Asunto: [U21] WCQ Ukraine - Australia

Ukraine U21 - Australia U21

Big game tonight for the opener of the U21 World Cup Qualification campaign.
The joeys will travel to cold Ukraine to defy this community of 229 users.
Both teams have undergone changes losing key players due to the age update, it whould be a good contest!
The U21 present themselves without Sharpley who will stay at home because of a red card suspension but the rest of the squad is in good shape.

For those who can stay up or those coming back from the night club the game will kick off at 18:30sk time (2.30 Qld time)!
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yeah we'll see. Might be up hoping the Waratahs lose to the Lions after a shattering blow earlier in the evening.

Looking forward to seeing the new side run around with a new manager. In qualification matches, winning the opening game is a huge boost towards making the next phase of the competition.

looks like they really missed the services of sharpley tonight :P

seriously though, it was a game that we should've won, especially after the sending off. nothing we can do about the missed chances, but we really should've created more. ukraine could've stole it with a late goal at the end, bar some superb goalkeeping from papaluca.

i thought that defensively we were pretty solid, apart from the case of tired legs in the second half. offensively, the tactic could've been better. i didn't get the point of drum and sianidis so close together. there really shouldn't ever be 2 forwards going for the same ball if it can be helped. also, byers was waaaaay too isolated up there on his own. it was pretty tough on the guy to have to run up and down, left and right for at least 2/3 of the match, and with limited passing options too! imo part of the 3 man defensive midfield unit should've gone further forward in support, which at least opens up more passing options. and playing a 4-3 defense was kinda overkill i guess. also, some of the offensive throw-in positions looked really weird. might be worth to take a look at them, especially the right side (if i remember correctly). personally, i would have at least a forward deeper in the box, or at least the two forwards some distance apart, so they don't just lose the ball to the same defender.

these are the criticisms i can think of right now, might have missed some since its pretty late... will add more if i think of any tomorrow whenever i wake up ;)
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Yeah, Australia was the better side by far, but couldn't finish the situations.

Definitely deserved a win. Yes we could have created even more chances, but you'd expect to put at least 1 of the 12 shots we generated in (and we created quite a few other situations that didn't result in a shot).

I actually loved the positioning of Byers. Obviously he's a superstar at this level and the tactic enabled him to show off his talents and have the ball at his feet a lot. On the flip side, I see what you are getting at cometer, if one of the def mids moved up (say the left defensive mid when the ball is on the right) then we would have had the option of switching play if there were no passes on forward.

Two forwards near each other is normally for 1 to jump on the stray dribbles of another, or to use the defense of 1, or both, to tackle a defender straight after they tackle the other forward. I don't use it, but I can see the reasoning.

4-3 with at least 1 of the "3" pressing forward to join the attack looks to be a great use of the players available. I loved heaps of things in that tactic and can't wait to see it by the end of the season. Great first up job guys!

The goal/shots ratio is definitely a problem in the u21. Poland got 1/20 with high level strikers, who had good opportunities...

I think we had an excellent game tactically. Everything we tried worked, we won a penalty and had too many chances not to put one away. Our strikers are quality shooters in top form and they took most of the 12 shots from very good positions. Even in the 90th minute we should've scored.

A quick comparison will show that last game we created 5 shots to Ukraine's 9, this game we created 12 shots to their 5.

I'm very disappointed.

On the flip side, I see what you are getting at cometer

I think you meant sx890410, otherwise you're able to read my thoughts without me having to post them ;).

It's a good one point. We had the upper hand, we just missed the efficiency at the front.

We were missing a few players on cards or form issue. We dealt with it nicely.
I think the tactic was adequate and with a bit more luck one goal at least should have gone in.
Now we know a bit more about our team and can look forward to the next 9 games of the WCQ.

My only worry at this point is the "tired legs" syndrome that might bite our arse one day. I wish the players' owners could address the problem but training is out of our hand.

The problem is, in order to strengthen the offense you have to weaken the defense. To vivski's defense we really don't have the same sort of U21's we had last season and in the opening game you need to be on the cautious side to get a gauge of what the players can or can't do.

I thought initially the tactic was too defensive and thought we'd struggle for shots but we managed to get 12 shots which is a reasonable amount of chances.

There are still some minor issues I don't like which I've alerted them to but otherwise I thought the tactic went well. We really lack players in key areas and that's going to limit what vivski and Minkee are able to achieve tactically for the time being.

One thing we do have on our side this season (not sure about last season) is a well rounded midfield.

Besides Byers, we don't have any miracle players, but they are rounded so can be used in many situation, both attack and defence.

Although stamina is a bit of an issue, it is to be expected in the U21 format as it is more important to get players skills up whilst they are young. It just makes for difficult selections and substitutions.

our midfield last season was better but who's to judge ;).

Stewart,Villafane,Puca,Byers then you had the option to use Libbesson or Ielati.
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was it better at the start of the season though? All round the midfield?

I think we often forget that last seasons midfield always has an extra season of training, because almost every season I hear, we are going to struggle with a weaker U/whatever team...:)

start of the season was still better then start of this season. Although I expect our U21's either next season or season after to be stronger then the crop we've had when you consider we're likely going to have:

Stathakis,Erdogan,Fihaki,Bowyer as a minimum.

I'd be almost certain we had a stronger midfield last season that we have currently. Should be a good season for the U21's =)

and don't forget, we have cahill, lawton, and griffiths after that ;)