**The World Cup 2018 Official Thread**
- Thread starter Black Magisterialness
- Start date
TobiOT
Veteran
Part of the reason why Mourinho did everything in his power to get Fellaini to stay
Giroud is a big body pure #9. He didn't score, but his tracking back to the middle, his strength. When you watch those matches again, around the 60-75 minute France breakout...mostly because those CBs have been getting beat up by Giroud for the better part of the match. His work on and off the ball was superb, same for Matuidi. Those two did all of the unnoticed dirty work of defending from the front and creating space for Mbappe/Griezmann etc.
The wondergoal aside Pavard was exposed for not being a full-back, he was lucky in the because Hazard was eating him alive...and Perisic did yesterday as well. Hernandez was not as terrible as he seemed. He was lights out against Argentina. I also think to say the only teams they worked were those two isn't really fair...
For the vast majority of this tournament France looked untroubled. Only against Belgium did they look like they actually had to dig deep. Every other match was either comfortable or controlled. They weren't in much card trouble, Varane/Umtiti dominated most of their matches and Pogba/Kante looked just as good as Modric/Rakitic. This France team damn near waltzed into the final and had to go through Argentina, Uruguay and Belgium...if you'd have said that this time last year every one would have said they had NO chance at making the final.
With that said....my 3rd straight correct WC prediction...
They were the better team the entire game but they made big mistakes. The free kick with Manduz and the hand ball was legit mistakes. Both was two goals for France. After that, it was Pogba magic and you Hernandez attack was poor defense which led to Mbappe goal. At the end of the day, France played a far more mistake free game and Grizemann, Giroud, and Mbappe put constant pressure on Croatia defense in ways the others couldn't.
France is the more talented team but they are mad young. This team best days are ahead of them.
steadyrighteous
Veteran
Part of the reason why Mourinho did everything in his power to get Fellaini to stay
And just to follow up on the Giroud/Deschamps thing, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I know how good a coach Didier is, but how he used Giroud was masterful.
At Arsenal, he was used a a Hold Up striker. Even when we didn't have the ball, he was the furthest up the pitch and his job was to take the ball, control it and wait for advanced midfielders to catch up. We didn't have the fastest team with him, so he had to bide his time until play caught up. Or if they were already close, flicks and knock-downs.
For France, he was also used as a Hold Up striker, but when they didn't have the ball, he was in the defending half. Essentially, he wasn't a Target man striker, but he was a Target Man attacking midfielder.
France defended deep and did 1 of 2 things:
1. Pogba long ball up to Mbappe or Griezmann's pace - and Giroud helped here because he took a CB with him to the middle of the pitch
2. Giroud in the center circle, taking the ball from Pogba or Kante - controlling and turning with his strength and releasing Mbappe or Griezmann.
You saying Fellaini made me think of this, because he essentially played like Fellaini.
He disrupted, he distracted, he managed and he held up play.
In other words, he played as a False 9, but because he's 6 foot +, people won't see it that way.
I literally JUST said this to my brother. This assessment is spot on. He spent so much time near or in the center circle helping the ball on to Mbappe or Griezmann. So what was a 4-2-3-1 in the attack becomes a 4-4-1-1 in defending with Giroud and Griezmann swapping often...tactically it SHOULDN'T work, but because Giroud was humble...and didn't go for glory like Kane did...France won the world cup.
I don't thing he's going to get the accolades from this years WC down the road, but I think, in private, his teammates will know the work he did and thank him for it.
steadyrighteous
Veteran
I actually think Kane tried (at times) to do what Giroud was doing but 3 things didn't help:
1. England had 3 players in central midfield and because their 3 CBs pushed further up than France, the space where a Giroud/Kane would operate was clogged up.
2. Sterling ain't all that. I know he had a good season with City, but he doesn't make the intelligent runs Mbappe does.
3. On the Sterling point, Wing Backs meant that Sterling couldn't/didn't have space to stay really wide, then burst from the outside in with a diagonal run.
So if you imagine a counter attack/fast break for France
- Varane/Umtiti header down
- Pogba/Kante pick the ball up, turn and see Giroud in the middle and Griez/Mbappe wide AF
- Play it long and wide, or quick and through the middle to Giroud who then holds, turns and plays it wide.
Same situation for England
- Stones gets the ball, header down. Directly in front of him is 1 or 2 of 3 CMs (Henderson, Lingard Alli)
- 1 of them gets it. Turns. Directly in front of him is an already deep Kane. He gets it.
- Kane turns around, and directly in front of him is a centrally placed Sterling who has to be there because Young/Trippier are occupying the wing, but they're not occupying the wing ready to run onto a ball, they're just standing there ready to cycle possession or pass back to the CBs/CMs.
England's formation gassed the UK folks up because it was "different", and it was, for England. But ultimately it meant that they had no choice but to play a shytty structure that had no options for how to score. Based on their formation every player could only feasibly run in one direction; forward. Nothing else could happen because if you ran left or right instead of forward, there was already someone standing there.
The only time they could shake things up and cause a bit of stress on the opposition was when a CB ran with the ball, and if you're relying on your CBs to be your cause of chaos - you're done outchea.
I seen England future in the u17 and ya'll got some kids who look like they got world class potential. England hasn't had a world class or even false world class attacker since Michael Owen.
If you don't have that, you need a clinical striker which England has in Kane but they don't have the quality in the midfield like Croatia, Belgium, Brazil or France has.
Speaking of black excellence, anybody know Pavard's ethnic background?
I been watching him this tournament thinking ain't no way he's a pure white man. He gotta have some black in him. White folks don't got hair like this. Breh basically got a jheri curl going.
Jesus Christ
A striker is only as good as his service...Kane was lucky to get the goals he did because the middle of the park was trashballs for England. Jordan Henderson played the semi-final like a damn coward and Alli virtually vanished. England isn't EVER going to win big until they get out of that scrappy "never say die" bull shyt and just develop technically skilled players. Modric turned that midfield into a fire hydrant and just pissed all over England middle and did so in the 100+ minute. It was embarrassing to see what he and Rakitic were doing to them.
Kane can break every record there is, he's never going to see international success until he has a midfield and defense that can hold on to a lead...
that's how i feel. i liked him being in the squad, but never liked going into the season with him as our number 1 striker. i miss him and loved those worldies he would pull out of his ass a few times a season, but i love our striking options now.
mbewane
Knicks: 93 til infinity
Also Payet was injured. Anyway yeah it's a running joke with Giroud and there's always that one guy on th french team that fans make fun of, Giroud's an easy target as he didn't score while being a striker. But he did a lot of work on the defensive side, iirc he had a big defensive play at the end of the game against Belgium
Hazard's a Knicks fan
