Walter Salles, Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello and other artists and participants in the exceptional film “I’m Still Here” showed with simplicity, sensitivity, clarity and conciseness, without special effects and without pamphleteering, the depths of an era. Never again dictatorship.
With each game, football teaches us the obvious, that there are several strategies to play well and win, also depending on the quality, characteristics of the players and other planned and unpredictable factors.
Barcelona, in every match, uses a high-risk strategy by placing defenders on the midfield line. Thus, they recently beat Real Madrid twice, 4-0 and 5-2, and beat Benfica in the middle of the week, 5-4.
In the first minutes, the game looked like there would be many goals for both teams, as Barcelona created numerous chances, while Benfica also produced opportunities on counterattacks, throwing the ball behind the backs of the advanced defenders. Acting in the same way, Barcelona has also had several bad results. These are the two sides of the strategy.
Real Madrid changed the way they played after the arrival of Bellingham and, later, Mbappé. Before, with a trio in midfield and another in attack (Vini, Rodrygo and Benzema), the team won many titles and was more balanced and regular. Now, with the four great attackers (Vini, Rodrygo, Bellingham and Mbappé), the team remains powerful, although it alternates performances and results more, as the midfield with just two players has made it worse when it comes to passing the ball from the defense to the attack and marking. As a result, the defense became more fragile.
Bellingham tries to play from one midfielder to another, score, build and score goals. It is very difficult and exhausting. The midfielder who scores, builds and advances, like Valverde at Real Madrid, is very different from the offensive midfielder (attacking midfielder), who drops back to receive the ball and defend, like Bellingham.
Marking with just two players in midfield works well if there is help from both wingers. At Real, Rodrygo does this well on the right, but Vini is in the middle of the way. He, rightly so, wants to play closer to the goal, where he makes his wonderful plays.
Vinicius Junior and Raphinha are now among the best players in the world. Rodrygo is close to both of them. If Neymar shines again, the team will have a powerful offensive quartet and the disadvantage of leaving only two players to score in midfield, the same difficulty as Real Madrid. It’s worth taking the risk as long as it’s well planned.
I have the impression that Neymar, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will not have good physical conditions to face the increasingly intense, fast and competitive football that we should see in the next World Cup.
Dorival Júnior has a dilemma to solve, how to get the four of them together. In these moments, the coach’s action, touch and finger are important. Therefore, Dorival should have someone to help him, as Zagallo had with Gerson’s opinions in the 1970 World Cup, as Parreira had Zagallo’s in the 1994 World Cup and as Felipão had those of his friends and fans from Rio Grande do Sul, who asked at the 2002 World Cup with Kleberson replacing Juninho Paulista. Felipão agreed, and the team improved.
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