Turkish national team coach Fatih Terim did not change his mind about the dropped players which includes Barcelona star Arda Turan and did not invite them to the squad for the game against Ukraine. I wrote about the poor reasoning and transparency behind Terim's decision in my earlier pieces, and my position in this case is still in favor of the banned players. Nevertheless, Terim has already built his squad in this way and there is no benefit in going any further in this crisis. Turkey must now focus on the Ukraine game and how to get three points against this simple but effective opponent. One thing that is almost certain before the game is that the pressure will be on the Turkish side.

First of all, even though Andriy Shevchenko was appointed just after the EURO 2016 and has not had much time to prepare his team for the qualifiers, Ukraine showed their usual characteristics against Iceland in the first game. It is definitely not hard to figure out their style, the counter-attacking game that Diego Simeone introduced to modern football is being utilized by Ukraine too. Nonetheless, players like Yevhen Konoplyanka and Andriy Yarmolenko pose a serious threat in this intense counter-pressing strategy. Ukraine have not added anything new to Simeone's game, but they implement it sufficiently enough to hurt teams that are not sure how score when they are ought to score.

At this point, Turkey fit the definition of a team that does not know how to score when they have to score. The players that Terim dropped from the national team were crucial players in the creative element of the team and Terim has not come up with a clear solution to fill their absence. While Arda Turan does wonders at Barcelona and Turkey desperately needs a playmaker like him, Terim bypasses this creativity problem in offense by giving complete freedom and authority to young Borussia Dortmund player Emre Mor.

Mor has a lot of talent and his dribbling skills can make him one of the great players if used properly. However, it is irrational to expect this 19-year-old player to solve Turkey's offensive dullness with his dribbling skills. What is needed is a plan to utilize Emre Mor's skills, not relying solely on his skills. Terim needs to build complex circulation models to create time and space for Mor's skills because without creating the right habitat one player cannot do everything by himself. Furthermore, given it is an extremely simple offensive plan, it would be very easy for Ukraine to defend this strategy.

Although Ukraine have a simple and direct strategy too, at least they conduct intense pressing with three or four men in the opponent's half and create swift counters, which is a sustainable plan. But Turkey have an even simpler plan and given the match will be at home and they are expected to win, the difference between these two strategies will be even more apparent. Fatih Terim better have created a collective tactic for attack, otherwise Ukraine have more chance of getting what they want.