The national team of Ukraine played 4 matches at the World Cup, and in each of them it looked different. So far, only the experienced Luis Aragones managed to find a pain point on the body of the Blokhin team. The national teams of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Switzerland were left with nothing. Now in the quarterfinal on June 30, Ukraine will have to experience the Italian team press.
Despite the fact that the Italian national team is bled by disqualifications and injuries, it looks like a favorite in this pair. However, Marcello Lippi has to solve the problem of how to score a team that has not missed 309 minutes. This is the second series of impenetrability at the World Cup and it continues. Missing 390 minutes, the Swiss have already been sent home.
What else, besides reinforced concrete defense and a phenomenal goalkeeper, can the Ukrainian team surprise?
Two bulldogs
In all victorious games in midfield, Oleg Blokhin preferred a pair of defensive midfielders Tymoschuk - Shelaev. The main task that faced them was the selection of the ball, control of the ball and dispersal of attacks. At the same time, Tymoshchuk most of all owns the ball in the national team of Ukraine.
Statistics (in just 4 matches):
Tymoshchuk
Ball touches - 228
Losses - 15
Exact short gears - 124
Shelaev
Ball touches - 148
Losses - 13
Accurate short gears - 93
Nevertheless, the role of these two midfielders in the constructive game of Ukraine ahead is not as great as it could be, or as it seems to many. Especially if the opponent has a strong midfield. In the match against Switzerland against attacking players, Tymoshchuk and Shelaev made 12 assists out of 62. At the same time, T. and Sh. Made 10 losses for two. Even more surprising is the fact that yesterday Shelaev and Tymoshchuk never (!) Gave the ball to each other. For the two central midfielders, this is more than strange.
Secret weapon
The main weapon and the main direction of attacks of Ukraine in such cases is Oleg Gusev.
Gusev is the third player in the World Cup activity team:
Ball touches - 136
Losses - 17
Exact short gears - 59.
Gusev was especially successful yesterday's match - 59 touches of the ball and 43 assists. At the same time, Blokhin is not afraid to take risks and give Gusev the entire edge. In a match with Switzerland, in theory, Vorbey (unsuccessfully) and Gusin (successfully) should have insured him.
Gusev's passes to other players of Sat Ukraine:
Shevchenko - 12
Sparrow - 8
Tymoshchuk - 5
Shelaev - 5
Rebrov - 3
Back to Vashchuk and Gusin, Gusev gave 6 passes.
The ball is delivered to Gusev either by the near central defender, or Tymoshchuk.
Who passed to Gusev in a match with Switzerland:
Tymoshchuk - 10
Goose - 8
Shelaev - 4
If we take the Shelaev-Tymoshchuk bunch for zero kilometer, then the distribution of the ball’s movement in four directions looks like this:
Passing back to the central defenders - 30%
Pass forward on attackers 25%
Pass to the left flank (Kalinichenko) - 10%
Pass on the flank of Gusev - 35%
All these figures speak only about one thing - Gusev for Blokhin is the golden key for organizing the game.
Riddle for Lippi
Obviously, to confront Gusev on the flank, Italy will have the hero of the match against Australia Fabio Grosso. This is a tall and powerful player (1, 90 cm), however, surprisingly fast. His task will be to play against Sparrow, Shevchenko, who will be shifted to its flank. Grosso must complicate the reception of Gusev's assists. Given the problems with central defenders, Grosso is likely to pull back.
How does Lippi solve the problem with the edge? Moreover, in the Lippi team as such, there are no flanking players in the midfield. Italy prefers to play in three central midfielders, where Pirlo and Gattuso reserved two places. The vacancy of the central defender, which should shift to the left, is open.
According to the original idea of Lippi, De Rossi from Roma was supposed to play there, and his game in the match against Ghana was delightful, in many ways the interaction of Pirlo and De Rossi (25 passes to each other) in that match gave Italy the opportunity to replay the Essien Appia match. But De Rossi dropped out due to intemperance (4 matches of disqualification).
In the match against the Czech Republic, Perrota was located at this place, playing quite a bit by the way: 35 touches of the ball and at the same time 4 losses. In the match against Australia, this area was also given to Perrot. This time he played even worse. The same 35 touches, but already 8 losses.
Lippi, giving the installation for the match against Ukraine, must oblige Perrot to disrupt the delivery of the ball from Gusev to the forwards (Shevchenko, Voronin). A flank attacking player (in this case Totti) should stop Shelaev and Tymoschuk from giving the ball to Gusev. Theoretically on paper, this still looks like a problem for the Italian team.
When viewing the activity of the Italian national team in those areas where Gusev operates, in only one match the number of touches exceeded 15 touches per match. It was in the first match, when these areas were closed by De Rossi. But in all the other zones in the midfield in Italy everything is more than in order.
It so happened that the strongest side (or debugged) in the midfield of the Ukrainian team coincided with the weakest in the Italian team.
Is there any chance?
The statistics of the players allows us to consider the accents in the game, but it is not an absolute guarantee for predicting the events that will happen this Friday. There is no guarantee of the stability of Grosso or Gusev, there is no guarantee that Blokhin will not reinvent the wheel and release Yezersky. However, an analysis of all the successful matches of the Ukrainian team suggests that this zone is the main strength and the main weakness. Overlapping it, the opponent blocks the oxygen to Ukraine. Kalinichenko practically does not take part in the team game (excluding standards), and the pair Tymoshchuk - Shelaev are not ready to lead the attacking game of Ukraine through the center.
By the way, in the first lost match in this mythical zone, Javi played in Spain, who was the best according to statistics, having made 70 touches per match - most of all in the team.
Will Lippi be able to find his Xavi or whether Gusev will pull Ukraine on his wings to the semifinals, we will find out in three days. In the meantime, the fans of both teams are celebrating, Blokhin thinks, while the Italian team is trying to survive the shock of the attempted suicide of Juventus manager Gianluca Pessotto.
Ivan MAKAROV