Wednesday 30 September 2015

PORTO VS CHELSEA 2-1 MY TAKE .

now yesterday porto played chelsea at home and chelsea lost . it was very well said by miguel delaney on soccernet that chelsea were wrong . chelsea lacked any creativity nor did they had any foothold on the game . the formation and the players that were chosen by mouriniho at times looks like to chosen for loss .
now chelsea played with a 4-2-1-3 formation with cahill and zouma at the back with ivanovic and Azpilicueta as fullbacks . mikel and ramires were in front of the back four with ramires while fabregas was ahead of them . willian ,costa and pedro made the front three . while porto started with 4-3-3 formation with maicon and marcano at the back with pereira and indi as the fullbacks . the middle  three consist of  neves,danillo and imbulla as the middle three . now danillo was sitting in front of the back four while neves was slight on the right side while imbula was on the left . while the front three consist of brahimi ,Aboubakar and andre .
now porto started the game by playing direct balls to Aboubakar who coming slightly deep ( about one or two yards) to collect the ball and then pass it on the brahimi who was out wide for the whole match . he would then try to run on ivanovic but keeping him guessing as to whether he was running down or cutting inside and at the same time combining very well with imbula and Aboubakar . porto would show that they are going to try and open  the left side and them pass the from left to right and stretch chelsea play . now the trouble with chelsea was that Aboubakar was getting slightly inside to collect ball but zouma wasnt coming out of the defense to close him . it left Aboubakar with pretty much time on the ball to collect the ball and pass it whoever that he desired off . secondly if you had looked closely then brahimi was hugging the touchline and stretching the play . now everybody knew that ivanovic knew was going to struggle against the brahimi who is a good dribbler . so it was imperative that zouma should had moved closer to ivanovic( i had shown the space between ivanovic and zouma in the chelsea  diagram)  so that he could double him down or close him even when he could give slip to ivanovic . the warning signs were already there when before the goal brahimi had cut inside once and had a shot scuffed . chelsea should kept a tight leash on him just as willian was doing a great job on left side where he was helping his fullback  .mikel or ramires should had done a better job over here .
now chelsea were playing on a counter here . to be honest costa was very good yesterday he was coming deep to collect ball and bring the midfield into attack . while marcano showed the willingness to come out of defense to close him down maicon stayed deep and maintained the shape and let costa scott free . now costa played majorly on left side where on he combined very nicely with fabregas and willian but he never got the support from the midfield from mikel and ramires who were poor yesterday . ramires is also very technically poor . he has a poor touch and doesnt understand the game. to be honest the support that porto front three got from danillo and neves was never there from ramires and mikel who were very poor . now chelsea's best came when pedro was put through on goal with good pass from costa . now i had described pedro earlier he likes to at the end of things rather than be a creator
. now chelsea were very poor and lacked support for costa . to be honest porto were trying to stop fabregas and try to press chelsea and i thought two or three time ramires got the ball between the lines which he could not use properly . porto's midfield were trying to press chelsea while thebackline were not ready to come high and playing deep enough not to let have too much space behind as pedro had slipped earlier on goal .
now let me describe to two situations in the first half where on costa was drifting on the left side he worked maicon very well to give him a slip but there was nobody in the box to whom costa could atleast  cross .secondly when he drifted on the right he again worked marcano very well . fabreagas to support him and when these two worked the ball none of the chelsea players came to continue that play and use that advantage and use the positon of the ball . so out of sheer frustration fabreagas crossed the ball knowing he had nobody in there to target since costa was there with him wide . chelsea were poor on their offense . chelsea need from their midfield to support their front players and it was not there while porto's midfield supported very well to the front line chelsea's middle line was very poor . what can fabregas do when he has no confidence in mikel and ramires that they can bring the ball and keep the play rolling and not loose the ball . ramires had some beautiful positons in the game where he got some space and time on the ball in the hole but was not able to use it properly although his run led to the goal .
most importantly chelsea's playes were sleeping in the game and and the second goal was an evidence of that . although mouriniho made changes in the second half but untill then imbula had come into his element in his element and had started imposing himself on the game . he was good  as was neves the kid was very good on the ball .his game reading was very good and also his ability to release players in the space was very good . there were some individual battles in the match notably with willian against peraira and brahimi against ivanovic .

Saturday 26 September 2015

SPURS VS MAN CITY 4-1 MY TAKE .

now spurs played city at home . spurs started with a 4-4-1-1 combination while city started with 4-2-1-3 combination . spurs started with a very young lineup . they had dier and alli in the middle while city had fernanado who was first time starting this season along with fernandiniho. toure started behind aguero while for spurs kane started upfront with sun behind him . spurs had eriksen and lamela on the wide while city had sterling and de bruyne on the wide . spurs had Alderweireld  and vertoghen with davies and walker in the back four . city had Demichelis and otamendi with kolarov and sagna in the back four .
now the first started with spurs started with spurs trying to press but quickly settled to sit back and hold shape and discipline . now in the first half spurs were trying to play out from the back and try to open city with their passing and ball movement . majority of their offense was from right side with lamela ,sun and eriksen involved who was coming inside of the left and getting involved in the play. for the first half eriksen was the player . to be honest spurs could had opened city properly had they been a little patient with their play and their deliveries . if you had seen city's back four could had been kept occupied with kane or sun and if you could see then their was a considerable space between city's back four the middle two . it was because fernandiniho was worried about eriksen as he was told to keep a tab on him and he was doing a decent job on him . fernando didnt had the discipline to quickly drop deep and close the space between back four and middle . had one of the spurs player dropped into that space then it was their for the taking . but spurs couldnt capitalize on that .
now for city in the first half for city de bruyne was the best player for them . he knew when to switch the play and when to come inside and when to stay wide . his vision was very good . now city had toure behind aguero but he wasnt very close to aguero instead their was a  lot of space between him and aguero . it was because he was stretching spurs vertically trying to get the space between back four and midfield so that he can play de bruyne and sterling in the space . spurs CB's very afraid of aguero's pace and very reluctant to go and close him . he was getting all kind of space between the lines where on he could collect the ball and run on the defenders . vertroghen and Alderweireld were very just backtracking and letting him have all the fun. to be honest spurs were fortunate not to go down early in the first half . now dier was trying to mark toure and at time he and alli lacked the organisational discipline to take their proper positions in front of the back four . to be honest toure was playing behind aguero and but he was not making run in the box but was staying just off the box rather trying to come inside the box and provide the aerial threat or provide an alternative for cross .
now for the city goal spurs made two mistakes . first that they gave the ball away cheaply . secondly eriksen should had taken a card and clipped toure so that he could had prevented the goal . this point was very well pointed out by the commetator
jim crawford .
now the second half was very different to the first half . now city were playing with a high line just as they did in the juventus game where on the back four tries to stand just off the box and tries to catch the other side offside . now in the second half spurs changed the approach . they started to play traditional english football with trying to find kane with long balls . now city's centre backs were not any match for kane in the running game and most importantly kane was getting wide to collect the ball where on he would move into space left by the full backs . he would collect the ball and spurs attack would be on. now this approach started to pay dividends for spurs as they could fine kane and then move forward and then eriksen and lamela would come and join the attack . spurs were able to score three more goals because city were all over the space in the second half and simple defending errors  cost city . city made the changes but they could not affect the outcome of the game . spurs played deep and then had more players so there was no space for city to work with .he shifted de bruyne in the middle but by that time the game was more than over . had it been earlier then we could had seen a better game .

now in the match alli started the match in the middle along side dier . i think both need to learn the trade and make decisions on and off the ball and should choose better options where on the play continues on . his work is just not to pass the ball but need to give the option to pass back and continue the play . they both need to stamp their authority on the game .
to be honest i would really like some comment as to what did i missed during the game and your takes on the game .
THANK YOU

Wednesday 23 September 2015

BAYERN VS WOLFSBURG WITH 5 FROM LEWANDOWSKI

now yesterday bayern played wolfsburg . it can be said a game of two half's one half where wolfsburg got everything right and while the other one was the one where bayern got everything correct .
now bayern started with bit of a lopsided formation with 3-4-3 with lahm,boetang and alaba in the back three while alonso,thiago and vidal and bernat made the middle four . muller played upfront with gotze and costa on left and right respectively . while wolfsburg started with the 4-4-1-1 combination with  Träsch,naldo,dante and rodriguez in the back four while gustavo and Guilavogui in front of the back four . draxler and caliguiri were wide while kruse played behind dost .  the yellow square shown in the figure is the space that draxler got in the first half .
now bayern started the game with long diagonal balls from boetang to gotze . this season bayern had been direct they havent been outplaying opponents outpassing them and testing opposition's patience moving the ball around instead they had been direct especially with costa . now wolfsburg were always going to be disciplined they had two banks of four with kruse making the additional number in the middle . now bayern tried to overload the left flank with bernat,gotze and thiago . but bayern had little joy in that . first thing was that they were not able to bring muller into game that much . he was only involved once in the first half and didnt had any role in the first half . wolfsburg were sitting back and always going to hit on the counter trying to find dost with the long balls .now dost was  getting wide and setting himself up against alaba for a  aerial duel and winning it . to be honest in the first half bayern team looked a team from the english league who were trying to maintain their shape and discipline and not  pressing enough . but the most interesting thing was the fact the space that was offered to draxler by bayern . now costa was high up and lahm was in the back three and he was not ready to come out of the back three so draxler had too much of space to explore on the counter and he made good use of it . he threatned with a good cross and on one such cross he found caliguiri whose superb strike gave wolfsburg the advantage . now even though wolfsburg were able to stop bayern in their tracks there was a problem which was going to explored by bayern in the second half and which was bayern was not able to milk in the first half . now gustavo and Guilavogui were in front of the defense but Guilavogui had the lisence to move forward and join the attack but at time i felt he left the space to explore for bayern leaving gustavo alone to mark up that space in the front of the back four . now this was the space that was explored by bayern in the second half . the other notable battles in the first half rodrigueuz on costa with rodrigueuz trying to shut costa with close marking . the other was gustavo on vidal . in their own half wolfsburg were playing man on man and were very compact . Guilavogui had a very good strike from half line on one counter and that would had been a highlight of the game and would had given some breathing space for wolfsburg . but the second half changed all that .
now wolfsburg had advantage in the first half so bayern had to respond and bayern responded by making to two changes he changed the formation and personal he switched to 4-3-3 with lewandowski in place of thiago and martinez in place of bernat .he bought vidal to play alongside alonso with costa switched to left instead of left and gotze on the right with muller behind lowendowski . he got players playing in their favoured position and the thing i talked about in the first half was explored in the second half that is the space between the back four and the middle and if you observe then all of those lewandowski's goal came from there and at time there was nobody for their to cover that space with both gustavo and Guilavogui getting caught out of position and lewandowski scoring from there . this term bayern had been too direct and that is one of the new facet that has been added to the bayern's offense this term by guardiola . they had been very direct somebody would say that they were playing on counters but bayern had been that this season . they
try to get the ball very quickly to wide players like costa and gotze and then try to work from there or try to spread it when opposition gets compact in one half of the pitch . it has worked
now even though wolfsburg were beaten by  bayern i think that they are a very good team with good players with veirihinia ,caliguiri,Guilavogui and draxler . i am surprised that PSG let Guilavogui on loan because he is superb player and if they cant have him then next year he will have big teams bidding for him . i think wolfsburg will be team to take notice and none will want them in the second round of the UCL as their opponents . but they must drop naldo and play klose who is  much better defender than naldo .

Saturday 19 September 2015

CHELSEA VS ARSENAL

now chelsea played arsenal at stamford bridge . i am going to describe the game till arsenal were with 10 players on the pitch . the contest closed out as soon as arsenal were reduced to 9 players .
now  chelsea started with a very positive lineup and i think this is the line up that jose will prefer and should prefer if has to show that he is just not a defensive coach but also can be good offensive ball playing coach as well . now chelsea started with a 4-2-3-1 formation with costa upfront and osacar,hazard and pedro behind him . matic and fabregas were in front of the back four which consisted of ivanovic ,zouma,cahill and  Azpilicueta. while arsenal started with walcott uptop with ozil,sanchez and ramsey behind him . coquelin and cazorla were in the middle in front of the back four while the back four consisted of bellerin,gabriel,koscielny and monreal .
now the game started with a good pace chelsea were playing with a high line they were trying to play close arsenal and hit them on the counter . the player that were selected by mouriniho were just for that . now when chelsea press arsenal mouriniho makes sure that sanchez is the one who is kept quite and tight . he was guarded very tight by ivanovic . now walcott played at the top and i think in the first 5 min arsenal attempted they tried to release walcott with ball over the top . now my theory about walcott is that he isnt a proper forward he cannot dribble much .he needs a good player around him who can release him in space to chase balls and in turn walcott should just pass the fall faster rather than holding the ball trying to get past people . so when walcott needs to make sure that he has good player around him . although there were three good players around him arsenal failed to use him in the first half .
now chelsea were sitting back and hitting on the counter but at times i feel with the players they have they should be more patient with the ball . now in the match chelsea were bit keen to open the arsenal's right side than the left side because i think mouriniho would had thought that they could out muscle bellerin and ramsey doesnt like to defend that  much . pedro was playing on the right but came inside and tried to overload the left side which left space for ivanovic to go forward . now this is the problem when ivanovic had the ball he would just cross the ball with not many players or not a proper cross . instead if he had hold the ball and tried to work the ball since arsenal were getting stretched with pedro's movement . now chelsea could had worked the ball better and carved out a better opening something which the germans do they just dont rush to cross the ball when it getts near the box or the byline instead of crossing  they keep working the ball till they carve out a proper opening and chelsea had players for that . chelsea did tried that on 25th min where on they passed the ball very well and looked as if they could carve out a proper opening but again ivanovic hurried with cross instead of being patient with ball .
the second thing that i noticed that when chelsea where on offense they had not more that two players involved in opening the opposition . now let me explain when costa has the ball he would pass the ball to oscar or hazard and who would pass back and costa would shoot . now i  would like to see more that two players involved in the attack chelsea have that . mouriniho should try to make them play better and make them pass more and ask them for more penetration or take more attacking drills and sessions .
now with pedro's inclusion in the team hazard has seen his ball touches and time on the ball reduced . i think chelsea needs to have hazard more on the ball . pedro is good at running into space on other's pass while hazard is the one who creates that . in the game hazard had a good chance when he ran on a good ball by fabregas over the top breaking the offside trap . now that is what pedro is good at . he is not good at creating but at making runs behind defense or in space . so i think hazard should see more of the ball and should get more involved in offense .
now another thing about arsenal is that at times i had seen coqueling trying to to be too cute and should try to keep the game simple rather than holding the ball and trying to play it forward . instead should pass it quickly and keep the rolling and slow the game . he is good ball player but at time he tries to be cute which can back fire . he was under pressure twice or thrice in the match and he got out of it but other times it can prove costly .
to be honest i think the ref's made a bad decision with gabriel . he was already booked . yes he did swing the leg but it wasnt malicious and should had been cautioned with a hard talk . secondly the game was very proper when the game was 11 against 11 but you finish a game when you sent a man . its a stupidity which the ref should had avoided .  

Wednesday 16 September 2015

MANCHESTER CITY VS JUVENTUS . 1-2.

now yesterday city played juventus and were beaten . i read yaya toure's statement just now where he said that juventus were lucky to beat city and i do have to agree with him quite a bit but then i too have to disagree with him on certain things . city even though were good and enjoyed the better possession were not able to open juventus up . city had chances and their failure to convert was one of the reason why juve were the winner and why city didnt had any points on the board .
now lets talk about the game city started with a 4-2-3-1 or say 4-4-1-1 the way you want to take it . city had sagna.kompany,mangala and kolarov at the back while toure and fernandiniho were in front of the back four . nasri and sterling on the wings with silva behind bony having a free role . juventus started with  a 4-2-1-3 but on the field they were 4-5-1 with moratta dropping on sagna on defense and pogba sliding besides sturaro and hernanes . now juventus started with game with trying to press city high but quickly receded back in their own half on defense .city were playing slow building offense and they had a reason because nasri was playing and juve were just sitting back and hitting city on the counter .  on the defense city had all 10 players behind the ball with morata dropping on sagna to help defense.on other time's you would see juve's all players in their own half cramming space and letting the city's CB's ( centre backs )  plenty of time on the ball . if you take out the statistics then you would see that city's CB's had the most touches and had the highest completion ratio of passess completed ratio and that is because juventus just allowed
city's CB's to have the ball and not press . they were content to sit deep and defend and waited for the ball to cross the mid line and let the ball be passed to the wingers or either silva or bony and then press them and dispossess them off the ball . juve gave no space between the lines to city and did defende very well . while juve did this on the offense they were not very well . they wanted to play from the black but were not able to put together a good move . i would like to give you an example . juve's evra  would pass the ball to pogba who in turn will pass back to evra . now city were trying to close juve down quickly and press them high on the pitch and when tried to involve the third player say morata he would be dispossessed by fernandiniho who was very good in this match. i would love to fernandiniho and see how many time he dispossessed moratta and how many times he made interceptions and how many tackles he won . fernandiniho was good and was the best city player on the pitch in this game .he not only kept moratta quite but also kept sturaro on toes and nicked ball off him a couple of times .  now even though juve were not able to put 4 or 5 passing move together but whenever they could they found the space between the lines but were not able to exploit it very well . now the reason why juve were finding space between the lines because city's centre backs were kept occupied by manzukic while moratta moved from right to centre on offense . now city's midfielders were not getting help from silva who i suppose lacked a man in the middle . they had the job of stopping the offense as well as pressing juve so they were getting quite high on the pitch . so two or three times cuadrado and moratta found space in front of the back four but were not able to utilize it properly . now juve were keen to move the ball from the left and there was a reason for that . they had pogba there who was arguably juventus best player . plus they had moratta dropping in trying to overload that side . now the other reason is that kolarov was getting tight on cuadrado and was continuously nicking the ball off him and it is another statistics worth seeing as to how many times he nicked ball off cuadrado . kolarov was good on reading the game and came out quick from the back to press cuadrado and dispossess him.
in the first half city had more clear chances than juve and error or judgement made them loose that . now city were slow in their offense and it was because of the fact that nasri was playing now whenever nasri plays he slows the game . this fact was very well noted by the commentators . what it meant was that it gave juve the necessary time to adjust their shape and deny city any space to work with . now another thing is sterling needs to learn is that he needs to understand as to when he need to take on defender and when to pass . here sterling was loosing the physical battle and should had passed the ball quickly rather than holding up and trying to beat juve players . instead a quick passing on the run would had been better . he and silva did loose a no. of physical battle in the first half and it should be lessen to pellegrini to make the necessary adjustments .
now in the second half city scored on the corner and chilleni wanted a foul . now it has to be foul and it cant be because chilleni never tried to jump and contest so on the jump naturally kompany's hand  were going to be on chilleni's back and to be honest chilleni does this all the time and cries foul so the referee were right to award the goal . now in the second half the same pattern continued but there was a change with pogba coming more infield and collecting the ball and trying to release manzukic . now city were playing a dangerous game they were trying to hold a bit of a high line they were trying to hold a line just off the box . now the warning signs were already there when in the first half on cuadrado's free kick pogba was caught offside by a nick. so pogba was trying to pick out manzukic and on one such attempt he found manzukic who scored . now i found mangala a bit stupid in this . instead of trying to win the ball just try to stick with manzukic and make it difficult for him and then try to nick it off him . the second came when bonucci just lobbed the ball beyond the back four and which manzukic headed and it fell kindly to moratta who had earlier missed a good chance but here he just curled it past hart . now i had talked about the space in front the back four and lack of protection from the midfielders or that they were getting caught up the pitch and it was the case with moratta's goal . had anybody been near then he wouldnt had got that easy chance .
to be honest i think city should had started with navas who provides the necessary pace to the game and would caused problems . nasri slows down the game and the commentators were constantly asking for change in for of navas for nasri but it never happened . another thing is how can bony perform when he had very little service and he was still quite decent winning quite an amount of aerial challenges and nut megging bonucci to open himself for a good chance so i wont criticize him . i thought that .
now i want to complement Allegri not for tactics which were negative and coming to city for a draw but because on the 85th min when cuadrado tried to dribble an opponent insteaf of passing that time alllegri got furious and should be because the ball went out of play for a throw in and the opposition could win the ball quickly on the throw win and they had ample time to score .allegri didnt want to give the ball to city and wanted it to move around and wanted to pass quickly forward so as to push city back . i think it was good on part of him and him shouting and shoving cuadrado was sign of him being involved in the game . 

Sunday 13 September 2015

MAN UTD VS LIVERPOOL 3-1

now yesterday utd played liverpool at old trafford . utd were with rooney while coutiniho was the notable absentee for liverpool . utd started the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation while the same was with liverpool . now in the first half liverpool choose to sit back while utd pressed liverpool very nicely to get the ball back and liverpool couldnt just put  a move together . the highlight of utd pressing was the work done by herrera,schweninsteiger and carrick . herrera would start the first press and other would join in . the most important fact was the game controlled by carrick on both offense and defense . they controlled the tempo of the game . now the disappointing fact for both the teams were for utd was memphis who was hopeless . he never threatned his fullback his attitude was hopeless and he gave the ball away two or three times which was carelessness . now why memphis role in the utd team is important is because he is one who provides the actual width to the attack he remains wide like a natural winger and is suppose to beat the fullback on the outside . he is important because mata come inside denying the natural width on the right side . but yesterday memphis was just hopeless he never troubled clyne and he always passed the ball back or sideways which was disappointing . just as memphis was pathetic i would say liverpool failed to put a move together and the reason being that liverpool players this season had been holding the ball too much.  just because of this fact rodgers had not been to put a proper offense together . it can be said that it had been rodgers inability to gel them together and create a proper offense .

now i want to complement van gal he saw what was lacking in the utd team and he just made the necessary change . he bought young was depay in the same position with no formation change . as soon as young came on the field he did what was asked of him . he ran on clyne with the ball and got a foul from which utd scored the first goal . the goal was the highlight just because the way it was taken . utd duly scored the second with herrera in the run of play but to me young was the real impetus if you had seen then he passed a very good ball shaw over the player who fumbled slightly had he had a clean technique then he would made a run in the box and tried to pick out some one . to be honest the other hero for man utd was carrick untill he was on the field utd were just in control of the game and liverpool had no chance or sniff at the goal . carrick's substitution did helped liverpool a little who then went with other plan they started to go direct to benteke who was faboulous on that day winning every aerial duel with smalling and was the only bright spark in the liverpool lineup . since benteke was good utd went compact and this offered liverpool space wide on the flanks and it created problem for utd . it was benteke who scored a very good goal .carricks sub presented liverpool with chance but utd bought martial and he just closed the game with a good solo goal .
now about the players for utd carrick,herrera,schwenisteiger ,darmian and blind were the very good . blind was supposed to be the weak link in the utd defense but he handeled benteke well scored and most importantly he can pass very well from the back which is very important assets for utd . carrick and schweni had a very good partnership in the middle and herrera even though is not the natural no. 10 but he keeps the game ticking and has a very good postional sense . darmian had been the unsung hero for utd . young too was very good and did his role nicely . i would really expect valencia being the chance in place of mata so that utd can just fully stretch the oppoents and valencia can deliver good balls from the wing  and cover darmian very well . to be honest i fear for deapy who can another expensive mistake .
for liverpool benteke was the only sparkling star other were just poor .
to be honest when utd bought martial the real reason why wenger was disappointed because he knew martial was a very good player and martial went to utd rather than to arsenal was the real reason why he was angry . 

EVERTON VS CHELSEA .

now yesterday chelsea played everton . now chelsea played with 4-2-3-1 while everton played with the same formation . both the team play deep their centre backs dont like to come out of the defense instead they try to stand their ground and defend .
now let us talk about the game since the lineups are known to everybody . now from the start if you had seen then you would see that everton were trying to work out the chelsea's left side for that they had kone high up the pitch very close to lukaku who had shifted little bit left to be close to kone . now in the last game we had seen that there was a considerable difference between kone and lukaku so both were not able to find each other so martinez identified the problem and fixed it . the other thing was lukaku by moving to the left was that he was coming against terry who doesnt likes to chase his opposite number maintaining his positional discipline . now  kone wasted a beautiful chance which was carved out by everton . now even though chelsea had two guys in the middle everton were finding a lot of space in the middle with barkeley able to collect the ball and pass it under no pressure or run on defense . this is because matic was trying to help cover up the left side zone which everton were trying to explore with kone,lukaku and coleman . the real culprit in chelsea failure in defensive discipline had been mikel . when matic was getting sucked in one one side of the pitch trying to help out the defense he should be the one who should keep things tight in the middle .but as i had pointed earlier mikel is very poor in his defensive discipline his game reading is very poor and if you can see the first goal then you could see naismith turning so easily and passing the ball to galloway who made a delightful cross for naismith .
now there are more than one culprit in chelsea's debacle . now as i had read the blame is being put on fabregas which is find ridiculous . now over the years chelsea's success under mouriniho had been because of the defense and the hard work that the players use to put on both end of the pitch . now if you watch the first goal then you have to question as to where is pedro . pedro was playing on the right side  and he was suppose to be tracking galloway who was his opposite number but where is he . now the media is blaming ivanovic for the goal but then what can he do should he look at his opposite number who is naismith and look at the back four discipline . it was pedro's job to help his fullback to deal with situation . even the second goal came from the similar situation when naismith collected the ball in the similar position and instead of passing the ball he shot the ball back of the net now it had to mikel's work who need to close him down or atleast make it difficult for him but he did not .
now kudos to mouriniho his team was not ticking in the first half and he had realised the problem and he replaced mikel with kennedy and bought fabregas alongside matic . he bought hazard behind costa and kennedy on the right . now in the second half too everton made some changes . lukaku swithced more on the left side and even kone would move into the zone trying to overload that zone and work it out . when kone would move inside it would give coleman to bomb forward and he was causing all sort of problems to chelsea and at time was playing as a right winger . but even with the changes everton were able to find space and most importantly now kone and naismith were changing zones and causing problems . even though chelsea made changes they could not prevent the defeat .
chelsea's defeat could be blamed to three person's namely pedro,mikel and hazard but most importantly on mikel as to when everton did most damage when he was on the pitch . he was poor in covering his players and not reading the game properly leaving his team mates in lurch . pedro is good offensive player but he not a creative player but he is the one who like to get at end of things not the ones who create it . now pedro's inclusion has come hard on hazard who gets to see less of the ball so his influence on the game is not that much as much as we want . plus we must give credit to jagielka rather than stone who dealt very will with costa .
now for eveton i have to mention naismith not because he scored  a hatrick but i suppose he is one of the most underrated and most improved player in the everton ranks . he passes the ball well works hard plus he takes very good positions so that his team  mates can find him .his passing had increased and must be best floor passer in scotland team .

Wednesday 9 September 2015

MY THOUGHTS ON INDIA VS IRAN .

to be honest as like any other india i too dream of my country's song to be played at the world cup .

yesterday india played against iran in the world cup qualification . there was not much of expectation from indian side because iran are the super asian side with quite  a bit of better team and super physical side and with a world class coach . my eagerness to watch the match was from the fact as to how much of a fight can the indians give to the iranians who are technically better and can execute the plan better .
now about the game india started the game with with 4-4-2 formation with chettri and jeje up front . while robin singh was on the left while eugenson was on the right . ganesh and halder in the middle with ganesh being subbed on the 15th min . while there a back four . now for the major part of the game iran had the ball and india had little of the ball . to be honest i am trying to speak of tactics here but with good technical ability the formations and the tactics are of no use . now in the game india were sitting deep perhaps just because dejager was in the iranian team who has good pace and indians didnt want to get caught flatfooted .
i will try to put some points as to when indians had the ball well as i had said earlier indians lacked the physical ability . now how many times during the game did i saw the ball being launched up field for chettri and jeje . now in which world are indian strikers going to win header against the iranian counter parts with a six inch difference between them . so launching ball towards them was not going to be effective . india's target man could had been robin singh who rightfully won the no.9 shirt and should had been playing in the front two but was on the left side . he won some headers and could had been useful had he been played in the front two . to be honest during the game robin singh won the ball but instead of passing to the closest open player who was georges (sub) he passed it to chettri who had no continuation to the move because he was closed down and was dispossed of the ball .the only positive in the game was i saw ball was played in the channel behind the back to be chased by chettri but after that the move had no continutation . i think constantine has to coach this as to what postions will the players take when the ball wide or with whom and how do they continue the move and how do they try to open the opponent up . i think he needs to take these and coach them more properly . now  with the lack of technical ability what the indians have is that they dont release the ball early . they tend to make the extra two touches which does slows down the game and get themselves slowed down and throw away the possession. many a times indians made bad decisions on and off the ball . just as for the second goal one of the midfielders tried to win a ball which was never there to be won. eugenson trying to dribble the iranian fullback who was quicker and stronger than him . now i am giving a pic over here which is very important when you try to play good football .
now to be honest i was disappointed with indians approach . indians battling iranian's in the physical battle was never going to be solution instead india keeping very tight at the back and frustrating iran and then trying to hit them on the counter was the solution . the most i was disappointed was the midfield and for that i blame constantine .he was against the coach who is one of the best planner in world football and executes it perfectly . he should had read as to how he prepared man utd for barca clash in their 2008  ucl title winning year . they were too much high up the pitch compared to back four and time and again you could see iranians getting the space between the lines .i was surprised iranians not exploiting that much the space that was provided by the indians .
i thought the score line will be higher had iranians pulled indians in the floor game .but the coach went in the aerial dule where also they had the upperhand and i think they were quite happy with the win with game in the bag by the 60th min.
to be honest for indians i think they have to long way to go we need to build our base on strong technical play and when players from IFL come they should consult these players and coaches about the physical regimen and diet's that need to go with it . i think its time we indians stop crying about the lack of playing infracstructure and all and start showing on the pitch and work extra and build ground for the next generation .

Monday 7 September 2015

TURKEY VS NETHERLANDS in the ECQ

yesterday's game against turkey for the dutch was the most lacklusture game that i had seen so far played by the dutch from the time i had started watching them . they were very flat ,unimaginative and lacked fight . they looked like an underdog in the contest and the score line doesnt lie .
now yesterday against tukey the dutch started the game with 4-2-3-1 with van persie up top and sneijder behind him with memphis and narsing wide on flanks . blind and klaasen in front of the back four with vanderwiel,bruma ,devrij and riedewald in the back four . while turkey had 4-3-3 with yimaz at top and turan and chalongolu besides him . while oguzan,selchuk and ozan in the middle . to be honest i am not that familiar with the turkish back four .
now during the game turkey started the game playing deep sitting back and soaking pressure and
hitting dutch on the counter attack . the dutch played a very high line and they tried to close turks quickly and win the ball back but they clearly lacked a clear cohesion in attack as well as defense. now why i said dutch were unimaginative is because they clearly couldnt use the ball when they had it and their offensive moves were not more than 3 to four passes . the turks could clearly read as to what was going to come and prepare for it . let me explain the dutch had congested the central zone so the dutch had plenty of space on the flanks but whenver memphis and narsing had the ball they would just try to dribble the ball or make a cross for van persie for which the turks were prepared . only once did i say narsing combine with van persie and had a clear shot at goal but other than that memphis looked like a person who was playing with a half heart . there was no cohesion between sneijder,van persie,narsing and depay . the midfield duo of klaasen blind had no role on the offensive front not one of them came out of the midfield to join the front four to join on offense and the dutch clearly lacked numbers in the opposition half . most importantly i saw the fullbacks only make one or two runs beyond the wingers . now my whole point to write this was that the wingers crossed the ball too early to the van persie where they could had passed the ball more and tried to have a better penetration and stretch the oppostion out of position . but the dutch handed the ball to the turks very easily and were very hopeless on the offensive front . to be honest i sensed a clear lack of direction as to what they were trying to do . daley blind should had demanded more from the team . his team were too direct from the teams that i had seen over the years ( except for van gal's world cup team who just sat back and hit on counter and that's why had no style at all ) who would move the ball very well and carve out a clear opening .this was for the first half .
now in the first half sneijder was the only man behind van persie and daley blind did saw that he needs to have one more man who would play along side sneijder and explore that hole properly so he replaced de vrij with winaldeum and made him play along side sneejder and play behind van persie and for atleast 5 min everybody thought that they would play proper football and carve out a opening and winaldeum missing a sitter . but after 5 min dutch again reverted to their orignal plan and started bombarding ball's in the box for no avail . his other two subs made no impact .
now the turks knew they clearly lacked pace in the back four so they just sat back deep and denied too much space to the dutch . they closed the central area so that sneijder wouldnt exploit it . when they had they ball they used it well and one of the reason for that had been yilmaz's tireless running who would run channel's come deep and link with his midfielders and help them out to move the ball . his movement was responsible for the first goal which caused the split in the defense and oguzhan's run was properly spotted by turan for a clear shot on goal . the other came because of blind's mistake and the third one was a clear foul which the referee did not give . to be honest all and all the turks were better in all departments and they clearly used the ball well . they knew when  they should try to close down the dutch or when should they hold and get in shape and discipline and let the dutch work them up .
it looks like if such type of performances continue then i think we wont see robben and company in next year's euro's .