Gary Lineker has a famous saying that football is 22 players chasing the ball and in the end the Germans win.
But France's victory in the last match against Germany may have relieved the anguish of the English, not only because of the loss of neighbors, but because the expected goals model - which is a measure of the quality of opportunities created - was in favor of the German team, as according to the statistics of "Stats Bomb" Germany's average of goals was The forecast is 0.83 against 0.43 for the French.
(1)
This is a victory for the Germans according to the course of the game reflected in the numbers, but from a strategic point of view, France succeeded in achieving its goals and maximizing the opponent, especially if we examine the expected goals rate for Germany (0.83), which accumulated through 10 shots more accurately. Considering the quality and sources of repayments; We find that 5 of them were from fixed balls played directly or indirectly, in addition to 3 shots from crosses, and 2 shots at the feet of defenders from Kai Havertz and Thomas Muller.
This means that 80% of Germany's shots were from standing positions or from crosses, only one of which was on target.
No penetrations, no dribbles, no through passes, there was no real reach and no clear threat to the opponent, which leads us to wonder;
Isn't that what the French planned?
Especially if we look at the map of the spread and passing of the German national team players during the match provided by "Stats Bomb", where we will find that the top 3 players at the level of offensive contribution - in yellow - are;
Toni Kroos (set-pieces), Kimmish and Gossens Tolia (backs, crossers).
Map of the spread and pass of the German national team against its French counterpart (Source: StatsBomb)
Germany entered the match 3-4-3; Ginter is a right defender, Hummels is a central defender, and Rudiger is a left defender, in front of them are Gundogan and Kroos in the middle, while Kimmich is present as a full-back / winger on the right side and Gossens on the left side, in front of them are an attacking trio stationed internally in the half spaces and the central corridor formed by Havertz, Muller and Gnabry. Loew did not have many options in choosing the schematic drawing, he had to adapt to the data, because most of his defenders play in triple defense systems with their clubs very well, so there is no need to put them in a different context, especially if the opponent has a player like Mbappe who forces his opponents Always give high priority to live and preventive coverage in a larger number if quality preference is not available.
On the other hand, France played the regular 4-3-3;
Two central defenders, two full-backs with a defensive tendency, a middle trio made up of Kante, Rabio and Paul Pogba, and a front trio formed by Griezmann, Mbappe and Benzema, with clear intentions in the defensive bloc and closing the spaces, and inviting the opponent to advance and leave spaces behind as Benzema and Mbappe send the attack there through the transfers of points. The approach that proved effective and the team succeeded in winning the World Cup and is still betting on it.
The official line-up for the German and French teams in the last match of Euro 2021 (Source: Sofascore)
The idea of Germany was to extend the width of the field, and to create a numerical superiority in the last line with the two full-backs and the offensive trio over the defensive quadruple of the opponent, in addition to exploiting the shortcomings of the French 4-3-3 drawing by covering the width of the field unless the wings contributed to the defensive process, which creates spaces between the lines of The middle and defense or in the opposite lanes on the opposite side if the ball is on the active side, and in the case of the wings participating in the late defensive stages, they are pushed to later areas of the field, which makes it difficult for them to make transitions, because of their initial positioning behind the moment of the offensive shift, and thus The opponent loses his most important weapon by exploiting his wings in transformations, after being pushed to start rather than finish the transformation.
The French countered this with more than one measure; The first of them is that if there is a wing that must return to the defense to protect the width of the field and achieve balance in order to adapt to the context of play, it will definitely not be Mbappe. The continuous offensive of the Germans to try to equalize the result, but before that he was defending on one line with the midfielders, which turned the schematic drawing in the defensive situation to 4-4-2 with a clear priority from everyone, which is to close the depth and the interior spaces and push the Germans towards the edges, which are the places From which were made the chances of the German team.
While the second procedure was the integration of the midfielders into the defense line, according to the location of the ball and the point of play, to cover the German penetrations behind the backs in the half spaces, whether through Griezmann / Pogba to the right or Rabio / Kante to the left, and the French team seemed very comfortable in that procedure, especially With the automatic exchanges (Rotations) that were carried out by his players in the coverage and defensive rotation on the parties or the transfer from one side to another as if they had fought the match before.
Deschamps met the attempt at numerical superiority that Loew, the coach of Germany, sought, with the qualitative superiority of his defenders
In our journey to knowledge, we have been taught several types of preferences in the game, namely 5 advantages that a football match might include; Qualitative, numerical, centralizing, kinetic, and finally cooperative advantages. By applying these concepts to France, we find the French team enjoying qualitative advantages in all lines, with a significant difference from its closest competitors. Before merging into the narrative, the quality advantage relates to the technical aspect and the degree of technical quality of the individuals/group compared to competitors. (2)
In the sense that if you have in your team an offensive line made up of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, then you have guaranteed a qualitative superiority over any defensive line initially, given the size of the technology and the quality of the trio and how they adapt to that in the collective framework, and vice versa if you own Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini With Beckenbauer a defensive trio, you may not need a fourth defender if you are facing an offensive trio, because the qualitative advantage of the defenders here dispenses with the pursuit of numerical superiority, and instead can benefit numerically by the extra player in another area of the field and achieve superiority there.
In France, it seems obvious, for the team to enjoy elite-level players, but what we mean is how the team takes advantage of the qualitative advantages in the tactical framework and achieves its goal. Returning to the match, we will find that the German team worked to create numerical superiority against the back line of the French by playing with 3 Players in the offensive field, in addition to two full-backs pushed up to form a 5 on 4 position and trying to take advantage of that, and here Deschamps, the coach of France, did not interfere by adding an additional player in the back line so as not to lose a player elsewhere, but worked to tighten the bloc and narrow the spaces between The members of the defensive line to protect the depth, taking advantage of his defense in a late block, which means smaller areas for coverage, with the midfielders merging with the back line to cover the gaps, if any, and it was occupied by moving without a ball from the opponents behind the back, with Mbappe assigned to take steps back to help Lucas and Rabio.
One of the measures of the French team to counter the numerical increase in the width of the stadium for the German team (source: social media)
In other words, Deschamps met the numerical advantage that Loew sought, the coach of Germany, with the qualitative superiority of his defenders, and what made the matter more difficult for the Germans, despite having a numerical advantage that allowed them to occupy the periphery, was that they did not possess any qualitative offensive advantage in both Kimmich and Gossens , who could not take advantage of individual positions (1 on 1) against Lucas and Pavard, whether by dribbling and penetrating, or even by succeeding in sending a barrage of crosses, and according to "Hoscord", the German duo had only 3 attempts to dribble throughout the meeting, 2 of them were unsuccessful, and they They sent only 7 of the 23 crosses sent by their team during the match.
(3)
It continued as it was during possession, and despite attacking the opponent with a smaller number, the betting for the French was always on the type, and this is evident in the same dribbling numbers recorded in “Hoscord”, where the French team succeeded in completing 10 dribbling attempts out of 19 by a percentage Success exceeded half, the attempts came with the feet of 7 players at once, Pogba had the lion’s share of them with 3 successful dribbles and then Mbappe with two successful dribbles, and perhaps the goal shot represents a clear manifestation of the qualitative superiority of the roosters, where Pogba received the ball from a throw-in, and booked players batch One of the German team until the rise of Pavard, who returned the ball to him, to send it with the outside of the foot amid the pressure of 3 German players to Lucas Hernandez on the other side, and the rest you know. (4)
The qualitative superiority of the French group also includes kinetic and centralization superiority; Players like Kante, Pogba, Benzema, Griezmann, and Mbappe are always in a constant state of motion and an endless exchange of positions, making triangles, squares and all interconnected shapes, which makes the task of their control very complicated, because all of this is supported by unique cognitive abilities and high degrees of tactical awareness. Which some of them took to extraordinary levels of efficiency and mastery, such as Karim Benzema and Antoine Griezmann, who have a stock of thousands of similar situations and contexts in their subconscious, which always allows them to be in the right place and at the right time in relation to the location of the ball and the places of their colleagues and the playing position, which always enables them From dissolving the contract, always tipping the balance of their team, and complicating attempts to stop them by opponents.
It would not have been so evident without the social bonds between group members or what is known as cooperative superiority, which transcends procedures during matches and centers around the social relationships in the team. These relationships are critical to any lasting success; The better the individuals within the team understand each other, the better the performance of the group. This concept is much deeper than just the players’ knowledge of each other, but also relates to a collective understanding of what the expectations are from the team, and the understanding of the principles of play, with effective group communication between all individuals, As a result, co-operative supremacy takes longer to work its way through the team, from major introductions such as principles of play to precise actions between players on the field.
This gradually transformed France from a team whose players gather for short periods on a spaced time scale to a model closer to the club model, due to the stability of the basic strength of the current group for a long period - specifically since 2015 - in addition to the permanence of the technical staff appointed in 2012, which allowed long stable relations The term, and understanding between the team players and the technical staff, where the full awareness of the broad lines and principles of play and the role of each individual in the collective framework, which gave them that cooperative advantage over opponents. (5)
While the rest is covered by the 10,000-hour rule that writer Malcolm Gladwell explained in his book "Outliers", where Gladwell sees in his proposition that there is a lot of exaggeration in the value of talent and intelligence among people, stressing that what actually makes the difference is the length of practice And systematic repetition, Gladwell based his presentation on a study conducted in 1993 on a large group of pianists, and in the results of that study it was found that those with exceptional playing abilities have a greater history of systematic practice that exceeded 10,000 hours, and the least distinguished group crossed the 8 barrier Thousands of hours, while ordinary had an average of 4,000 hours of practice. (6)
Returning to the French national team, the application of the same principles of play and tactical methods over the years led to the consolidation of the interactions of the team’s players and the consolidation of their understanding of them and the high levels of mastery of the style of play, which makes us see a team with a great deal of organization in the various stages of play as if it was a first-class club; Where the full flow, the memorization of tasks, the exchange of roles and positions, and the knowledge of each other's whereabouts by heart, and in this regard Brusley (the martial arts teacher) said that he feared the opponent who practiced his kick thousands of times more than the opponent who performed hundreds of kicks at once.
Perhaps the most prominent recent examples of this were the Spanish national team that won Euro 2008, then the 2010 World Cup, passing to Euro 2012, and in the midst of that, the Barcelona team, which was the nucleus of that team, achieved everything at the club level, not only because of the technical and tactical revolution, but because of the accumulation of The social ties between the team, many of whom left the club's academy, was an additional hard-to-find advantage, just as important as the four, without which the team would not have been ranked the best team in the history of the game. (7)
Finally, the match was not superior tactically, but it enjoyed a high degree of organization, in addition to the aesthetics and individual performances from the French, and perhaps if two goals for the French had not been canceled, they would have received a double amount of praise and appreciation, and the match would have taken a wider field of discussion, which is also exciting in those The match in particular did not stand out from the others because it was between France and Germany, that is, it brought us back to the old debate;
Which one has a greater share?
A team with outstanding individual potential with a good amount of teamwork and organization, or a team with broad collective capabilities with a fair amount of individuality and innovation?
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Sources:
Statistics of the expected goals for the match according to "Stats Bomb"
The five preferences
Germany's dribbling numbers, according to "Hoscord"
France's dribbling numbers, according to "Hoscord"
Record of the current coaching staff of the French national team
Search the 10,000 hour rule
Spain National Team Achievements