Thursday 12 July 2018

MY TAKE ON THE GAME VS CROATIA VS ENGLAND .

england played crotia in the world cup semi final's . before there were two different views about two coaches . first up england as to how gareth southgate has gathered england and united them . compared to crotia who had face some very good teams england's path to the semi's had been easy . now crotia started the game with their favoured 4-3-3 formation while england started the game with 3-5-2 formation .  out of the two coaches southgate was out of his depth in terms of the tactical innovation and nothing great to offer as how he can surprise the other team . england had started with the same formation for all of the game . i think he favoured this formation for the fact that these were the best 11 that he had and just wanted to be put together on the pitch there was no nothing new that he tried to do . but then he did acheive which few england managers failed to acheive .
the game started with familiar pattern of england sitting back while crotia dominated the possession . england went ahead inside 10 min because alli impeded by modric and tippier scored from the spot . now the onus fell on crotia as to how they are going to equalize . croatian coach had talked about how his side on offense had not been doing well . england were playing on the counter so when england lost the ball england's fullback would tuck along side their centre backs making it 5 across the back line . this means that the croatian fullbacks had  a free run to go upfield . the midfield was very much compact with england match crotia woth the middle three . croatia wanted to stretch so both modric and rakitic went on each flank trying to overload the flank . so croatia were trying to overload the flanks but the trouble with croatia was that in the first half england players had energy to close down croatia quickly so croatia were just not able to thread england's defense . while england had been defending well there counter attack was doing very well . kane was playing the no. 10 role trying to hold up the ball and bring alli and lingard in the move . while the other move would be to try to release sterling behind the back four especially against vida who england would struggle against sterling . henderson in particular was the one who was trying to time and again to release sterling behind the back four . 
in the second half after 10 mins england's closing down and their concentration started to drop while croatia which were overdoing things like trying bring the ball from the wide but were failing in doing that . this was because crotia's offense wasnt that crisp which was needed because england were thing in the  middle and croatia could had troubled england had they swithched the flanks quikcly . after 60 min croatia started to cross the ball in the box with either rebic or perisic coming inside to join manzukic in the middle . it is very important to realize that when you are defending at that time try to be first to the ball and dont wait for it to get to you . walker waited for it to arrive and perisic pounced to score . the equalizer was the turning point since england's shoulder dropped and croatia upped their ante . the trouble was that england's counter attack fell apart in that process . the trouble was that at this time the coach needs to provide input in order to freshn up things . croatia showed more desire to win the contest and one mistake by england cost them the place in the world cup semis . the reason for this is that that after the first goal england didnt showed the urgency to score the second goal and they were more than happy to defend and too the contest somewhat lightly which was the reason for their down fall . southgate should had insisted to that the team score second . there  wasnt a lot of tactical innovation in both the teams but crotia were able to grind out of the result and that would be one of the satisfying thing for croatia . 

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