MY TAKE ON THE BAYERN MUNICH VS ATH MAD GAME .

 bayern munich played ath mad in the ucl . this is the first game in the group so everybody wants to make an impression . bayern  started the game with their usual 4-2-3-1 formation while ath mad as always play a 4-4-2 or 4-6 combo . first off this was luis suareaz's first game for ath mad in the ucl . messi had made his disgust known public about the way suarez was hauled off at barca . this was the game where on suarez needed to show the kind of player he is . first off form is temporary and class is permanent . class is not limited to the age it will always be there . suarez failed to redeem himself . sometimes a striker can misfire in a game but his game knowledge and his ability on the ball is always there . first off suarez's positional knowledge is poor as a striker you should know as to where the ball can come or where the pass can be played . you should know as to how much time you have on the ball and whether you need to pass the ball or you can shoot . secondly his passing ability is absolutely hopeless . he should realize that he is top man on the pitch and any loose pass from his or loose play from his will result in his team loosing the possession or getting crammed and that may result in loss of possession or the move may have to reset . he was absolutely hopeless . offside countless time . he should remember that they play a counter attacking system and the ball comes very quickly to him that he may want to that he would anticipate . most importantly good strikers create chances for themselves . they know how to read a position and they try to position themselves that the ball can be crossed to them or that they can receive the ball . 

the game started the very much anticipated notes . ath mad would sit back and try to absorb the attack and then hit bayern on the counter . most of the ath mad attacks were from the left side because both carrasco  and lodi are good dribblers and have good pace . the game had the usual notion about it with bayern pressing and ath mad hitting on the counter attack . i think that when simeone looks at the game and analyses it he would say that at time they would play theball just because the move needed to be moved forward while at times it would had been better to hold off the ball and play it around and try something different . ath mad just tried to play forward football trying to take advantage of bayern munich players caught upfield . 

suarez's position in the box for carrasco's cross . he cannot expect the ball to ball to come to him when they are so deep and the back four and goalkeeper would just let it roll .

he needs to here in the box trying to be as close to pass as possible .

this post is mainly about what suarez should had done and what he lacked . he was poor in positional approach his link up play as well as his finishing . a player of suarez's experience should really have a great knowledge about the positional aspect of the game . the one moment that i particularly wanted to point is when carrasco had the ball and he was giving a hard time to pavard , muller and kimmich . he was very good . had suarez got his positional sense right then both of them could had made the difference for ath mad . for this i have made the diagrams . when the ball the comes in to box the back four tries to get to the ball and tries to get the possession back or just clear it . they cannot let the ball get rolled over in the box and expect the ball to go out of play . they have to be the first to the ball when it is in their zone . the thing is that when the ball is crossed in the box the striker needs to make himself available so that the ball reaches him . he needs to calculate as to where the ball can reach him . secondly at times he is the ones who needs to engage the back four so that the others can find the space in the box . he has to calculate at every moment of the game . he cannot think that the ball will evade defenders and reach him because the defenders too are thinking like him . they too are thinking as to where the danger is and from where the ball can be crossed and how they can reach there first or at least try stop  the cross . suarez for me was hopeless in his positioning and finishing and it would be better for siemeone if plays somebody other . 

MY TAKE ON THE WEEKEND GAMES .

 liverpool played everton in their home . everton are top of the league and many of them had started predictions that this may be the blues year . this was an important game as to how everton approaches it and whether they are good enough to win the league . well i dont think so . leicester had been in the similar position and they had won the league . but let me tell you leicester were playing way better football than what everton are doing . if everton are to improve then they need to do improve drastically on both the fronts . they are having deficiencies on both ends and they need to address that and if they can address that then they stand a chance of having surprising many and if others keep on dropping points then may be they have a chance . 

everton started with 4-5-1 formation while liverpool start with 4-3-3 formation . the game had high energy to it . everton were trying to play on the counter attack while liverpool too try to do the same they try to break at pace as soon as they get the ball . everton were sitting back and were trying to play on the counter attack . most of the liverpool attack were from the wide because everton had three in the midfield . while liverpool had the ball they tried to play through salah who having the better of digne in the physical match up while on the left side robertson was causing everton all sort of problems . now the trouble with everton formation on defense is that rodriguez is not a hard worker and he was suppose to mark robertson who is a willing runner . everton didnt had three in the middle in the same line instead gomez and dacoure are higher up the pitch trying to press liverpool midfielders while allan is more of a sweeper who tries to read the play tries to win the possession back and start the attack . 

the trouble started when liverpool spotted that rodriguez wasnt tracking back robertson and i think that he isnt fully match fit or is not a hard worker . the thing was that dacoure was trying to press thiago while mane had moved inside so coleman couldnt go out and press robertson since that will leave mane free and create problems . the other thing was that robertson wasnt that wide as the fullbacks usually are . he was quite inside so what that does is that the pass that he makes reaches the players faster compared to the pass from the wider areas . thirdly because of firmino the back four couldnt come out and mark mane . while back four were trying to defend the six yard box and firminiho allan was the only player who was present in front of the back four and so there was a lot of space on his left and right to exploit and thats what mane did . he found the space between the lines and score . the thing is that ancelotti should had made sure that as soon as the ball comes upfield then atleast one of the two midfielders should be along side allan . so that he can step up and be assured that there is somebody who is marking the space that he is leaving . liverpool kept on exploiting this space for the entirity of the match . in the second half ancelotti read this and ancelotti had made the changes . he changed the system from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 and made dacoure go mark robertson but as soon as everton saw that liverpool were exploiting the spaces in the middle they got dacoure in the middle . liverpool should had seen that change and should had told robertson to exploit that freedom again . 

whenever everton has the ball they should have a plan a,b and c since it may be possible that the intial plan may not work . everton when they had they the ball they had only one play they were trying to play the ball to calvert lewin . the obvious problem with everton's formation was that both james and richarilson were wide . secondly they were trying to go direct and they were trying to release calvert beyond the back four but liverpool could read that . most importantly when everton had the ball in the first half they just didnt know as to how they need to take the ball upfield . when a player spends time on the ball that means that either he has too many targets to choose from or has none . in terms of everton the players were not in cohesion with each other . secondly when calvert was played the ball he didnt had anybody behind a no.10 to roll the play . there was nobody who was there to go beyond calvert so that he can play him and that threat can create the space for calvert . both rodriguez and richarilson who are threats were wide and by the time they would come in liverpool would have players in defensive positions . so everton has to learn to keep the ball and pass it around as calvert has shown that he is an aerial threat and digne is a superb crosser . for me rodriguez looks out of shape . he has the quality and has the eye for the pass and can thread a defense splitting pass but he needs to take control when everton have the ball and he need to work harder . most importantly ancelotti needs to create an offense which can suit rodriguez who can be a real gem . 

i think the injury to van dyke was the most important thing that happened . untill vasn dyke was there calvert wouldnt get time and space on the ball . he cannot out jump or say he would get the space to jump as freely as he did for those two headers that he had in the box . van dyk would be tighter to him and can read the game better to joe gomez . joe gomez allowed van dyke time and space on the ball . he was ball watching and allowed him to jum freely and score . he should had got the warning in the first half when calvert miss a similar chance in the first half from a similar cross . gomez should had been tighter to him . most importantly when liverpool loose the ball they play with one intent of trying to win the ball back and that can back fire since the team can just play out and when the ball is in the box they dont have that disciplined approach as like the other team have to keep the formation and try to defend their zones and keep tight disciplined unit . this thing can be their down fall and if teams can exploit that then they can have problems . 

there were two other games that were played on saturday . arsenal played man city while the other was the milan derby . arsenal lost against man city . there was only one goal scored and the reason for that was that arsenal just allowed man city to play . arsenal were pressing man city . the goal that was scored was because when arsenal were pressing man city teirney who was pressing maharez allowed him time and space on the ball . had teirney not allowed maharez time and space on the ball then i think the goal could had been prevented . there are two things first off teirney was afraid that maharez would turn on him and he would leave his back four collegues exposed so backed off a little . but also there is another angle to it . maharez is far off from the goal . even he had turned then teirney has the pace to catch maharez . the others when  seeing the danger would had rushed off and would had brought more arsenal players on defense . for me arsenal just allowed man city too time and space on the ball . they might had been scared of city's ball playing ability or the players possessing pace . arsenal should had backed themselves . the only arsenal player that impressed me was young saka who looks good at this time . 

the other game that was played was the milan derby . a substandard game with old horses . conte should had seen the game and analysed it . what did he find . after looking at the game what did he find . looking at the team didnt he remember of the argnetina team . everybody playing for themselves . he should look at the team and see at how much his team was undisciplined when they had the ball . they just wanted to the heroes and were not ready to play their team mates . while nothing great can be said about milan they were equally or say more hopeless than their counterparts . juventus already had the league in the bag . 

MY TAKE ON LEICESTER VS MAN CITY .

 now man city played leicester at home in the epl . i had been reading all the headlines in the english media about the game . even in the match commentary there were too many things about the project restart . gaurdiola had accused the other team of not playing and just sitting back and not coming out to play football . what does he expect that the opposition should match him while he purchases the best player in the world and the opposition should play as he wants . to be honest this is the type of team that i wanted him to coach and lets see as to how he manages to get the result . to be very honest the football that is played right of now is very hopeless . they are devoid of any creativity while trying to open the opposition defenses . i havent seen a team which has good cohesion and is playing a good football and players have a proper plan when they are going forward . bayern who were playing good football had been not that good after the restart . now about gaurdiola this team hasnt got a flair player . earlier they had silva who was very good in passing the ball as well using the spaces himself and could tick the team around him . there is only player in the team who is good but he is more useful on the counter attacks or crossing the ball but not in playing those intricate one two passes in the close cordons. graham souness had already said that liverpool will have the trophy not because they are good but because the opposition is very poor . 

city started the game with their 4-3-3 formation while leicester started it with 5-4-1 . city had sterling in the no.9 role while leicester had 3 at the back and they were very compact and rodgers had drilled them very well and they worked in tandem with each other . now there is lot that is made about city's defense . yes that a point but the real point is the city's offense . in the entire game city didnt created a single chance from open play . they were poor . for me the real problem was not city's defense but city's offense . the team wont come out and play if they are afraid of the opposition and its offense . city started sterling in the no.9 position . the idea to start sterling in the no.9 position is theorotically very good but the trouble is executing it . the three leicester centre backs were very compact and they tracked the runs from players very nicely . 

the game started with leicester sitting back and city in the asendency . leicester played deep knowing that any space that they offer behind back four can be exploited by city . since there was no space in the middle city had to get the ball wider to the fullback positions in trying to stretch leicester . the idea was correct but the thing is when you are trying to execute you need to do it correctly . city were taking the ball wide but they were not able to bring the ball inside . leicester should be commended for their defensive effort . the real reason that i blame gaurdiola is he  should had read the situation . they were not able to string four passes together near . they were hurrying on and were crossing the ball to sterling who i dont thing can win an aerial duel against any leicester's  centre backs . city were not able to work there passes in an around the leicester's defense or between the lines . just look at the crosses that were coming to sterling they were coming from atleast 20-25 yards and leicester's defense could see the danger coming . city should had been able to put four passes together in between the leicester's lines . they should had played the passes crisply . most importantly when you play sterling as a no.9 you cannot play off him . city were just too monotonous and one dimensional in their offense . they were just kept on crossing the ball from wide areas. they should had tried to control they should had moved the ball around and done more passess in and around the box . didnt you see the movies where on the coach tell them to make atleast 5 passes before you take the shot . city were not able to string three passes together inside the box which it should because the leicester had good shape to their defense and they wouldnt be penetrated or peircsed  by just two pass moves . while it can be  claimed leicester's good defensive effort but at the same time its city's poor offense . just tell as to how many chances did city create from open play and how many saves did schmichael had to make . 

most importantly  while trying to stretch leicester city over stretched themselves . the distance between two players when playing a ground game matters . if the distance between two players is more that 8-10 yards then the ball takes a bit more time to reach the player and that time can be used by the opposition to close down the player or can make adjustments to their shape . for me the distance between two city players was a bit too much and city should had played a more closed game which would had allowed them to make crisper passes and open leicester defense . secondly they should kept the ball instead of crossing and city's fullbacks should had been instructed to not cross the ball and keep the ball passing and rolling trying to stretch leicester's defense . city's crossing the ball after few passes made it easier for leicester to defend .somebody had watched the first 30 minof this game then they would had thought that city were just going to roll  over leicester . but i think rodgers had a good plan in mind . he knew that the pressing eventually would get laxed and that they can play the ball out after 30 min . most importantly the confidence that mendy got after he turned over to  pass barnes was the game changer because teilmens is a very good player but he wasnt getting the support from mendy . but once mendy got that confidence over the ball leicester looked like a different side and i think that was the key moment in that match . at times i think barnes spend too much time on the ball and i think rodgers need to make him aware of the moment and not waste that because it can  cost them in other games . 

barcelona are playing tonight and i wont be surprised if they get a reality check . they are just playing the same thing that they were doing last season and the same formation and the same players . they were lucky against villareal but if celta vigo can play correctly then they can pose a problem for barcelona .