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This is how the two teams lined up. Not many surprises from Habas. No Edu since he had a little niggle before the match. Fowler setting up his team pretty much similarly to his Brisbane Roar side of last year.
SCEB- 3-4-1-2
ATKMB - 3-5-2
SCEB- 3-4-1-2
ATKMB - 3-5-2
1st half- Now first thing that stood out for me was the positioning of the players. Because SCEB had Surchandra ( a winger) and Scott Neville (a RB and a CB), they maintained width on the right hand side while the attacking players on the left maintained the width there.
Pilkington was their main main in the front three. He was constantly swapping places and slipping in places with Balwant and Maghoma. With Surchandra out wide, Maghoma played quite centrally. Their "front 3" played really centrally.
Das and Gharami had no intention of attacking. Instead, on the left is where most of their forwards created overloads.Steinam had a great game. He was afforded a lot of time and space in the middle of the park. Meitei would be infront of him to help with progression of the ball.
Now with ATKMB, it was a typical game. 3 CBs looking to play long balls, attacking wing backs, counter attack,tf usual. What this game had different was McHugh in the midfield. He acted as the holding midfielder. Jayesh Rabe was brought in to compliment him an be more attacking.
With Edu missing, I suppose this was a decent option. The forwards showed no intention of pressing but usually played in the same line with Steinman. Although what's the point if you're still letting him run free?
SCEB showed some great patterns in play in the first half. They were able to overload the left hand side using Pilkington, Balwant said and even Steinman. The space between Jhingan and Pritam was quite vulnerable at times. Their patterns in play shows a high emphasis on shadow
Play in training. They've definitely worked on these.
2nd half- sure ATKMB scored. It was a typical habas goal. SCEB lose possession on the left flank, which Meitei responsible for in the middle. He doesn't close Rane quickly enough and he's able to progress the ball easily.
2nd half- sure ATKMB scored. It was a typical habas goal. SCEB lose possession on the left flank, which Meitei responsible for in the middle. He doesn't close Rane quickly enough and he's able to progress the ball easily.
Javi flicks it on, and Krishna scores. As he does. Then it came time to park the bus. Manvir was brought in for Williams and imo it made sense. The plan would've been to win the ball, play it long to your strong striker to hold up, and bang involve everyone around you.
And the 2nd goal is kinda exactly that. Long ball forward, Manvir runs with the ball but no one in support. So he goes all by himself and scored. 2-0. So although it's a striker, it's a move to shift the team into a more defensive mindset.
Now with SCEB, the front 3 were very flexible. With Balwant slotting at 10 to allow pilkington to move forward, or Maghoma going central to play 1-2s with the others. We didn't see Balwant drift to the right or Maghoma to the left. So it's Pilkington dictating when to run in the
Box. Although a very free flowing mindset, this cost them a lot as they lacked presence in the box. Empty spaces in the box meant that SCEB have to get their moves perfect to progress collective in the box. They can't really capitalized on slip ups. Bold but maybe naive.
It mad sense to see Balwant start as he can play Left or as a striker but he's way past his prime. Rafique had a good game. Slotted the 10 to allow pilkington go forward because because of the fluid attack, we saw him go left too. Not completely ideal.
Learning-
SCEN: lots of positives. Played a lot better than what was expected. But could do with ST. Ideally Balwant should be dropped. For now, pilkington could go upfront. Eugenson could be the man to provide the quality. Balwant is a great player but not creative enough.
SCEN: lots of positives. Played a lot better than what was expected. But could do with ST. Ideally Balwant should be dropped. For now, pilkington could go upfront. Eugenson could be the man to provide the quality. Balwant is a great player but not creative enough.
Meitei may not be good enough. The departure of Milan Singh seems like a mistake atm. Although rafique could play there too. Lots of options but not top quality. Also, what's the use of their set piece coach? They had horrible set pieces.
ATKMB- I'll say this again, they miss Edu. You feel that Edu would've created a lot more havoc and unsettle Steinman more. They gave away too much possession. They may have won but shouldn't have. Habas needs to find that line between playing on the counter and straightforward up
Not keeping possession at all. Any better team would've put them out way earlier. They definitely miss Soosairaj as they've were very inactive on the left hand side. They can't maintain this for too long and need to start creating more. Maybe with Edu's return who knows.
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