Today we want to share with you the analysis Inter Milan's centre forward and how he plays facing his own goal, a concept that has given Inter great success, reaching the Europa League Final.
Let's see the video first and comment it later.
The very first thing we can see is that, during the build up of the game, Romelu Lukaku is fixing the opponent's centre back not positionally but instead using his body, This prevents that the centre back can occupy more advanced positions and breaks the offside rule, at the same time generating many spaces for his teammates in dangerous positions close to the opponent's goal. Furthermore, this action makes that the attention of the defenders is focused on the centre forward, acting as a focal point and attracting players towards him, therefore generating many spaces at the edge of the box such that players coming from a second line can take profit of. We observe this behaviour continuously during different phases of the game, such that tactical advantages are generated all over the pitch. For instance, we see how this same concept allows Lukaku to play with one of the midfielders in the halfway line, generating space in behind the backline and occupying it after playing a bounce pass with that midfielder. And, even sometimes, he also acts as a third man.
Having a centre forward constantly fixing an opponent centre back permits the generation of space in behind the back line such that the concept previously described favours the generation of space in very dangerous positions, which can be occupied by the centre forward by turning, or even by the wingers through diagonal runs, from maximum/optimum width towards the centre. This has, as a consequence, the fact that dangerous players receive the ball in dangerous positions and with very little defenders left, as most of them have stayed behind as a consequence of the centre forward's movement.
We have seen how many advantages this concept provides the team tactically, but there are a few technical aspects that must be taken into consideration when performing this movements and that will provide other advantages to the team: using my own body to create space, use the opponent's body as a turning axis, and use the generated space between the ball and the opponent my placing my own body in between them.
Let's train it?
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