⚽️Malen over Weghorst was a mistake, as Czech press and then dropping deep when Dutch got through made a physical presence up front important
⚽️Blind nullified and exposed
⚽️De Ligt 😱
The Czech man-marked the Dutch from Steklenburg's goal kicks adopting an aggressive 4-3-3 marking a 3-4-3. This made it impossible to play out from the back and forced the Dutch long... where there was no Weghorst as a target man.
This destroyed Dutch rhythm and confidence.
Before the sending off... Czech's failed to put enough men into the box despite dominating the right flank and putting in good crosses.
Soucek was not gambling enough, but after the sending off was another story as the absence of De Ligt have the Czech's confidence to bomb on.
When the Dutch were in Czech half, there was no end product. Depay was smothered and there was no point of crossing as there was no aerial presence in the box.
They used counter attacking lineup against a team set up to frustrate - this is why De Boer is not an elite manager.
We spoke about Schick's battle with Blind before the game. On paper he is Blind's kryptonite. In game it took the sending off before they directly confronted each other.
Blind was neutralised in possession today. Too focused on defensive duties due to the aggressive Czechs.
Sorry for the delay - wouldn't upload on Chrome!?
Gutted to see the Dutch go but the Czech's were brilliant. They and Austria are two old school great nations who proved tactical masterclasses can turn over any level of opponent regardless of form.
Positive football tactics.
Whilst we didn’t get the result right... we did mention the fact that the Dutch would be suspect from Set Pieces.
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🔴Sterling a world-class talent when in the mood
🔴3-4-3 pinned the Germans back
🔴Low's leaky backline bites again
🔴Grealish Game-Changer
🔴Back 5 helped English midfield (options)
Starting lineup thoughts, the Saka decision was brave and the correct one as he can penetrate space inside and outside. Perfect for a counter attack set up.
Abit too perfect as its effectiveness ended up pushing the Germans back...
As we can see the beauty of the 3-4-3 is that by matching the German formation, England went man for man and the Germans were forced to match them.
This freed up Saka and Sterling from double marking and they were dangerous in the 1st half. Germany got caught out several times.
Key points:
- Lack of width from France
- Switzerland bully Lenglet and Varane
- Rabiot is not a defender; barely a midfielder
- Both sides style of play is a reflection of their mentality
To accommodate Rabiot filling in at LWB, #FRA had to adjust their defensive structure.
They started in a back five but would have the ball sided wingback press the player in possession, joining the midfield line, forming a 4-4-2 as #SUI are forced to go backwards.
In doing this, #FRA give #SUI time to switch to the opposite flank, isolating the French central defenders as they change positions, making crosses into the box easy... as we saw.
Key points:
- Croatia looked to defend from the start
- Modric's attempts at man-marking expose Croatia
- Spain's off the ball movement
- Croatia COMEBACK after Spain collapse
- Football is mad
Croatia looked to defend from the moment the game began.
Spain's attacking structure resembles a 3-3-4 or 3-2-5, so to defend against this, #CRO would have their wide players Vlasic and Rebic track Gaya and Torres.
While the Croatian wide players defend the Spanish wide players, Kovacic, Modric and Brozovic were free to remain central and press Spain's midfield passing options.
As the game went on, Spain was able to move this defensive unit out of position and create space to play in.
🔴Portugal Xmas Tree (Off the Ball)
🔴Belgium bringing their wing backs inside
🔴Portugal build up is awful (Huge distances)
🔴Time to move on from Ronaldo?
🔴Portugal right flank poor.
Portugal adopted a low block in the first half and it was a 4-3-2-1 (Xmas Tree) when they did not have the ball.
The plan was to make Belgium keep passing into wide areas and flood the middle so that KDB and Hazard could be locked off.
This did not work when Belgium rotated the position of their forward line, confusing the Portuguese defence.
More importantly, Belgium outnumbered in the middle by bringing in Meunier and Thorgan, who was then able to shoot from distance shell-shocking Patricio and Dias.
Germany built up down the right predominantly and switched the ball out to the left whenever they wanted to go for the kill.
When this switch was made, Havertz went central and Muller took Havertz position. This confused Portugal's defence and Kai's physicality is so effective.
With Germany's front three moving so fluidly compared to the French game, it sucked Semedo inside to try and help the bewildered central defenders and CDM's.
This opened it up for Gosens to get in behind in that right wing/right half space.
Key points:
⚽️ Low block 5-3-2 plays a 4-4-2 diamond with little natural width = stalemate.
⚽️Dembele sub as predicted made a difference but Coman was a big miss
⚽️Hungary focus attack down the left
Hungary gave France an awful lot of trouble down their supposedly rock solid right side of defence. Varane looked very unfocused and laboured and he did not marshal this half space well.
Hungary used third man runs to exploit this briliantly. Credit especially to Fiola...
Why did France struggle to score? Digne was a decent selection but there was no wingers or a presence down the opposite flank stretching the game. Pogba too central, Pavard can't bomb on consistently.