Fenerbahce: A Weird Positional Report

The break is over and Spor Toto Super League has started again. Exciting matches were played. However, this week I wanna start with Fenerbahce-Goztepe. The reason is that at the beginning of the season, I wrote a piece named Fenerbahce is Turkey, Turkey is Fenerbahce. You can reach it here. Maybe this is my totem. I like to start with Fenerbahce.

Last Saturday, Fenerbahce hosted Goztepe. The match ended up in victory for the home team. The scoreboard was showing 2-1. Nearly a month ago, I criticised FB’s manager Aykut Kocaman and his tactical philosophy. At the end of the game, I was taking a glance at some statistics about the game. When I looked at the positional report, I got disappointed.

In the photo quoted from www.whoscored.com, you see Fenerbahce’s positional report. Please look at left midfield. There is a chaos in a manner of speaking. In this part of the field, there are three players; left-back İsmail Koybasi, centre-midfielder Souza and left attacking midfielder Aatif Chahechouhe.

In modern football, the full-backs provide the width if their attacking partners (AMR-AML) position into the half space. For sure, this is just a scenario. It is possible that wingers can provide the width and the full-backs can be inverted. In Fenerbahce, you cannot see it. I think the problem is Aatif.

As you see the heatmap of Aatif above, he didn’t complete his partner left-back. He was roaming around in a colloquial manner. Probably, he tried to act as Mathieu Valbuena who plays with the role of wide roaming playmaker. Aatif didn’t manage to play like him.

How about the right side of the pitch? Fenerbahce fans go crazy in every game. Most of the football fans know that Mauricio Isla is an attack-minded full-back and he always uses the line. If you have him on the pitch, it is a great chance to provide the witdh thanks to him. That’s why his attack partner should make space. In front of Isla, Nabil Dirar plays. The problem is that he plays like him. I mean he is a typical line winger.

Conclusion

Fenerbahce need transfers immediately, but they suffer from the economy and accordingly Financial Fair Play. Players should be a jigsaw on the pitch. They have to complete each other. However, footballers in Fenerbahce are like-for-like. That’s why it is highly possible to see that kind of weird statistics.