Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe’s Europa League journey started well, but only the previous one’s game was impressive.
Coach Fatih Terim’s decision to pull up the defensive line automatically took Galatasaray’s game to the next level. The tight space prevented Serie A’s Lazio from holding the ball. As the Italians tried to get around this by expanding horizontally, it slowed them down and making transit connections became more problematic.
Striker Ciro Immobile was simply not marked, he did not even have the opportunity to get behind the defense. Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri lacked the tactical cards to catch the Lions’ defense off guard. So much so that Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson, the player Sarri thought would shake his opponent’s defense, had to be replaced. An attempt to widen the offense horizontally rendered even a fast player like Mattia Zaccagni ineffective.
Another development in Galatasaray’s game came in the form of Halil Dervişoğlu’s vision that allowed the attackers to act as a single block. Dervişoğlu changed the direction of the game with successful moves by catching the ball as well as shadow runs.
The trio of Kerem Aktürkoğlu, Olimpiu Morutan and Alexandru Cicaldau are also very talented and dynamic. With Dervişoğlu’s vision, their improvisational plays caught Sarri and Lazio napping.
If Terim uses this plan constantly, Galatasaray could turn into a very dangerous team this season.
But one thing Galatasaray can reconsider is to keep all their attackers in the last-third block as it makes the defense easier for the opponent. There are simpler ways to get Dervişoğlu behind enemy lines, but they have to come from the midfield.
If Dervişoğlu and Cicaldau can move the opponent’s defenders away from their positions, it will create more space for both Aktürkoğlu and Morutan. It will also make it easier for Dervişoğlu and Cicaldau to stay behind the opponent’s defense.
Fenerbahce, the other giant of Istanbul, seems to have more work to do, especially in defense. He repeated all the defensive mistakes he made in the Sivasspor match in the Super League. He also received an incredible amount of blind passes and allowed an ordinary Eintracht Frankfurt to enter the game. Due to these random kicks, the team struggled to maintain their five-man defense during the Frankfurt passes. On top of that, the center of the defense was attacked by Frankfurt, as the midfielders could not take position in time.
To make matters worse, Enner Valencia, Diego Rossi and Mesut Özil tracked back. When Bright Osayi-Samuel and Ferdi Kadıoğlu did not participate in the defense, they got tired of running. Fenerbahçe has only one player who does not participate in the defense, and that is Özil. Each team may carry only one exceptional player. The higher the number of such players, the lower the defenses.
Fortunately for the Yellow Canaries, Frankfurt was not a good team, otherwise they would have suffered a bitter defeat.
Coach Vitor Pereira should also gradually adjust his offensive plan. It doesn’t make sense to play the game so fast and vertically because there are two fast players on both sides.
This fast and vertical game was one of the reasons why his defense got into a difficult situation against Frankfurt. This is not a sustainable plan for European success.
