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 . 

MY TAKE ON BAYERN MUNICH VS ATH MAD . 2-1

now i wanted to write about this match but the weather didnt permit me . for the last two days i had been reading this that the ugly football won against the more stylish football . the press had every possible way or tried to devalue ath mad win over bayern with such statistics and prove as to how ugly they are . to be honest the ones that talk this languange just dont have knowledge about football . in football your discipline,team work and concentration is all tested on defense than on offense . your single second  lapse in concentration on defense and the team has to pay for it and it applies not only to one player but applies to each and every player who is on defending duties . so anybody who says that defending is easy or ugly is either stupid or doesnt understand's football and shouldnt comment on it . on offense you can have a blip or can miss a chance but the team doesnt pays for it but on defense a single blip and the team pays for it . the other thing was that the statistics were provided about how bayern were the superior team in terms of possession and all that but one question needs to anwered as to how did they threatned ath mad goal then the i dont think they did that much . they had all the possession but ath mad dealt very nicely with them oblak didnt had to make too many good saves or that bayern were knocking on ath mad goal all the time . it is not that important as to how much you have the ball but how good you use the ball when you have that . whenever ath mad had the ball they looked threatning and looked more likely to score than bayern .now gaurdiola is credited with changing the face of the modern football . he is a thinker and is  thought to be one of the foremost thinker of the game . people thinks he see's the game more like chess player and players as his pieces and plays accordingly . but in this game and overall gaurdiola has fallen short of that and his game thinking or there had lack of innovation in his offense which had been blatantly exposed in this fixture . his tactics had been one dimensional and team lacked a certain creative spark which was needed in the final third .

i had earlier dont the first leg game between bayern and ath mad and expected bayern to change and to go to their usual formation which had given them success this season .  gaurdiola bought muller back into the team and played him in the no. 10 role where on he had been successful this term . the other one was ribery was given a chance compared to coman in the bayern starting lineup .i expected bayern to change their style to pull ath mad in their game and give them headaches . instead bayern were pulled into ath mad's trap and just got drifted from their game plan . ath mad will always sit back and invite team to open them up and will try to hit them on the counter . ath mad are hammered because of their defensive approach but as i had said that it requires a very good team work . just look at the way that the players work off for each other and the camraderie that they have and this is seen not only on defense but also on offense  . when i write about ath mad's team work then i cannot help but remember man utd's team work in 2007/08 season and it was due to their assistant coach carlos quieroz who had disciplined the team with their positioning and drilling the team to handle various game situations .
this term under gaurdiola bayern had been one dimensional they had lacked the incisive edge that is very much needed to open oposition . first off you know what you expect from ath mad so you try to pull them up in your game . gaurdiola should have looked at ath mad first legged against barcelona and how much barcelona troubled ath mad . barcelona too played balls on suarez's and neymar's head but they did that just out of ath mad box where and they played it so that neymar and suarez have could easily win them . they placed it in front of them and neymar and suarez would head them down for others in the box to score . barcelona were unlucky in the first match not to score more and oblak did a very good job in goal . i thoought that bayern will try that where on they try to place ball on muller and lewandowski's head and they will knock it down to incoming costa or ribery . instead bayern went traditional they didnt even tried to work the ball in the wide areas and tried to have more penetration. bayern lacked good interplay between their players and their play lacked the choreographed moves which are needed when you have a very good defense .
the other thing that i expected of bayern was that when the ball comes out in the oppositon half ath mad tries to press the ball in trying to win the ball back high . this was the chance for bayern had they brought the ball from back to front quickly then they could had been able to catch ath mad . bayern being bayern instead slowed the game and allowed ath mad to get back into shape and missed the opportunity . the other thing was trying to be ath mad . give them the ball invite them to open you up and then hit them on the counter . lets see what they do with the ball when you sit back . i expected gaurdiola to show some innovative  thinking in the game . i did not see that instead what i saw was time and time again ball been crossed into the box from wide areas . i expected bayern to be calm and more incisive with their possession trying better penetration .in the first leg bayern just didnt had enough players in the box and thats what he changed in the second leg and he brought muller behind lewandowski and secondly he had costa too close to them  . but credit to ath mad who didnt let these players find any time and space on the ball in the box .
now ath mad are criticized about their defensive approach but to be honest when they have the ball they look very good . their inter play on offense is also very good where on they are able to find each other and can work the ball towards opposition's goal .as i had said that its not important as to how much you have the ball but how you use it when you have and athletico just knows that .