MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN MAN CITY VS REAL MADRID.

 man city played real madrid in the ucl s/f . for a long time now this was the game in which i had not used the remote in the first half . i think the gaurdiola must had read me and his team played proper football . they had a  proper no.9 for man city in the match . in my last post about man city i think that i had stressed about de bruyne quality and it was evident in the first half . i dont know but he kind of faded in the second half . man city had lot of opportunities and they missed a lot and it come back to bite them in the back in the second leg or if the result of the tie is decided. last but not the least i had been talking about technical aspects of the game . in the football world technical ability means how pin pointly you can do an aerial pass ( as kroos picked out rodrigo for the first goal)or how well they control that ball ( aerial ball). to be honest nobody cares as to they play that simple football that is play with middle of the foot or control that simple floor pass . if man city had did that properly ( foden ) then i think man city would have had one foot in the final . 

real started the game with 4-3-3 formation . man city started the game with the 4-2-3-1 . now in football you have to think about defense while you are on offense and viceversa . real made change in their regular line up . they brought rodrigo in place of casmeiro . the thinking was that they needed quick players who can exploit the high line that man city deploys while on defense. kroos and modric are indespensable while valverde too has made him indespensable because of his hard work . just as real madrid had studied man city gaurdiola too had done his homework . he knew of  real counter attacking formation . he knows that vinicius is kept high of the pitch by real madrid for his pace . so he played john stones but he asked stones to be conservative and never tried to go too much high off the pitch and get caught on the wrong side of vinicius . secondly compared to other games man city played a little deeper than usual in this game . they let real madrid come on to them than they going to go and press them . 

the game started at the very good pace . i had already said that de bruyne is a special player and his qualities were evident in the first 25 min as he was involved in everything from creating to finishing . for the first goal if you had looked very carefully then vinicius was partly responsible for the goal as well as mendy . now mahrez will always try to cut on his strong foot and modric who was on that side should had closed him down .but mahrez run may not had come to frutition had de bruyne not made the run.if you had seen earlier matches then none of the man city players would make those kind of runs in the box . the second goal was nothing but a good pass by de bruyne but stupid defending by militao who under estimated his opponent and tried to get the better of him and paid the price . man city could had scored the third when de bruyne thread real madrid defense on the counter attack and foden failed to score . i think man citys missed chances may just come back to haunt them .

real were playing on the counter attack . in this match real used two fast paced counter attacking players compared to one since ancelotti knew that man city may try to contain vinicius and it was evident in the first half as silva would come up to double up on vinicius with stones . real scored the first goal from a mendy cross . now if you had seen then man city many a wrong things on the defense . first kroos passed the ball to rodrigo . now i had written about zinchenko as to how his mistake led to the goal . first off it was more than 40 yard pass and if zinchenko wanted then he could have gone on and compete for the ball . secondly when the ball reached mendy at that time benzema had shown hand and zinchenko should had realized his mistake .he had time to correct his position and should had been goal side and guard benzema and make it difficult for him to score.

in the first half stones went off and fernandiniho came off in his place . compared to stones his approach was different . he was getting tight on him while stones let him come on him and wait for the right moment to dislodge him off the ball . the third goal came off for man city because fernandiniho nicked ball off vinicius and foden made the run in the box ( different than man city's character to score). but on the very next move fernandiniho was fooled by vinicius and his defenders didnt cover for him which led to the goal. in the second half man city tried to  slow down the game but then deep in the game you cannot press as efficiently as you can do in the first half . most importantly man city has to build around de bruyne . in the second half his influence on the game was very small compared to what he did in the first half . 

real madrid will have to very good in the second leg . the reason i am saying is this . real madrid are mostly dependent on benzema and vinicius for their counter attacks and but for them to be successful they like the opposition to come on them and press them . for me ancelotti has put players in their positions and told them on how to operate but they dont have the cohesion as to how they will open the defense and this was evident in the second half . benzema has the habit that he takes over the offense from either vinicius and rodrigo but they dont have that proper cohesion as to what they need to do and how they will open up that defense . apart from those two good goals against chelsea which were perfect headers which would had made ronaldo jelaous they didnt made the goalkeeper work that hard . even in this game they seem to be in each others way and they need to work as to how they are going to make runs and how they will take positions and how they make penetration in the opponents box when the defense is has taken positions .ancelotti and his players need to take some drills to make this intersting affair and for man city they just need to play proper football which they did in the first half . i think gaurdiola will bring walker in the second leg against vinicius and use cancello as the left back . 

MY TAKE ON BAYERN MUNICH VS BORUSSIA DORTMUND.

  yesterday dortmund played bayern munich in the german bundesliga . now in the game every aspect of the game is important  and the smallest of detail makes a world of difference in the outcome of the game and the opposition tries to exploit the smallest of advantage it has . also what i had stressed in my previous post is that you can make plan but how you improvise it is the most important thing . i dont think that in the game between two good opponents their plan A works but the coach who improvises and who's players execute it are the ones who come out victorous . while writing about this game i remembered former ac milan coach ariggo sacchi . tactics were there from the day this game was invented but sacchi was the one who was particular about the distace that needs to be the players . he was particular about the distance between players and the lines and he was very particular about the positions of the players with respect to the formation . i had said that the coaches are there are on the sidelines to observe and change things if the things are not working . for me dortmund coach marco rose was just didnt do enough . he could see that his team is struggling but he just didnt change the things . he could have asked his players to be more crisper on the ball and pass it quickly . he could have asked his players to be more compact because they were far too apart and far too much stretched for their own good . bayern were just picking their spots as to when and where they could press them and regain the possession . 

dortmund started the game with 4-2-4 while bayern started with 3-4-3 formation . the reason i am saying that dortmund started the game with 4-2-4 was that both the wingers and the front players played in a line and were high off the pitch . as i had said in my previous post that you may device tactics but the opponent will not respond to the way that you had calculated and that is where you need to improvise . i dont have any problem with dortmund coach playing 4-2-4 formation . for me dortmunds offense was just one dimensional . they were playing on the counter attack . rose had calculated that bayern like to press when they loose possession and they play a very high line which is required for pressing opposition . now here bayern just didnt press that hard . instead first they crowded the midfield and made sure that dortmund had to move the ball through the wings . the other reason for dortmund to move the ball through the wings was that they had winger who were high and wide and forwards too playing on the shoulders of the last defender . dortmund only had two in the middle so they tried to move the ball through the wings . now bayern just waited to right moment to press . they made dortmund slowed down the game and made them move the ball through the wings . now dortmunds failure is that they should had met fire with fire . they should had moved the ball more crisply . 

now as i had talked about the distance between the players in my first para . you cannot help notice the distance between dortmund players . they were too much distant for me . marko rose thinking might be correct that in trying to doing so he will stretch the opposition . but thinking requires proper execution and improvisation . first off they he didnt calculate that bayern will sit back slightly and press at the appropriate time but i wouldnt laud bayern but i would criticize dortmund . he should had realized that they were drolling on the ball and were not moving the ball crisply . most importantly they were just one dimensional in their offense . they were trying to release either halland or reus behind the back line. my question is how many times did they take the ball wide and tried to cross the ball in the box and test bayern's centre backs . just compare hallands height with bayern back three and see who has the advantage . in doing so would had give another added dimension to dortmunds offense . the only thing that dortmund were doing was trying to release halland behind the back three. if you had seen that bayern can be caught if you can bring ball from back to front then there is space on the either side of the back two since either pavard or hernandez comes out to press . even the goal that is scored by dortmund was a result because ball fell kindly to brandt because of the long clearance and he found reus in the box only to be fouled by kimmich . 

for the majority of the match dortmund were just poor they couldnt piece four passes together and kept on losing the possession. they just didnt had enough players involved in the build up and players stuck to their positions instead of involving in the build up which is nothing but lack of coaching since they should be first try to take the ball into the final third and then create from there . the lack of coaching is evident from the fact that the playes were trying to find passes and this happens when you are not properly coached . i think i dont need to write about bayern since i have wrote about them in past posts and they just execute their game . in this game they first slowed the game and then upped the tempo when they would take the ball upfield . 

MY TAKE ON MAN CITY VS ATH MAD .

 man city played ath mad in the q/f of the champions league . i had been reading people criticizing about ath mad performance . i think that they are half right . i wont criticize them about their defensive performance but i would be critical about their offense . just as diego simeone is criticized for their defensive approach then why is man city not questioned . to be honest let me make this statement then it will be reverberated around the world . i think that de bruyne and cancello are very good players and their spotting and decision making and positional understanding is a grade above the other players . for players like them you need to take inputs from them think of their strengths and prepare tactics around that . there were moments in that game that didnt do justice to their talents and most importantly that cancello is played out wide . i think that he can be brought back in the middle with his ball playing ability . the reason i am criticizing gaurdiola is that yes ath mad will play a defensive game . not everybody needs to play like man city . now you know that ath mad will build a wall but at the same time a coach like gaudiola who is not only paid handsomely but also has some of the best players in the world needs to find a way to breach that defense . what do you look when you look at the man city team. they are bunch of players who know as to what the shape of the team has to be but they dont know as to how they should put the ball in the back of the net or how they are going to create chances . if they would know then the passes would crisper and the game would be much more faster and ath mad would be more on there toes than they were . 

the game started with the familiar note of man city dominating the possession and ath mad sitting back and trying to hit on the counter attack. the reason why i had criticized gaurdiola  is that gaurdiola is not paid exorbitant amount of money to just stop team his opposition in tracks but to open opposition defenses at will . i am not saying that ath mad will make it easy they are there to make it hard but then i am talking about gaurdiola and not about just about any mediocre team but about man city who have the best team in the league . man city started the game with 4-3-3 formation while ath mad started the game with 4-4-2 formation . gaurdiola wanted his wide forwards to stretch the defense so that his midfielders can exploit those spaces and bomb beyond the back line . to be honest at times when he make a plan i dont think he thinks it through . first off he played bernardo silva as a 9 so any chance of winning headers in the box was gone . the most important thing  was that silva was never trying to get at the end of crosses that were made from the wide areas . i am criticizing because i know that the opposition is not there to make it easy for them . they are going to read the game try to make it as much tight as possible and stop you in the tracks but that why you are paid the top dollar and given the best player so that they are not lacking the skills that ordinary players dont have . to be honest for the whole of the game i didnt find man city mustering 4 passes in and around the box . gauriola was asking his wide players to  stay wide but it wasnt clear as to how they would work the ball inside . you can have the desirable shape but you have to work the ball and play according to oppositions strength and weakness . the best team that knows as to how to work the ball and bring into goal scoring positions is liverpool. the exactly know as to what their players should do in the final third and create chances . 

now gaurdiola had the desired shape that he wanted from his team but the thing is that there was nobody at the end of the cross . now why i am saying that gaurdiola doesnt deserve player  like de bruyne and cancello is because these guys are not just good with the ball but they are excellent spotters who can spot the weakness in the opposition ranks and but they need other players on same wavelength . you could see that in the second half with foden coming . he and de bruyne were on the same wavelength and combined together to score the goal. in the game there were two or three instances where on de bruyne and cancello spotted the players that can be released in space and in good position who can create chances but the trouble is that because of the lack of coaching and the players inability to spot that same space . the trouble is that even when they are released in the space they dont know as to what needs to be done next as to how they are going to create chances and put the ball at the back of the net . 

now ath mad were defensive and played on the counter attack and there is nothing wrong in that but the trouble is that when they have the ball that is when they need to use it very wisely . they should know that they are going to get pressed when they have the ball . now simeone used kongodibia who is a big unit and is good in one and one situations but lacks the mobility and the game reading ability that is wanted when playing in the midfield. ath mad likes to play on the counter and for that they started the game with jao felix who is good on the ball and had good pace and dribbling ability. the trouble with ath mad is that they play very deep and the chances they created are going to be far and few because most of the teams will stop them in the tracks . in the opening minutes of the game ath mad had the chances with felix driving the ball but again there was lack of coaching and i will explain that in the diagram .

 

in the first 10 min ath mad had the counter attack . here griezman(8) should had tried to get closer or try to be first to the ball . if he cannot then jaoa felix should try to cross a high ball to griezman  for header.

i see no problem in playing defensive football but the opposition will only respect you when you show your ability with the ball . teams will only fear any opposition when they see that they have good ball playing skills and their is cohesion in them . ath mad didnt had any cohesion had they had any cohesion then man city would had played at caution but they didnt . in the first half they just kept ath mad strapped in their own half . in the second half when  the players get tired and the game opened up still ath mad couldnt conjure a chance . ath mad were lucky that man city didnt put them to the sword or the tie would had  been over .