France v. Spain Leg 2: The group final

Benzema got booed out of the pitch pretty badly. Been a while I've seen fans booing their own players like that, especially on the national team.

On another note: Saint Valdes.

Predictable and boring once the game got going, the pattern was so obvious.

I for the life of me cant understand why teams dont press Spain (btw their yellow V neck crap is so shit looking).

They are playing 2 holding midfielders and have Arbeloa who the players barely want to pass the ball too...if you press them, they will struggle so bad.

Instead, they just sit off them and watch....dont get it.

The Franchise wrote:Predictable and boring once the game got going, the pattern was so obvious.

I for the life of me cant understand why teams dont press Spain (btw their yellow V neck crap is so shit looking).

They are playing 2 holding midfielders and have Arbeloa who the players barely want to pass the ball too...if you press them, they will struggle so bad.

Instead, they just sit off them and watch....dont get it.

fear factor, it's Spain, omg hide yo kids, hide yo mama.

by the way, DD only knows how to counter, what else is he gonna do but counter. he is like Mourinho lite without the nastiness and the genius, super motivator and....that's about it

harhar11 wrote:

free_cat wrote:

harhar11 wrote:I am curious Free, do you dislike France as much as Spain, seeing as a part of Catalunya is in France?

No, I don't since I don't live in that part of Catalunya and I think a big majority of the people living in north Catalunya support staying in France.

However, it's not a country I like very much because of how they denigrated catalan culture (and other cultures like occitanie or Briton) in order to homogenize the country from 17th century to today.

A usual motto in France was "soyez poli, parlez francais", which means "be clean, speak french".

Ok, but does there exist a independence movement in the french part of Catalunya or are they happy to be a part of France?

It exists but it's very, very, small. They hold some town councils but don't even get representation in general or regional elections, so I guess they are less than 5% of the population.
The only mainstream catalan thing amongst north catalans is the USAP rugby team from Perpinyà that has a strong catalan identity, and Barça that it also has a big following there.

Teams do press Spain. They just get tired chasing the ball after a while. Spain's counter pressing coupled with their ball retention is simply superior. No one can press against that for a prolonged time.

The Franchise wrote:Predictable and boring once the game got going, the pattern was so obvious.

I for the life of me cant understand why teams dont press Spain (btw their yellow V neck crap is so shit looking).

They are playing 2 holding midfielders and have Arbeloa who the players barely want to pass the ball too...if you press them, they will struggle so bad.

Instead, they just sit off them and watch....dont get it.

You rarely see pressing in International football. Pressing is a complicated defensive tactic: if done wrong you can crumble. As international football is so crap, they don't press.

When they lose the ball, they walk back to their area and defend.

The thing is, it dont matter who you choose selection wise, the team France put out was pretty good in my opinion, but it dont matter if your going to allow Spain all the time in the world to establish themselves.

On the plus side, watching Koscienly bottle up Navas on the counter attack towards the end....I hope Barca are watching...that takes some doing.

But yeah, Spain are not very good, France seem tactically inept and overall it was a nice reminder why I dislike NT football so much.

I actually thought with that midfield 3 France would go with Cabaye in front of the 2 CBs and Matuidi and Pogba ahead. ( ala Juve)

Quite disappointed to see what i saw, also you can't have Ribery and Valbeuna on the wings unless you dominate or have very good fullbacks.

Evra is inconsistent at best and Jallet is garbage.

To me Menez and Ribery or Valbuena would have worked better.

Also Benzema is acting like another midfielder at the moment its pathetic, they need an actual striker out there.

France have good players but they are not being used correctly.

futbol wrote:Teams do press Spain. They just get tired chasing the ball after a while. Spain's counter pressing coupled with their ball retention is simply superior. No one can press against that for a prolonged time.

The teams that press Spain, even in their better days, cause them problems. Chile is a good example.

And you dont have to press for long against Spain, not at all. You dont have to press long against anyone. But against Spain, like Barca, you have to stop them finding a pattern and finding comfort.

Nothing to do with them escaping pressure because they are so great, thats not true at all.

I refer to what Free just said, that to me is the reason.

The Franchise wrote:

On the plus side, watching Koscienly bottle up Navas on the counter attack towards the end....I hope Barca are watching...that takes some doing.

You mean the counter where Cesc passed to Busquets in the end...?

I really like Koscielny and I think he would be a great signing for us. After Varane, the best choice we could get because of their speed.

But we'll go with ball playing CB like Hummels or other slow and/or inept defenders like Vermaelen.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I actually thought with that midfield 3 France would go with Cabaye in front of the 2 CBs and Matuidi and Pogba ahead. ( ala Juve)

Quite disappointed to see what i saw, also you can't have Ribery and Valbeuna on the wings unless you dominate or have very good fullbacks.

Evra is inconsistent at best and Jallet is garbage.

To me Menez and Ribery or Valbuena would have worked better.

Also Benzema is acting like another midfielder at the moment its pathetic, they need an actual striker out there.

France have good players but they are not being used correctly.

I like Pogba as a number 4, in front of the defence actually...because he has the best defensive tools of the lot, physically very gifted and has great range.

Cabaye can ball no doubt, but I wouldnt want him being the last line of defence in the midfield when you have Pogba out there.

But again, it doesnt really matter if you play the way you did..you can pick and 3 midfielders and play them any way you like, if you allow Spain to play comfortably from the back with the midfield not picking anyone up untill inside their own half your in for a battle.

And Benzema...hes useless if he dont touch the ball consistently, but at the same time if hes your only "striker" on counter attacks you might have difficulty.

It says it all to me that Ribery got in behind on long passes 2 or 3 times and Benzema not once.

The Franchise wrote:Predictable and boring once the game got going, the pattern was so obvious.

I for the life of me cant understand why teams dont press Spain (btw their yellow V neck crap is so shit looking).

They are playing 2 holding midfielders and have Arbeloa who the players barely want to pass the ball too...if you press them, they will struggle so bad.

Instead, they just sit off them and watch....dont get it.

I also used to ask myself why they don't . But it's so obvious for me then why isn't for the manager and players . imo there are many factors :

-Spain are really experimented , they got some players ( the magic trio ) who reall stay cool under pressure : At times Paulo (pogba) and Matuidi were pressing quite intensely on iniesta but this guy :bow

free_cat wrote:

The Franchise wrote:

On the plus side, watching Koscienly bottle up Navas on the counter attack towards the end....I hope Barca are watching...that takes some doing.

You mean the counter where Cesc passed to Busquets in the end...?

I really like Koscielny and I think he would be a great signing for us. After Varane, the best choice we could get because of their speed.

But we'll go with ball playing CB like Hummels or other slow and/or inept defenders like Vermaelen.

I am not sure, I jut remember it was on the right hand side and Navas was breaking alone and Koscienly held him up superbly. In the end, Navas couldnt get his cross in to Pedro in the middle who was the only target.

I agree though, more likely we will be intrested in those ball playing lumbering slow pokes.

POgba is the black Redondo

I agree Dani i just don't really like Cabaye practically behind Benzema with Matuidi and Pogba as a pivot behind.

To me it defeats the purpose of the strengths of all 3.

Also France should have known how it was going to go if this was the plan.

And with that in mind Benzema shouldn't be playing, you need an actual target and what's more you need width.

Which is why i would have picked Giroud and Menez instead of Benzema and Ribery/Valbeuna ( don't think it matters which one)

I would also have found a way not to play Jallet as he's clearly inept.

Too many wrong decisions for me, although i did like the midfield 3 and the 2 CBs.

Varane showing why Kosc should have started

Albiceleste wrote:Varane showing why Kosc should have started

Varane did nothing wrong and Kosc did start it was Varane and Kosc.

Just watched a long highlight video. Pogba was actually good, even dribbled his way through 2 spain midfielders right at the start of the game. Besides that though he didnt really get forward much that i saw, yet i saw him in deep midfield alot so i guess he aas playing as a DM like someone else already mentioned. Also, the first yellow he got is not even a foul. He jumped in the air and was falling back, looking at the ball, and the side of his calf touched the Spain player and the Spain player went down crying. The second one was definitely a yellow, but that first one was a joke.

My thoughts on the rest of the game is simply that France forgot thsir shooting boots at home. Ribery is usually very clinical in those situations he got into and was not today. They had more chances and shouldve at least tied it, but they forgot where the goal was.

hm someone said sakho was starting, was more interested in the argentina match tbh, whatever, varane let the cross in anyway

getting owned by monreal .pls

Anyone know France's record in Stade de France? I have this feeling that they very very very rarely lose there.

My man Koscielny getting recognition

Albiceleste wrote:hm someone said sakho was starting, was more interested in the argentina match tbh, whatever, varane let the cross in anyway

getting owned by monreal .pls

Stop trolling lol, that was Jallet.

the cross megged varane dude #4

stop it Albi, it's getting kinda sad

There wasn't much he could have done about that it was passed him before he could react.

Dat straw clutching, that was all Jallet and i suppose Evra should do better too.

No blame to Kosc or Varane for me.