Subject: [WC] Eesti - Argentina

I was happy when I saw that Argentina will be our opponent (during the IVth World Cup I beat them 4-1 and qualified to the best 16 with Hungary), but my initial enthusiasm disappeared quickly because I'm facing with a very tricky decision.

Tactic history

They had quite a lot of competitive matches before the World Cup, so I'm gonna post their last 12 matches.

won vs Germany 5-2
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
GER: 5-3-2, no winger, offside

lost vs Portugal 0-4 (WC-qual)
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
POR: 5-3-2, winger, offside

draw vs Noway 0-0 (WC-qual)
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
NOR: 4-5-1, winger, no offside

won vs Brazil 3-2
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
BRA: 5-3-2, winger, no offside

won vs England 6-0
ARG: 5-3-2, no winger, no offside
ENG: 5-3-2, no winger, offside
England had early red card, but the score was already 2-0 then, so that's not the main reason they lost.
Also, Argentina's tactic was just partly 5-3-2, the central defender behaved as defensive MID on offense.

lost vs Spain 2-3
ARG: 4-5-1, two wingers, no offside
ESP: 5-4-1, winger, offside

won vs Austria 4-3
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, high defense
AUT: 5-4-1, winger, no offside
Austria was caught on offside a lot, I suspect Argentina played a bit higher defense than usual.

won vs Schweiz 2-1
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
SWZ: 4-5-1, winger, high defense
Argentina defended with MIDs against the winger-play of Schweiz

won vs Brazil 4-3 (WC)
ARG: 5-4-1, winger, no offside
BRA: 5-4-1, winger, no offside
The two teams played the same type of tactic, except Brazil played wider and higher.

won vs Nederland 4-1 (WC)
ARG: 5-4-1, no winger, no offside
NED: 5-3-2, no winger, offside
The Dutch had two reds in defense, but Argentina had this match dominated anyway.

won vs New Zealand 2-1 (WC)
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
NZL: 4-4-2, winger, offside
Vilpu played here a defense we saw from Belgie last week.

won vs Colombia 2-1 (WC last 16)
ARG: 4-4-2, no winger, no offside
COL: 5-4-1, semi-winger, offside

Notes:
a) The Argentinian defense is pretty high even though they rarely play for offside.
b) Usually - if they play with two - one of the strikers play very wide and functions as a winger occasionally.

Players

Not much here, most of their players never switched clubs or were sold ages ago. They have striker problems, both Armenteros, Morigi and Yonsky have low form.

Alberto Arrieta, age 28
superdivine form

formidable stamina hopeless keeper
superdivine pace superdivine defender
formidable technique solid playmaker
solid passing very good striker

Aníbal Bocanelli, age: 24
divine form

very good stamina, hopeless keeper
incredible pace, outstanding defender
incredible technique, incredible playmaker
unearthly passing, adequate striker

Conrado Furios, age 29
solid form

formidable stamina, hopeless keeper
unearthly pace, adequate defender
unearthly technique, incredible playmaker
divine passing, adequate striker

Tadeo Garnier, age 27
formidable form

solid stamina, poor keeper
unearthly pace, good defender
unearthly technique, excellent playmaker
good passing, divine striker

Marcelo Gerasimov, age 26
magical form

formidable stamina, tragic keeper
brilliant pace, solid defender
superdivine technique, very good playmaker
adequate passing, divine striker

Leandro Matellán, age 29
unearthly form

formidable stamina hopeless keeper
magical pace magical defender
unearthly technique magical playmaker
magical passing average striker

Constancio Morigi, age 26
good form

very good stamina, tragic keeper
superdivine pace, solid defender
superdivine technique, very good playmaker
solid passing, unearthly striker

Eliot Rolón, age 28
superdivine form

formidable stamina, adequate keeper
superdivine pace, superdivine defender
unearthly technique, formidable playmaker
very good passing, outstanding striker

Javier Cuciuffo, age 30
incredible form

formidable stamina, tragic keeper
divine pace, excellent defender
brilliant technique, unearthly playmaker
magical passing, incredible striker

Raúl Lamelza, age 30
divine form

formidable stamina, tragic keeper
brilliant pace, solid defender
unearthly technique, magical playmaker
superdivine passing, good striker

Narciso De Porras, age 29
outstanding form

formidable stamina, tragic keeper
divine pace, unearthly defender
magical technique, solid playmaker
very good passing, solid striker


I peeked at the form changes and it looked like we had drops in the defense and Kőlli also dropped some. Pőlluäär got injured too. On the other hand Tamkivi might recover, although I'm not sure if it's good news or not :D

Argentina usually tries to dominate the midfield, so they rarely play wingers and it's also possible that they'll play a 4-man defense. Probably it's time for a 4-4-2 with a winger? But what if they play 5-4-1 with winger again? I'm pretty unsure what to do now... any comments?

I'll post my opinion here:


Well, we have Arjasepp and Kiider in the center, we have 3 really strong wings : Põlluäär, Nõmmik and Ritsik. Let's say we put Nõmmik in the starting line-up. We bring Ritsik from subtitution and if we are loosing we bring Põlluäär in the centre, what, yes is a bit risky. I saw that Tiisvelt's value is (a bit) higher than R. Nõlvak's. So why not use Tiisvelt instead of Nõlvak vs Argentina? And more one problem is that wil Tamkivi get "healed" for the game. If he don't, I think we should use Klas - Kõlli attacking line. One attacker is surely not a solution, No Bluep and you can win with one striker. Atleast there's no problems with defence line...

Tiisvelt is certainly an option, he has higher form than Nõlvak and they're almost equal in skills. Põlluäär is unfortunately injured, so if we'll use a winger it'll be Nõmmik and Ritsik (with a substitution as usual).
Kõlli now has similar form as Lagus and Naarits so I'd rather use the latter two, they're better. If Tamkivi recovers the striker duo would be Tamkivi-Lagus (with Naarits coming in as a sub), if not I'd use Klas instead of Tamkivi.
(edited)

I wanted to say that you ought to check on Saturday morning whether Ämar is recovered but he's lost form again. Shame.

One attacker is surely not a solution, No Bluep and you can win with one striker. Atleast there's no problems with defence line...

I beg your pardon?

Hmm...How's our midfield?
Anyways, if it's good why not try using something alike to borkos's/vilpu's defencive play? But here's the tricky part I'd go for if you'd decide to do so. Don't play 5 defenders, play 4 a bit more spread up than usually. The only thing about this kind of tactics is that you'd need to get the distance between defence and midfield right.

If that's a bit too risky for you or our midfield isn't good enough for the forementioned tactic, then play the 5-3-2 you played against Belgium. Just re-align the height of defence to Argentine's strikers and set our strikers the way I suggested to do against Belgium ;)

We have Arjasepp, Kiider, Sokk and Kurgpõld for central midfielder, that's plenty to choose from :) I guess I could pull this kind of tactic off, I'll think about it.

and set our strikers the way I suggested to do against Belgium ;)

I can't seem to find your post about that, can you help me out? :)

Jei! 4-4-2 finally :D. I think you already know my opinion. So if you consider 2 wingers then make sure Nõmmik gets a order to end up in the box if the ball is on the opposite side, he'll score for sure. And if the passer is divine, then it is not possible the pass will go wide and he has to be on the other side to recross the ball.

I think marxz had a good idea. A bit lower def and central mids a bit lower too, to make sure the distance between def and mids is not to big, but in some case the defenders should get high and run towards midfield as hell!

Anyway good luck, I'm sure you'll make a good decision!

Tamkivi still has a 5 days injury. It settles the striker question then. I'm gonna post the starting line-up in 2 hours or so.

The tactic looks gross, but if it's going to work I won't complain ^^ 4-4-2 with running-up defense (tried to copy the defensive tactic of Belarus against Belgie, that looked solid) and also a winger.
I rule out the possibility of a 5-3-2 with winger from Argentina, so hopefully this kind of defense will be able to stop both the 5-4-1-winger and the 4-4-2. Let's pray for the win, go Eesti! :)

Line-up

GK - Tiisvelt

DEF - Kukk
DEF - Jakobson
DEF - Miller
DEF - Matak

MID - Kiider
MID - Sokk
MID - Kurgpőld
MID - Nőmmik (HT' Ritsik)

ATT - Klas
ATT - Lagus (55' Naarits)

Bench:
GK - Nőlvak
DEF - Ojamets
MID - Arjasepp

let the luck be on our side again!