- Sterling and Mount double team in the left half space
- Kane redundant (lacks penetration)
- Phillips puts in a Kante performance and dominates the right half space
- No overlaps
Whilst Tripper held, Mount bombed forward in support of Sterling. Both gave Vrsaljko a torrid time, combining with one another and taking turns to go round him and cut in side.
Kane is a flat track bully. Lacks the pace to stretch well organised defences and despite facing a sub par Croatia backline, he was incapable of stretching them and finding pockets of space.
Do not see him hurting bigger sides deeper in tournament.
The lack of overlaps from England's full backs was concerning. It gives us stability, but long term Kane needs aerial service if he is to thrive in this tournament. Our wide men are also being forced to create when outnumbered. Against bigger teams this will be an issue.
This hurt Foden in particular who despite a promising start needed Walker to overlap and free him away from the right wing. This did not happen and Perisic came back to make it 2 v 1.
Foden's passing angles inside were also cut off, so he became limited as a threat.
Rice held which allowed Phillips to bomb on very aggressively. Phillips was waiting for whichever Croatian midfielder got the ball and then hounded them like a hungry dog. These interceptions were key to stopping Croatia from establishing a stranglehold.
At one stage England looked lost.. and did not look like they knew how to break Croatia's backline. Then that man Phillips once again broke forward, beyond Croatia's midfield and had the composure to find the excellent Sterling who made a much needed run in behind (a rarity).
Croatia offered no threat. Perisic faced double marking himself. Vrsaljko faced his colleage from Atletico who read him like a book and Modric lacked the legs to outperform Mount who faced him in the Champions League so was not overawed by him.
A well-deserved victory for England over a very poor Croatia team.
Still a lot to work on for England but that is a solid start to the tournament. My only concern is that I expect England to sail through the group stages so limitations won't be exposed to learn from.
If you've enjoyed this thread, consider following and retweeting it as we will be doing post match threads for all the games during #EURO2020 , as well as match previews for all the upcoming match days on our website:
⚽️France balance high press with backline dropping off
⚽️Germany too narrow, Kimmich not holding width and inside forwards lack pace to stretch game
⚽️Give Pogba space at your peril
France were so difficult to break down. They did not just sit back and absorb pressure but kept Germany guessing by pressing with their forwards and Pogba... and dropping off defensively if they broke through.
This frustrated the Germans who could not settle into a rhythm.
Muller and Havertz were invisible in this system. Both need to be the focal point and here they were deployed as wide inside forwards.
They lacked the dynamism to stretch the game and with France defending narrowly, and Kimmich staying too central - they were ineffective.
- Czech take advantage of set piece & transitional weaknesses
- Dykes off the ball movement was crucial in Scotland's attacking phases
- Scotland's build up play is promising, but needs work
Scotland's build up play was surprisingly progressive for a team that historically doesn't aim to play pretty football.
McTominay struggles as a lone pivot, so depending on the side of play, one of McGinn or Armstrong would drop from deeper from their half-space to help.
Czech Republic did great to keep McTominay out of the game. He was isolated & needed assistance. Having said that, when he got help in the build up phase, Scotland were able to play progressively.
Dykes/Christie drops deep to drag their marker out of position, creating space.
⚫️Ukraine too much distance between defence, midfield and attack.
⚫️De Jong & Wijnaldum = Press Resistance Overload
⚫️Dutch build up down left and switch to Dumphries
⚫️Comeback!! No..
Dutch attack down the left, with Blind to LB and Van Aanholt and Depay occupying the wing. This forced Ukraine to shift across and get bodies over to that side of the pitch.
As is the Dutch way, they then played the switch to Dumfries again and again - and he finally delivered.
Ukraine struggled to get the ball off the Dutch, as they possess two of the best press resisting midfielders in the world.
De Jong and Gini kept wriggling out of tight situations and feeding their forwards or wing backs.