[F101] Football : the mind game.

Well in the F101 columns I will be addressing the first timers who are new to the world of football and have just joined the league and are baffled by the discussions about the 4-4-2 or the man in the hole. Lets kick off the lecture....

So football is the game of superstars where a piece of individual genius produces the moment when millions hold their breath and the ball hits the back of the net breaking hearts of a nation while the other one goes into euphoric celebrations well you are correct but only partly. The piece of individual genius is not always individual (except of course if we are talking about certain individuals whose names start with R) the moment has been planned on the board by people whome we know as the coaching staff. So what are the different strategies a coach may adapt, well there are no rules all depends on the kind of players you have .. Lets see some examples.

Say Italy( I'll talk of the old Italian team as I haven't seen the new one a lot) has to play England, what does the Italian team think of. Well Lippi will walk into the room and think of cutting down the crosses and air balls delivered into the box, so he will put someone like gatusso to mark beckham, gatusso will not only mark but also give a harsh treatment to beckham. So the long ball is taken care of but English team has developed the short passes too so well put two midfielders on gerrad and lampard, ask nesta to beware when the ball is with these two and he will intercept those killer balls if the midfielder fails to stop them, now we have joe coal with those darting runs well he is most dangerous when he cuts in from wings toward the centre so the winger should take care of him and if he fails then the wing back will see him ( we all know italys defense 99/100 times they wont fail so lippi could have faith on them) now if everything fails or Rooney ( remember his name starts with R) produces a brilliant run out of nowhere then maldini will be there at sweeper position( well this is a player in between the line of defense and goalkeeper the old italian team had them ) to cut him down. Well the defense is in place but you cant win if you don't score. Well lippi knows that England will get frustrated eventually( any one will just imagine you have the ball for 60% of the time and none of your balls goes to the attackers and the other team is sitting back and smiling @#$%) so when they start pushing harder Ashley Cole will start making runs, neville will come forward to assist beckham then nesta will intercept the ball and release totti who will make a run pass the ball to the wing do a one two and meanwhile inzaghi will make a move towards goal, rio Ferdinand and the other defender will move to stop him totti fakes a pass to inzaghi and releases Vieri instead who was not looking interested till now and avoided the defenders attention , Vieri goes in and we know the result if vieri is one on one with a goalkeeper like Robinson. Italy sit back again and win 1-0.

Well looks easy so say south Korean coach adopts this strategy well beckham crosses the ball in and then suddenly the koreans realize that they are too short and too weak to stop the header from crouch and that's is goal no 1, when lampard passes the sweeper is overpowered by Rooney England leads 2-0, south Korea sit back but then England doesn't send their defenders forward so even if they try to break England has its full defense line organized, Korea looses 4-0. Well so Korea cant beat England, hmmm no they surely can but not with this strategy and I don't know which strategy works but guss hiddink does and that's why he is a genius as he guided Korea to semifinals of worldcup.

Well this was just one example but we can surely get an idea of how important the man in coat puffing cigarettes after cigarettes on the sideline is, if team has to win the world cup unless of course the team is Brazil( just remember most of their names starts with R)