The Official Game Status Update Thread

[Nentsia]

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Blacs and I were for once finally evenly matched. He was AS Monaco, and I was Inter Milan. Although we could do only two matches, both were almost identical, fairly balanced, and both ended in 1-1. Blac fielded his usual 4-2-3-1, agressive pressure and attacking down the wings. I, of course, did not deploy my usual 5-3-2, because it has only 2 players on the wings while Blac's formation has 4, and actively exploits that numerical advantage. Instead I opted for what many managers consider the most solid defensive formation: 4-4-2. Its old-school, perhaps even a bit boring, predictable, but it can be quite effective.

My aim was to do as an Italian would do when facing an opponent like Blac. That means get rid of my 5-3-2 dogma, and try to come up with something clever. I wasn't too clever, otherwise I might have won. Clever enough not to lose however (yay for me!). I focussed on neutralizing Blac's attacks down the wings, and actually exploiting the forced errors of his wingers. So everytime his central midfielders searched for the winger, it opened up the opportunity for my team to intercept the pass and react with a counter attack.

The first game got off quite hilariously. Monaco's striker hit the crossbar, the ball dropped dead on the goalline and the Inter players shielded it as the goalkeeper jumped on it before someone's toe pushed it over the line. A few minutes later, as Monaco failed to capitalize on a 100% scoring chance, one of Monaco's defenders passed it back to the goalkeeper but it was too short. Mauro Icardi (Inter) intercepted it and scored. Suddenly, all the luck was on my side. But it was all the luck I had for that game. Two minutes later Monaco striker Carrillo (also an Argentine btw) benefitted from poor marking and scored from a cross.

After that there were very little scoring chances, very little highlights, and the game ended in a draw. The bulk of ball posession was for Monaco (60%), but that was also partly a deliberate choice of my team, which was happy to sit back and remain compact. I deliberately positioned my 4-4-2 in such a manner that it could rapidly switch from passive defense into a fast attack, and there were 2 or 3 really dangerous moments when an interception near the wings was very quickly transformed into offense. On one occasion, this put Icardi 1v1 with the goalkeeper, but that fool fired it right into the keeper's hands. As I said, I had used all my luck already for that game. For me, this is the kind of football I want to see from my teams. I want to see a team that is in control; a team that is defensively so well-organized that it does not ~need~ to chase the ball, a team that can play patiently in ball posession, and a team that can be deadly in the transitions.

In the second match it was Blac's Carrillo who scored after like 5 minutes. It was an easy goal: a cross to the first post, low, Carrillo put his foot against the ball and it ended in the goal. I guess the defenders weren't awake yet. Twenty minutes later, out of nothing, a free kick of my Inter lands before the feet of Eder in the middle of Monaco's penalty box. The goalkeeper was out of position, and it was an easy finish for Eder. 1-1 again. For the rest of the match, pretty much nothing noteworthy  happened - maybe some missed scoring chances for Monaco. My team was not having as many fast transitions as in the previous game, but there wasn't much to do about that. It might have something to do with the fact that they were having more ball posession (51%). Maybe Blac scaled down the intensity of his team's pressing, or it was the effect of my team sitting back to a slightly lesser extent, which led to a more balanced game - but also with less spaces to attack into for both teams.

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The statistics of both games

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Icardi intercepting and scoring


Monaco answers


Inter dangerous in the transition


Another dangerous situation