Great clash between 2 of the strongest teams in the Emirates!

That’s one of the good feelings about living in this country, every weekend there’s, at least, one big match to see!

This time, I was at the U21 League observing Shabab Al Ahli vs Al Jazira.

The home team – Shabab Al Ahli – presented a conservative approach for the majority of the match, with a few good young talents, technically skilled.

The team presented a GK+4+4+2 formation for the majority of the Game, in a medium block, preferring to keep that position and enjoying the space left behind, in the opposite’s half, normally with the ball on the floor through the wingers (11 or 27) or even with the Attacking Midfielder (7) or the Striker (60).

These players were different between them, some more skilled and others more powerful and fast, but they have a superior quality and can create problems to virtually any defensive line!

Still on the attacking stages, I would reinforce that the support of the side-backs when attacking wasn’t massive, not a lot of inclusions on the last third and crosses.

Perhaps, due to the distance they needed to run from the medium to low block until the last third, or just because the team preferred to bet on fast counters when recover, giving more chances on the 4 players mentioned to go ahead and create danger and goal situations.

From the defending stages, what remains from this team was mainly 2 things:

. First, the difficulties of the 2 CB’s in the movements of the opposition Attacking Midfielders (10 and 73) behind the side backs, in small diagonal movements that weren’t correctly supported by the Defensive Midfielders of Shabab and, therefore, create a confusion that needs to be addressed to better understand who presses and who covers;

. Secondly, the Defensive Midfielders also struggled on winning the second ball coming from their own defenders. Meaning the distance between sectors should be greater than ideal.

The Abu Dhabi team – Al Jazira – was more rigid yet aggressive on their tactical approach and positioning with and without the ball, opting for a GK+4+1+4+1 in both moments. 

Defensively, the team opted to make a high pressing with the 3 players at the top – Striker and wingers – pressing the defensive line very aggressively, Goalkeeper included and wingers focusing on the CB’s, leaving the side backs (when Shabab was able to make the ball go from one side to the other) alone and, therefore, forcing the Attacking Midfielders to go regularly to the sides pressing. This created some situations where they got outnumbered in the centre and struggled at times.

Offensively, the team was more pragmatic, getting the ball directly to the players on top and then playing from there. They were able to create a lot of good opportunities from the diagonal movements I spoke earlier from both AM (10 and 73) behind the side backs and the CB’s of opposing team. 

Additionally, the Defensive Midfielder, although physically being a player that is not as powerful as others on the field, was a very good addition when playing and aggressive on the 2nd balls.

Although the first half was very balanced, the second half was predominantly dominated by Al Jazira, as they were able to keep the rhythm high.

Also felt that the most talented players weren’t able to match the physical demands of the match, as the rhythm was always high and good.

Good talents, some things to focus upon, some work ahead, as it should be when we are observing 17, 18 and 19 years old players.

Without wanting to be repetitive, this was another demonstration of the growth of this UAE Football landscape!

The pace of the Game is tremendously higher than it used to be 5 or 10 years ago, and increasing every year.

The responsible?

The Coaches, definitely.

The Players hunger to reach higher levels, for sure.

But, as you’ve been reading from my texts, the Structure behind the scenes is the what allow all stakeholders to fully focus on the Football Development.

And that is a great signal.

It takes time, naturally, but the results are being visible every week, every year.