Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Euro 2016 has provided continental football with a shot in the arm. Teams full of silk and style are being vanquished by more pragmatic systems. Italy and Wales have played to a level that transcends individual talent, with more fancied Spain and Belgium belying brilliance with poor collective efforts. It seems football at both club and international level has taken another form; the world of tiki-taka being deconstructed by defensive pragmatism and agricultural football. Pep Guardiola and Vincent Del Bosque teams are being defeated by on-field disciples of Diego Simeone and Antonio Conte. Mourinho is no longer the bastion of results football in a sea of possession purists, teams built to withstand — namely Leicester and Atletico — are growing in stature and influence.
This evolution has forced the continent’s elite to adapt. France and Germany could both field line-ups devoid of a central striker, with players of the ilk of Mario Gotze and Antoine Griezmann capable of floating in a fashionable false-nine role. Spain used this to great effect during Euro 2012 with Fabregas playing in the hole. However, this year La Roja came up short with a similar system. Alvaro Morata, more of a second striker or trequartista than conventional target-man, adopted the forward’s role and failed to make an impact in Spain’s crucial round of 16 tie with Italy. Italy crowded the middle of the pitch, forfeiting space on the wings to suffocate Spain’s central play-makers. Spain lacked the ability in the air to exploit this space and contest with the Italian defense on crosses, the introduction of more conventional striker Aritz Aduriz a nod to this imbalance. Spain’s attacking threat was crucially blunted and Italy triumphed.
France and Germany have learned from Spain’s mistakes and both have fielded conventional number nines in their knockout matches. Mario Gomez, the Besiktas forward, embodies everything that Germany’s footballing dogma does not. He is strong in the air and a great hold up player, albeit not extremely mobile on the dribble or adept at running into channels. France’s own number nine Olivier Giroud of Arsenal provides a similar skill-set, forfeiting pace and creativity for a genuine presence up-front. Both sides have reaped the benefits of this pragmatic approach. Giroud has proven the perfect foil for Griezmann, the two combining for goals in both of France’s knock-out ties. He also provides a target for Payet’s free-kicks, as demonstrated by his goal against Iceland.
Mario Gomez has also allowed Germany’s more talented to flourish. He had a hand in Germany’s goal against Italy, while providing an outlet for Julian Draxler’s creativity against Slovakia. While some of his performances have been muted, his presence adds another dimension to attack that more pragmatic sides must deal with. Both Giroud and Gomez can’t be bullied by a compact defensive unit in the way Gotze or Griezmann can. They thrive on long range service, rendering it obsolete for defenses to sit back and invite teams to break them down. This tactic, so successful against Barcelona or Spain, must be tweaked by the presence of a more conventional quantity upfront. The answer is either to hold a high-line and nullify this aerial threat (something France exploited early on against Iceland with the speedy Griezmann), or sit deep and man-mark the striker leaving space for the attacking midfielders to exploit (both Italy and Slovakia payed the price for this approach against Germany, and many times against Slovakia, Gomez won his duel with Skrtel anyway).
These two forwards have become crucial to their team’s styles of play, something many football purists wouldn’t have expected at the beginning of the tournament. But on the eve of the show-down between these two titans of sport, Germany must recalculate their approach. Gomez has been ruled out of the tournament through injury, throwing Germany’s latest plans into chaos. The sharp, albeit jagged and imperfect, edge of their attack must now be forfeited for a blade made of silk. Either Gotze or Muller could fill the role of number nine, but their interpretations and skill-sets don’t provide the same raw power or presence as the Besiktas number 33. The duel between two of continental football’s most progressive sides could be decided by the presence, or lack-there-of, of football’s most traditional force.
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