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Unread 5 Jul 2010, 12:08   #248
Tietäjä
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Re: World Cup Prediction Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by isildurx View Post
Ramos is without a doubt one of the better attacking defenders out there, but he has a nasty tendency to leave acres of space behind him and he WILL be punished for this when they meet Germany.

The problem in my opinion is that Spain's been playing predominantly through the middle. If you look at the starting lineups, you have Capdevila, Puyol, Pique, Ramos at the back. So that's with two full backs, two center halves. Then the mainstay of the midfield of Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, and Iniesta, none of which are very wide players. Then you got Villa and Torres, neither of which is really good at flanks either. In short, out of 10 outfield players 8 are stuck in the middle. The early group games, especially the Swizerland game, showed how easy it is to stagger the Spanish play by simply setting up a brick wall in the middle of the pitch.

So the solution to break the middle of the park brick walls has been to push Ramos and Capdevila more down the flanks, which leaves the space behind the full backs empty since it's obvious you're gonna struggle to see Busquets or Xabi Alonso fall back to the back flank to cover. I do think this is a problem, and for God's sake they have people like Mata, Pedro, and David Silva on the bench for width and they're still stubbornly sitting in the middle.
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