“You have a taste, an idea, a way of feeling the game, but what you need to have is common sense and know who you are dealing with. We knew River is a better team than Tigre: they have better individuals, together they are better. So in that heads-up battle, if we wanted very long tenures, we couldn’t continue them. This is fun tooWith this powerful concept Diego Martinez closed the press conference after the 2-1 victory over the Monumental.
In it, he left two keys to how his team could, according to its own characteristics, snatch the passage to the 2022 League Cup semi-finals: cover the inner pass first; second, take advantage of the spaces behind the defense†
How could they cover the inside pass? Tigre proposed a 4-1-3-2, with Sebastián Prediger as central midfielder, Alexis Castro, Equi Fernández and Cristian Zabala leading the way.
“This schedule, a bit asymmetrical that we proposed with Cristian more closed, freeing up Marcelo Herrera’s position, meant that if we could recover, the ball would not reach the tire, and if it caused us discomfort, we would try neutralize it with a quick brand change between Sebastián Prieto and Abel Luciatti.”
As for the other half of the field, the left side of the millionaire attack, the idea was to neutralize the triangle formed by Milton Casco, Nicolás De La Cruz and Esequiel Barco† The interpreters for this were of course Alexis Castro, Equi Fernández and Lucas Blondel.
What finally happened? River had plenty of the ball. Overall, possession was 68% to 32% in favor of the hosts, peaking at 77% between 30 and 60 minutes. But little came. The only good chances, besides the medium and long range shots, were those that managed to break the chess set proposed by Tigre.
The offensive part had to do with fast transitions. And we need to talk about proper names: Facundo Colidio Yes Matthew Retegui† Diego Martínez decided to replace them with Pablo Magnin and Ijiel Protti. “It was because of physical characteristics that the power would give us races in space; we knew it would be short-lived and that before River reorganized, we would try to take advantage of the space†
It is that a characteristic of proposition teams such as those of Marcelo Gallardo, tries to make the length of the field smaller (and wider). They do this by moving their line of defense to the center of the lane. It gives him control, as he pushes the rival, but he also runs a risk: too many meters between the last defender and Franco Armani. That was what the Matador wanted to exploit. Tigre’s average possession was eight seconds, while River doubled it. El Matador made 208 passes, 101 forward. El Millonario achieved 644 passes, but only 201 forward.
It was Retegui’s fourth start in this competition and he proved to be a self-sufficient attacking prospect. An interesting precedent to understand its inclusion is the third date of the 2022 League Cup, against Lanús in La Fortaleza. Probably a match with a dynamic similar to that in the Monumental: Almirón’s men achieved 61% possession, but they practically did not disturb Gonzalo Marinelli and it was 0-0†
Thanks to this, added to an incredible courage so that the difference between theory and practice was not incomprehensible in the infernal context of the Monumental, and knowing how to hold back in moments of rival dominance, the visitor had a special night that he will always remember .
Source: Goal
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.