Beşiktaş have nothing to lose but their chains
The spotlight was on Beşiktaş's brand new signings on Thursday night against small but long-standing Istanbul club Sarıyer. Nevertheless, I was more interested in Sarıyer's performance rather than being judgmental about players who are playing their first game for their new team. Added to that, my father once worked as a sporting director at another small but longstanding club, Gebzespor, with Sarıyer's current coach Bahri Kaya and his crew. Thus, I was curious about Bahri Hoca's strategies and tactics more than Daniel Opare's sprinting or Tolgay Arslan's dribbling. However, unexpectedly for many columnists and fans, the game was very balanced for almost 70 minutes. It was significantly different from the usual game expected between a Turkish Super League giant and a humble third tier team. Both teams played defensively and did not attempt to dominate the game throughout the 90 minutes. Of course, given Sarıyer's situation, their defensive priorities were understandable, yet they were illogical. Seeing as Sarıyer had no chance to move on in the Turkish Cup and they had nothing to lose but their pride, they should have been able to play their game without any other extra pressure. Nonetheless, Sarıyer's only strategy was to stop Beşiktaş's offensive players and get an "honorable" draw. On the other hand, despite using new and young players for this game, Beşiktaş coach Slaven Bilic also showed no sign of strategic variety. While Beşiktaş were struggling to find an opportunity to score and wasting the ones they found, Bilic could not find a way to open Sarıyer's defence. The first goal came from a random cross into the penalty box and the other two came from counter attacks. However, most of the time Beşiktaş's players hopelessly kicked the ball into the opponent's half, in order to create chaos. Despite two years at the club and all the compliments showered from sports columnists, Slaven Bilic's strategy is simply chaos. In almost every game, players try to compensate for the team's lack of strategy and tactics with their individual skills, and the Sarıyer game was one such game. Even against a weak local club we couldn't see Bilic trying to implement his own plan.This kind of game actually reveals a coach's theoretical and practical capability to organize and utilize his team. If Beşiktaş cannot find a sustainable way to score against even a weak local team, how can we speak about the championship? It is always easier to play against a team that has to score, but what about when you have to score? Beşiktaş had to score against Sarıyer and still had no idea how to do it. Can we blame the players for not knowing where to stand or when to shoot? If a coach does not create a system for his players, how can we blame the players for not acting according to his plans. For example, the commentator on the match was very judgmental about Beşiktaş's new players and he constantly claimed that Daniel Opare's positioning was problematic. If we put aside the absurdity of judging a new player's performance about adapting to his team, this comment becomes more absurd when you think this player's coach does not even know where to put his player.Beşiktaş has more critical problems to solve than their new players' performances. They came here to perform the roles that are assigned to them by their coach. Nevertheless, it seems that the coach is not sure about how to use them. First of all, Bilic should stop relying on his players' individual skills. Both Turkish Super League's and Beşiktaş's situation is open to implement an organized, collective and effective strategy. But he should first stop chasing short term plans; these plans are the main motive behind Bilic's decision to choose a defensive and chaotic game. Just like Sarıyer, Beşiktaş have nothing to lose but their chains.Keeper Review:Cenk Gönen's performance was satisfying. Especially in the second half where he made some crucial saves. Given that he almost did not play much in the first half because of Sarıyer's ineffectiveness, it was good to see him staying in the game when he was needed.
Last Update: January 31, 2015 02:15