MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN AC MILAN VS INTER MILAN

ac milan played inter at the san siro. both the milan teams are having new coaches and  what changes they have made to the teams and what formations do they use and how do they approach the game was worth noting . inter has conte while milan has giampolo .to be honest while one of the milan ( inter ) teams future looks  bright because they know what they need to do when they have the ball .while ac milans future doesnt looks  that good for me inter's future looks decent under conte . italian are supposed to be the most tactical teams in the footballing world . but while being tactical they do forget that football is a team game and there are other factors that too are important in the outcome of the game . giampolo had forgetten that while tactics are impotant but there are other factors like decision making , cohesion and understanding the situation is very important . the most important is you should have a plan a when you have the and then you go on improvising because its a constant chess game . inter had a clear plan as to what they wanted to do when they have the ball . i was struggling to find as to what they are going to do with the ball .
inter started the game with 3-5-2 formation while . ac milan started with 4-3-1-2 formation . ac milan were trying to play out of the back . now that a stupidity if dont have a clear approach as to what do you want to do when the opposition come on pressing you . most importantly you cannot spend time on the ball and allow the opposition to close you down . if you are not able to move the properly and most importantly if you are not able to bring the whole team into play and take the ball from back to front quickly then playing out from the back can come you and bite back in the backside . ac milan's tactics were just baffling me . most importantly they were taking the ball 5 yards front and 10 yards back . what was the team trying to do when they had the ball was unknown . ac milan had piatek and leao up front with suso just behind them . going forward what were ac' s  tactics were just confusing . first off suso is the best player in the side and the offense need to revlove around him . but at the same time suso needs to understand that he needs to use the players around him . he needs to understand the play as well as the opposition's formation and work his way through the maze that is oppositions formation . giampolo has his work cut out if needs to get better because leao was told to  drift in the space between right wing back and the centre back . but this where the coaching is needed and this is evident from ansu fati who has that maturity as to when to take on the opposite number and when to be conservative . leao wanted to take on godin every time he had the ball . there is moment for everything in football and decision making is a big part in football .
another thing that i noticed was that giampolo was very late to notice things . when the match started milan had two up top and suso was behind them . when ac milan lost the ball biaglia, kesse and chalangolu would form the middle three in front of the back four which would mean that they would be light in the wide areas . this was not observed by giampolo till 20  min and ac milan kept on losing the possession because they didnt had wide players would protect their fullbacks or would look out in zones in front of the fullbacks . he then changed the shape and asked suso to be in part of the middle four . 
in the match giampolo changed the formation three times . changing formations doesnt makes any difference unless and untill you dont have that necessary cohesion in the team . why do you change the formation is because you need to create new angles and explore new zones and try different things because your plan A wasnt working and that is why you change things . but if you dont have the necessary understanding of the play then changing things doesnt makes any difference . changing formation means you create new angles but to explore them you need to have understanding between the players and if you dont have that then the change of formation makes no sense .
conte likes to play on the counter attack . he likes his team to work hard and the basic thing is that his team has certain way to play . his offense is very well orchestrated . he likes to have a front two and likes to combine them together . plus every player in his team has a determined role and that is the sign of a well coached where the roles are very clear . they have a clear thought process as to what they need to do . the only thing was that the opposition was poor or else there are areas of concern that needs to be addressed .  some of his players(sensi an barella) need to be taught as to why they need to let the ball go and not spend time on the ball or try taking players in ne on one . his big test will come against barca and that will determine as to what his team can acheive this season . 

MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN ATH MAD VS JUVENTUS

juventus played ath mad in the ucl first match . juventus has the coach changed in the summer with sarri taking over from allegri . now the biggest threat from juventus is ronaldo but if he is not in and around the box then juventus just dont have any credible threat . sarri's team  drew a blank against fiorentina in their previous encounter . sarri likes to control possession while making short crisp passes and likes to keep the ball moving but his trouble even with his time at napoli and chelsea he was not able to bring his forward player in the offensive move . this was first credible test for sarri as ath mad are very good defensive side and opening them is a very difficult job as their organisation and discipline is very good . 
ath mad started the game with 4-4-2 formation with 4 out and out midfielders starting in the middle of the park while juventus started the game . juventus started the game with 4-4-2 formation . the reason i am saying this is because caudrado would slide back into the back four while on defense while higuian and ronaldo would stay top . juventus likes to dominate possession while ath likes to play on the counter . the trouble with ath mad is that they play deep so on the counter they have to  bring the ball way up and in that process they can be pressed and they can loose possession and the team can hit them on the counter counter . simeone realised this may throught the first half so he wanted to slow the game and asked his team to pass the ball around and push juventus back and then try to have a shot at goal . ath mad had four out and out midfielders who would move in the middle of the park so to counter it juventus had to bring all their midfieders in the middle of the park . it allowed ath mad fullbacks time and space on the ball and they could bomb forward because their natural numbers were busy in the middle of the park trying to defend spaces in front of the back four because ath mad had crowded that and had juventus not brought numbers in the middle of the park then ath mad could had been to work one of the zones and caused juventus the problem .

now here the main test was of ath mad fullbacks in particular trippier who was bought by ath mad in the summer because of his crossing ability because pochettino will tell you that on the defense trippier is a liablity. for me in this match he failed badly . had his crossing been better then he would had cause juventus a whole lot of problems . had his first touch and crossing been better then he would had caused juventus many problems because his crossing means juventus had to adjust for him and they would had looked to somebody to get to close him down which would had caused to create the gaps elsewhere and ath mad would had been able to work those . .any team requires a point of attack from where they can trouble the opposition  and from there on they need to improvise but here trippier was just letting his team down .  trippiers first touch was letting him down he is there in the team because of his crossing ability and if he is not doing that then he not doing then what is the use of such a player . second is simeone likes his team to play counter attacking but it doesnt work everytime and at times when they play a slow offensive game they need to move the ball crisply to have a better offense .

juventus two goals came on the counter rather than in the open play which sarri would had liked . ath mad had all the four midfielders inside of the park so the fullback was pushed up to counter juventus fullback which opened the space between centre backs and the fullbacks which was exploited by juventus on both the goals and both the goals came from the same side . the worry about juventus is that they are conceding on defense which is result of the zonal marking .

last but not the least if sarri needs to be a great coach then he needs to tell ronaldo that he needs him in and around the box and dont drift wide or anything because he is of no use and his potent threat is there and his team will be of good service from him if he stays just in and around the box . plus he can score a lot of goals and even have a lot of assist if just mould his game to be real no.9 rather than the no.7 he is wearing 

MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN DORTMUND VS BARCELONA

barca playd dortmund at  the signal iduna park . barca were without messi untill the half of this match . this is when valverde will be judged as to how he marshalls his troops . around does he base his offense . what combination he uses and what tactics does he uses . to be honest valverde has come up short in his examination without messi . with messi its very easy to base tactics . he makes things very easy he can spot runs and pick him up with a pin point pass . his sense of positioning is also very superb where on he makes available for the pass . with messi its very easy but what if he is not there . in football injuries are very common and you need to have a plan b and you need to plan that in advance . i didnt watch the ath bilbao game but barca failed to score in that game .. while in the game versus real betis griezman was the real hero . he was the one around whom all the offense was circling . he found spaces between the lines and everything flowed through him on that day and it looked as if barca have finally found the answer without messi and found a way to play without the great player . in the game against valencia it was ansu fati and de jong who stole the show . both found spaces between the lines and punished valencia for it .
the thing to see in this game was how does barcelona unlocks dortmunds defense . dortmund were not going to make this easy for them . lucien favre's team has a good discipline about them as soon as they loose the ball they organise themselves in two banks of four and most importantly both the lines work very good in tandem with each other . now it was worth seeing as to who would be star for barcelona as to who would unlock dortmund's defense . for the last two matches ansu fati was the star so he was given the ball in the final third to do something in the final third . the trouble with barca was that valverde didnt let him the full freedom to go and charge against his opposite number and try something . instead they just kept on moving the ball and trying to find the opening but dortmund were equal to the task . they defended very nicely . most importantly they kept suarez quite and didnt allow him time and space on the ball . in the first half dortmund's defense was very good and they kept barca at bay . 
dortmund played on the counter but dortmund's offense was nothing but  a lesson to all the young coaches as to how to play a floor game . dortmund kept moving the ball with short crisp passes and evaded the barca's press in their final third and pushed barca back . delaney and witsel supported their wide players and moved the ball very well . dortmund's passing was very good but there is a flaw the way they move the ball . their moves can be read and most importantly they can be pressed if the opposition can read their moves and hit them on the quick counter  . this is what bayern did to dortmund in the last season's bundesliga . in this game dortmund moved the ball very well at least guerrero was very good on the ball and his  ability and ball control was very good .  another thing with dortmund is that dortmund may be moving the ball crisply but then they are allowing the oppositon time to regroup and this makes dortmund's job difficult  since they wont find the space they desire . dortmund needs to bring some novelty in their attack and at time needs to go very direct and surprise the opponents .
the trouble with barca is with pique and the back four they are torn in the indecision as to whether they should press or should they sit back and maintain the shape and organisation and defend.  they are told to drop deep and let others come and dont get caught high on the pitch .  pique is supposed to be the organiser from the back but he is one who keeps on making mistakes and barca need a leader at the back .
in the second half messi and rakitic were introduced but the shape was the same . there was nothing new from barca . but messi has clearly lost his legs and hasnt got the pace that he had earlier in his carrier . but while he has lost his legs his game reading ability and positioning sense has improved leaps and bounds . valverde now has the headache as to how he play's messi,griezman and suarez together . compared to suarez griezman has better ability on the ball and can be a better link up player with messi . 

MY TAKE ON THE JUVENTUS VS NAPOLI .

yesterday napoli played juventus in the serie a . the game can be best described as the game of two halves with each team domination either of it . while juventus dominated the first half . napoli came back strong in the second half to equal the game . before writing about the game let me tell you one thing a couple of years back the england managers job was vacant and several names were considered among them was harry redknapp . now the reasons that were given as to why he was fit for the job was that he makes very good tactically astute substitutions . the reason for telling this tale is similar thing happened in this game . napoli was run over by juventus in the first half and he was just watching and in the second half he made two good substitutions and they could have had a different result . 
juventus started the game with 4-3-3 formation while sarri's former side started with 4-4-2 formation other will show  different but for me he had two upfront and callejon and insigne wide . ancelotti has kept the nucleus of the side the same that was under sarri what he has changed is the approach and the way they go forward . they still play the high line which was a question for me because juventus has so many pacy players who can create problems for any defense plus they are playing on the counter where on the opposing team is in not in shape and back tracking.
now the game started with napoli playing building offense and juventus hitting on the counter attack . napoli wanted to press juventus for which they played a high line . the main problem had been napoli's offense . fabian was played behind or with mertens .now if you play mertens against bonucci and de ligt then the aerial battle is gone . napoli were in a disarry in the first half fabian was shooting whenever he was getting instead of trying to build a play . callejon was just a spectator on the left . insigne who recives most of the touches and is the main player at times does too many touches causing the play to slow down and allowing the defense to organise and stall the offense .
the main problem was just not napoli's offense but its defense . playing such a high line wasnt helping . they were prone to counter attack . napoli had only six players on defense with the back four and the middle two . even the full backs were sent up to press and it cause gaps in the napoli's defense . juventus second goal can be considered the perfect example as to how bad napoli were . the way juventus bought the ball in from wide to inside without any challenge and obstruction and then higuain turning koulibaly inside out was the worst napoli .  kahadeira and matuidi were constantly getting space between the lines and causing problems to napoli. napoli's back four just couldnt come out to defend them because they had ronaldo and higuian to deal with and had they left their organisation then that would had been more trouble . juventus just ran riot in the first half .

in the second half ancelotti changed some personal as well as their positions . he removed the entire left side . he replaced insigne with lazano and mario rui for ghoulam . another change he made was fabian who was in the no. 10 position was brought in the middle alongside allan and zlensky who was in the middle was promoted upfront alongside mertens and lazano . he was drafted on the left side . the second half started with juventus wanting to preserve the lead and trying to sit deep and hit napoli on the counter . lazano's pace and zlensky's  positioning was causing juventus all sort of problems . most importantly the counter attack which was causing napoli in the first half was not there . napoli equalised the game but last minute own goal by koulibaly means they dropped points . this can happen to anybody but the important thing about the game is that ancelotti needs to make his tactics smartly he could had been hammered badly in the first half itself . while sarri doesnt needs to just be italian when they have the lead instead he needs to be positive when they have a lead and should try to control the game rather than handing the reins of the to the opposition .