Guillem Balague: Euro 2016 sees football regressing

February 3, 2024
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This Eu Championship got the very last it deserved, Frett Board.

Portugal v France turned into a competition between two groups with a physical presence which is protecting. Talented gamers of Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho, Andre Gomes, Rafa Silva, Kingsley Coman, and Anthony Martial had been left on the bench in favor of tough-running midfielders.

Portugal’s midfield featured William Carvalho, Renato Sanches, and Adrien Silva, even as France had Moussa Sissoko and Blaise Matuidi with Paul Pogba in a conserving role. There may be masses of strength and power. However, it became missing the finesse and expertise you accomplice with most Eu champions.

Pogba has got plenty of excellent but has seemed more constant while gambling as a shielding midfielder, so as opposed to seeing him at his maximum innovation, we’ve had to observe the greater conservative part of his recreation.

This has been an ecu Championship without a football innovation, wherein fear has dictated. Of path, that is partially because of countrywide stress. Still, it’s also due to the fact that most of the national coaches are not of the highest caliber and cannot make the maximum of the expertise they have.

Countrywide coaches frequently use the excuse that they do not have time to work with the gamers; however, in every event, two or three aspects display that are not authentic. On this one, the likes of Italy and Germany have proven that if you pick out gamers with enough intelligence, you could work with them.

Overall, I sense we’ve long passed again to the football of the overdue 1990s and early 2000s; we concept we had moved on from that. However, this tournament has made it fashionable once more.

Iceland succeeded with a very protective technique. Wales produced similar protecting work and demanded a lot from Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen off the ball. What made them a hit changed in how they labored for the facet; however, it wasn’t a midfield that wanted to control the ball for long spells.

Of direction, this is first-class, and I’m no longer criticizing it in any manner. It labored for them and took them a long way. However, there were best certainly two facets that proposed football that changed into, if you like, modern-day.

Those were Italy and Germany. They showed tactical versatility, were wise with the ball, and provided things other teams could not address.

Germany had to play three on the again in opposition to the Italian machine, which may be very difficult to counteract, except you deliver your side the same formation. Joachim Low sometimes played a No nine and now and again failed to.

They had been higher than France in the semi-finals. However, they couldn’t rate, and many of you’ll say they were defeated, so we are not right to praise them. If that is how you observed soccer, I bet you’ll be the handiest from your reviews at the cease of a tournament, depending on who wins.

Champions Portugal confirmed capacity and freedom in the 3-3 draw with Hungary. Still, it modified their facet in the remaining sixteen towards Croatia to ensure they weren’t so susceptible again. Neither element risked something in that suit, and no photographs were heading in the right direction in 90 mins.

I have spoken to 4 managers in the last couple of days, and they agree that the tournament has lacked high quality. The primary reaction has been to defend and shield inside the old manner, deep, and no longer losing ownership. Not to change something.

Because 2008 we have visible different approaches to shielding – from the front as an example – and new football-playing methods. Look at Pep Guardiola’s groups; Spain at the start of the Vicente Del Bosque era; Germany underneath Joachim Low; Borussia Dortmund beneath Thomas Tuchel; or Rayo underneath % Jemez.

This contemporary and new fashion hasn’t long gone out of favor. However, it has not been observed through as many coaches and groups as you’ll assume.

That makes it thrilling analyzing for Jose Mourinho’s new group. Soccer goes in circles, and it looked like the ownership-based fashion – building from the again and defending with the ball – had taken over for a while.

Mourinho’s Chelsea was regarded to have reached the top and stale once they couldn’t beat a 10-guy PSG in the Champions League. I wondered if Mourinho would trade with the instances from that factor.
However, Diego Simeone and several of the most hit sides On these Euros have shown a return to the fashion that took the Portuguese supervisor to the pinnacle of the game.

Such is the trend that Manchester United, one every of the largest clubs in the global, has had no trouble hiring one of the foremost advocates of that conservative style of play.

I insist there is nothing wrong with it – however, after this tournament, it must be recounted that this style is back on top of the world.

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