For the first time in Finnish football
history, the national team qualified for UEFA Euro 2020. The well succeeded
road to Euro 2020 on Group J had lot of responsibles, but the most part of
success must be given to Teemu Pukki, who scored ten goals during the
qualification.
Competing against national teams such as
Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia and Liechtenstein, Finnish Nation
would expect many difficulties to reach the qualifying to Euro 2020. But,
against all expectations and theorical favourite national teams as Italy and
Greece, already European champions, but also Bosnia who was on better FIFA
ranking position, Finland achieve the dreamed qualification.
Although we are Portuguese coaches, once
that we are working at the moment in Finland, we feel ourselves involved on
Finnish football development and future success. That’s why on the next
articles we decided to do a couple of analysis about Finnish national team in
what was their journey during the successfully qualifying in group J for the
Euro 2020.
In the next two articles (Part 1 and
Part 2), we will look at the defensive and offensive organization respectively.
On this part 1 (defensive organization)
we decided to highlight what the Finnish team did less well in their campaign.
We believe these are important moments that could be improved and then increase
the team’s performance in Euro 2020. Based on this, we decide to focus our
analysis on the following topics:
- First line of pressure;
- Space between lines;
- Defensive line coordination;
- Defensive transition;
1 .
FIRST
LINE OF PRESSURE
The Finnish team is defensively
organized in a clear 4-4-2, mostly in a mid-low block. The first line of
pressure (2 forwards) is characterized by one of the strikers trying to press
the opponent’s center back with a ball, while the other striker tries to occupy the
diagonal of his back, pressing the midfielder who will be in that zone (opponent’s
‘nº 6 zone’).
In our
opinion, in order to quantify the success of the actions of the first line of pressure,
we realized there are no success examples at all. 1 because at this level the
opponents easily find the “free man” - It can be the opposite center back (mostly)
or midfield on a build up with 3 elements, remembering that also goalkeepers could
(and should) help on first phase of building up. Having found this “free man”
(quite easily), a lot of times the first line of pressure was surpassed and
consequently an imbalance is created. 2 because this type of actions causes fatigue
on both forwards which will lead to the acquisition of tiredness and lack of lucidity
in moments of offensive organization and transition.
(click on the following video to watch some
examples)
2.
SPACE BETWEEN LINES
After analysis, we found that regardless
of the opponent, Finland leaves some space between lines, mainly between the middle
line and the defensive line. We identify opponents could pass the ball through
middle line and explore this space with success many times. In our opinion,
this is due to: 1 bad actions/decisions/behaviour from middle line, that is,
there must be a covering system between the elements (diagonals between players).
2 bad relationship/actions between defensive line and middle line, resulting
from too much space between them.
(click on the following video to watch some
examples)
3.
DEFENSIVE
LINE COORDINATION
Possibly on
purpose, the vast majority of opponents used a lot of mobility in the last
third which created difficulties for the last Finnish defensive line.
We noticed some
difficulties in coordinating the defensive line, 1 when the opponents strikers
move down to play between lines, the center backs had difficulties in adjusting and
follow the opponents, 2 difficulties in adjusting the covers , 3 displacement
of the center backs to the lateral zones and consequent exposed central zone, 4
on crossing situations there was no concern about avoid the numerical
situations and even sometimes numeral inferiority, not respecting the general principles
of game.
(click on the following video to watch some
examples)
4.
DEFENSIVE TRANSITION
The Finnish
team mainly has a game idea based on offensive transitions trying to involve
the greatest number of elements at that moment. Then we realized at the moment
of losing the ball: 1 the players were distant from each other’s and react
slowly to recover the ball again; 2 need to increase the aggressiveness in
order to avoid opponent’s offensive transition; 3 control closer the key
players responsible for opponent’s offensive transition, not letting them
receive the ball, turn or even think. When Finnish national team behaved
according to the above-mentioned topics, it was always closer to have success
recovering ball possession.
(click on the following video to watch some
examples)
In our opinion, a 4-1-4-1 system in
mid-low block, would lead Finnish football team to solve some of the previously
spoken problems about defensive organization moments. 1 because of this way,
the actions of the first defensive line, in this case with one single player,
would cease to have so much tiredness, limiting the positioning to central
spaces. 2 because it would allow a well rational occupation by the middle line,
as well as the existence of a greater number of defensive coverings. 3 because
the positioning of a player between the defensive line and the middle line may
help solve the problems analysed from the too much space frequently identified
between lines. 4. situations of coverage and balance close to the defensive
area, this “zone 6” player would allow in several moments, including in
crossings situations, numerical superiority on defensive box, increasing the
defensive action radius and reducing the opponent’s success. Most of these
moments referenced throughout the article are in accordance with the game
principles (general and specific), we believe respecting them there will be a
bigger order and stability during a football match.
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| Rui Gomes |
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| Diogo Pinto |
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