carrier from the middle of the pitch to the final third.. does that make him a false 9, or because people believe he was a poacher he's not a false 9? Let's ignore his actual tactical playing on the pitch and let's call him a 9 cause of the way we portrait him as a player. Pele a false 9? or a 9? is Zico a false 9? Edmundo during his Palmeiras years but then he was a 7!! Wasn't the 7 the old false 9? Do we give now the player designated to be the false 9 the number 7 then?! Would that make Hulk automatically our false 9!!? Isn't the description of a false 9 the same as a second striker.. and isn't a player like Zico a second striker, but Zico is a maestro! a 10!... oh but if he's prolific of a scorer we need to give him a striker name I see..
I'll get over it once you accept that Fernandinho was horrible for that role. Oscar played great against Mexico and Cameroon also, he just did what you wanted him to do against Croatia (score) so you think that was his only good game. And second part of that comment is what you're not getting... he can do more, but that's his MAIN objective, to challenge up the pitch, help bring pressure on the opponents half then rely on Neymar, Hulk and Fred to provide quickness from the opponent's half... They've been doing this for how long now? And we're still expecting Oscar to play a different role because?? Well not really because then my IF would have taken over and we would have beaten Mexico Maybe he's been out of practice for too long then, he looked out of place the whole game. If you take a look at all of the heat maps of Paulinho/Fernandinho's games you'll see Paulinho marking more of the top than Fernandinho. Roaming free in the middle and shooting from far? I'll take those shots instead of players taking on Daniel Alves or on our wings (2 goals off Daniel Alves side) and 3 goals coming off the sides.. yeah I'll let them RULE the midfield and ROAM FREE on the middle of the pitch and takes shots from there... as long as they are not getting on our wings. That's his role... I mean honestly that IS his role... That's the role he's been playing.. What do you want me to do, poke my eyes out so I don't see that every game that's what Neymar does!? he takes the ball from the middle and brings it up... Not Oscar.. that's not his role.. Neymar.. that's his role.. Difference here is that I'm watching and saying what I'm actually seeing, you're watching and saying what you would like for it to be happening because you're used to that or you would prefer that. But after 4 games of the same thing happening, don't you think those are done by design? And by the way this is not 1982... we haven't used more than 5 players building up attacking since then... can we please stop being 1982 orphans!?
Look up my comments before his goal and you would have seen that I already had called him the MotM. Sorry, I don't overrate players based off goals. That's not where he played in the Confed's Cup. So Paulinho was winning balls up top? That's not what the stats say.... Then it sounds like mostly everyone did their role vs Chile, right? It took a Hulk mistake deep in our end for them to score.. That's PART of his role. That's not his full role. Oscar is not a glorified volante. Sure, we have.
fair couldn't find a heat map, but judging from where he received and passed the ball from, same area as this current Cup. Passing lanes take them away and makes it easier for Oscar and Luiz to judge and challenge their players or the player which will receive the ball, causing more interceptions etc. If our strategy is sitting back and booting it up the pitch like England back in the 1990s and expect to win, we did our job. I'm thinking that's his most important role, that goes into #1 and when a team backs off and allows us to pass and work the ball his passing would come into play. But what team would allow us to do that? 1994 - Romario (main ball carrier), Bebeto and Zinho 1998 - Rivaldo, Bebeto, Ronaldo (main ball carrier) 2002 - Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo 2006 - Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, (adriano or Robinho) 2010 - Kaka, Robinho, Fabuloso 1994 - 1998 Leonardo and Mazinho did more marking up the pitch than actual creating. 2002 - Juninho Paulista was taken out for a defensive kleberson to.. mark up the field
Oscar still had his tackle and Luiz had a great game vs Chile. Chile didn't win the midfield till they brought on Guiterrez (midfield) on for Vargas (striker). At that point, they had 3 CMs + Vidal and Sanchez tracking back to crowd the midfield. It wasn't a matter of someone not doing their role. The long balls were caused by the high pressure, which is a characteristic of Sampaoli's teams. Who else marked us with high pressure? You're leaving out the fullbacks. Kleberson provided plenty of support in 2002. Elano in 2010. Those forwards relied less on service than Fred does. They actually created and participated more in build up.
Luiz did, but he was doing more of Paulinho's job and didn't have anybody around him. Fernandinho looked lost when he wasn't defending. Mexico did, cameroon, poor things they tried, but got burned over and over for doing it. Then I would have to add Marcelo and Dani Alves to the mix here, but I'm not because that's not their main role. I'm talking about players who's main role was attacking.
Good point, we're still at the same 5 then, no need for more and that also means our other teams had the same 5 including wingers. We don't need Oscar being a sixth.
Difference being, that Fred does not compare to any of the strikers you mentioned in past WCs and we did get production from our volantes in support.
Were you at the Mineirao? Agree that Webb treated the tactical fouling and the trancos on Neymar too leniently. I also think the handball call was dubious. I've yet to see an angle showing contact with Hulk's bicep to trap the ball. What I have seen is him stretching his arms in front of him for balance, which is perfectly legal. The yellow card seems gratuitous. Whatever happened, it didn't seem like an intentional handball. My first thought was: Fred would have finished that. Jo is the person you bring when you're winning late in the second half and want another goal. He's not a replacement for Fred, especially on jogadas trabalhadas. Fred may not be all we want from a centerforward, but we need to get him to perform, because he's the best option if we're going to play this system. I miss Ronaldo. And I'd settle for Luis Fabiano from 2010. I hope it's a blessing in disguise. Luis Gustavo has been playing well and consistently. He's obviously the best primeiro volante we have. But his absence is going to force Felipao to think seriously about his options in order to rebuild a basic midfield, which is what we need right now. Maybe it all will click. I'd like to see Oscar more centrally, with freedom to create (while still defending). Neymar and Hulk should at least for part of the next game go back to their original roles as inverted wingers, like we did in the Confed Cup. It seems like that wasn't really tried this time around. Yeah. I've given up hope on this. It seems like Maicon got a chance in the treino coletivo last week, but Maicon played very badly and scored a pretty unforced own goal. The titualres struggled to draw with the reservas. Lol.
Yes. It was easily the most tense game I've ever been to. I'm just glad I was able to see Brazil live once at this Cup. I've seen a lot of people talk about the ball hitting his bicep too. From all of the angles I have seen, it seemed like he hit his shoulder. The flanks are going to be really important for this game vs Colombia. I'd like to put some real pressure on their wingers and FBs and force them back to their end of the field. I keep hearing conflicting reports on that training session. I had heard it was Alves who scored the own goal.
Two big articles this morning - globo and folha online - about the psychological pressure Brazil is under. The positive side is that the staff is addressing it, but it's not going to be easy. How do you settle these guys down and let them just play? http://oglobo.globo.com/esportes/co...role-briga-mostram-tensao-da-selecao-13074833 Also positive is Scolari's attitude, his "no more Mr. Nice guy" sort of statement. Hopefully this helps us hit the next game with the right approach and not suffer any letdowns when the script isn't going perfectly. http://copadomundo.uol.com.br/notic...a-copa-das-copas-conhecer-o-velho-felipao.htm
Still pissed at my seats for the Brazil game. Last effing row of the stadium in the corner. Category 1 my ass. Today I was midfield 10 rows back for the France game.