Monday 30 May 2016

MY TAKE ON ZIDANE AND UCL FINAL

on saturday ath mad played real mad in the uefa champions league final . zidane won the ucl in his first stint as the manager but i fear for him . i fear that he will become de matteo (former chelsea manager ) . the reason is this when all the world is going ga ga over zidane's capture of the champions league crown i will be the only one who will be questioning him and his tactics and his style of play . now pep gaurdiola and barcelona have changed the land scape of football . not only the result but the style of play is equally important in today's game . big or better teams are not only required to win game but they need to dominate the opposition in terms of possession and territory and open the opposition defense at will . that is why coaches like mouriniho are never ever appreciated that much in the modern game even though they win things . the reason being that their team dont ever play attractive football .today instead of the defensive effort the beautiful offense is more appreciated . once the euphoria of the win subsides then people will start questioning zidane's tacitcs . at this moment of time it is seen as if the win is made out as if real madrid dominated ath mad and won comprehensively .
the reason as to why i said that i feared of zidane becoming di matteo is because just as de matteo zidane has won the ucl and perez will be forced to keep him as the manager for the next term because he cannot fire the manager who has won the ucl for him . but can he continue to let the team play just as they had been playing like this . the team has obvious lack style of play . the players in the team are more comfotable playing on the counter attack than playing possession football . the team depends more on individual effort on offense than team effort .
in the game yesterday real started the game with 4-3-3 while ath mad started the game with 4-4-2 . in the first 20 real were the better side they passed the ball better they evaded ath mad's pressing were trying to get the ball to ronaldo or bale who would run on the defense and cause trouble to the ath mad back four . now both these teams are very counter attacking teams and both like to sit deep and hit the opposition on the counter . in this match however zidane was lucky than  simeone since his team could play on the counter . the reason being some good defensive work done by bale and benzema who would go on pressing the back four  and that would slow down ath mad and would allow real to sit deep and counter . compared to real mad ath mad were playing a high line and there was a reason for that . all the top three were dropping deep to collect the ball and then start the offense . since there was nobody who was playing on back four's shoulder therefore  ath mad could play a high line but were unbale to press real because of some fine work by modric and kross in the midfield .
ath mad are not suited to play slow offensive football but real sitting deep meant that ath mad had to play build up and open real which ath mad are not very good at . in the first half koke who starts on the left but ends up in the no.10 position .this meant that felipe luis had the space to go on and bomb forward . but the trouble with ath mad was that real mad kept good tab on torres and squeezed any space in the middle to give ath mad any shot at goal . ath mad's main offense was from the left side but the trouble was that koke moving central meant that there were not even players to stretch real on the left side and secondly playing deep denied any space behind the back four .
the real reason why i questioned zidane's tactics is that in the second half ath mad just overwhelmed real mad . firstly ath mad took the initiative of removing agusto fernandez and moving koke besides gabi in the centre . he brought an out and out winger in form of yannick karrasco who can run with the ball and would stretch the real defense . ath mad just started to upped the tempo and gabi really controlled the midfield very well and distributed the ball very well . real had to ask ronaldo and bale to drop deep and do their defensive duties . the trouble with real is that the way switched off for the equalizer when both marcelo and isco switched off and let juan fran run behind the back four and cross in the space between the back four and goal keeper for carracasco to score .
ronaldo is hailed in the media as if he single handedly won the trophy for real but he should be ashamed . he cannot get the better of defender in one on one .compared to ronaldo bale was far better . he troubled both the fullbacks . he ran on the defense like a man possessed . he should be the best player of the match with modric who was the best player on the ball for real madrid who looked always assured with ball at his feet and always finding a player with his pass . for ath mad gabi was the best player who's distribution was very good from the deep and controlled the game better .
last but not the least but i fear for zidane . if the team continues the way it is playing this term then they will be caught next term and what happened to de matteo will happen to zidane . 

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