Is The Future Strikerless For Spain?

When Spain played Scotland last month in Alicante,two goals and an assist from David Silva killed off any hope Scotland had of making the Euros via a playoff. One may say that this was a typical Spain performance and an expected win,it was,but for one important change. Vicente Del Bosque played David Silva as a false 9 against the Scottish and it paid off. With Fernando Torres out of form and Llorente,Negredo and Soldado lacking international experience,can we say that this move is a permanent one?



Another option for Del Bosque is to play Villa up front and bring in Pedro to play wide left, but for quite some time now Villa has been starting out wide left and then cuts in for both club and country.With the number of world class midfielders Spain have got,their best option maybe  is to play one of their midfielders as a withdrawn forward. If Del Bosque was mulling over this option in the past few weeks,he got another reason to implement the strikerless formation,as Pep Guardiola played Fabregas in a similar sort of a role against Bilbao last weekend.

Cesc Fabregas started among the front three in a 4-3-3 ish shape,but was rarely the most forward player for Barcelona.As we can see below his average position is almost at the halfway line.

But more importantly Fabregas got forward at times,and scored a typical striker's goal. So it makes perfect sense for Del Bosque to include another part of Barcelona's successful style of play. His experiment with David Silva against Scotland was certainly a success as Silva stamped his class all over Scotland's defence. This move can make Spain even stronger and it will also result in a better utilization of resources. As Del Bosque prefers playing both Alonso and Busquets as the holding midfielders in a double pivot,that leaves room for only four more attacking players. And as Xaviesta are a must,so there remains only one more midfield slot. With the likes of Villa,Silva,Fabregas,Mata,Cazorla,Pedro,Thiago all competing for that slot, it is a pity that we get to see some of the best talents sitting on the bench. So including an extra midfielder for an out and out striker must be too a great tempation for Del Bosque to resist. If this is the case then there are more dark days for Fernando Torres ahead.

Certainly if  Del Bosque plays Silva in the "Messi Role" against England,then we will know for better whether Spain can play with a false 9 or not. With some of these tactical changes,it takes a lot of game time to adjust,as Manchester United found out with their interpretation of the stikerless formation with Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez. They did manage to attain the understanding and fluency which led them to great success but national managers have far more less time with their team than club managers. So against England(supposedly a better team than Scotland), we will know for sure if this move will work for Spain.

With all of the front four with the ability to play anywhere in the final third,Spain may be moving closer to Johan Cryuff's total football. Certainly with players like Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique who have very good abilty with the ball for defenders, Spain have the talent to emulate the great Dutch team of 70s. Carlos Puyol and Xabi Alonso more traditonal players who play in specific roles are on the wrong side of their 30s and replacing them with players like Javi Martinez and Santi Cazorla will only mean another step in the direction of Total Football.

And it would be a travesty if we don't thank Pep Guardiola and Barcelona for their contribution to Spain's National Football Team. Although Real Madrid fans would hate to admit it,Spain certainly wouldn't be the same without Barcelona. Not only does Barcelona provide majority of the starting line-up,but also the style of play,the tiki-taka which helped Spain become the world champions was perfected first at the Nou Camp. And now if Spain implement the false 9,then the only difference over the past few years of Spain playing and out and out striker and Barca playing with Messi,will also be eliminated. David Silva certainly is no Leo Messi but as a part of a strong 4 man attack,he will be devastating as his second goal against Scotland shows

I would love to see Spain line-up this way

Man City Vs Tottenham

Manchester City can now look to buy the biggest of stars with the promise of Champions League football.With rumors going round that a certain Kaka maybe at Eastlands next season,Sir Alex will have to do a lot more to keep the nosy neighbours silent.City's win also brought joy for Stoke, who now qualify for next season's Europa League as a result of securing a place at Wembley.

The main problem for Tottenham this season has been the lack of a quality  striker who gets you 20 goals a season.Tevez has scored more goals than Crouch,Roman and Defoe put together.Crouch's strike here late last season sent Spurs into the Champions League at City's expense - and he was unwittingly on the scoresheet again as he deflected James Milner's cross past keeper Carlo Cudicini in the first half.

Man City Formation

Mancini as usual went in a with a single striker Dzeko,he started with Johnson unlike aginst Everton so Silva moved in the Attacking Mid position and Yaya Toure stayed back to support De Jong.Silva wasnt that effective as usual when cutting in  from the left,wasnt given that time and space with the ball.Richards had a good game with his runs forward and he won a number of crucial headers in both the boxes.He helped out his center backs agianst Crouch.Dzeko has a had a horrible start to his career at eastlands but has been working hard in his last few matches.He held up the ball well to bring his teammates into play and was physical agianst the Spus defenders,but as always his finishing let him down.Having said all this,City didnt dominate the game they were happy to sit back and have to thank Hart for making some vital saves.Zabaleta was replaced  after a nose injury by Kolarov later in the game.The 10 minute cameo by Tevez was lively but only time will tell whether he will play against Stoke where Dzeko's physical prowess and height may be more effective.

Spurs Formation after Palacios's injury

Spurs initially started with Sandro and Palacios in the middle and Modric out wide.Modric is not a winger and  he doesnt enjoy playing out on the left side of the midfield.As usual Crouch and VDV were playing the big man small man role,though both werent that effective.The liveliest tottenham player on the pitch was Lennon who put in many crosses which none of the spurs forwards managed to take advantage of.After Pienaar's entry,Modric was back in the center and he controlled the game like normally he does.A fantastic player deserves better teammate and is my choice for the player of the season.Danny Rose managed to make many runs forward but was unable to get in quality balls into the box.

Talking Points

1. Both the sides initially started with high tempo and pressing,which lead to some good end to end football but the quality in the final third was poor from both the sides.
2. Modric and Silva were the playmakers for their team but Modric stamped his class and dictated play better than the Spaniard.All of Tottenham's play went through the Croatian and he was excellent in his passing.

       3.Carlo Cudicini replaced Gomes although Harry said that the Brazilian was injured reports    suggested that,Gomes was dropped.The Italian showed that he was still top quality with some good saves especially a one on one with Tevez.

        4.City still aren't the perfect side and have some problems in defending,for Spurs dominated much of the game and the clearest sign of Spurs' complete domination came when City got Tevez ready for action, only for Mancini to seemingly change his mind and send on Vieira for Johnson in an attempt to restore some semblance of order to proceedings.

Conclusion

The same old problem for Tottenham i.e lack of goals from their forwards,they played well and deserved to get something from the game.Roberto Mancini knows that he will have cash in his hand to get some big money signings this summer but Eastland would be expecting more attacking football from the blues.