6/24/2024 EUROS: Albania vs Spain

[Redijupison]

Don't forget he scouted and brought in Asani precisely for his qualities of cutting in which fit the tactic he devised.

It's sad because we all knew that one trick pony cut inside bullshit wasn't going to work in this tournament. These teams are too smart and advanced to give him that space. Asani can't create space on his own because he's too slow and weak. Teams have to gift him that space he needs.

It's not going to work in the next qualifiers either because everybody knows that's what he likes to do now. Asani minutes will only be hurting Albania in the future.

Still, criticizing Sylvinho's whole campaign is unfair, the guy had a vision on how he wanted Albania to play and it actually worked, got us qualified. Then he became stubborn and indifferent even though the signs were there after the games vs Chile and Sweden that players like Asani and Seferi might not be up to the tempo against faster and stronger teams.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

I just hope if we make it to a tournament next time, their mentality won't be so shit. At least got some expose against these big teams.

[RedFootballs]

Our dream is over, but we still show clear progress, it's positive.

Now is the time for the new generation to step up, these guys like Hoxha, Asllani, Muci, Broja, Mitaj.

The defense will be a problem going forward as we've got a lot of aging players who need to be replaced with equally good players. Djimsiti, Balliu, Hysaj likely only have one campaign left. Ismajli is at least on the younger side.

[Aurora Bulkualis]

What sucks for us is even our "good" players f*** up. Broja and Asllani do everything right but f*** up the end often. Mitaj plays well and then defends like an amateur.

But the difference in quality was apparent in the keepers. Spain's backup keeper is the guy who benched Strakosha. Pretty much sums up the difference between the two teams.

[Dallku]

What sucks for us is even our "good" players f*** up. Broja and Asllani do everything right but f*** up the end often. Mitaj plays well and then defends like an amateur.

But the difference in quality was apparent in the keepers. Spain's backup keeper is the guy who benched Strakosha. Pretty much sums up the difference between the two teams.

Hoxha too was struggling with his end product.

But at the very least they get to have a chance at the end product because of their talent. The shit players can't even do that. They struggle at the first product lmao

[artan]

What sucks for us is even our "good" players f*** up. Broja and Asllani do everything right but f*** up the end often. Mitaj plays well and then defends like an amateur.

But the difference in quality was apparent in the keepers. Spain's backup keeper is the guy who benched Strakosha. Pretty much sums up the difference between the two teams.

Hoxha too was struggling with his end product.

But at the very least they get to have a chance at the end product because of their talent. The shit players can't even do that. They struggle at the first product lmao

Yea Hoxha struggles with his end product and he’s indecisive on what he wants to do. But he has pace and the ability to provide width and from a tactical standpoint he makes sense. He reminds me of Roshi.

The other guys like Manaj, Asani and Seferi are just so tactically limited. At times it feels like you’re playing with a man down with a guy like Manaj because he doesn’t do anything well. Take away Asani’s left foot and he’s useless. Seferi defensively puts in effort but offensively he has no pace and plays as a target forward at the winger spot.

[RedFootballs]

What sucks for us is even our "good" players f*** up. Broja and Asllani do everything right but f*** up the end often. Mitaj plays well and then defends like an amateur.

But the difference in quality was apparent in the keepers. Spain's backup keeper is the guy who benched Strakosha. Pretty much sums up the difference between the two teams.

Hoxha too was struggling with his end product.

But at the very least they get to have a chance at the end product because of their talent. The shit players can't even do that. They struggle at the first product lmao

Yea Hoxha struggles with his end product and he’s indecisive on what he wants to do. But he has pace and the ability to provide width and from a tactical standpoint he makes sense. He reminds me of Roshi.

The other guys like Manaj, Asani and Seferi are just so tactically limited. At times it feels like you’re playing with a man down with a guy like Manaj because he doesn’t do anything well. Take away Asani’s left foot and he’s useless. Seferi defensively puts in effort but offensively he has no pace and plays as a target forward at the winger spot.

Manaj is not bad sometimes but sometimes he's just a complete clown. All he did this game was dive and flop around looking for fouls, the manager should be telling him to stay on his feet and try to play. I honestly have no idea why he does that.

Asani was just zoned out of every game is the truth, he's not match fit and equally teams were aware of his threat to cut in so he really had very little. Hoxha was more dynamic and physically was up to the pace so could create more opportunities.

Bajrami was also very disappointing. He did score against Italy but his overall tournament was really poor, partly due to the fact of playing somewhat out of position, he didn't have the pace to give the team the width it needed.

[RedFootballs]

The decision to play both Bajrami and Asani as wingers made little sense, on a tactical level that's definitely something to critique, two slowish wingers who both like to cut in and therefore the team had no width.

[artan]

Hoxha too was struggling with his end product.

But at the very least they get to have a chance at the end product because of their talent. The shit players can't even do that. They struggle at the first product lmao

Yea Hoxha struggles with his end product and he’s indecisive on what he wants to do. But he has pace and the ability to provide width and from a tactical standpoint he makes sense. He reminds me of Roshi.

The other guys like Manaj, Asani and Seferi are just so tactically limited. At times it feels like you’re playing with a man down with a guy like Manaj because he doesn’t do anything well. Take away Asani’s left foot and he’s useless. Seferi defensively puts in effort but offensively he has no pace and plays as a target forward at the winger spot.

Manaj is not bad sometimes but sometimes he's just a complete clown. All he did this game was dive and flop around looking for fouls, the manager should be telling him to stay on his feet and try to play. I honestly have no idea why he does that.

Asani was just zoned out of every game is the truth, he's not match fit and equally teams were aware of his threat to cut in so he really had very little. Hoxha was more dynamic and physically was up to the pace so could create more opportunities.

Bajrami was also very disappointing. He did score against Italy but his overall tournament was really poor, partly due to the fact of playing somewhat out of position, he didn't have the pace to give the team the width it needed.

Bajrami is a player who takes possessions off and he doesn’t have the ability to cross it in with his weak foot. But in his defense it’s difficult to be the only counter attacking threat as the spacing is not there. There were many times when he was the only player on the counter it seemed like in this tournament.

Again about Manaj I just don’t know what he’s good at. He’s a below average goal poacher who manages to punish Anatolian farmers as another poster said. That doesn’t work against Spain. He can’t make runs going forward, he doesn’t have the size or strength to be a holding forward, he’s not a threat in the box nor does he press defensively. Atleast a guy like Daly who might be limited technically is a complete goon and provides physicality and energy where it becomes an asset. Manaj is just nothing.

[RedFootballs]

Yea Hoxha struggles with his end product and he’s indecisive on what he wants to do. But he has pace and the ability to provide width and from a tactical standpoint he makes sense. He reminds me of Roshi.

The other guys like Manaj, Asani and Seferi are just so tactically limited. At times it feels like you’re playing with a man down with a guy like Manaj because he doesn’t do anything well. Take away Asani’s left foot and he’s useless. Seferi defensively puts in effort but offensively he has no pace and plays as a target forward at the winger spot.

Manaj is not bad sometimes but sometimes he's just a complete clown. All he did this game was dive and flop around looking for fouls, the manager should be telling him to stay on his feet and try to play. I honestly have no idea why he does that.

Asani was just zoned out of every game is the truth, he's not match fit and equally teams were aware of his threat to cut in so he really had very little. Hoxha was more dynamic and physically was up to the pace so could create more opportunities.

Bajrami was also very disappointing. He did score against Italy but his overall tournament was really poor, partly due to the fact of playing somewhat out of position, he didn't have the pace to give the team the width it needed.

Bajrami is a player who takes possessions off and he doesn’t have the ability to cross it in with his weak foot. But in his defense it’s difficult to be the only counter attacking threat as the spacing is not there. There were many times when he was the only player on the counter it seemed like in this tournament.

Again about Manaj I just don’t know what he’s good at. He’s a below average goal poacher who manages to punish Anatolian farmers as another poster said. That doesn’t work against Spain. He can’t make runs going forward, he doesn’t have the size or strength to be a holding forward, he’s not a threat in the box nor does he press defensively. Atleast a guy like Daly who might be limited technically is a complete goon and provides physicality and energy where it becomes an asset. Manaj is just nothing.

I think he started Manaj because he was decent against Croatia and did get the team up the field with some long balls to him but this game he was invisible.

His main problem is he always looks so tired and fatigued even though theoretically he should be in great shape this season. He looks like he can barely run without puffing. I almost think his stamina being so bad is limiting him doing anything in difficult games. I think he is technically decent and fairly strong, his movement can also be good but again I think his physical condition limits him heavily. For Sivasspor he isn't expected to do anything defensively and is mostly just walking around until they pass him the ball which is probably why he manages to perform there. Against these top teams you have to run and he just can't do it sadly.

Bajrami is much better around the box and when he has shooting opportunities, ideally it should be the team creating for him and not the other way around as he is a good finisher and can take advantage of isolated opportunities like against Italy. As a winger he just doesn't really cut it, it's clear many times he got the ball wide and was just coming back inside even though you could see his quality by the way he dribbles and moves. Every time Hoxha came on the team was instantly improved with a player who stretches the fullback, that also opens spaces for the striker and midfielders to enter as the box gets less compressed. Spain were able generally to just sit very narrow as we had no wide threats.