FINALE.

 italy played england in the final of the euro tournament . first off leading upto the tournament i was reading about gareth southgate and the adjectives that were attached with him . ruthless,intelligent and what not . i was finding that very funny ( people may say that i am taking potshots because he lost then let me tell you i had lauded shevchnko even though ukraine lost . ) to be honest let me ask as to how many suitors will gareth southgate have if he decides tommorow to resign as the england manager and decides to enter  club management . let me tell you let alone the premier league he wont find suitors in the championship and even if some brave sould decides to take a risk then i bet he will be gone by december .  mancini on the other hand may find some suitors but still he still needs to work a little bit more on the game . to be honest i am amazed that a manager who is standing on the sidelines wont utter a single word even after watching getting outplayed . i havent seen such a dumb manager but whose luck is like a mountain where on he is getting there where his predecessors failed to reach . i dont know but certain players were given precedence over the others . why wasnt sterling replaced when he was utterly hopeless in the whole match . i am sorry but i dont think grealish is any good and just another average english player . while for me ben white looks good and should be playing in the middle of the field than in the back four . 

now i dont know as to why he wanted to switch from the working 4-2-3-1 formation to the 5-2-3 formation . may be he had watched the danes as to how they outplayed england for the majority of the match and how beautifully it worked for them and borrowing ideas is southgate's proffession . italy kept the same formation and the same players that had got them in final . the game started with england taking the lead in the first 5 min . the move was the same as to what kane had been doing . he would drop deep and passed the ball to trippier who came into the side because of the change in formation . trippier picked out shaw who was left unguarded by italians because they  hadnt even settled into the game and england seized the chance and scored the goal . the thing is that after they scored the first goal they should had been ascendency . they should had played with more confidence . but the italians adjusted to the game and they started to dominated the game . now i was going to write that england should play a high tempo game so that jorginiho just cannot settle in the game . but to be honest i dont think changing tempo or setting tempo of the game is not what southgate specializes in . his team is just a counter attacking team . after the goal the italians dominated the ball . now just look at the difference between mancini and southgate . mancini was animated and was passing instructions as to what his team needs to do . while southgate seems to be lost as to what was happening before him . england started to sit back as soon as they scored the goal . the italians started to take control of the game and most importantly england was severly pegged back . the reason being that they would bring every player behind the ball and that would hanmper the counter attacking ability . the other thing had been that counter attacking also requires very good cohesion of the team . 

the reason why i am criticizing southgate is that his team was playing counter attacking football but are dependent on individual players . there had been no cohesion between them . let me tell you when you attack then you start thinking about defending because if you loose the ball then you should be able to stop the counter and when you are defending then you should be able to counter and exploit the spaces that are left by the opposition . england were sitting back and when defending  they had all the player behind ball .so when they would regain possession they didnt had a plan . when countering you need to have cohesion and most importantly you need to be coached as to how will you exploit the opponents formation and the coach needs to make the adjustments on the go . southgate was just standing there like a statue . i am wondering if southgate is the best option that england then i am wondering as to how degraded coaching options for england are . that is why in premier league not a top six club is managed by a english man . last but not the least if southgate is ruthless then why didnt he substituted sterling who was hopeless . why did he bought rashford and sancho in the last minute of the game. why didnt he gave them enough time so that they could try but then the man is just has a rabbit foot and nothing more . 

italy may have won but they were playing an average team against a hopless boss who has no footballing knowledge . jorginiho who was completely clueless and was blown away by the tempo of the game versus spain was pulling the strings here . mancini had rightly seen that england and what he did was that he congested the play . what happens with this is that not only you play congested ( you can play if you have good cohesion and the opposition is foolish ) the opposition too has to do the same and the thing is that you can press the opposition and regain the possession . while mancini got one thing right . he couldnt improvise to open the english defense . he was dominating the possession but he wasnt troubling the opposition . for me veratti is one of the best in the world . the kid if he gets the best coach then he has the technique and brains to control the game and he could the future ballon dor for me . 

last but not the least this is my final post . while the football has gone rich i havent . i would love to coach a real team and hope to get in the near future . 

                                                                                                          THANK YOU ALL .  

MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN BELGIUM VS ITALY.

 belgium played italy in the q/f of the euro 21 . lets start the game . belgium started the game with 5-2-3while italy started the game with 4-3-3 formation . before i write about the game let me talk about one player on whose shoulder the entire belgium's offense was depended . lukaku was playing as the no.9 for belgium . we had two lukaku's these season . first off lukaku who was struggling with his first touch when aerial balls were delivered to him. but the same lukaku was unplayable when teams delivered the ball to his feet . the opposition was struggling to contain him . plus lukaku has good legs which makes him really unplayable . while thinking about tactics martinez should had taken this into consideration .

the game started with the belgium sitting back and trying to absorb the italian offense . this is kind of a novelty when the reverse was happening with italins on the offense and controlling the game tempo and dominating possession and doing the pressing which is against their dna . belgium was sitting back and was trying to hit back on the counter with the front three . now the novelty was that the italians who are considered very defensive minded shed their own image and took a new approach . mancini very correctly designed his tactics he rightly thought that belgium are very big side but not very mobile . he knew that he can press them . they are not very mobile and they can be pressed . they conceded the second goal because they wouldnt just come out of their comfort zone to press insigne because they knew that they cannot chase italians .  

the reason for writing the review is about belgium tactics . now belgium played a 5-2-3 . to be honest for me the formation dont make any sense . its how you make it work . so belgium started with 5-2-3 . on the paper it seemed very right . the reason was that they had lukaku in the middle and the fullbacks  can cross the ball and lukaku can be the end of it . as i had already explained as to how lukaku reinvented himself . italy were going to press because they are having one of the most mobile sides and the belgium sides are not very mobile . now my point is that most of these coaches based their tactics on the things that had happened in the past . belgium were keeping lukaku high of the pitch . now these tactics were more like ariggo sacchi's milan who would employ it with van basten but the thing is that what works for milan at that time may or may not work for belgium and it will require some ticking and improvisation which roberto martinez was not able to do . now when martinez kept lukaku high off the pitch he was given aerial balls to contest with two of italy's finest . secondly he was a bit more high off the pitch more than 20-25 yards so the defenders could get tighter on him and would just squeeze him out . thirdly he dint had anybody near him to pass . doku was on the left while de bruyne was dropping deep to help his midfield . 

whenever  the ball was passed the ball he was backing up in to the centre backs trying to draw out a foul but the centre backs are used to that . they are infact thankful to the player who does that because whoever does that cannot do a quick turn and run with the ball . when lukaku is backing up he is in fact getting in the defenders range and in his territory . more so lukaku was getting pinned by two defenders . the point of keeping lukaku high up the pitch is to stretch the opposition but in trying that they themeselves were getting stretched . what i would had wanted is that i would asked lukaku do drop somewhat deep and he would be fed with floor balls . in this process if the defenders comes out to press him then the shape of the opposition gets disrupted and doku and KDB can explore those spaces . if the defenders doesnt comes back then he can have time and space on the ball and that is what is important . i thought that martinez would do that adjustment in the first half but he didnt . belgium always troubled whenever they kept the ball on the floor and passed the ball around and believed in their ball playing ability . 

in the second half i think martinez asked belgium to press italy but it didnt bear any fruit . belgium got a  goal but it  made  them more one dimensional . they relied more on doku to open up italian defense who had dropped deep in the second half and defended in numbers . belgium depended more and more or doku instead they should had played a whole team  game . 

also i watched the game between england vs ukraine . first and foremost " allah meherban to gadha pehelwan ". gareth southgate is just lucky guy . well the thing that i like about the game is the way sancho operates . the way he passes and moves along with the ball is the way you need to play . but my question is whether southgate can design that offense that way . when jaden sancho moves with the ball the players need to feed the ball to him but at the same time the others need to make the run which sancho can spot . the way sancho plays is what makes football beautiful . other thing is that even though ukraine lost but i think that shevchenko's stock must had gone up . his team was passing well and the movement of the players and their understanding of the game and this comes from the coach who forms those tactics and teaches his players the movement and the way they keep the tempo of the game . the way they could up the tempo of the game and come at england was very pleasing and it does shows shevchenko's understanding of the game .