Galatasaray vs. Lazio: Winning the Center Midfield Brought Victory for Cimbom
Appointment of Sarri made many curious football fans to closely follow Lazio. Sarri’s original style (a.k.a. Sarriball) offers entertaining football admired by many, including Guardiola. Season started very well for them. Especially against Spezia, they were very impressive. The opponent’s (little bold) 3–4–1–2 high press on Lazio’s deep build up also helped Sarri’s team to show a very fluid display, about which football fans were naturally excited. The great spectacle ended up 6–1. Luis Alberto, the man of the match, did everything a creative and intelligent midfielder can do, and decorated his amazing performance with three assists and one goal. Considering the young and refurbished Galatasaray team, who had shown unreliable defensive performances at the beginning of the season, international break started with some worries.
Personally, I hadn’t carried a lot of hopes until I watched Lazio at Milan a few days before the Europa League game. Milan’s head coach Pioli came up with a great antidote for Sarriball. They shadow-marked Lucas Leiva, who plays in front of the defenders, and man-marked Luis Alberto and Milinkovic-Savic with Tonali and Kessie tightly. When Lazio couldn’t find passing options in central zones, they moved the ball to the wider areas, where they are not comfortable with build-up. Eventually, almost whole game passed in Lazio’s half, most of it with Lazio’s unsuccessful attempts for build-up, and some with Milan’s fast breaks after forcing Lazio to make mistakes.
Terim and his staff studied Lazio vs. Milan game very well. The defensive strategy Terim adopted was very similar to Pioli’s. He preferred to use a compact and narrow mid-block press, tightly marked Lazio’s central midfielders, and forced Lazio to play to full backs instead of central zones. Galatasaray used split formations at defense and offense. At defensive settings, the team preferred a 1–4–2–3–1, which facilitates man marking of Lazio’s midfielders. At offense, Galatasaray usually used its regular 1–4–3–3. When Lazio pressed high, Kutlu sometimes joined as the second pivot to help deep build-up which transformed Galatasaray’s formation to a 1–4–2–3–1.
Galatasaray specifically dominated the game between 9–35 and 59–69 minutes, during which the team created all big chances and (with some luck) scored a goal. Between 9–35 minutes, Galatasaray held the ball with 70% possession and completed 211 passes against Lazio’s 82 passes. Between 59–69, possession and accurate passes were 67%-33% and 62–29, respectively, for Galatasaray’s advantage. In these two periods, Galatasaray didn’t allow Lazio to create any big chances, which reminded Cruyff’s famous dictum: “There is only one ball. If we have it, the other team can’t score”.
When Galatasaray didn’t have the ball, team’s height and width were very short and narrow. Against Lazio’s build-up attempts, Cicaldau marked Lucas, Kutlu and Antalyali marked Luis Alberto and Akpa-Akpro, respectively. Galatasaray’s wingers sit narrow to completely close the channels to Lazio’s number 8s, which only allowed Lazio’s central defenders to play full backs.
For example, in the above image, Kutlu and Morutan close the channel to Luis Alberto, Cicaldau marks Lucas, forcing Acerbi to play Hysaj.
Eventually Hysaj returns to Acerbi, the only available passing option in central zones. The star of the Spezia game (and most of Lazio games), Luis Alberto, could have only 52 touches and 31 accurate passes (14 of which was in Gala’s half) in 65 minutes he played, while had 108 touches and 83 accurate passes (49 of which was in opponent’s half) at Spezia game.
Similarly, in a symmetric position below, Akturkoglu and Antalyali marked Akpa-Akpro, which made Luiz Felipe to pass his right back.
If Lazio midfielders come deeper to get the ball. Galatasaray midfielders followed them tightly as well. For instance, in the situation below, Akpa-Akpro runs deep to get the ball to help his defenders.
However, Taylan also runs behind him and tries to tackle when the opponent gets the ball.
All attempts of Lazio to play through middle was faced with aggressive Galatasaray players. This also reflected to the defensive stats of the central players, Marcao, Nelsson, Antalyali, and Kutlu. These four players won eighteen duels and only lost six according to FotMob.
Marcao’s performance was specifically extraordinary. Alongside with the duel numbers given above, he made 7 interceptions. His line breaking passes to mostly Cicaldau and Akturkoglu were also on point and helped Galatasaray to carry the ball to third region effectively.
Antalyali and Kutlu also showed strong devotion. They roamed a lot, overloaded a flank by getting closer to their full-back, created passing chances for build-up, send successful long balls to opposite flanks, and repeat the same routine for the other flank. Their incredible energy could be also easily seen from the combined heat map of these two on Mackolik.
Considering Lazzari’s defensive weaknesses at right back, Galatasaray tried to create most of the chances through Akturkoglu’s agility and dribbling skills. Although he received some minor criticism after the game by the media and some supporters, he was the main threat for his team, and except for a few simple mistakes, which is normal for a player at his age, he was the most successful Galatasaray player to carry the ball into Lazio’s penalty area. Below shows Akturkoglu’s passes (gathered from Mackolik). He sent 3 successful passes to the penalty area (alongside with Cicaldau’s 3 successful passes, the highest number to the penalty area), one of which was a key pass (shown with yellow arrow). He was also the player having the most touches in the opponent’s 18-yard box. He had six touches, while second highest, Cicaldau, had only three.
Having encouraged with all positives, I have to remind that there are still areas Galatasaray needs improvement. The compactness at defensive display was sometimes not repeated at offense. When Lazio didn’t press high, Galatasaray had difficulties progressing the ball to more threatening positions, which was a result of leaving huge gaps between first and second lines of build-up and limiting the passing options.
In addition, the team couldn’t effectively use Dervisoglu, who can be amazing at creating chances from zone 14 with his extraordinary first touch. However, he couldn’t receive the ball even a single time in zone 14. It is a fact that he played within the triangle of Acerbi, Felipe, and Lucas, all having great defensive intelligence. However, if the team wants to create clear chances against every team, they have to figure out effective ways of finding Dervisoglu in zone 14. If he touches the ball there, it will undoubtedly disturb the defensive shape of the opposition, and after that it is known that he is gifted enough to make the correct decision, touch, pass/shot in such situation.
In summary, Galatasaray showed a lot of promises against Lazio. Although it was not the most impressive offensive performance, the team was very good on keeping the possession and defending Lazio’s threats. Team’s energy and tactical discipline were certainly encouraging. With a bit of luck, Galatasaray could secure a win against Sarri’s Lazio. However, Cimbom supporters shouldn’t forget it is still a work in progress, and this team needs a few more weeks to have better cohesion to consistently be threatening in every area of the game.
