EURO 2020 Tactical Bites (June 14): Slovakia's Un-Pragmatic Pragmatism & Marcos Llorente's Unique Role
And why goalkeeper David Marshall's positioning wasn't the biggest mistake on Patrik Schick's goal.
Welcome to the continuation of what will be a very regularly occurring column on EURO 2020, where I quickly touch on the most interesting schemes, tactical trends, and player performances.
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Scotland 0-2 Czech Republic
Scotland fans will not want to relive this one. In a group that contains Croatia and England, this was the Scots’ chance to pick up some crucial points in order to make moving on to the knockouts realistic.
Lots of blame has been handed out for the result — mostly to keeper David Marshall, who was waaaaaaaay off his line when Patrik Schick scored the goal of the tournament.
Granted, I’m not sure why it was necessary for Marshall to be up so high, but I think his gaffe is covering up a bigger mistake.
Why on earth does does center-back Jack Hendry shoot from here? He is blocked off by three of his teammates in addition to four Czech Republic players. There is absolutely no path to goal in this situation.
To make it worse, there’s a player out wide prepping a run into open space to feed potentially five to six teammates in the box.
Forget the shot location and the xG, this is why you don’t attempt thirty-yard screamers without generating proper separation and a clear shooting window. That rebound can go anywhere and, if you’re not well set up in possession, it can lead to dangerous counter-attacks that allow Schick to score from one thousand miles away and embarrass you.
Poland 1-2 Slovakia
Poland 1-2 Slovakia will go down as one of the more underrated games of the tournament, partly because a lot of the interesting schematic things became rather irrelevant once defensive midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak picked up a second yellow card in the 62nd minute.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Slovakia’s intriguing shape-shifting for as long as it mattered.
Štefan Tarkovič’s men attacked in a 4-2-4 formation, emphasizing width and direct play.
In defense, it morphed into a very curious 5-2-3 mid to low block.
Right winger Lukás Haraslín would become a wing-back to create the line of five, leaving Juraj Kucka and Jakub Hromada to control the center as a double pivot. Robert Mak, Marek Hamsik, and Ondrej Duda maintained a compact three up top, denying the passing lane into Krychowiak and stepping out to Poland’s back three when they pushed forward or received wide.
It is very rare to see teams defend this way, as only two in midfield leaves vast gaps in the center that can only be covered by blocking lanes. Most teams are willing to give up the numerical advantage against a back three in order to use the extra player to pack the middle, particularly when defending in a deeper stance.
There will be an urge to describe Slovakia’s approach as “pragmatic” because they sat off and sought to hit on the counter, but I hate that the term is considered synonymous with lower blocks. What Slovakia were doing was quite risky, since Piotr Zieliński’s dropping movements created a 3v2 overload against Kucka and Hromada; Poland could split their opponents wide open if they put the right passing combinations together.
A better adjective when talking about Slovakia’s defensive structure would be “brave” or, dare I say, “aggressive.” They were willing to control these wide swathes of space with their front three because the counter-attacking potential was higher as a result.
Any possession regain saw at least three outlets ready to be sprung by a deeper ball carrier. Slovakia didn’t exploit it to the maximum on the day, but it did directly lead to a dangerous, early free-kick, and is something to watch out for if this tactic is used further in the tournament.
Of course, how Slovakia manage that risk is also something to keep an eye on. Poland had some success beating the shape to start the first half, but Mak’s brilliant (and fortunate goal) threw them off their rhythm. However, in the second period of play, the Poles came out on fire and were executing some nice sequences before Krychowiak had to go and ruin it.
Spain 0-0 Sweden
Spain’s goalless draw with Sweden will no doubt be endlessly scrutinized and criticized till they play Poland on June 19. Question marks surrounded Luis Enrique’s benching of Thiago and Gerard Moreno for Koke and Alvaro Morata prior to kick-off, and those eyebrows will only be raised further after Spain failed to finish good chances and then faltered in their overall game for significant parts of the second half.
Enrique’s decision to play Marcos Llorente at right back has also been denounced and, I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical at first. Fullbacks in the modern game need significant ability on the ball to contribute to progression and high crossing skill to fashion chances.
Marcos’ one main failure as a defensive midfielder in his early days at Alavés and Real Madrid was his forward passing, as he was much too conservative in his mindset and only attempted something resembling “adventurous” on switches of play.
This is my hunch as to why Diego Simeone initially benched him and then converted him into a sort of box-to-box runner, as El Cholo generally likes more vertical passing from his central midfielders. It was a genius move, unlocking Llorente’s athleticism and hidden timing and enhanced his ball carrying.
How would Enrique be able to replicate this in order to maximize the 26-year-old at right back?
Turns out Enrique had a pretty clever idea, too, asking Koke and Llorente to swap positions regularly throughout the match. This optimized the former’s passing nous and the latter’s off-ball runs, serving as the basis for a fluidity that looked quite nice in the early going.
Koke and Marcos were active about trying to switch back to the original shape when the ball stayed on the far side, but there were also plenty of occasions where Marcos stayed in that central position. This created some awkward moments where Llorente fluffed receptions with his back to goal and left Spain more vulnerable to counter-attacks down the right, though Sweden possessed no danger in transition outside of Alexander Isak.
Speaking of Isak, holy hell:
Koke’s and Llorente’s positional rotations are something to keep tabs on in the next group stage games — not just for the impact it has offensively, but for how it might affect Spain in defensive transition.
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