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Mexico's identity is clear. 3-1-6 high. Sometimes with Lira dropping into the first line and Reyes high. Or, most commonly, Reyes with in the first line and Lira in the #6 with Fidalgo higher. Alvarado holds the width on the right, Gallardo pushes up from left back with Quiñones tucked inside. Gutiérrez loose in the #10. THREAD!👇
Defensively, they locked on man-to-man where possible (which directly led to the first goal). With South Africa often attacking with 5 on the top line, Mexico either managed that with Lira balancing off with the back 4 or Alvarado tracking back into the last line of defence.
When the ball was on the far side, Alvarado could tuck into the defensive line to ensure that Mexico had a +1 in defence whilst leaving the far side fullback free. But they didn't reliably get their rotations right. Their ability to apply man-to-man pressure was inconsistent.
We saw many moments of confusion. For example, South Africa throw the ball into a free man in the middle of the pitch who can receive and turn into acres of space… That can't happen.
Or, with Alvarado dropping into the defensive line, South Africa used Mbekezelin as a wide centre back in a deep-lying fullback position. Sometimes Alvarado was pinned back which saw South Africa get time and space on the ball.
This meant Mexico were in a man-oriented block without man-to-man pressure on the ball. They did not revert into a zonal block when they were forced back. Here, Alvarado is pinned + Lira is marking the #10. It means Mexico have 5 in the defensive line against South Africa's 3.
What Mexico actually want to achieve is rotations like this. Play is switched, Alvarado releases from the defensive line, and Reyes comes across to mark the winger. Man-to-man pressure. 👇
But they could not reliably apply it throughout the game because of a lack of cohesion. Here, Reyes follows his man who drops from the top line into midfield but Lira puts his hands out demonstrating for Mexico to sit in. Some players want to defend zonal, some man-to-man…
Mexico could lock on from restarts and they caused South Africa big problems in these moments (because they naively played into Mexico's pressure), but they were very average defensively. Better teams will pull their lack of cohesion apart. They are not optimally coached.
Mexico are definitely better in possession than out of possession, though. Their direct build-up detail was very good. Aston Villa-esque in the sense that they used a narrow 4-2-2-2 to lure the opposition out before playing direct and packing the middle to land on second balls.
But the reliance on Gallardo to get forward from left back and Fidalgo to play higher in the #8 means that it takes Mexico quite a while to get into their 3-1-6 shape as players have to travel from low to high. When teams press, they will lack numbers high up the pitch…
This is fine if your front 4 has special quality to cope with transition-based games as they rely on individual quality to create, but when the player quality is not elite, the more numbers high the better. Quiñones, Gutierrez, and Jimenez are all good players, but none elite.
Again, you can get away with that tactical frailty if you are a team like Spain who have elite technical quality in the build-up to play out of pressure which means you can reliably give your fullbacks and midfielders time to travel into the top line, but Mexico lack that…
Unless Javier Aguirre improves tactically, I am not especially optimistic about Mexico's chances in this World Cup. When the player quality is not on the level of the elite nations you need tactical quality to reduce the margins. They lack quality AND tactical nous.
We can talk tactics all we like but there were times in the game where Mexico made careless technical errors under minimal pressure which makes it very difficult to defend man-to-man because when you lose the ball in midfield you must recover and protect the goal.
But when you defend man-to-man the instinct is to press the man. Some players fall back & protect the goal, some press man-to-man. It was yet another problematic aspect of Mexico's performance against South Africa. They won 2-0 but they must improve in every aspect from here…