Poppa Out

[Decentric]

Tuchel is going to cop a lot of criticism but he isn't really the problem. They declined physically, you could see how heavy their legs were on TV and you can see it in the stats. Playing in Mexico City and then backing up with 120 minutes in Miami was always going to be hard to overcome. Combine that with their inability to retain the ball (2 completed passes in 19 minutes) and it's no surprise Argentina ends up clamping them in their own half until Lautaro scores.

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Tuchel is going to cop a lot of criticism but he isn't really the problem. They declined physically, you could see how heavy their legs were on TV and you can see it in the stats. Playing in Mexico City and then backing up with 120 minutes in Miami was always going to be hard to overcome. Combine that with their inability to retain the ball (2 completed passes in 19 minutes) and it's no surprise Argentina ends up clamping them in their own half until Lautaro scores.

View attachment 8384

In Football Aus National Conferences distance stats were posted and discussed from World Cups.

It was generally found that teams with less possession in a game, ran more than the team with more possession in the same game.

 

[Decentric]

Dobson is a good example, he has good physicality and is technical, he usually uses his technicality to get out of trouble or get past a player, but uses his physicality to close down players or strength to protect the ball.
Clayton Taylor was the opposite, he used his physicality to get past players or get out of trouble, close opposition, his technicality was in first touch, pass and strike.
Two very different players.

There is a physical technicality, pace, shifting direction and strength to get the better of your opponent.
Technicality in the pure sense is trickery with the ball at your feet I guess, letting the ball do the work rather than physicality.

Excellent post!

 

[Decentric]

A lot of these examples re agility and acceleration may likely be due to the extra focus on the physical as per previous poster. You can only work your body mechanics so much that your body disposition allows.

Possibly we share a similar challenge with England where we tend to focus on upper body strength and muscle growth as athletes - even culturally. I know this has been mentioned before on this forum.

How many of the Spanish team would have bulging shoulders and biceps?? It is called football after all.

I couldn't get over how big - tall and bulky, most English players were in Tuchel's squad. On the pitch sometimes most English players were 1.85 or 1.88m tall, or 6 feet 2. I looked up their heights.

Conversely, the Spanish were quite puny, with a greater number of shorter nimble players. Ditto Argentina, shorter, but a bit bulkier.

IMO England have really improved stylistically, but what cost them is they struggled to negate central attacking interplay from France ( second half) and Argentina ( after England scored).

I think the tall Rice and Anderson, to a lesser extent, Bellingham, were too cumbersome to change direction quickly when jockeying and delaying, when trying to screen the defensive line. The one twos and dribbling was a bit quick for them from both Argentina and France later in the games.

I've lifted weights for 50 years plus and recognise gym honed bodies. Most Poms at this WC have spent a lot more time in the gym - Squatting, Deadlifting, Bench Pressing, Incline Dumbbell Bench Pressing, Dumbbell Overhead Pressing and doing Lat Pull Downs, than Spanish players have.

I think England need more players like Saka - shorter, nimble and can change direction quickly. Phil Foden can do this too, but he wasn't selected.

in the early days of the AL I used to watch Agentinian club football on SBS, then watch AL. The AL players were huge and bulky compared to Argentinian club players from Boca Juniors, River Plate, etc.

With a greater number of young domestic players in the AL, I don't think they look as big and bulky as the early AL years in 2005, 6, 7.

I've read articles from the likes of Ray Gatt and Mike Cockerill where some of the early AL imports were almost frightened of the Aussies, even teammates at training, in the AL, because they were so physically rugged and tackled so hard - even at training.

 

[grazorblade]

I couldn't get over how big - tall and bulky, most English players were in Tuchel's squad. On the pitch sometimes most English players were 1.85 or 1.88m tall, or 6 feet 2. I looked up their heights.

Conversely, the Spanish were quite puny, with a greater number of shorter nimble players. Ditto Argentina, shorter, but a bit bulkier.

IMO England have really improved stylistically, but what cost them is they struggled to negate central attacking interplay from France ( second half) and Argentina ( after England scored).

I think the tall Rice and Anderson, to a lesser extent, Bellingham, were too cumbersome to change direction quickly when jockeying and delaying, when trying to screen the defensive line. The one twos and dribbling was a bit quick for them from both Argentina and France later in the games.

I've lifted weights for 50 years plus and recognise gym honed bodies. Most Poms at this WC have spent a lot more time in the gym - Squatting, Deadlifting, Bench Pressing, Incline Dumbbell Bench Pressing, Dumbbell Overhead Pressing and doing Lat Pull Downs, than Spanish players have.

I think England need more players like Saka - shorter, nimble and can change direction quickly. Phil Foden can do this too, but he wasn't selected.

in the early days of the AL I used to watch Agentinian club football on SBS, then watch AL. The AL players were huge and bulky compared to Argentinian club players from Boca Juniors, River Plate, etc.

With a greater number of young domestic players in the AL, I don't think they look as big and bulky as the early AL years in 2005, 6, 7.

I've read articles from the likes of Ray Gatt and Mike Cockerill where some of the early AL imports were almost frightened of the Aussies, even teammates at training, in the AL, because they were so physically rugged and tackled so hard - even at training.

interestingly I suspect spain would be seen as more physically advanced except for needing one or two extra tall and/or fast players,

just different type of physical blessings (my guest from scouted explained).

Their ability to counter press was the best in the world which requires lots of changing direction, lots of acceleration and decelerations, lots of short sprints over 5-10m

whereas England would have had a height and speed advantage, Spain across all physical criteria were probably better (as well as being technically better)

 

[Decentric]

interestingly I suspect spain would be seen as more physically advanced except for needing one or two extra tall and/or fast players,

just different type of physical blessings (my guest from scouted explained).

Their ability to counter press was the best in the world which requires lots of changing direction, lots of acceleration and decelerations, lots of short sprints over 5-10m

whereas England would have had a height and speed advantage, Spain across all physical criteria were probably better (as well as being technically better)

I keep forgetting about deceleration.

I forgot to count the number of Spanish players in the Argentinian and French defensive halves.

Turkey and USA often had 8-9 players in the Aus defensive half as they Full Pressed and Squeezed intensively! It seemed to me, Spain didn't Squeeze as intensively as Turkey and USA did to us.

Spain also played out effectively when Squeezed in their defensive half.

Popa would have been relieved when Paraguay only Half Pressed against Aus.