When Spain is clicking you see player’s switching positions and making diagonal runs. When they aren’t clicking its static and passing around the arc predictably and utterly devoid of threat.
Michael Gardiner San Diego Whites Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 3, 2018, at 4:00 AM, "[email protected]" > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2018 11:46:10 +0000 (UTC) > From: John Lee <[email protected]> > To: Brendan McWilliams <[email protected]>, > "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [LU] Tippy Tappy > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Much of what you say I agree with. On Spain however, the sheer lack of > willingness to probe was what lead to their elimination. Teams have always > parked the bus, and whilst it can be as boring as hell, it is not their job > to help Spain beat them. Man City employ a variety of the type of football > Spain could have employed - possesion based but with a cutting edge, and hard > pressing to get back any lost ball. They could have played Costa + 1 up > front, but they didn't. And, when push came to shove, they took some really > poor penalties. That is genuinely surprising given their pass accuracy rate, > but of course most of that is along their back line with no pressure. I would > just have liked them to have really had a go - they could have won the thing! > Great World Cup? Well, clearly a personal view. Refs have been good to very > good, VAR usually a positive, stadia look great, no reports of bad stuff > going on (aside from the ticket touting for England's game tomorrow in > particular). But are there teams you can't wait to watch, who you know will > provide real entertainment as well as having footballing ability? Less sure > about that. Uruguay look the real deal - great defending, but committed > attacking too (Suarez was outstanding v Portugal); England might be right up > there, but there's been plenty of play-safe rubbish. > > > > From: Brendan McWilliams <[email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, 2 July 2018, 11:55 > Subject: Re: [LU] Tippy Tappy > > > Hi all, > > provoked into a semi-defence of Spain.... > > Their way of playing - possession football? on the ground - remains the best > quality football over the last decade. Both RM & FCB play this way, it's a > joy to watch, has been a joy to watch now for years and you only need to look > at their European trophies these last 10 years. > > RM's midfield has the likes of Modric, Isco and Kroos, FCB have Coutinho,? > Rakitic and Messi - and none of them know how to tackle because they don't > have to with possession football. > > (Note also that RM haven't really spent that much money recently - their last > splurge was 3 years ago, although I suspect that's about to change.) > > Spain's abysmal failure is due to: > - their players and style being so good that every single frickin' team that > plays them now has already given up before they start. They park the bus (and > then some) and go for a 0-0 draw. Russia in particular yesterday, Iran before > them. Even Portugal sat back.? Saying Spain are boring, yet overlooking the > opposition is plain silly. When Mou's teams do nothing and shut up shop, the > other team are accused of being dull? > > - half the team being from a club team that has Ronaldo, the other half a > club team that has Messi. So these guys are all waiting around for a spark of > genius that isn't coming, then it's just giving it to someone else hoping > they'll have that creativity. Xavi was able to do it, Isco is nearly there, > but otherwise they're all passing around hoping for something to happen. You > could say the same for Germany too - all waiting for a killer pass or touch > of magic that never came. > > - So, if it's playing against 9 or 10 defenders and you can't dribble through > THAT many or thread a pass through minimal space, then the only options are > crosses from the wings or long balls from deep.? Whilst Hierro played Costa > up front, nobody played off him (like what Griezmann does in ATM) and so he's > totally isolated and looks like a lemon but when used right, he's > outstanding.? No wingers: yesterday they had Asensio (not a winger really), > Isco went into the middle and Silva is brilliant but not a winger either. > > All this BS about tiki-taka being dull etc - what do you do if the other team > doesn't want to play? You give them the ball?? They usually don't even want > the ball as they'll just lose it going forward, then get caught.? In short, > Spain should have went longer with speed - but they didn't and another > tournament wasted. > > As to weather this is a great WC or not - yes it is. > > So few teams play by lamping the ball up by default, all are playing on the > ground, the refs have been mostly outstanding, numerous games decided in the > last 10mins and yes, VAR has been a good addition.? The lack of "stars" you > have to put down to the fact that there are so few very bad teams any more > and it's a more equal tournament (compared to others). All the stars before > shone because they were basically playing against traffic cones. > > Also, who can remember Euro 92, Euro 96 (the other games), about half of > Italia 90,? quite a lot of WC2010 (Algeria vs England anyone?).... they were > absolutely dire. Best WC in recent times for me was WC2006 when a young > Germany came through under Klinsmann playing amazing football. > > BMW _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE
