What to Expect from Euro-2024

The European Championship, which has recently started, is more than just a football tournament to determine the strongest team on the continent. Such forums also provide a visual illustration of where football is going and how it is developing. For those interested in betting on the tournament, https://rg.org offers valuable insights and information about bookmakers.

Three Philosophies of Modern Football

There are several trends in the philosophy of modern club coaches. For example, Josep Guardiola promotes total control of the ball in positional attacks, opening up the opponents' saturated defense through positional attack and ball control. The second option is Jurgen Klopp, who uses high pressing and generally pressing all over the pitch, followed by vertical passes, with quick ball delivery into the opponent's penalty area. There is a third type of philosophy that may be getting old. This is a very echeloned defense with five classic defenders, which implies playing only on quick attacks and counterattacks.

This European Championship is more likely to be a realization of such a philosophy, which is inherent in Klopp's teams. After all, the level of all the teams at the European Championship is relatively high. They are national teams, they have the best players, and we are unlikely to see a total advantage of any team over their opponents. After all, only a few teams can afford to play positional attacks - Manchester City, for example.

New Requirements for Playing Positions

At Euro 24, we are likely to see double-edged vertical football with total pressure. I expect to see new requirements for one position to realize this game plan. For example, swapping the right and left midfielder has been done for years. They put the left-footed one on the right to go into the middle of the pitch, thus creating an advantage for the defender with a connection on his flank.

We may see some innovations in goalkeepers' actions, as such forums have continually developed their game. First, goalkeepers started to play on the exits, then to go outside the penalty area. Now, we see how they participate in the organization of the team's attack—many of them start the attack from their own goal and play the ball through the goalkeeper in the initial stage of the attack. The goalkeeper is essentially turning into a field player. We may see something new in goalkeeping.

Refereeing and VAR

It is interesting to watch the development of VAR. Because of this, there can be lengthy stoppages and watching episodes. How much will it affect the dynamics of the game and the psychological state of the teams? We saw how it happened at the World Cup in Qatar. Stoppages, added time for each half - almost ten minutes. Then, closer to the final, it was all reduced - in emergency mode, we realized it did not work. At the European Championship, I would like to see how much the experience of using VAR at the World Cup 2022 has been considered and how organic it will be. Because I, for example, as a fan, could have been more pleasant to wait for a decision for ten minutes.

Another critical point is the physical condition of the teams. And here, the art of the fitness coach comes to the fore. To what extent will the teams be able to recover for the European Championship? For example, in the French national team, players from the leading European clubs have already played 60-70 matches this season. And conditionally, some players of the Slovak national team play fewer matches. How will the fitness coaches manage to offset this point, how will they prepare the top team? And vice versa, how teams with slightly less skilled players who have played fewer games will be able to realize this advantage over the grandees.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)