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!
If we had Guardiola do you think after 2 years he'd still be telling the players to lump long balls to Balaj ?
They lump long balls because they are not good on the ball. They don't have the composure, vision and skill to play it short under pressure.
That's why they play in 2nd and 3rd divisions.
Kumbulla and Djimsiti playing in 2nd divisions yeah ?
Reja picks his players, he picks these tactics. Whats stopping him picking something different , guys with more technical ability but instead he chooses Balaj and Cika. Even with Broja who no one here can deny is at least a top 5 league player gets nothing because all they do is lump it into the channels.
CanaYouDoIt wrote: ↑Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:13 pm
Kumbulla and Djimsiti playing in 2nd divisions yeah ?
Reja picks his players, he picks these tactics. Whats stopping him picking something different , guys with more technical ability but instead he chooses Balaj and Cika. Even with Broja who no one here can deny is at least a top 5 league player gets nothing because all they do is lump it into the channels.
Kumbulla and Djimisiti are good on the ball (for defenders). Sometimes they are in a dilemma and have to play it long because they don't trust their technically challenged midfield teammates to play it short because of fear of them losing it. As good as Abrashi is off the ball he's not good on the ball. Bare is not the most composed player either.
If we had a Busquets (for example) you better believe that Djim and Kumbulla would play it short to him at all times.
We were just missing a top Serie A goalkeeper (yes he has been in every season he's played for Lazio), s top Serie A right back who actually in many games contributes many balls to the attack, a very technical midfielder in Ndoj, a winger in Uzuni who is in the best form of his life, and finally playing Balaj over Broja is selfexplanatory So yes I think we were missing quite a lot of key players
It sounds unbelievable but there is a big difference between Uzuni and Seferi who scored less in the Albanian Superliga. Such was our situation we had to sub him on.
The only reason Balaj started today is clearly corruption. No manager with a brain will start a striker who is getting released from SturmGraz with 3 goals over even Cika who at least put some in for Konyaspor
RedFootballs wrote: ↑Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:35 pm
We were just missing a top Serie A goalkeeper (yes he has been in every season he's played for Lazio), s top Serie A right back who actually in many games contributes many balls to the attack, a very technical midfielder in Ndoj, a winger in Uzuni who is in the best form of his life, and finally playing Balaj over Broja is selfexplanatory So yes I think we were missing quite a lot of key players
It sounds unbelievable but there is a big difference between Uzuni and Seferi who scored less in the Albanian Superliga. Such was our situation we had to sub him on.
The only reason Balaj started today is clearly corruption. No manager with a brain will start a striker who is getting released from SturmGraz with 3 goals over even Cika who at least put some in for Konyaspor
It was really just Hysaj and Uzuni. The goalkeeper didn't have an affect on the game and Ndoj has been a disaster when he played for Albania and an even bigger disaster when he played in Serie a. He's not the solution sadly.
But you're probably right about Balaj playing because of corruption. Since he's without a club they are probably trying to help him find a new one. Shameful.
CanaYouDoIt wrote: ↑Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:13 pm
Kumbulla and Djimsiti playing in 2nd divisions yeah ?
Reja picks his players, he picks these tactics. Whats stopping him picking something different , guys with more technical ability but instead he chooses Balaj and Cika. Even with Broja who no one here can deny is at least a top 5 league player gets nothing because all they do is lump it into the channels.
Kumbulla and Djimisiti are good on the ball (for defenders). Sometimes they are in a dilemma and have to play it long because they don't trust their technically challenged midfield teammates to play it short because of fear of them losing it. As good as Abrashi is off the ball he's not good on the ball. Bare is not the most composed player either.
If we had a Busquets (for example) you better believe that Djim and Kumbulla would play it short to him at all times.
Yes because if you see Bare for his club they have no problem playing good football since there's a structure and you'll see the same next year in La Liga. Even with Busquests we'd end up hoofing it to the lumps we have up front. Its a systemic issue and he keeps picking the same crap attackers. What has Seferi done to deserve that call up?
RedFootballs wrote: ↑Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:35 pm
We were just missing a top Serie A goalkeeper (yes he has been in every season he's played for Lazio), s top Serie A right back who actually in many games contributes many balls to the attack, a very technical midfielder in Ndoj, a winger in Uzuni who is in the best form of his life, and finally playing Balaj over Broja is selfexplanatory So yes I think we were missing quite a lot of key players
It sounds unbelievable but there is a big difference between Uzuni and Seferi who scored less in the Albanian Superliga. Such was our situation we had to sub him on.
The only reason Balaj started today is clearly corruption. No manager with a brain will start a striker who is getting released from SturmGraz with 3 goals over even Cika who at least put some in for Konyaspor
It was really just Hysaj and Uzuni. The goalkeeper didn't have an affect on the game and Ndoj has been a disaster when he played for Albania and an even bigger disaster when he played in Serie a. He's not the solution sadly.
But you're probably right about Balaj playing because of corruption. Since he's without a club they are probably trying to help him find a new one. Shameful.
Goalkeeper is a important role in organisation of the defense. I barely saw him say a word all game (not his fault he was nervous) but having a good goalkeeper back there helps with defense
Playing with Balaj is basically putting a 1.88m punching bag out there. He doesn't do anything but press and win headers. He is utterly useless, I'd rather bring Sadiku back. He performed for us and they're both shit at club level now so I know which one I want.
Let's see how we will do against Czechia with Broja.
^ Honestly the defense looked very organized. I'd agree if Selmani was the reason we lost but that wasn't the case. Still wasn't a big fan of him because he was wild coming out at times. His best attribute is that he's pretty good with his feet.
Albania better pray it wins the Bajrami case in CAS.
I like our defense and I think it's solid but you can't expect it to pull us to qualification. They can possibly keep a clean sheet against the subpar teams in Europe but once we play better teams we'll get outclassed in the midfield and there will simply be too much pressure on the backline not to concede. To me this is Reja's tactics, not to concede. I don't expect us to ever develop an offensive system but he's failed to develop any semblance of a counter attack in his tenure. With how our lineup is constructed and our player pool I don't see how we'll ever develop that. Reja plays with two holding forwards (both trash), two wingbacks who normally would provide width and counter attacking in a 3-5-2 but Hysaj (while a good player) is not a counter attacking threat and Lenjani is just a shadow of himself. The midfield works hard but they simply don't have the ability to keep possession and to carry the attack.
We can point to Di Biasi and say he did the same but in his defense that team during the 2016 Qualification campaign was decent at counter attacking. We got pinned in our halves but sometimes Lenjani and Roshi took advantage of that and made teams pay with their pace. Lila was a meme but looking back at it he wasn't too bad on counters either (he wasn't good in possession).
I guess the good news is that Broja is better than any striker we have, Bajrami may be available soon, some potential U21 players can provide alternatives and maybe we can poach a striker like Berisha. Maybe today looks different if Hysaj, Broja, Bajrami and Uzuini all played. I'm also upset because this was a time to tinker with formations and players and instead Reja played the usual.
Doka is stupid but I think we need to persist with him. He has god-given pace that we won't get from anywhere else and pace is one of the most valuable if not the most in a counter-attacking scheme, and especially internationally
