Qatar vs India: A Draw Well Deserved Or Hard Earned?

Blue Tigers roared loud against Asian Champions, Qatar, as we held them to a historic 0-0 draw in the 2nd match of the joint World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 Qualifier held in Doha on 11th September. It was a game full of 'what-ifs' and 'maybes' as both teams had their share of moments over the 90 minutes. Let's dive into the analysis and see how we fared.




Disciplined Defending

India adapted and improvised their defensive structure efficiently against Qatar's ever-evolving offensive approach. They did well to constantly change between 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 as and when Qatar tried to find spaces to open up our defense. India was disciplined and organised to keep Qatari players at bay and avoid giving up unnecessary spaces infront of goal.

Defending with superiority in wide areas caused Qatar to shift constantly to both sides to no avail. Overloading wide areas to create 1v2 or 1v3 situations didn't allow Qatar to creep in behind our defenders. This discipline and rigidness to maintain an overload and superiority will help India again when we play Qatar on March 20, 2020.

Quick reaction to get back into a compact defensive shape helped India deal with Qatar's counter-attacks. This forced Qatar to push more players forward to attack and in-turn it gave India the advantage in our counter-attack situations.



Aggressive Attacking

Offensive transitions could have been quicker and direct to goal, versus an opponent who we knew wouldn't give many clear chances. Positional awareness to foresee players' movements and anticipation of opponents reactions will help us in our home game against Qatar.

Indian players were very courageous and showed strong character to consistently try and play passes inbetween lines. It proved effective at times when we could attract Qatari midfielders out of their positions and create space behind them.
Qatar lacked in defensive discipline and that helped India play more inter-line passes. If the decision to play final passes after better anticipation improves in the 2nd leg, we are sure to score and possibly give them the L!



Creative Counter-Attacking

Going back one step, principles of the game suggest, defending in superiority and then winning the ball gives more chances of a controlled counter-attack. And that's exactly what India did! Unlike against Oman, the counter-attacks in this game were controlled and creative. Qatar would have expected India to behave the same way we did against Oman, surprisingly to them, we played crisp passes to get out of pressure zones and attack further up the pitch.

Udanta was a sight to behold when given free space to make speedy runs. This helped India on quite a few occasions to cover up long lengths of the pitch and get closer to Qatar's goal. If he improves and quickens his decision making process along with the players in the game-centre, he could be the talisman we so dearly need!


As per my analysis and the way we have progressed from the Oman game, I'm sure in our next game against Bangladesh we'll get maximum points. Also, if we avoid making unforced errors and focus more on better decision making while in possession, as I mentioned in the analysis, we could be looking at a good boost to our goal difference.


I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!


Football - Analysed!



(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

India vs Oman: A Tale Of Two Halves!

India lost their first joint World-Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023 Qualification game against Oman on Thursday, in Guwahati, by the smallest of margins, 1-2. Let's get into the analysis and see what went wrong, what to improve and the positives to build on to.


Offensive Analysis

While maintaining possession, India tends to combine well to build up. They attract the opponent out of their defensive organisation and spread them out. This gives more space for the midfielders and attackers to combine and take advantage of.
When the opponent is disorganised, winning the 2nd ball after playing long balls helps India gain control of the middle-third of the pitch. Inter-line passing to break Oman's defensive lines gives India a good advantage to create an overload in their area and more chances to get into scoring positions.
If the positioning and involvement out of the game-centre improves, we could be an attacking threat to reckon with.

On the other hand, over-reliance on Ashique's movement towards the left side and Chhetri's finishing abilities, which are no doubt the best in the country currently, doesn't give us many other options to explore while in an offensive transition to counter-attack.
Over-working and in-turn tiring them both out, can also be a reason why we couldn't create a single serious chance to score after the 65th minute.

The unwillingness to push up together as an offensive unit to attack, rather than it only being the attacker's responsibility clearly shows lack of cohesion and needs to improve on an immediate basis.
The tired and complacent body-language and behaviour, as early as in the 60th minute, doesn't give a good account of the team and justifies how much the players need a longer and more competitive league structure.

In situations of isolation, players need to have better awareness and decision making. Doing this would give them an advantage in the space-time synthesis. The more time and space we have, the more advantage we will have over the opponent as their decisions will be based on our actions and not on their own movements.

The little combinations upfront between our attackers, incorporated by Coach Igor, have shown sparks of promise when executed well. In this particular case, Chhetri drops down to attract Oman's central defender. This opens up a hole in their defensive line and creates an imbalance. Udanta makes the most use of this and unleashes his speed to win the ball on the flick.
After that, India need to be proactive to create a numerical superiority situation in their defensive-third which might have given us a good chance to score.



Defensive Analysis

When India applies good pressure-cover tactics while being out of possession, we tend to control the opponent and not let them break into our defensive-third. It forces Oman to turn back and re-organise their offensive movements. Quick pressure from out-of-sight of opponents unsettles them. And finally when they force their passes in behind our defensive line, India's defensive structure stays rigid and gives us the desired outcome.

As we talked about India needing to improve on their good offensive unity, the same can be said for their defensive unity. Only three attackers pressuring on the ball in our offensive-third while the rest of the players waiting near the half-way line, leaves a huge gap for Oman to take advantage of. Even then, when Oman reaches our second wave of defenders, the attacking trio up-front show no initiative to help out.

Ultra-defensive mindset gives the opponent levy to use time and space as per their discretion, without any real pressure from Indian players. It could have been an instruction from the coaching staff, nevertheless, didn't turn out to be a good one. Had we put pressure on the opponents after clearing the ball in the middle-third, we could have pushed them further behind and averted them from piling pressure on us and scoring.

Individual and 'glocal' (local but as a group) defensive duties were not clear. If the message isn't clear to the players, the opponent directly benefits from unforced errors. Here, lack of understanding and communication leaves players in India's left corridor looking clueless and gives Oman the advantage to push inside our defensive zone to try to create scoring opportunities.

Maintaining a good defensive line and shape is always a concern even for the biggest of teams, but when maintained well, it gives amazing results. The same happened for India. When holding a good defensive line and structure, we won the ball and took control of the tempo. Getting out of tight spaces became easier and finding passes to disorganise Oman into conceding a freekick gave us a good numerical and spatial advantage in the middle-third.


Looking at the analysis, there are a few areas to improve on but there are also moments which we should be applauding. We can be sure about beating Oman the second-time round when we visit them in November, if we work on these areas and are confident in our abilities.
If India wants to get through the qualifiers, we need to focus on some of these specific aspects and have the conviction and determination to get points off of Qatar next week.



I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!


(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Liverpool vs Arsenal: Klopp's Defensive Masterclass

We always attribute Liverpool as this mighty attacking team which always presses high and fast and goes to goal with speed and precision. Let's look at it from a different perspective. What does Liverpool do when they don't have the ball? What do they do in their defensive moment which makes them an unstoppable attacking threat?

Defensive-Third

Liverpool employs aggressive pressure even in their defensive-third, making the opponent midfield uncomfortable on the ball. Their wing-backs, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson, put pressure higher up the pitch and their centre-backs, Van Dijk and Matip, wait for the long balls and give cover in deep areas. This makes the opponent play long balls forcefully in wide areas and has a greater chance of them losing the ball.


Middle-Third

As soon as Liverpool loses the ball in the midfield, they tend to aggressively pressure the ball and win it as soon as they can. Players who are away from the game-centre try to organise so that the opponent is forced to play back or play long to win the 2nd ball.

Final-Third

Liverpool go all out while pressuring, by blocking passing lines and forcing the opponent to pull offensive players behind to play out from the back or directly play long behind the defensive line. If the opponent tries to play long and win 2nd balls, Liverpool overloads the area and creates numerical advantage to win the ball and attack swiftly.

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

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(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Premier League Preview! Vol. 4

In this section I will be previewing all 20 Premier League teams and give a different viewpoint as to how the teams are going to use their pre-season experience to come out on top.


In this post we'll take a look at the strongest and weakest moments from Southampton FC, Tottenham Hotspurs, Watford FC, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Let's get right into it:


Southampton FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Tottenham Hotspurs

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Watford FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

West Ham United

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!



Football - Analysed!



(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Premier League Preview! Vol. 3

In this section I will be previewing all 20 Premier League teams and give a different viewpoint as to how the teams are going to use their pre-season experience to come out on top.


In this post we'll take a look at the strongest and weakest moments from Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Norwich City FC and Sheffield United. Let's get right into it:


Manchester City

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Manchester United

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Newcastle United

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Norwich City FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Sheffield United

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!


Football - Analysed!


(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Premier League Preview! Vol. 2

In this section I will be previewing all 20 Premier League teams and give a different viewpoint as to how the teams are going to use their pre-season experience to come out on top.

In this post we'll take a look at the strongest and weakest moments from Chelsea FC, Crystal Palace FC, Everton FC, Leicester City FC and Liverpoool FC. Let's get right into it:


Chelsea FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Crystal Palace FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Everton FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Leicester City FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Liverpool FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!

(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Premier League Preview! Vol. 1

In this section I will be previewing all 20 Premier League teams and give a different viewpoint as to how the teams are going to use their pre-season experience to come out on top.

In this post we'll take a look at the strongest and weakest moments from AFC Bournemouth, Arsenal FC, Aston Villa FC, Brighton and Hove Albion and Burnley FC. Let's get right into it:


AFC Bournemouth

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Arsenal FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Aston Villa FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Brighton and Hove Albion

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

Burnley FC

Offensive Moment

Defensive Moment

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!

(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Algeria Bossing at the AFCON's!

Algeria has been phenomenal at the African Cup of Nations this summer, reaching the finals and out performing all the other countries in almost every aspect. Having an Expected Goals (xG) rate of 8.3 but still scoring 12 goals is no easy feat. On the other hand, they've conceded just 2 goals till now in the competition, even though their Expected Goals Against (xGA) rate was a staggering 5.3! It clearly shows their dominance in the tournament, BOSSING everyone by being a constant threat at the opponent goal while maintaining stability in the defensive third. Here's my analysis on Algeria at the AFCON's.


Offensive Organisation

Making optimum utilization of the new rule, Algerian players come inside the box to receive the ball from their goalkeeper during goalkicks. The 4 midfield players constantly keep switching, in-sync, to unsettle the opponent and create as many passing lines as possible to split the opponent and break their organisation. As soon as that is established, they initiate their attack with passes/crosses to teammates with open space, advantage of time and numerical parity/superiority in the outside corridors. The cross/pass comes in the box at a moment when the opponent's body orientation is opposite to goal, which makes it difficult for them to defend.


Defensive Transition

Player closest to the ball puts pressure on the ball carrier, irrespective of his positioning. In that moment, other players close down passing options so that there's not much choice for the opponent and the ball carrier can be trapped. In this case, the pressure is from behind the opponent, while the other players get closer to supporting opponents. In the defensive third, Algeria still maintains close proximity to their opponents so as so not give many options to the opponent. This makes them mentally overworked emotionally aggressive to try and dribble or shoot from distance.


Defensive Organisation

Algeria has a tendency to not put pressure on the opponent defensive line, so as to give them options to get in the middle third where they have more players, less space and greater chance to win the ball. The midfielders will try to be in a man-marking position, which might prove to be fatal for them at some point just like in the analysis, but it has worked for them most of the time. They always try to maintain parity or superiority in the game-center and overload in the middle, infront of the goal.


Offensive Transition

Their most favoured option is to cover as much space, as quickly as possible. It can be with a pass or with driving the ball. This way they gain spatial advantage over the opponent quickly and put players in attacking positions to support the ball carrier. Supporting players get close to the opponent to release 1-2 own-team players in free spaces to gain advantage in numbers as well as space.

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

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(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

De-constructing LA Galaxy's Dominating Performance Against Toronto FC!

LA Galaxy has been one of the top teams in the MLS this season, comfortably sitting in 2nd position in the Western Conference and also having star player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as the 2nd highest top scorer in the league currently! Their game last night against Toronto FC ended with the scoreline of 2-0 in their favour and today I'll try to give you an idea of how LA Galaxy played in all 4 moments of the game and dominated proceedings.

Offensive Organisation

When playing out from the back, they try to organise on the pitch to always have numerical parity or superiority in proximity to the ball. Attracting opponents towards the game-centre in the middle corridor and opening up spaces on the outsides for gaining numerical parity and spatial advantage.

In the middle third, after a long ball, their main concern is to win the 2nd ball successfully. This helps them gain space near the opposing goal and they can start creation of chances.

In the final third, using Zlatan as target man and the outside corridors for superiority, crossing and finishing is their strongest suit.

Defensive Transition

As soon as the ball is lost, in a local perspective, the closest player pressurises the ball carrier in the direction away from goal. Glocally, closest team-mates give cover by isolating the player with the ball, giving him no option but to dribble or move away from the area of pressure. Once that is established, the team in a global perspective, gives defensive unity and try to get in shape quickly.

Defensive Organisation

First line of pressure, the striker, directs the ball carrier inside, where there more chance of winning the ball and quickly getting into an offensive phase.

The second line, midfielders, maintain a zonal system where each player is responsible for blocking a passing lane going forward.

The defensive midfielder stabilizes the midfield line by closing down runs of opponent striker/s coming down to receive the ball.

The defensive line maintains shape and organises to apply pressure, cover and balance at all times.

Offensive Transition

First and direct option for LA Galaxy is to go as close to opponent goal, as soon as possible. It can be with a dribble or a pass or a long ball, but the priority is to get the ball up the pitch.

Other players support the ball carrier to create situations of numerical superiority in side corridors.

With number and time in their control, they tend to make late but calculated runs behind the opponent defensive line for gaining opportunities to score.

I hope you enjoyed my analysis and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!


(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Brazil vs Argentina - Analysed!

Copa America 2019 semi-final, Brazil vs Argentina, might be the biggest game in men's football this summer and my idea for analysing this game would be to see how Brazil's moments of being 'out of possession' in the competition would come up against Argentina's offensive threat when they have possession.

Although Brazil have dominated possession by having an average of 68.8% of the ball and are yet to concede a goal, I've focused on the moment of them losing possession as they haven't faced that situation much during the competition. It would be interesting to see them deal with such circumstances and the way they react to conceding a goal in that manner.

Here we can clearly see how difficult it is for Brazil to be composed in the period of 'transition to winning possession'. A reckless mistake in the middle-third of the pitch could result in an overload from the opposition and Brazil might have to face an 'out of possession' situation in spatial and numerical inferiority.

Brazil also has a tendency of gaining numerical superiority in their offensive approach which makes the opposition sit back and try to contain constant waves of attackers. On the other hand, offensive unity and providing stability for the game-center is something that they lack and can be exploited.

Argentina hasn't been performing upto their reputation, which says a lot about them still reaching the semi-finals without full use of their potential. I've analysed their capability of being a threat during moments of being 'in possession' and not making optimum use of their caliber. They've had only 51.8% possession and still translated that to having 13 shots/game with 43% being on target! Here onwards, the possibilities are endless for them.

Argentina has been using the width and depth of their team to make supportive runs by players off the ball constantly. That gives them more leverage against opponents who have difficulty tracking players off the ball when they go out of their peripheral vision and gain commanding positions inbetween lines.

Argentina's 'transition to win possession' is direct towards goal and requires hardly any passes/dribbles going away from goal. They tend to attract as many opponents in the game-center to open up spaces closer to goal for a situation of numerical and spatial parity.

I hope you enjoyed my analysis on one of the biggest games of this summer and I'm eagerly looking forward to your invaluable feedback, suggestions and ideas. Do like, share and follow the page to show your love!

Football - Analysed!

(Video and Statistics Credits - WyScout.com)

Football - Analysed!

The first and most important thing about me you'd have already figured out is, my love for football!

I'm fortunate enough to make a career out of my passion. Not many people get that opportunity and I'm really grateful for it!

Started my career as a 'Professional Football Performance Analyst' in the 2018-19 season with Estoril Praia SAD in Portugal. 37 games, 55 goals, some amazing wins, few heartbreaking losses and one wonderful season later, I can assure you how important analysis in professional football is.

I'll be using my background in analysis to share my thoughts, ideas, insights, skills and viewpoints on interesting matches for you all to see the beautiful game from a critical and in-depth perspective.

Do show your love and support by liking, sharing & following the page. Also, looking forward to suggestions, ideas, possibilities & alternate views.

Football - Analysed!