Albanian National Team [General topic]

With memories of the golden years (80's) of the albanian football still fresh on her mind, Albania is now attempting to recreate its strong football legacy. As young players start making their names abroad, the future is looking bright for Albanian football!

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CanaYouDoIt
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Princ wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 4:54 am How can the defence swing us games? By being under constant pressure and avoiding goals by the skin of their teeth, until the luck finally runs out and we concede that is. A good defence is a luxury when you have capable midfielders and attackers, but alone it’s useless. They have given us no reason to have any form of optimism about the direction of this team under Reja, the contrary in fact..

Because if you have a defence that won’t concede more than 1 goal against most teams you’ll always have a chance to win .
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Princ
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What makes you so confident they won’t concede? They been conceding, 2 against andorra last I checked. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t look too promising to me.
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Aurora Bulkualis
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You guys don't watch much sports do you? Offence wins you games. Defence wins you titles. Look at the leaders of every league. It's the teams that have conceded the least amount of goals, not the ones who scored the most.

You keep thinking in terms of individual games. You gotta think long term. If we reduce the number of goals to as little as possible over a campaign, we always stand a chance.
Princ wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 4:54 am By being under constant pressure and avoiding goals by the skin of their teeth
We're not facing France and Spain every game. Obviously it's not enough to overtake those teams. But even against those teams, Cikalleshi lucked into a penalty.

Goals will always come one way or another. Either by a Kumbulla header, or a lucky penalty, or some long range shot, or god forbid, a good finish by the striker. If we have a defence that can protect those leads, or prevent a massacre while we're down, that's great for a campaign.
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CanaYouDoIt
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Princ wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 5:26 pm What makes you so confident they won’t concede? They been conceding, 2 against andorra last I checked. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t look too promising to me.
You’re correct but since most teams have an attack similar to ours I believe our defence in the next couple years will be that good that it won’t really cause them trouble
Dallku
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Defense is the most important. Albania is proof of this..

Albania could always create chances and score goals but the defending always let us down. Dumb amateurish mistakes in every game..

It was only after Mavraj came and Hysaj emerged that the team started having stability. Was it a coincidence? I doubt it. Less defensive errors kept you in games and you were competitive against anyone. Defense is the backbone of a team and the midfield is key too.

Attack is always a luxury. Of course you want to have competent attackers though. That's what Albania is struggling with right now., finding competent attackers. We don't need world class attackers, just a damn professional level like a Bogdani or something. The base with defense and central midfield is there.
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Princ
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Aurora Bulkualis wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:04 am You guys don't watch much sports do you? Offence wins you games. Defence wins you titles. Look at the leaders of every league. It's the teams that have conceded the least amount of goals, not the ones who scored the most.
You are confusing correlation with causation. Show me a top team and I’ll show you a team with capable midfielders and attackers.

Offense wins games, defence wins championships... well we aren’t winning games and sure as hell not winning any championships so I don’t know the point of this generality in regards to the topic of our NT.

Goals will always be there for us....FALSE! Outside of that flukey and suspect match against Iceland, we have not managed to score an open play goal against any form of credible opposition since Xhakas goal against Israel to open Nations League. Forget Spain and France, we are huge underdogs(been embarassed) against the likes of Turkey and Scotland, and are on pace to soon fall behind Kosovo and North Macedonia(if we haven’t already) to compete with Cyprus for the title of worst team in the region. Under the watch of Edi reja, this distinction will soon surely be ours. You can be euphoric about the transfermarkt value of our defenders but you are in for a rude awakening when they take the pitch and start eating goals like we’ve gotten so accustomed to these last few years.

The difference between Debiasi albania and the current squad is the midfield.. De biasi had prime abrashi, basha, kukeli, xhaka, and kace under his disposal. As these men have departed from the NT, their loss has been felt, and we find ourselves in a dire situation as today. Without decent midfielders, the future is dark for our NT.
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CanaYouDoIt
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To be honest it’s not like we haven’t had chances . That turkey game for example Manaj missed an open goal .

And this talk of defence wins championships, offence wins game is bs . It’s a phrase that’s somehow stuck even though it’s more like 50/50 and going more and more towards attack
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Aurora Bulkualis
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You misunderstand the meaning of that phrase. Offence tends to be much more individualistic and unpredictable. It's a lot harder to plan a good offence, because an opponent will see it coming a mile away. Defence is like the foundation of a team who is successful in the long term. Predictability and stability are long term goals.
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CanaYouDoIt
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Easy for Albania . Better come top , good group to introduce young attacking talents
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