Tuesday 17 January 2012

How do you solve a problem like Gameiro?

We all have our problems to deal with.

At the moment I’m trying to find a nice way to tell my mum that I’m not a big fan of the shirt she brought me for Christmas, and that I’d really like the receipt so I can take it back and change it for something I’ll actually wear. If you’ve got any tips of how I might do this then let me know.

Carlo Ancelotti has bigger dilemmas to deal, namely what to do with Kevin Gameiro. The 24-year-old has been the top goalscorer in Ligue 1 in each of the last two calendar years, and with nine goals in 17 league games since joining PSG from Lorient in the summer it seems natural he would be one of the manager’s first picks.

But the striker was left on the bench for Saturday’s 3-1 win over Toulouse, with Ancelotti insisting it was because he hadn’t fully recovered from an injury.

“Gameiro is my attacker. He has every opportunity to demonstrate that he can match the ambitions of the club,” he told the Gazetta dello Sport today.

But with a new striker likely to arrive before the end of the window, doubts remain as to whether Gameiro is the kind of player who can play up front on his own in the boss’s favoured “Christmas tree” formation. In the short-term, here are some of the tactical options available to Carletto.

No Gameiro

On Saturday PSG employed Jeremy Menez as the nominal point of the Christmas tree, with Nene and Pastore in support. All three players have quality in abundance, particularly when they have the ball at their feet, and their movement will cause most defences in Ligue 1 problems. The downside is that having three broadly similar (ie tricky attacking midfielders) playing together is that is could lead to a lack of variety in our attacks, while none of the three are known for their physical, battling qualities.


Bring back Gameiro, ditch Menez

While Gameiro doesn’t add much in terms of physical presence (though he does well for a little fella), his pace and penalty box prowess do give the PSG a different dimension. Given that Ancelotti was particularly pleased with the contribution of his South American duo against Toulouse - “Pastore and Nene have quality in spades and play for the team” – the obvious man to go if he is brought back in is Jezza Menezza.

Play Pastore in a deeper role

Throughout the first half of the season Antoine Kombouare struggled to fit the four members of the “magic square” into the team together. The presence of a quartet of very attack-minded players often left the PSG looking unbalanced.

However, I think a solution would be to deploy Pastore as part of the three in the 4-3-2-1. Ancelotti loved a deep-lying playmaker while he was at Meelan, with Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf often filling the role. Though Pastore is unlikely to do too much tracking back, a deeper position may allow him the time on the ball to feed the front three. His presence in the centre of the park could also cause opposition to adapt their tactics, creating space elsewhere.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Grants For Single Moms