Hans-Dieter Flick

[Porque]

The way to beat this PSG system is with variations against their press. Easier said than done.

-Quick long balls to the wide spaces and up to the CF (Xavi done this one well with Lewy at PdP, but then he was on Berardi who was a paper bag).
Also Joan Garcia would have helped immensely with this.

-Condensing the midfield with the AMC and fullbacks so PSG don't have a numerical advantage and then again, hitting them with medium over the top exits to the front line who can also come centrally. This is what LE has mastered effectively with PSG's first choice front 3/4.

But mainly, after thinking the game back, we lost because of personnel and fitness. Personnel because the backline and fitness because Lamine and Olmo couldn't sustain intensity for one reason or another.

Thing is, there were a couple of times where Kounde broke through on the right, and Gerard broke through on the left. And the few times that this happened where they didn't slow the ball down and cut back, they didn't have the pace to sustain and even put a cross in. Nuno and Hakimi both got back to stop it.

And in Hakimi case moreso, he has pace but is not a particularly smart nor good defensively. So if you had Balde fully fit then you would expect we could keep him much more honest or both ends.

 

[serghei]

About Kounde being embarassing in 1 vs 1.

Here are the two moments where he was isolated against PSG wingers. First with Barcola, who played on the left before min. 30 or so, until he wasn't getting in the game enough vs Kounde, and he switched sides to deal with Martin instead.

Both were handled by Kounde, and PSG players didn't even attempt the duel. They just declined the duel and passed to a teammate instead.

Here barcola has him face on goal, no back-up in sight, doesn't try to get past him. Nothing happens.

Here same thing, Mbaye has him in 1 vs 1, doesn't go for it.

Why do you think players don't often opt to engage in 1 vs 1s vs Kounde, but nearly always do with Martin when presented with the chance to do so?

 

[serghei]

And in Hakimi case moreso, he has pace but is not a particularly smart nor good defensively. So if you had Balde fully fit then you would expect we could keep him much more honest or both ends.

True, but we're not talking about his defensive nous or ability when you press him. He has excellent ball control and athletic traits. It's one thing to attack him, and another thing to press him and dispossess him while he has the ball. You go against his strongest skills when you do what we did. Balde fitter doesn't make much difference here.

Hakimi will always punish you when you give him so much space.

 

[serghei]

The way to defend him imo is deny him space to run into. He has excellent ball controll, but he's not exactly marvelous at dribbling from standing position or in close range encounters. He needs to get going and build pace to get past you. Same for Mendes. Deny them that space to run into by positioning. Once you go and press and leave gaps for him to trigger his run, he won't stop until he gets near your goal. It's containment vs chasing. Chasing them is stupid. They will run rings around him. Both their FBs have top notch athletic ability. On smaller, more congested spaces, not nearly as effective.

 

[serghei]

A lot has to do with distances between comparments. They were big. If you plan to have 40-50m between first line and last line, compress spaces between compartments to deny space to run into, it means you can't press that high. You need to let them 20-30m of free access on the ball, to reinforce the 40-50m between their box, and your box.

Flick got caught badly. First he was hesitant to have a super high line at times, but at the same time, instead of dropping the press line by 30-40m, he stretched the team causing glaring holes between compartments which runners like Hakimi and Mendes love to feast on.

 

[Porque]

True, but we're not talking about defensive when you press him. He has excellent ball control and athletic ability. It's one thing to attack him, and another thing to press him and dispossess him. You go against his strongest skills when you do what we did. Balde fitter doesn't make much difference here.

Hakimi will always punish you when you give him so much space.

To face fullbacks like Nuno and Hakimi you need good acceleration and then speed. Our whole backline immensely lacked acceleration and speed.

Martin has the highest top speed but very slow acceleration while Eric has the best acceleration but a low top speed.

It's also why guys like Marc Casado and Gavi can hustle more, but lack the speed to close the press quick enough.

Balde has that acceleration and a solid top speed. Sustainability over 90 is questionable though. But I don't doubt that if he were in PSG, that he would have the stamina of Hakimi and Nuno (you get what I am saying).

Basically if Hakimi and Nuno were that good at attacking then they wouldn't be playing as fullbacks. So for guys like then you absolutely need to be able to match their short burst and then keep up with them on the sprint.

Balde LB, perhaps Araujo RB if you really want to go full containment.

 

[Porque]

A lot has to do with distances between comparments. They were big. If you plan to have 40-50m between first line and last line, compress spaces between compartments to deny space to run into, it means you can't press that high. You need to let them 20-30m of free access on the ball, to reinforce the 40-50m between their box, and your box.

Flick got caught badly. First he was hesitant to have a super high line at times, but at the same time, instead of dropping the press line by 30-40m, he stretched the team causing glaring holes between compartments which runners like Hakimi and Mendes love to feast on.

Was gonna touch on that. This is the other big point. As good as we are, we have an obvious kryptonite with the space behind our high line. Which against top class opponents you can get away with to the extent of how fast your defenders are and how great their anticipation is.

Compare Flick's line to Lucho's. Lucho's was high too initially and it was a midfield battle where we were winning.

Then Lucho amended it and their centres held deeper, and their fullbacks wide as a mid 5 keeping our fullbacks wider. So there was still space but it was between the defence and the midfield. So for example we could exploit it with Olmo and Lamine, but their attacks were slowed down by facing 2 centrebacks rather than empty space, and this gave the time for Nuno/Hakimi to recover.

Now if Lamine was fully fit and Olmo on his A game then we would have exploited this setup. Hell we almost did, Lamine earned a red card on Nuno through one of these situations and Olmo missed an easy goalscoring opportunity through another.

 

[zanela]

Dont have time to read all these posts. While I appreciate @serghei 's methodical analysis, it's not manager's responsibility to micro-manage every play on the pitch. The players are expected to demonstrate a certain degree of spatial awareness, positional intelligence and understanding of the game. To pin the blame on the manager for everything that goes wrong on the pitch is unreasonable. That said, Flick didn't have a great night and I'm sure he knows that.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Dont have time to read all these posts. While I appreciate @serghei 's methodical analysis, it's not manager's responsibility to micro-manage every play on the pitch. The players are expected to demonstrate a certain degree of spatial awareness, positional intelligence and understanding of the game. To pin the blame on the manager for everything that goes wrong on the pitch is unreasonable. That said, Flick didn't have a great night and I'm sure he knows that.

He knows he did not have a great night.
We also know he won't have a great night if we face PSG again.
Cause he wont change shittttttt

 

[jamrock]

A lot of over analysis going on here to be honest.

The reason why we lost is simple & obvious.

No it doesn't have anything to do with our FBs, we all know Martin was a weakness and balde wasn't fit.

For all the kounde take, PSG got basically 1 chance down his flank and he made a few good runs forward.

Rashford created enough down his side
Yamal wasn't great but did ok
Garcia was solid so was Torres

So in the attack you can point to a few good players & The defense held up better than expected, given the CHOICE flick made with personnel.

Leaves one area of the team you can't really point to anyone being more than meh, 🤔.
But everyone wants to ignore that part because it will leave a lot of egg on faces.

That's where we lost the performance & the coaching.

I say performance because that mattered more than the actual result.

 

[serghei]

It's not as much how and why we lost. It's how we can improve this for the future. Because if we want to progress, what we are doing is not enough. And the squad is what is.

The way we press needs a lot of work vs teams that will not be intimidated simply because you put many players forward to press. Big teams are used to it and can use this to fuck you up rather easily.

Since pressing is very important for Flick, maybe the most important, it is not a good look to be so outclassed at your strong point. Moaning about players and why we don't have fullbacks like Hakimi is useless.

Get the pressing to work in a consistent way, and use the high line way more sporadically. Work on controlling opposition also by smart positioning, not just mindless running until we get gassed. Those are tactical things to fix if we want to continue to improve. Or else last season will be a one off.

We will see how we approach it next time. This is a failed exam while we try to get to the next level. Study harder next time. PSG is not unbeatable and they just lost to Marseille a week ago or so. Got beaten badly by Chelsea. We looked easy to deal with by comparison.

 

[Horatio]

No it doesn't have anything to do with our FBs, we all know Martin was a weakness and balde wasn't fit.

Top logic. Our being aware of Martin being weak means it doesn’t factor into the result.

 

[serghei]

Top logic. Our being aware of Martin being weak means it doesn’t factor into the result.

It factored in. But we do almost nothing to try and adapt. Instead, we demand from him to magically play like a top LB.

 

[jamrock]

Top logic. Our being aware of Martin being weak means it doesn’t factor into the result.

Think that one through buddy,
Another swing & miss by you.

 

[Temptation]

Think that one through buddy,
Another swing & miss by you.

Savage