Subject: [NT] Vs Argentina in the World Cup Finals

Oh well Flux was awful and continually tried to dribble through instead of pass, and Buddle well he was embarassing for their 4th goal when he should have ran through. I am not happy and I have to say I am a little shell shocked by that result, the passing choices were strange at times. Their winger shreds us and Stroud who is potentially better is nowhere near as effective.

7, 1 or 20 goals doesn't matter too much.

Key point is the result, we deserved to lose today.

I am not saying we deserved to win but we did not deserve to lose 7-3, I am struggling to see why we were so bad, but I will have to watch it again at a later stage. I am very disappointed.

unlucky, it happens sometimes.

You should take your England glasses of for a second and look the game through for one more time. Argentina desrved to win. Until the first red card the dominated. I think you had only 2 headers by that time, which one ended in a goal. Difficult to say why there were better. Maybe just better players. You still have 2 games ahead and till could go through.

:)

I have stated already we deserved to lose, but was disappointed in the scoreline and the fact that some players looked frankly awful when they are not. I cannot understand why Buddle passed backwards when a knock on and he was through, that back pass went to their striker who went on to score. I am still amazed at that!

Thats the point I was trying to get round too, nothing to be gained from looking at the number of shots, then the scoreline & thinking that we were really unlucky.

Maybe we were unlucky to concede 7, its almost certainly the case. Given Argentina's luck we maybe could have even scored a couple more.

If we had had Argentina's two red cards we could have counted our-selves super unlucky, but then you would have been looking at a score of 10+ goals difference.

Issue for me is why we were outplayed 11 vs 11, I reckon that 5-2-1-2 has a slightly better balance when both teams are playing a high defensive line. The extra midfielder isn't very important as there is little space to do much with the ball, while the extra striker helps you to break past their back line.

Other point is that Blunsden & Flux are not really NT standard in terms of their pure defensive ability. Against wingers with divine pace & technique that will always mean that opposition teams will sometimes be able to break free down the flanks.

Oh, and I'm really not trying to have a dig at you, nor would I want to.

Start of the game, I looked at the two tactics and teams, to me it looked like it should have been a very close game. Now its ended I'm just trying to look at what we could take away and learn from the match so that the next two games can result in better results, and we can qualify from the group.

I have stated already we deserved to lose

I was writing my reply for 20 minutes, so didn`t see that:)

Things I have noticed, that you could do better or avoid:

1) I think your defense played bit too low. Argentina defensive line was much higher. It means their players kept your players always under pressure. Meanwhile when your defenders left enough space for their players to pass and combine. That´s why their players had more possession.

2) Something that I have used for seasons. You may have noticed that some managers especially try to cover their wings. So they will left a cap between wingback and one right/left backs. Set your striker(s) there. I have won many matches like this.

3) Their winger was good. He gave three assists an had chances for more. So partly you lost because of him.


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I agree, it was a disappointing result. we should have got at least something out of this one. The 4th goal was just embarrising, but to cheer myself up I just have to laugh really, I mean all our players were running forward to support Buddle and he plays a long ball back, surely someones heels must have been clipped by it and then their player popps out from nowhere and we're done. Buddle's probably got a lot on his mind you know, he still hasn't sorted out his future yet, I don't know about you but I hope he does soon. Julian Flux could have been sent off today and I don't know how Ahrmed Legget could have conceeded that many because not only is he arguably the Worlds best goalie but I also calculated he's been to around 5 world cups prior to this
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Thanks to you and Vilpu for constructive stuff. I will have a look at a later date. With regards to defence being too low I was under the impression that since the new ME came in that a high defence was suicidal?

Its a risk, but the advantage of pressure can be worth it.

Its the impression I got from the spanking I got from Vilpu's lot in the CC.

Saying that though, I have since experimented with a lower defensive tactic & my league results haven't exactly been too great with it! Seems to me that you have to mix up the two types of defensive line depending upon the opponent, how you pick a suitable opponent is tricky though!!

yes you are correct, my defence are pacey, and having a high defence has worked wonders for my team, constantly harrasing the midfield etc, but at international level there is aq lot more to think about..

personally i don't think the changes to the ME have made too much difference. strikers will still be caught by fast defenders as was shown with buddle a few times where he went clear and was caught and tackled. i've seen it a few times in my league matches where a player knocks it on only for another player to run past them and get the ball, and actually means they don't need to tackle.
i think tech is more important for str's now. if we have a superdivine tech + pace player then i would play them even if their str is a little lower.

as for the match/tactic: their winger wasn't as tightly marked and got more space especially when they quickly switched play. flux didn't help this as there were a few times when he went forward and lost the ball, leaving their winger unmarked. also maybe buddle could have being played a bit higher up to try and get through on goal more.

if we can beat columbia and russia, then we should still qualify :) good luck for next week ;)

Oh my! Lost Legget and Cutting for next week tonight! :(

Feeling a bit doomed tbh - thats 6 injuries in the squad now.