World Cup 2018

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Aurora Bulkualis
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artan wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:29 am Let that be a reminder that we should never try to play attacking football and that we should continue to be a bunker team. Di Biasi had the right plan and vision he just kinda lost the plot a little in the end with out calling new players. It's fucking ugly to watch and if you concede your fucked but it's the only way technically inferior teams can compete. Denmark is a bit overkill because they got some good players but Russia you understand why.
Wrong. Possession football =/= Attacking football. Spain go 30-40 minutes without a shot on target. Spain's problem is they try to break down teams only using technique, while their players are ageing/not consistent enough. All you need to do is send some goons up top, and play aerially. If Spain didn't use midgets all the time, they'd easily break down teams who bunker. Iceland pulled that off really well in the EUROs.

The lesson to learn is stop being a one trick pony. You need to play attacking, defensive, physical, ground, aerial, to be a top team. Spain lived and died by the sword.
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artan wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:29 am Let that be a reminder that we should never try to play attacking football and that we should continue to be a bunker team. Di Biasi had the right plan and vision he just kinda lost the plot a little in the end with out calling new players. It's fucking ugly to watch and if you concede your fucked but it's the only way technically inferior teams can compete. Denmark is a bit overkill because they got some good players but Russia you understand why.
Yep. This is coming from a guy who wasn't a fan of Di Biasi. I just really wasn't a fan of his call ups, like Bullku getting so much appearances. Calling up Veseli over Djimsiti in 2016. I wasn't a fan of him subbing an extra CB trying to secure a results. Having 4 defenders and 5 defensive mid fielders was kind of overdone at times. He probably could have added a natural winger instead of having Lenjani or Lila there.

Anyway, he gave Albania a identity and game plan. We went into games knowing we had to be opportunist to get results and that there was zero room for errors. And he did bring out the most of his players. Nobody was getting away with being lazy. But like most coaches/managers with a low talent pool, things just go stale. It's hard to keep the results coming. The players will eventually get older and more tired. I was hoping the successor would as good, obviously not. He just doesn't seem to know what he is doing and isn't a good motivator. He hasn't polished any players to replace the "De Biasi guys".

I haven't followed the NT as much as I used to, but when I do, I have no idea what the plan is anymore.
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Aurora Bulkualis
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I think you guys need to watch more football. To succeed you gotta be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The teams that suffer the most, are ones who can only do one thing. Spain is a perfect example of a one trick pony. Alright, you bunker against Spain or whatnot. But against Macedonia, Israel, Czech Republic, etc... that bunkering will not work. They go up early in a game, and we're fucked.

The only reason it worked then, was because all those teams were better than us individually and often took charge. But when faced against Macedonia and Israel at home, and motivation was lost, we were found out. Bunkering is not a long term solution.
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Aurora Bulkualis wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:07 pmThe only reason it worked then, was because all those teams were better than us individually and often took charge. But when faced against Macedonia and Israel at home, and motivation was lost, we were found out. Bunkering is not a long term solution.
Agreed, but we still demolished Israel away. That loss to Israel at home was a complete fluke.
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Plako wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:03 pm
Aurora Bulkualis wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:07 pmThe only reason it worked then, was because all those teams were better than us individually and often took charge. But when faced against Macedonia and Israel at home, and motivation was lost, we were found out. Bunkering is not a long term solution.
Agreed, but we still demolished Israel away. That loss to Israel at home was a complete fluke.
The loss at home was not a fluke at all. It was what happened when a bunker team is asked to play football at home against an inferior team. They get found out with no ideas.

As for away games, we've never had problems with those, because of the aforementioned obvious reasons. When other teams defend = Albania is fucked.
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We've had our best run in history in 2014/15 when we clogged the middle, stopped leaking amateur goals, had pitbulls in the midfield and were okay in countering with pacey wingers in Lenjani/Roshi which was our main offense. Granted, our offense usually came from some brilliant goal like Lenjani's goal against Denmark or Balaj's miracle volley but point is the goals came from the counter.

After the Euro (and before the Euro) the team declined as we couldn't replace them. The CB position is worrisome because Cana became a liability in the backline before the Euros began (eventually retired) and we still haven't adequately replaced him. Mavraj is getting old now and he was our main distributor in the back. Ajeti/Veseli/Djimsiti have struggled in the back. In the midfield Xhaka has been missing since 2016, we haven't replaced the holding midfielder for Kukeli's position and we've just been rotating other players. Our identity (solid defense, pesky midfielders) is suddenly gone and we've reverted back to leaking a shit ton of goals but honestly our midfield blows so can't really blame the backline. And we know about the wingers lol.

We had an average team in 2014-15 that played well as a collective group that had an identity. We need to get that identity back.. If we had the players to attack then go for it but we don't.




BTW, I think we play well against the average teams in Europe. We were out classed by Macedonia because Macedonia has more technically gifted players than us. Alioski was making our LB look like a fool that one game. We've gotten results against teams like Israel, Romania, Armenia (they're more on the amateur side but w/e), etc.
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If this team bunkers against Scotland and Israel I'm gonna commit that.
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artan wrote: Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:38 amAfter the Euro (and before the Euro) the team declined as we couldn't replace them. The CB position is worrisome because Cana became a liability in the backline before the Euros began (eventually retired) and we still haven't adequately replaced him. Mavraj is getting old now and he was our main distributor in the back. Ajeti/Veseli/Djimsiti have struggled in the back. In the midfield Xhaka has been missing since 2016, we haven't replaced the holding midfielder for Kukeli's position and we've just been rotating other players. Our identity (solid defense, pesky midfielders) is suddenly gone and we've reverted back to leaking a shit ton of goals but honestly our midfield blows so can't really blame the backline. And we know about the wingers lol.
Grezda has been great on the left flank. I think he's been our best player in the last year or so and is a huge improvement over Lenjani at his best.
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You don't have to be Germany/Spain to be an attacking team. Iceland plays quite attacking football too. So do the African teams (though they're more about speed). We have physical players who can score from crosses into the boxes.

In fact look at all our goals. Against Portugal, Norway, Romania in the EUROs. Just random boots in the box and scored. If we can score against Portugal with Roshi/Balaj, or in the EUROs vs. Romania with Lila and Sadiku, it's moot to say we don't have players for attacking. We don' t have players for Tiki Taka, but creating some decent crosses/passes for physical strikers is very well in our range.
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artan
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Iceland is definitely not an attacking team and they're an ultra conservative/bunkering team. They just capitalize on the few scoring chances they get through counters when other teams are attempting to break the bus or they score some ugly goals like throwing their goons in the box for a tap in. And that style fits them well as they have big, strong and physical players that aren't technically gifted besides Sigurdson. But they definetely aren't an attacking team. They're just as defensive as we were under Di Biasi (maybe even more)..

And I'm just advocating for a very defensive team that tries to get opposition on the counter. It's a simple strategy and you don't need technically gifted players (which we don't have). I would honestly just play with 3 in the back, Lenjani/Hysaj as wingers, Xhaka/Abrashi/Basha(Ndoj?) in the midfield, and grezda/Sadiku as forwards. If we capped Rashica, Zeneli, Avdijaj, Bardhi, etc, then yea play a more open game but we have to compete with the player pool we have.
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