MY TAKE ON THE GAMES BETWEEN CROATIA VS BRAZIL AND NETHERLANDS VS ARGENTINA.

 in the first q/f of the world cup brazil played croatia . brazil started the game with 4-3-3 . while croatia too started with the same formation . brazil may had started with 4 at the back tite brought out a page out of gaurdiola's book where on he brought danillo and even militao in the centre . the reason being that they knew that croatia are going to press them in the middle and high up the pitch so casmeiro wouldnt have time and space on the ball . so they brought mostly danillo who is a better passer than militao in the middle of the park with casmeiro . the game started with a similar note with croatia sitting back and hitting back on the counter attack . brazil were the aggressive because they they had more athletic players while croatia had more physical players . of all the croatia players juranovic was the most impressive one . he was playing against vinicius against whom he did very well in the one on one duel plus he was very athletic going forward . brazil started with two wide players . i really dont understand the concept of inverted wingers . for the whole of the game that raphinha was there he was just there to stretch the game and nothing more . most of the brazil's offense came from the left side from vinicius side but he had juranovic to deal with . 

brazil blew past south korea because they played against them on the counter attack . here croatia didnt made that mistake . they allowed brazil time and space on the ball . they made brazil to slow down the pace and they held there shape very nicely . i was disappointed with tite he should had worked more on the cohesion of the team . he should had thought that croatians were not going to give them time and space in their own half . croatians started the game with the right theme . they took the ball wide and whipped the cross in the box . but as the game progressed it became very less instead they were happy to keep the ball. they should had crossed the ball more in the box . neymar scored a very good goal in the extra time but it was useless since croatia equalized and won the tie on penalties . 

the second game was played between netherlands and argentina . argentina started the game with 3-5-2 formation while holland started the game with 3-4-1-2 formation . the game started with argentina sitting back and playing on the counter attack. while argentina were sitting back they didnt gave holland any time and space on the ball when it came into the midfield and beyond . they worked very hard but to be honest i was disappointed in van gal and his tactics . let me explain why. 

holland had 2 uptop with depay and bergwin while gapko was behind them . argentina knew of the pace that these three possess atleast bergwin and gapko have decent pace . argentina played a deep for them and when the ball came to them they man marked them and didnt offered them any time and space on the ball . the first reason that i am disappointed in van gal was that for the entierity of the game he kept all three of them high up the pitch . these players kept backing into argentinian players and that made argie players easier because they didnt had to come out of the defense to man mark them . van gal should had made them them deep and tried to disturb the argentinian formation . the second is the lack of cohesion between the front three and thirdly that all the players seemed to be cramped into one zone . all the full back was but didnt had any support from any of his team mate ( explain that in formation pic ) . the argentinians were very good in their defensive work as they didnt allowed any time and space for the dutch players . what van gal should had done is that he should had asked these come deep or atleast make inward runs so as to drag argentinian players out of their position and disturb there formation   if they are to mark them and if they dont then they would have time and space on the ball which would be great . vangal just didnt do any of these things. 

on the defensive front too they made the mistakes . blind was against molina so ake was tasked with the job of marking messi. now ake made a lot of mistake his hesitation cost the team . first off ake cam out to mark messi . now when you come out to mark somebody just do it . instead of thinking of the space behind you or anything just mark the player whom you are asked to mark . his hesitation gave messi time and space on the ball and he was able to pick out molina who could score .the dutch never though that molina would make such a run and that messi would pick him out . argies played a very good game and they deserved to win the game atleast by tacitcal standard. 

there are two players who were standout in last night ties . first we all know is juranovic of croatia and the second one is enzo fernandez who was very good . his man marking and his defensive ability is very good . from the day he had came into that DM position argentina had been ticking plus he had two very good shots at the end of the match . he is also very handful when going forward and is definitely a player to watch .