Saturday 19 May 2018

MY TAKE ON THE EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL BETWEEN MARSEILLE VS ATH MAD .

on wednesday marseille played ath mad in the UEL final . marseille started the game with 4-2-3-1 formation while ath mad continued with their 4-4-2 formation . the game started with a very interesting punt from  marseille deep in ath mad half . now this stratergy has been used in the nfl,rugby to punt the ball deep in the opposition half and then try to win the possession back as high as possible in the opposition half . it puts pressure on the opposition because they have to cover that much of the grass and this true even in football . marseille punted the ball and then tried to press ath mad . atleast this move showed that rudy garcia was thinking out of the book and trying to have some advantage on his opposition . the game had a good flow to it . both the teams were cautious trying to press each other and at the same time they play deep instead of trying to play a high line and get caught . both the teams like to play out of the back but while marseille like to have possession of the ball ath mad likes to sit back and hit on the counter . ath mad had koke and corriea on the wings while griezman was playing behind costa .  when ath mad have the ball they tried to feed the ball to either corriea , griezman or costa because these three are the main weapons for counter used by ath mad . griezman and corriea are very good on the ball while costa can hold the ball and bring others into play . koke is more of a playmaker or no.10 in the ath mad team . in the first half marseille dominated the proceedings they nullified corriea and costa because the two midfielders in the middle did their job very well to support their back four . 
marseille created the first chance of the match and it was because they could strip ath mad of the possession and bring the ball from back to front quickly . till this chance i think there was  a confusion in ath mad team as to who would pick payet and he was afforded time on the ball and he was able to release germain on goal who missed . after this chance ath mad tightened up . first off they reduced the space between midfield and back four . secondly payet wasnt given time on the ball . as soon he had the ball either of the two midfielders would try to close him down . the thing marseille went wrong was that marseille had germain upfront . now germain's strength is to run behind the back four . he has a good floor game and is decent in the air given his stature but he cannot beat gimenez and godin in the air . just as payet went off the field marseille didnt had anybody who could dictate the game for them . secondly marseille were feeding germain with high balls which is not his strength . marseille's problem was that they were just not able to bring the ball inside the in the final third . the reason being that they dindnt had payed on the field . secondly even if the ball was crossed in the box germain wasnt going to win the aerial duel against gimenez and godin . most importantly marseille passed the ball crisply but there was no novelty in the final third to open up the ath defense . it was just way too straight with players occupying their respective zones and not doing anything new .
when tactics are designed at that time players at hand are considered with respect to the opposition . i think in this match rudy garcia didnt take germain physical aspect into consideration . marseille were good till the final third but lack of creativity with not many players in the box didnt bore them any fruit on offense . he tried to change that in the second half where on he brought the sub lopez in the deeper in the midfield and sent sanson upfront . sanson showed some good movement but till that the game was out of marseille's hand . he should had bought mitrogolu at the start of the second half itself when he could see that the lack of height upfront was hampering his offense so he should had bought him earlier . most importantly marseille didnt had a plan B when they need to change thing because there initial approach wasnt working and that they were just not able to bring the ball back into the centre . i think he did the substitution too late to give marseille a chance .
ath mad were on the back foot in the first half the offense wasnt working for them but there is a difference between an immature team and a mature team . mature would not hasten they would not overtry to expose themselves and would just keep on trying and they would know that the chance would come and that they will take it . the first goal for ath mad came because saul was aware and when Anguissa made the mistake he was ready to pounce and punished marseille . the second goal came into the second half and till that time ath had take hold of the game they were passing crisply costa was running channels and was holding the ball better .most importantly ath mad were able to break marseille's offense in the middle and were able to hit them quickly on the counter . they showed good quality on the ball and were able to beat  marseille's  press and were able to open them up on every counter . ath mad won just because they not only quality but are also a mature team and i think that was the difference between the two .