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The UEFA Nations League's first two round of fixtures was held during the course of the international break from 6-12 September 2018. The matches offered a great deal of excitement with spectacular ties like France versus Germany and Netherlands, and Spain versus Croatia.
Here are the main talking points from the action we saw over the last week.
#1 Luis Enrique's style of play will re-invent Spanish football:
Spanish football has gone through a lot of turmoil as of late. Their World Cup title bid was doomed even before the start of the tournament when then National Team Coach, Julen Lopetegui, was fired on the eve of the tournament. And, Interim Coach Fernando Hierro could only lead the demoralised Spanish team to the Round of 16, where they shockingly lost on penalties to hosts Russia.
After the retirements of Andres Iniesta, David Silva and Gerard Pique following the World Cup, regular faces like Jordi Alba, Koke, and Lucas Vazquez were surprisingly dropped from the latest squad.
Instead of the big names, the coach has shown his faith in a batch of younger players spearheaded by Isco & Marco Asensio of Real Madrid and Rodrigo & Jose Gaya of Valencia. He also fielded a central midfield stronghold featuring the experienced Sergio Busquets, Saul of Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich's Thiago who were all sublime against England.
The core of the side is composed of several key players from Real Madrid with Sergio Ramos, Nacho Fernández and Dani Carvajal acting as the backbone of the team's defense.
The midfield trio also looks extremely comfortable on the ball, demonstrating that they could not only play a possession game but could also make quick incisive forward transitions.
This, combined with the excellent switching play between Isco and Asensio helped Spain during their Nations League matches in which they humbled Croatia in the second match after coming back from behind to beat England in the first match.
2. Joachim Low and Germany have a lot of issues still to figure out:
While there was turmoil in the Spain camp after losing their coach and exiting in the first knockout round of the World Cup, the German team had a disastrous World Cup of their own.
The losses to Mexico and South Korea in the group stage games raised questions over the selection of some players and the omission of a key figure such as Manchester City's Leroy Sane from the Russia 2018 squad. The disappointing group stage exit, coupled with the reports of a divide in the German squad between the group of Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, Thomas Muller and the camp of Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler, and Ilkay Gundogan put DFB in a bad position.
The team lacked pace on the ball. The high-intensity football and the possession-based quick passing that we have come to know of Germany in the past few years were not visible. Instead, we saw slow build-ups and lack of accuracy while passing.
Some predicted a new coach to be at the helm after the World Cup debacle, but what we witnessed against France was the same veteran manager from the World Cup.
Ozil's retirement from the national team and Sami Khedira's snubbing has changed the look of the team but the performances have still not improved. This goes on to show that still there are a lot of technical anomalies to sort out amidst the growing sense of disharmony and speculation in the German side.
Low has key things to figure out in terms of team structure as Joshua Kimmich hasn't settled on a flank permanently whereas Jonas Hector also needs to be better as a wide player. This is highly important as there were some reports which suggested Kroos was not willing to pass to Marvin Plattenhardt on the left during the World Cup as he did not feel confident.
The players are there with plenty of technical quality and the youth setup is also strong as they gave proof of their youth talent by winning the Confederations Cup. However, they still have a lot to rebuild and they must do it fast or else there could be a repeat of the same poor performance in the future.
3. Italy and Netherlands are on the right track but there's a long way to go
The 2006 World Cup Champions Italy and the 2010 World Cup Runners-up Netherlands both failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. While Italy lost over two legs to the Emil Forsberg-led Sweden team, the Netherlands could not even reach the qualifying play-off stage as they finished third in the group behind France and against Sweden.
This time in the UEFA Nations League, for the first time, the Azzurri were technically directed by Roberto Mancini against Poland. Let's not forget that this is the same Poland who had themselves bowed out in the World Cup group stages with a dismal performance.
Italy with the likes of Lorenzo Insigne, Jorginho, and Giorgio Chiellini was expected to go past Poland easily but the team lacked cohesion and drew 1-1 with Poland. The front three, including the recalled Mario Balotelli, were not in sync with Roberto Gagliardini and Lorenzo Pellegrini at all and, thus, were dropped for the next game against Portugal. But even then, the likes of Andrea Belotti and Simone Zaza could not help Italy to a victory as they lost to a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal team.
The Netherlands with the core of Virgil Van Dijk, Matthijs De Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay was expected to provide a challenge for World Cup Winners France. It must be pointed out here that they did their best and pushed France to the limit, but in the end, the sheer brilliance of the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and a masterful goal from Olivier Giroud saw them lose.
Both Roberto Mancini and Ronald Koeman have a long way to go in rebuilding their squads and the UEFA Nations League provides them with an opportunity to do exactly that. Both teams would look to get ready for the Euro 2020 qualifiers which start in March next year.
4. England still need to improve to go up against the big boys
The England football team had a fairytale run at the World Cup and reached the semi-finals. This would be enough to prove to anyone that they can go up against the best in the world. But let's face the facts, England lost to Belgium in the group stage and while credit must be given for getting past Colombia and Sweden, they lost again in the semifinals when they faced a tougher opposition in Croatia.
The Three Lions' record has not been that good of late, especially against the big teams, and therefore, everyone is still eagerly waiting for Gareth Southgate's men to get a victory in a difficult tie.
Against Spain, the start was phenomenal when Luke Shaw assisted Marcus Rashford's poacher finish, but La Roja equalized minutes later from Saul. Rodrigo scored the decisive goal as a late Danny Welbeck equalizer was controversially denied.
The English contingent were at full strength and still couldn't pull it off.
5. Croatia needs to start the transition process soon
Croatia reached the finals of the 2018 World Cup and was led by the tournament's Golden Ball winner Luka Modric. This was the best generation of footballers which Croatia had produced since the 1998 World Cup third-place finishers. The team was having the solid core of Modric and Ivan Rakitic in midfield with Ivan Perisic, Ante Rebic, and Mario Mandzukic leading the attack. Dejan Lovren and Domagoj Vida, along with Marcelo Brozovic in the defensive midfield were a rock at the back.
But, since then Mandzukic has retired, Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic still have a few years but will be four years older by the next World Cup. Clearly, they have to stop relying on these historical players and start thinking about the future. The new goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic did not instill much confidence whereas Ivan Santini, the center-forward replacement had a bad day against Spain as well. The likes of Milan Badelj and Marko Pjaca have been on the periphery and need to test out against better opposition regularly if Croatia is to maintain their position in the next Euros and World Cup.
While Rakitic and Perisic will still be around, a newer generation of football players from the youth setup needs to be given chances. New players playing at the highest level consistently with more experienced players will be exactly what Croatia needs in the future.
