Shadow Scholar Syndicate: WM 2018--Day Five Recap

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All of the calories and none of the intoxication!

This dog don’t bite ; )

Day 5: Recap

Record—

Spread: 4-10

Straight up: 7-5-2

Hot Girl Standings

Country	Tally	Games Played
Mexico	14	1
Spain	10	1
Argentina	9	1
Russia	9	1
South Korea	9	1
Denmark	8	1
Costa Rica	8	1
Brazil	8	1
Serbia	7	1
Iceland	7	1
Egypt	7	1
Tunisia	7	1
Panama	6	1
Peru	6	1
Morocco	6	1
Iran	6	1
Belgium	6	1
Croatia	5	1
Australia	5	1
Nigeria	5	1
Sweden	5	1
Portugal	4	1
Uruguay	4	1
France	4	1
Germany	4	1
Switzerland	4	1
England	3	1
Saudi Arabia	2	1

Interesting day of football. Plenty of fun. Loads of controversy. No shortage of talking points. England even won despite the dirty diving/rugby tackling Tunisians and a biblical plague of mosquitos!

Your friendly bookie scouted the Sweden match much heavier than the others today. It was imperative that a take a close look Germany’s next opponent. I wouldn’t be fulfilling my solemn duty as a proud son of the Fatherland if I didn’t fastidiously investigate the strategy of our next foe.

Er….right. That’s what we were doing.

S.S.S. Tactical Breakdown

Let’s start with the Swedes. The fact that they picked up three points makes me anxious. The performance arouses a bit of fear too…albeit only a bit.

Let’s have a look at what Andersson did with his limited personnel.

Lineup—Sweden—PROJECTED—4-5-1 (6/5/18)

John Guidetti

Emil Forsberg Marcus Berg Sebastian Larsson

Jimmy Durmaz Albin Ekdal

Martin Olsson Victor Lindeöf

Andreas Granqvist Pontus Jansson

Robin Olsen

Lineup—Sweden—ACTUAL—4-4-2 (6/18/18)

Ola Toivonoen Marcus Berg

Emil Forsberg Viktor Claesson

Sebastian Larsson Albin Ekdal

Mikael Lustig L. Augustinsson

Andreas Granqvist Pontus Jansson

Robin Olsen

An attempt at a more menacing formation achieved via dusting off old man and reinserting Viktor Claesson. Larsson’s positioning proved rather difficult to sort out. I had him on the wing for a large portion of the match. He and Ekdal switched often, as did Granqvist and Jansson.

Doubtful we’ll see something similar against the Krauts. Kiese Thelin got some warmup time in and Guidetti matches up better against Boateng. Surprised to see so much spunk from Berg, but I imagine he’ll be backing up the two younger strikers next time. Larsson will surely have to move further upfront. Anyone can take his place in defensive midfield…except Gustav Svensson.

One thing this bookie got 100 percent wrong was the perceived lack of imagination among the back four. I didn’t even think about switching Lustig over to the left and letting him take advantage of all the attention paid to Augustinsson.

Hmmm…nah they still suck. No way they’ll be able to muscle their way out of the back like they did today. They’ll be pinned down by our attack. Most of the scoring chances also came from in-swingers that the Koreans couldn’t compete for.

Not too concerned.

Lineup—Belgium—PROJECTED—4-2-1-3 (6/9/18)

Eden Hazard Romelu Lukaku Dries Mertens

Kevin de Bruyne

Moussa Dembele Jan Vertongen

Nacer Chadli Thomas Menuier

Vincent Kompany Toby Alderweireld

Thibault Courtois

Lineup—Belgium—ACTUAL—3-4-3 (6/18/18)

Eden Hazard Romelu Lukaku Dries Mertens

Yannick Carrasco Thomas Menuier

Axel Witsel Kevin de Bruyne

Jan Vertongen Toby Alderweireld

Dedryck Boyata

Thibault Courtois

Martinez take’s a page directly from Löw’s playbook here, evening testing out Menuier in Kimmich’s role. The Belgians wish to emulate the German formula. As the first half performance might suggest, this actually may be a rather daft idea.

The favorites in many books—including this one—didn’t really get rolling until Menuier and de Bruyne switched early in the second half. Once they did that they were able to find their natural rhythm and were fine. They did even better once Dembele came in and they let the midfield rest.

Should have scored more goals against the debutantes, but I saw nothing to affect my overall pick.

Lineup—England—PROJECTED—4-3-3 (6/18/18)

Raheem Sterling Harry Kane

Jaime Vardy

Jesse Lingard Eric Dier Dele Alli

Danny Rose Kyle Walker

Gary Cahill John Stones

Jordan Pickford

Lineup—England—ACTUAL—3-1-4-2 (6/18/18)

Harry Kane Raheem Sterling

Ashley Young Kieran Trippier

Jesse Lingard Dele Alli

Jordan Henderson

Kyle Walker John Stones Harry Maguire

Jordan Pickford

Don’t like it. So many things not to like. Sterling is totally ineffective on the right. Trippier and Young as the set-piece takers? What? Some argue that Henderson in front of Stones was an ingenious screen. I think those two cats needn’t be jockeying for possession. Lingard and Dele Alli also played well below their potential on inward assignments.

Bookie no like!

Southgate’s surprising choices made for an entertaining first half, but the makeshift wingbacks eventually deteriorated in their unnatural roles and matters got boring quick.

Someone’s getting too creative. We all know what happens then.

Weighing in on VAR

Does the whole Ferjani Sassi/Harry Kane Penalty Mix-Up Prove this system doesn’t help the game?

Horrible day for VAR. No denying that. That’s still an incredibly fucking stupid question. Technology, along with improved utilization of it by the humans operating it, can really help the game.