Come on, you have peak Cruyff who was lethal down in left wing and you can be sure he'll prefer to be facing off against Bergmark rather than Rijkaard in a packed area. Rijkaard will probably drop back to make the 2nd CB and support Bergmark which leave on oncoming Masopust ability to cause trouble.
Voronin took out Eusebio and Albert of the game. His job on Gullit would be about as good as a defensive job comes.Come on, you have peak Cruyff who was lethal down in left wing and you can be sure he'll prefer to be facing off against Bergmark rather than Rijkaard in a packed area. Rijkaard will probably drop back to make the 2nd CB and support Bergmark which leave on oncoming Masopust ability to cause trouble.
I rate Gullit's peak as higher than Voronin and again the ability to drift wide makes Neeskens lethal.
Rijkaard and Voronin won't follow. The entire idea behind it is to let the opponent have possession out wide while you dominate the box. So while "Cafu/Briegel and Masopust/Neeskens" are out wide they won't be challenged as they have to beat Bergmark/Nilsson then Rijkaard/Voronin if they want to do anything but cross the ball. Hard thing to beat a defender who is not committing himself to try and take the ball back and who doesn't care about a corner. As that suits the agenda of the aerial prowess the team is built around.
I think this highlights my advantage. Both of us have a centralized theme here, with the difference being.....I'm flexible enough to take advantage of your narrow-ness, whereas you do not.
This is where it becomes a 3 vs 2 advantage for me.
What? Masopust is an upgrade on WvH and is a left halfback. He's more than capable of operating in wide areas to bring the ball forward. And Annah himself has admitted that he has conceded the wide areas to my team so I'm lost here. Where is the lack of wide service for Cruyff coming from?
And why would Briegel or Cafu not make use of freely available uncontested space when we have possession? Briegel facing Hamrin will not venture too much, but will Support Masopust who is a brilliant ball carrier both centrally and out wide. His slalom runs and dribblers will be hard to track.
This is my team in that situation.I think this highlights my advantage. Both of us have a centralized theme here, with the difference being.....I'm flexible enough to take advantage of your narrow-ness, whereas you do not.
+ I can attack wide and defend centrally.
+ It just make me get the ball to your defence easily and quickly.
+ Lots of possession without any challenges.
This is where it becomes a 3 vs 2 advantage for me.
Bergmark will have an overlapping Cafu to deal with and Gullit keeping Rijkaard occupied. What happens to Neeskens? I expect Neeskens and Masopust to have their best games here. Cruyff and Gullit will drag and occupy your defenders while Neeskens and masopust moving up will cause havoc.
Hmm I don't see the whole Dutch philosophy merged with this Christmas tree format with some of these players especially against this opponent. Fullbacks have almost full time defensive duty with the quality of the classic winners on display here. Won't be providing much width on the attack which Cruyff thrives on the overlapping which is lacking here on the left. And might as well as just put Gullit out on the actual right flank if you want to provide width there. I also am not feeling Nobby Stiles, Ruggeri and Collavati in a total footballing Xmas tree scheme. just feels a bit off.
That said Annah had to pick my least favorite formation of all time and portrayed with some WTF wonky graphics. What are the balls and questions marks supposed to even mean??
so I am
Prefer that critique than his though!That's not a realistic portrayal at all.
That's usually how it works.
Both Liedholm and Gren post 1947 were doing defensive jobs. Raynor didn't appreciate Grens lack of a work rate before that and helped him change in to a player who could even do a job further down.
Hamrin/Skolgund are probably at par with Figo as defensive workrate goes. Not really the Bekham'esque display in sheet above. They'll probably be hovering around up ahead waiting for a pass from Liedholm (who I expect to be the deepest of offensive 5) to spring him up and try to exploit space behind my CB's.
Way worse than Figo mate.
They weren't even close to that sort of level defensively, they rather ignored it and focused on counters.Why do you see a Beckham or Nedved there? I don't expect them to do jack defensively, but they sure wouldn't be loitering around the opposition penalty area when the action is in their own box. Drop to the half way line to kickstart the counter from there. That is exactly where you would expect them to be.
Way worse than Figo mate.
I somehow was focusing on Gren/Liehdolm and got myself confused with Hamrin/Skolgund.
The issue is that they are facing a modern formation where your full backs would make it a crazy game of eras. The full backs bombing up and down never happened back then so the only answer to it would be to fall down as you push further forward down the wing. Something that didn't happen when they played other WM's as then both teams stood up more and went back to back at each other and had no full backs.
That describes it perfectly.
Like I wrote in the player profile. Their positional work was that off an offensive box to box midfielder and Liedholm was known for his supreme fitness and stamina for the time. But their defensive work was strictly positional and they wouldn't be hounding any players around to win the ball back. Not that they stood still and were useless, they'd win a ball back too here and there but that wasn't part of the game plan, just to line up against the opponents left/right half combination. Basically Neeskens/Masopust who you could still see get past Gren or Liedholm at times.I somehow was focusing on Gren/Liehdolm and got myself confused with Hamrin/Skolgund.
I need some coffee.
You don't need to have both bombing forward though, they can take turns or, more likely, focus on giving more freedom to the one creating the most damage (likely Cafú).
Ruggeri was a RCB in Back 3. He should be OK to deal anything passing Briegel and as you say it's a more defensive flank.
Yeah, not really in my form here. Monday blues!
As you say, Ruggeri was RCB in a back 3, he is in a pair here. If he shifts out he leaves Collovatti, not Brown and Cuciuffo. In any case, that's not an issue IMO as I can't see Briegel leaving that side exposed. It's Collovatti covering Cafú that I'd worry about, which is why I think Neeskens should hold his position with an eye on Skoglund when Cafú goes for it.
That is exactly the case. Rijkaard will be dealing with Cruyff more often than not, heavily supported by the back three. On the other side Voronin took Eusebio and an in form Florian Albert out of the game A. Resulting in him being ranked as the 4th best player of the WC by a referendum organised by L'Equipe and France Football, winning the Soviet Union Footballer of the Year. He's perfect to deal with Gullit and dominate the central area together with Rijkaard.
Cheers for the comments mate, couldn't ask for anything else. Just trying to portray the tactics without ruining the effort by overrating what they could and couldn't do. I would have gone with bigger "general" defensive midfield names(As Rijkaard was a roaming CB) otherwise, but this is what I think would be the most honest upgrade. I can see the two being awesome in these defensive roles and Rijkaard adds so much to the aerial game as well.
