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On the eve in Germany, the Ukrainian team celebrated its penultimate match in the second in the history of the League of Nations. Our team plays it in the elite league A, in which the arrival in any position of the quartet, except the last one, will allow them to stay. In a successful scenario, according to the results of yesterday’s round, the Ukrainians could have remained in the “elite cohort”, but for this a prerequisite was the victory of Spain on the road over Switzerland. The experimental composition of the Pyrenees could not cope with this task, although it had many occasions, including two penalties missed by Ramos. A 1: 1 draw between Swiss and Spanish means that all accents in group A4 will be placed only after the final whistle in two matches of the last round, when Spain will take over Germany and Switzerland – Ukraine.
Yesterday, the Ukraine team, despite a very decent overall game, lost to Germany with a score of 1: 3. What interesting things did this fight reveal and what aspects of our team’s coaches will surely pay attention before the match? decisive battle with the Swiss? Let’s talk about this.
The right flank has weakened not only in midfield, but also in defense
Even before the match, there were concerns about the success with which Ukraine could play on the right flank, where the team suffered severe personnel losses, both in defense and attack. The Hemp-Marlos group was read and, in fact, Shevchenko had no choice. So when the 27-year-old German debutant appeared at the start (the match with Ukraine became his first official match) Philip Max of PSV, it seemed that he became less alarming.
However, Max showed amazing game, especially in attack. Since Marlos was extremely reluctant to back down, Philip constantly arranged the “sweet life” of Cannabis, who literally didn’t know what to do with his opponent. As a result, Max had 5 touches in the penalty area, 4 runs with the ball and 5 assists at the same time. Fantastic numbers for a defender, which will be even more impressive if similar statistics are quoted for German right-back Ginter: 1 touch in the area, 1 run on the ball and 2 assists.
Not surprisingly, from a martial arts driving point of view, our right flank was significantly behind our left. It is enough to look at the corresponding calendar to understand how problematic this area is in the current Ukrainian team. Obviously, the Swiss analysts will not ignore this data and, therefore, in the final match of the League of Nations it will be even more difficult for us.
However, there is no need to “bury” young Yefim Konoplya. First of all, you have to understand that for him this is a completely different level, and it is also necessary to emphasize that against Desna’s side he looked very good, which is confirmed by the statistics of the tackles of Efim and Eduard Sobol (both have 8 tackles, but his geography »is the exact opposite). If the former was more active in attack and managed to tackle in the wrong half of the field, then the latter, as usual, carefully tried to work on his goal, although at least two goals conceded to the Bruges plenipotentiary, there could be questions …
After the game, Shevchenko spoke about the opportunity to call someone. However, even in theory, our coaching staff has few options here. Maybe you can try Serhiy Bolbat, who is integrated into the current game of the Blues and Yellows, but the question of the playing conditions of the Pitmen can certainly confuse Shevchenko and his assistants …
Possession – order, with passes to the final third – a problem
In the game against Germany, the Ukrainian team was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they did not lose under pressure and tried to combine cautious play on defense with attack with combined football. To do this, ours needed to keep control of the ball for as long as possible and, in general, Ukraine lost very little to an opponent in possession (47% vs 53%).
It is important that, in general, Ukraine did not close and played the match with an opponent in a similar way. Yes, Germany was somewhat more intensely perepasovat (passes per possession: 7.9 versus 6.4, respectively), and their attacking footballers advanced a bit further, but our defenders also mostly tried to play high, which allowed us create chances and not lose much to the opponent in the number of organized positional attacks (15 vs. 24).
If you look at the average positions of the players in possession of the ball, it will be seen that Ukraine, like Germany, in its half of the field, in addition to the goalkeeper, had mainly two centrals and a defensive midfielder. Otherwise, the structure of the location of the players in the field of both teams stood out quite similar, although the Germans managed to maintain a greater distance between lines, while ensuring their effective interaction.
However, despite a good overall possession indicator, the Ukrainian team failed to prove its worth in the final third, the emphasis on what after the match in his comment in particular Ruslan Malinovsky did. The statistics of transmissions to the last third do not speak in favor of the Ukrainians. If quantitatively in terms of passes in the last third of the field we did not lose to Germany so significantly (58:46), then in terms of precision we lost directly (83% versus 70%). This was the noticeable difference, which allowed Germany to complete the attack actions much better and more efficiently.
Zabarny and Stepanenko in the center don’t inspire confidence
Central defenders and defensive midfielder Taras Stepanenko, frankly, did not have their best game for the national team. However, if Matvienko’s shortcomings occurred mainly closer to the flank or midfield, Zabarny and Stepanenko often made mistakes and fumbled under pressure in the immediate vicinity of their goal.
In particular, in the central zone of the first third of the field, the Ukrainian team had only 13 turnovers, of which 8 were at the same time in the passive of the Zabarny – Stepanenko pair. The young defender committed 5 defeats, and the experienced defensive midfielder – 3. In addition, both were in the cohort of the “leaders” of the match in terms of the number of defeats, after which the opponent struck – Zabarny and Stepanenko had two of those defeats in the passive …
At the same time, Zabarny tried to compensate for frequent turnovers with diligence in individual bouts (he won 6 of 6), and also with a good game ahead of the curve (the young defender has 11 interceptions, the best indicator of all participants in the match). But Stepanenko, probably, has not yet gained a decent form after recovering from the coronavirus. Taras had only 6 individual bouts on his account, of which he won 4. Considering the density of the game in the central zone, the indicator is not that high, especially considering that on average, the Shakhtar defensive midfielder is 14-15 individual bouts.
In any case, the play of Zabarny, Matvienko and Stepanenko raises questions, considering from which zone the German team scored goals. In each of the episodes, the coaching staff of the “blue-yellows” will have something to attract the attention of our players, and therefore they will have to play a much better match against Switzerland if Ukraine wants to achieve a positive result.
Germany played well in defense, neutralizing the danger of the rival
Speaking of the game on defense, the fact that our opponent exercised unusually a lot in the first third of the field cannot be overstated. The German team only slightly lost to Ukraine in interceptions: 42 to 50, indicating the level of danger that Shevchenko’s team managed to create in the last third of the field.
In particular, a large percentage of our rejections during passes in the last third of the field is due in large part to the opponent’s high-quality play ahead of the curve. In the first third of the field, Germany made 64% of their interceptions, with most of them directly in their own penalty area.
The fact that Ukraine has managed to force the opponent to exercise so thoroughly on defense not far from their doors speaks of the overall fairly well established play of our team on offense. Another thing is that his own marriage, plus the opponent’s skill, did not allow the “blue-yellows” to realize their possibilities, causing much more trouble for Neuer.
There are moments and this instills a moderate optimism.
However, the mere fact that Ukraine did not look like a “spanking boy” in the context of Germany inspires moderate optimism on the eve of the key battle with Switzerland. Yes, yesterday the ‘blue-yellows’ lost to the rival in number of shots (6:18) and shots on goal (1: 6), but we must not forget the three bars, which were allies of Manuel Neuer and the entire German team.
In several episodes, our team also had bad luck, and luck is very important for the underdog to get a positive result in the games with giants. Another thing is that Switzerland will not play with us like Germany. Most likely in Lucerne we will see a much more “tactical” match than the previous day in Leipzig, where Germany was played and allowed Ukraine to play.
Does Ukraine have any chance of succeeding in Switzerland? Of course, although we must not forget the toughest match schedule our team has gotten into. In fact, the blue-yellows will have to play three away games in six days. After the trip to Poland and Germany, the trip to Switzerland will probably be the most difficult for Shevchenko’s team. First, this time the responsibility for the result will fall on the team. Second, it has a number of staffing issues and it is not yet known whether COVID-19 will lag behind our boys in Switzerland. Finally, in third place, Ukraine found itself in a “black band”, having already lost four straight away games …
On the other hand, with so many problems, it will be much easier for Ukraine to get rid of the unnecessary burden of responsibility and try to play in the decisive match as Shevchenko’s team already learned in the home battle with the Spanish, strictly on defense and most of all. efficiently possible in attack. If we can demonstrate something similar to ours with Switzerland, then the result, hopefully, this time is acceptable for the “blue-yellow”. In the end, we certainly didn’t deserve to be relegated for our game in the Nations League’s “group of death”, and it’s time that “Mrs. Fortune”, who, as you know, loves the brave, should take! note!
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