JUST FOR A DAY AND WILL BE DELETED .

 i have just read that man utd are interested in signing alvaro moratta on loan . moratta for me is not bad but if man utd are serious then they should sign marcus thuram . chelsea might be reading my blog because they are ready to sign enzo hernandez but if they play him in the DM role then they are wasting his talents . sign him but make him play high  off the pitch . 

MY TAKE ON THE WORLD CUP FINAL.

 france is playing argentina in the world cup final . now both are counter attacking teams . both had won the s/f matches by sitting back and countering their opposition with pace . france started the game with 4-3-3 and same was with argentina . for this final argentina bought di maria as he is good dribbler and has a good pace . france brought back rabiot in place of fofana for the final . both the teams are wary of each others pace . the game started with argentina choosing to sit back and hitting  back france on the counter attack . before i write about the game i was to write about what france coach can do to test argentina's defense . instead of playing dembele who had been awful for me . france could had started with giroud and thuram upfront with mbappe . we had seen as to how good both giroud and thuram are in playing with mbappe and how well they combine plus one aspect which mbappe has but is not much talked or thought is his crossing ability . he is a good crossing ability and if france could had started with two uptop then i think it would be a worrying sign for argentina but they didnt . 

france started with dominating the possession while argentina sat back and hit france on the counter . now both the teams are sitting deep, because both have fear of the quality of players that are there specially upfront. compared to france argentina played a deep line. argentina played di maria for his pace and trickery and his pace and trickery got the first ( though it is contentious as di maria has that reputation to go down easily and the var didnt showed any different angles of that foul.) as i was saying that compared to france argentina were playing a deep line so the team who is playing high up the pitch has that urge or that benefit that they can go and press the team who play deep because they have space to fall back . another thing that i had been saying is that you have to constantly read the game . you have to read as to whether you are over committing and how much space you are leaving behind the back and front for the opposition to explore . the second goal for argentina was miscalculation on the part of france in terms of pressing . first off they were high up the pitch . they went for over pressing instead of calculating the space and movement that the players can make . although france may have miscalculated but mccalister made a very good run which not only sent him clear but also on goal. argentina played a very cohesive game in the first half . 

while argentina were playing a cohesive game in the first half france were poor . i think deschamps should had watched argentina's games and the tactics that they were using on defense. first off they were bringing all the players behind the ball. they were playing a deep line compared to france . just like england they were not going to give space and time to mbappe who was the main threat . there was a lack of cohesion in france's team which was very well exposed in the final. another thing was that instead of dembele i would had started with thuram and as i had written initially i would had tested argentina . for the first half france was run down over by argentina . 

in the second half he brought kolo nouani which brought pace to the france's rank but the most important factor that led to france's equalizer was when france brought on coman . having three pacy players on the pitch was too much for argentina plus it was late in the match . you get tired so the initial pressing was not going to happen and mbappe combined very well with thuram for the equalizer . 

the game ended at 2-2 and the extra time started . scaloni made the first move and that was the game changer he brought on paredes and that freed hernandez from the defensive midfilders role and now he can join the attack and you could just the change in argentina's tempo and offense . this kid can find players and can play a very good offensive game and that led to the third goal but france equalized through hand ball but all and all argentina prevailed and won the cup . 

i had already said that enzo hernandez is the player to watch and he was spectacular in the finals. there is another player in the argentina's squad who i think needs consideration and he still looks good . thiago almeida is that player and i think that he too is good and needs to be looked at . 

MY TAKE ON THE ENGLAND VS FRANCE GAME.

 there were two q/f yesterday . england played france in the last q/f of the world cup . to be honest after watching england i think these players deserve especially saka,kane,rice and belligham deserve better . they need to be better coached . england started the game with 4-3-3 formation while france started with 4-5-1 formation but i would call it 4-4-2 because mbappe wouldnt come deep to defend so it had to be 4-4-2 . to be honest the game went different that what i expected . england started the game with the team dominating possession while france choose to sit back and play on the counter attack. 

england even though were dominating possession they were pretty cautious about mbappe's threat so they had walker playing very conservatively and not getting too high on the pitch and getting caught on the wrong side of the ball with mbappe and also henderson was instructed to help walker in dealing with mbappe . i had been reading papers and reading news by several so called pundits that this player was good and this players made the difference . to be honest from my point of view kane was the best player . england started dominating when the game was played around him or he was at the centre of the move . if you had seen games then you must had seen that kane coming inside and then releasing players beyond him made all the difference . just look at the games between iran and senegal . kane came inside and the opposition's organisation got disturb . this allowed bellingham and henderson to bomb beyond him . if you see kane even in this game then i think that he was very good . 

now the game . england started as a dominating team and france were happy sit back and hit on the counter attack . france like team tom close them down. they have got excellent players who are good in one on one situations and can wriggle out of the press and open opposition. whenever england tried to close them down you could see england were not doing with full steam because they dont want to caught exposed . for me when england had the ball they were a bit too much distance between players . they could had played some what compact but it was understandable because they couldnt play the high line for the fear of mbappe's pace . the other thing that made it not possible was that france too played a deep line. so they stretched the game and they could offord that because they had mbappe upfront who can open up any opposition . england played some good football . the passing was excellent and you can see the difference it makes to play under good coaches . the movement by henderson and saka . the turn by kane is nothing but resultant of good coaching to them on the club level.    you cannot prevent strikes like the one by aurelin took for france first goal . when england equalized i think that france stepped a gear. england should had just weathered out next 10 min but they couldnot and i think that this is where southgate's managerial skill will have to be questioned . all and all i think england had a chance but lack of coaching and big game mentality got to them.

today argentina is playing croatia . if croatia wants to be in final of the world cup then i think that they have to just cross the ball in the box that is the plan A. for argentina i think they should go for paredes in the middle and let enzo henandez play a little upfront in place of mccalister or mccalister and him can switch positions.

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 .  

MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN NETHERLANDS VS USA.

 usa played dutch in the round of 16. now the dutch started the game with 3-4-1-2 formation while usa started the game with 4-3-3 formation. the game started with dutch sitting back and hitting usa on the counter attack . usa team doesnt seems to know as to how play in the box be it on offense or defense . as i had said the players that you choose are very important. dutch had dumfries and lind in the wing back position . dumfries is a very good fullback and if you had seen his game against barcelona then you had seen that he was kept high on the pitch by the inter coach and his running cause all sorts of problems for barcelona . the us know as to how to play in the middle of the park and press and recover possession and this was noted very well by the dutch because they wanted that usa should press because then they can playaround the press . if you had seen the first goal that the dutch scored then you would see many mistakes that usa made on defense . all the goals were scored because of the organisational mistakes and the shape they had on defense  . the attack starts from the left and they beat the press from usa and shift it to the right to dumfries . as i had said that the usa doesnt knows to defend . first off they the midfielders were caught high off the pitch which should had not happened . secondly tyler adams and the mackienny or musah should had taken position in front of the back four which they completely did not . the defense just switched off . 

the usa was playing the classic back four and compared to the three at the back of the dutch . so when the attack starts from the wide positions supposedly right then the left back tucks up with the centre backs to provide the extra cover and not expose that back behind them . now when if you see in the goals scored by the dutch usa fullbacks are in their rightful positions because they have to tucked up with their centre backs .in the open play when you are pressing then its ok that the fullbacks can go press ( even though its a risk ) because the pace is slow compared to the counter attack because they are pacy that is why they are called counters . now as i was saying that the fullbacks are going to be tucked alongside the centre backs then the usa coach should had asked the respective midfielders or the wide players to mark the fullbacks when they are on defense on when the ball comes in their own half . he should had done that and asked weah and pulisic to mark lind and dumfries. the third goal was classical mistake of positioning and body shape . i would show that in pics . 

even though the dutch won the game i am not so impressed by the game because they have all the tools to win this tournament . they started with depay and gapko forward and classen in the middle of the park . in the first half they scored the goal but they were dominated by usa in terms of possession because they the front two were not combining very well and klassen is not a no.10 . van did corrected his mistake in the second half and to be honest if you have gapko,simmons and bergwin in the team who can just any defense to ground if they can combine together. gapko as no.10 is very good it is now upto him as to how much big he wants to because because i will tell you there are two players gapko and leao who have all the qualities in them and its upto them as to how much forward they want to go. 

usa has a lot of work to do . they know on how to win possession but they dont know on how to open up the opposition defense as well how to defend their own box . there are some good players but they have to work on the defense and offense . 

i didnt watch the game between australia and argentina . australia could had troubled argentia had they had a better midfield . the midfielders were poor their decision making was very poor and some of the passes that were made were just poor . the switched the ball from one side to other way to quickly making it easier for argentina to close them down. argentina needs to pray to god that poland do some godly miracle that they beat france so that they can have a real chance to win the cup but at this time i think for me dutch are one of the teams to beat other than france . 

MY TAKES ON THE IRAN VS USA AND GERMANY VS ESPANA.

From now on the post will be short and sweet .

usa played iran in the crunch match of the final group game . usa started the game with 4-3-3 formation . iran started with 4-4-1-1 . usa started the game by dominating the possession while iran was sitting back and trying to play on the counter attack . usa sent there fullbacks very high up the pitch as they were trying to stretch the game and create spaces for pulisic and weah . but iran were aware of pulisic's and weah's pace and decidedly played a deep back four . the only goal in the match came late in the first half . now i really like carlos queiroz and i thought that iran would give a stern test to usa . as i had said that usa had sent there fullbacks high up the pitch as this was because usa was confident with their midfields and that they can contain iran in the tracks . both robinson and dest were high up the pitch . if you had seen then look the number of times mckiennie crossed the ball to dest from left to right . iran should taken the care of marking dest . secondly they were playing way deep and allowing usa midfielders all the time and space on the ball . iran's left sided winger should had followed dest very diligently because before the goal dest had shown very good crossing ability so marking him was necessary but iran's defense fell asleep and usa could score the winner .

As i was listening to the commentary the commentators were saying that iran had taken there offense 10 yards upfield which was stupid . what happened was that after usa took the lead usa didnt wanted to get caught high on the pitch so they started playing deep and they stopped doing close downs which they were doing earlier in the match which in turn helped iran because now iran could find space in front of the back four . now since iran was having ball in the usa's half . usa had to play compact and that meant that iran's fullbacks and wingers found space on the wings . they throwed some very good crosses which could been a problem for usa . but all and all usa survived and reached the round of 16. 

now as like in every every tournament i like scout players who i think can become very good players . for musa and adams were the best performers for usa and they should have a great future but need to develop physically to play in the big leagues . the other one is from ecuador Pervis Estupiñán is his name and i think that he should be signed by a big club .

germany played spain in the second round of the world cup . losing this game would had been elimination for germany. spain started the game with 4-3-3 formation while germany too started the game with the same formation . in the midfield spain had gavi,pedri and sergio in the midfield . while germany had groetzka,kimmich and gundogan in the midfield . gundogan was played in the no.10 position and was put up against busquestus while kimmich was against pedri and groetzka was against gavi . playing these three in the midfield makes perfect sense but i would do it differently . i would put groetzka against busquestus . he would had just frustrated busquestus . secondly on the offensive front groetzka is way better than he is thought . he can drive the ball is a good header of the ball and has a good shot from distance . this was just one of the mistake that i think that flick made . 

the game started with familiar note . spain had asensio in the no.9 position. the game started with spain dominating possession and germany trying to hit out on the counter attack . both teams try to press each other but spain dominated the possession . the reason for it was that assensio kept on dropping in the midfield to help move the ball up field . olmo and torres stayed out wide to stretch the back four . the diffence why spain dominated the possession to germans was that spain didnt thought of trying to exploit that high back line which both team played . instead they concentrated on moving the ball and bring it up field and then open up the opposition . pedri did very good on the ball considering that he was against kimmich who is a good defender . the other thing is that after spain scored the goal they knew that the germans would try to change formation and also personal and they should had tried to play the same game as they did in the first half . 

MY TAKE ON BARCA VE BAYERN .

 barcelona played 5-6 matches from their defeat with bayern .they played twice against inter in that space of time and came up second.before i write about the game i want to write something just like always . there is  a thing called positional reading or positional analysis in chess or you can say puzzles in simple terms. now the thing is that when you are playing you have to make reading of all the things its just not defense or offense but both because we had seen that things can change in a giffy . we had seen that when on team is on offense and suddenly you are backtracking to defend . it is very important that you need to be on your toes .you have to keep on reading the game and the one that read the game better and take proper actions for it are the ones that are victorious at the end .

barca played in four important mathches in the last three weeks .they played inter twice , el classico and bayern in the return fixture . first off xavi has to get this out of his mind that if he dominates possession then he is going to win games . secondly teams now know  how to play against pressing teams .when you are playing with fire then you have to answer with fire .you cannot answer it with anything else .i will try to explain this in respect to the first goal . first barca needs to give the notion that the things that they did in the past and one same tactic cannot be applied to every opposition . barca like to press and for that they have to play a high line but while playing this game you do have to take into account the opposition its players there abilities but also many things.what do you think about the bayern side .for me they are the best athletic side in europe with many fast players like sane,gnabry,coman,davies and the one who is underrated is goretzka . nagelsman has gathered a team which is very pacy and they play a very fast paced football .now other thing while coaching his team nagelsman must be calculating as to what the opposition can do or how can the opposition  counter him( if you cannot calculate that then you shouldnt coach).  i think xavi lack this .he is trying to play his own game but is not calculating as to what his opposition can do to him or how they can counter him. the first goal is a prime example of xavi's inability to think the game deeper .

 now lets take into account bellerin's position  for the first goal .while defending bellerin has to take into account many a things .he needs to take look at sane's position with respect to him since he is man marking him.secondly he has to take into account his position in accordance to his team mates that is the back four .then he has to take into account the space that is in front of him as well as the space behind his back ( since alonso and kounde didnt take it into account that is why the first goal was scored .)now when you play a high line you do have to take into account many a things . for the first goal we see sane's position but we dont take into account chipo moting and musiala's position because both had time and space on the ball since neither alonso nor kounde came out of the back four to close them down . before that you had seen that barca closed down bayern had to pass the ball back to the back four but they have this ability that they can bring the ball from back to front very quickly and this caught barca offguard .if when the first goal was scored you could see that bayern bought ball from back to front very quickly . it is this ability that makes bayern a very threatning team . even in the match you could see that bayern 3 against 3 on barca's goal because barca's players were caught high up the pitch trying to press . 

xavi should learn that dominating possession doesnt wins games .bayern play a very high tempo game and to answer bayern's game is to play a very high tempo game.you have to play fire with fire. barca's offense had been very poor .first off you can see as to what barca are trying to do. the attack is not choreographed.yes you are playing players in their desired positions but how should they operate and what they should do .for that you have to take drills and coach them the movements as to what they need to do when they are encountered with different positions . when you coach them that then they can improvise that on the field .barca's attack was flat footed . when the ball was on the let wing dembele didnt tried to make diagonal runs and create that flutter in opposition ranks .if you dont do something out of the ordinary then you cannot threaten the opposition and create problem for them .when de jong  was driving the ball he didnt had any player around him to whom he  could pass the ball and further the play . the other thing is that xavi should had taught de jong as how much he should drive the ball and when should he just pass it . its important that you have the possession if you want to do offense because if you driving the ball but if its going nowhere then you need to pass the ball . barcelona are playing a one dimensional game .it may work against weaker teams but against good teams you need to have something different to surprise the opponents .all and all xavi may had been bought with large fanfare but he is falling short of expectations and most importantly he is not able to drop players who need to be dropped like busquestus and pique . i hope he improves soon or he will be gone before he completes a year.