Cant agree with that,Spain werent a very big team and they managed fine against more athletic sides. Plus Modric and Arshavin had good tournament and are small even compared to our ladsLessons for Ireland from Euro 2008?
- The quality of centre back play & especially pairings of CBs, was poor. Teams overcame this by placing emphasis on attack. Maybe we're not as bad in the CB department as we thought. Dunne + O'Shea or O'Brien?
- Overlapping, attacking full backs was a major theme. This means having right footers at RB and left footers at LB.
- Width came primarily from full back play. I generally wasn't impressed by the quality of "traditional" wide play in this tournament, bar a couple of exceptions. Our wide players could have more than held their own in many of the teams at this tournament.
- Emphasis on passing & technique. Very few teams depended on speculative passing like we do. Full backs didn't chip the ball forward up the line like it's a reflex action. CBs passed the ball to full backs or midfielders far more often than they luanched it forward. The phrase "playing it down the channels" probably doesn't exist outside the English language.
- 4-4-2 looks tired and mono-dimensional. 4-2-3-1 appears to be gaining popularity & adaptability was they key. Ability to score from midfield is obviously important in this context.
- Balance in midfield: you need a good ball winner with a good ball user. Do we have either?
- Our first 2 goalkeepers are as good as anyone's.
- There's no place for mega egos in a successful tournament team. Nor is there a place for shortarses.
- My long held mantra about the impotance of set pieces didn't really hold true in Euro 2008, bar maybe Germany vs. Portugal. An anomaly?
Anyway, the lessons for doing well in a finals don't necessarily hold for getting through qualification.
I loved almost every minute of this tournament. This is what the lawmakers had in mind when outlawing rash tackles etc. in the 90s. Finally technique has won out over muscularity though in the back of my mind I couldn't help feel that a team like the Ivory Coast could have eaten up some of the more entertaining teams here with a combination of both.
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