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Spain win World Cup 2010

ElDiablo

by ElDiablo
in Football

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Cronky

Cronky

Posted
Posted

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jul/09/world-cup-2010-tactics-the-question

 

Mint article, which more or less coincides with my current thoughts on football trends. Although he is wrong in saying that Spain plays like Barcelona, Del Bosque is far more cautious than Guardiola. Which is probably a reaction on how 90% of theams play against us.

 

Interesting article, thanks for that, though I think sometimes our obsession with numbers and lines can hamper our understanding of how a team is organised. (I'm also a bit surprised that you said that Spain don't play like Barca, because to me they look very similar.)

 

It's certainly true that the top teams don't really play with two strikers side by side, as would be suggested in a classic 4-4-2. That's been a development over many years, and it's what's made a striker like Owen increasingly redundant. In practice, one striker is withdrawn to link with the midfield, or you have advanced midfield players who try to get up to support the lone man. Whatever, you end up effectively with 5 midfield players, and how the various jobs (defensive-attacking, wide-central) get divided up is a matter for the coach and his assessment of what he's got in his squad.

 

One thing that seems clear though, is that the more flexible those players can be, in terms of interchanging positions and improvising, the more effective the team is, and that's where English players still lag behind. We still have a bit of an obsession with specialist wingers, waiting for the ball out wide, and then getting past the full back to put a cross in. We lack the equivelent of Messi and Iniesta, who are just as comfortable going round the back of the defence out wide, as going through the middle.

 

It's interesting that Lennon, the most specialist winger, didn't last the tournament, and we ended up playing with Gerrard and Milner, who are players who you usually see down the middle. Also interesting that SWP went to the tournament, but Walcott was left at home. It was like Capello was trying to get a bit of flexibility, but either didn't quite have the nerve or the players weren't up to it.

 

Lampard is great at what he does, but he's too slow to go wide and has to stick to the middle. The higher the level of opponent he plays, the more static the team looks. Joe Cole can go down the middle or wide, and I think we would have looked better with him and Gerrard, rather than Gerrard and Lampard.

 

Basically, we only had two players who truly looked comfortable when roaming into unorthodox positions, and they were the only two who really seemed able on occasion to improvise together in a way that threatened defences - Gerrard and Rooney. We had a third in Joe Cole, but for some reason didn't use him. Maybe there's still a problem with his fitness.

 

The stranger decision was to play Defoe. He kept his position because of the goal against Slovenia, but he's not good enough at holding the ball to play that modern advanced role. Capello should either have tried that Rooney - Gerrard combination that everyone's talked about, or brought in Crouch, who has done okay in the past for us.

 

Sorry, I've ended up talking about England, but that article did push those buttons for me.

 

Hopefully, Wenger will be able to develop a few young English players who can play in the more modern way. The likes of Eastmond and Wilshere look very promising.

 

 

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madras

madras

Posted
Posted

Does anyone give the slightest, tiniest f*** about the third place play-off?  Even stat dullards like Motson only ever seem to say a team got as far as the semis in x year, or their best world cup was when they reached the semis, rather than saying they placed third.

me........if klose plays and scores twice and villa doesn't score in the final :rant:
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Village Idiot

Village Idiot

Posted
Posted

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jul/09/world-cup-2010-tactics-the-question

 

Mint article, which more or less coincides with my current thoughts on football trends. Although he is wrong in saying that Spain plays like Barcelona, Del Bosque is far more cautious than Guardiola. Which is probably a reaction on how 90% of theams play against us.

 

Interesting article, thanks for that, though I think sometimes our obsession with numbers and lines can hamper our understanding of how a team is organised. (I'm also a bit surprised that you said that Spain don't play like Barca, because to me they look very similar.)

 

Just observe the amount of players Barça breaks with, instead of the 3-4 Spain usually puts forward, which frustrates the hell out of me.

 

Barça play with only one deep lying midfielder (Busquets), instead of two (Busquets/Alonso). This allows one extra central midfielder pushing into attacking positions and drawing defenders and thus creating space for others. To compensate for the relative lack of men in the defensive area of midfield, our defence line also pushes higher to help press the opposition and give more quick transitions to attack since we win the ball back closer to their goal.

Of course, we are much more vulnerable to counterattacks than this Spanish side, but at the same time more incisive.

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Nobody

Nobody

Posted
Posted

Fucking balls. Gonna miss the final because of work. Fuck you. Fuck you very much.

I've worked pretty much every big game during the World Cup, with England - Germany as an exception, but I made damn sure I would not work tomorrow night. There's just no fucking way I'm missing the world cup final.

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David28

David28

Posted
Posted

Any chance he'll be at the next WC? Getting on a bit isn't he.

 

Don't think so. Especially not with the "youth-style" Löw likes to play. Think he has a little chance of making the next EURO but I doubt he'll be at the next WC.

Could still be obviously, depending on the manager. Maybe they'll take him as some kind of impact striker then.

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Guest firetotheworks

Guest firetotheworks

Posted
Posted

Ronaldo >>>>>>>>>>> Klose

 

Glad the fat one will keep the record to be frank.

 

Me too.

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David28

David28

Posted
Posted

Ronaldo >>>>>>>>>>> Klose

 

Glad the fat one will keep the record to be frank.

 

Well, he (Ronaldo) wasn't any good in 2006. All he did was to stand on the pitch for 60 or so minutes and put the ball in the back of the net. He deserves the record for performances like he had in 98 or in 02. But if you consider 02,06 and 2010, Klose would deserve it as much.

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David28

David28

Posted
Posted

Klose will miss the game tonight. No chance of breaking the record then. Has some back problems.

 

Good.

 

Now all I need is for Muller and Forlan not to score.

 

What about Villa to score himself?

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