Why so many big teams are struggling at this World Cup

lol portugal looked absolutely pathetic today.

Are they though? England, France, Argentina showed they are clinical. And honestly you can't say 'struggling' when it's only the first game played, there's still all to play for.

Japan notably had 3 starters out as well

Except Germany

What AFCON watchers have learnt in the last 3 ish competitions is that there aren't many minnows in international football anymore.

Most countries have at least 3 players with experience in top 5 leagues, coaches know what to drill. Yes there is still a talent gap but less totally naive teams.

A random country with a golden generation of players can stifle a Spain or France and are slightly less likely to fall for something obvious like Nigeria did against Italy in 94

I am sorry but you all don't understand Koeman. This has nothing to do with him being traditional or something. This was him being too conservative. As he switched from a double pivot to a single pivot he decided he wanted the same amount of rest defense so all four defenders where asked to stay back until later in the offense.

He was doing L shaped 4 man defenses and the 4 man box midfield way sooner then a lot of other coaches. He just decided to adapt to Japan, because the other system didn't work against Poland who play the same 5 2 2 1 and the wishes of his players and changed it.

This format makes it look like if Jon is presenting his thesis defence to director Joe.

in the past international football has been a refuge for mediocre federation men like koeman, deschamps, southgate, etc. coaches who weren't good enough for elite club football, but who could get by in the international game by doing proper football man stuff: relying on talent advantage, implementing simple structures, being solid and focusing on set pieces. but now it feels like the space in international football for this kind coach is shrinking as it did in club football a decade or more ago, as the tactical cutting edge of club football is bleeding into the international game with coaches like tuchel and nagelsmann at the top, and the fact that teams overall are so much better coached, extremely fit and tactically disciplined. i'd say that's a good development because watching a koeman team is actual torture.

We want argentina team game tactics

Marvelous breakdown😁

The midfield was way to static in the first half, it was horrible.

Gotta put Jon in the thumbnail - I almost didn't click on this one

this content is so good for understanding the world cup games better!

I send this video to Koeman

Jon MacKenzie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

But in this game Koeman was likely keeping one of the Dutch wingbacks in the defensive line at all times, to avoid the risk of being outnumbered in the case of a Japanese counter-attack. They were struggling as well to create decent chances. As the Netherlands were never behind in the game, their cautious approach is more a sign of respect to recent Japanese successes than bad tactics imo. The substitutions however....

Maybe he forgot the question. We didn’t ask for plays.

Koeman is the worst manager at the tournament. Removed all the pace and structure with his subs and started playing haramball for no reason.

I’ve been impressed with how Jesse Marsh has my Canadian side playing exciting attacking football. We generate so many chances, we would almost be a dark horse threat if we had some clinical finishers.

I think there has been one upset so far. Cape Verde.

are we genuinely calling the netherlands one an upset? japan been good for years, i hate peoples ball knowledge sometimes, yes they are the majority favourite but real ball watchers knew they could have put up a result

Thanks! Really nice explained and agreed. Hope that NL learns from it, and that the statistics of not winning your first match favours the Dutch for the WC win. Not gonna happen sadly though😂

This is a great idea for some of us who struggle to watch the entire tifo pidcast which strays away from football a lot.

I saw this being made

Netherlands had the W in the pocket, but Ronald Southgate had to remind everyone what a dreadful manager he is.

Can you breakdown dechamps absolutely wasting doue on the wing so he doesn’t have to convince mbappe to press 😕

I LOVE THE NETHERLANDS