El Guadalajara continues to be unbeatable in the Sky Cup and the victory against their fierce rivals in the Clasico Tapatio left several points of analysis, both individually and collectively, but which confirm the progress in the implementation of the game model that Veljko Paunovic intends for the team.
First of all, we must highlight the great physical strength of the squad, which is reflected in the collective pressure that the team exerts for a good part of the 90 minutes. It is also worth mentioning the defensive security, which, added to the volume of play generated, has made El Rebaño a highly effective team during their Sky Cup matches, and against the Red and Blacks was no exception.
What was the most relevant aspect of yesterday's game? We are going to tell you:
The starting 11 made up completely of home grown players
The Serbian tactician once again tried out a different 11. This time he opted for the speed and dynamics of several of his younger players, who responded with a great performance.
Let's start with 'Lalo' Torres, who yesterday played much higher up than usual, which allowed him to better exploit several of his virtues, including his great criteria for distributing the ball and good ball striking. As a result, he scored the winning goal for El Rebaño.
Another element that has gained ground under the orders of 'Pauno' is Luis Puente, who yesterday was very effective in his runs, in addition to permanently pulling marks in the rival defensive zone, which helped several of his teammates to find many open spaces in the last third of the field.
The defensive wall
El Rebaño's defensive apparatus once again showed its solidity, reliability and effectiveness by conceding the third clean sheet in the four group stage marched of the competition. To a large extent, this is due to the great individual moment that all the defenders are experiencing.
For example, yesterday, Antonio Briseño gave a lesson on how a top-notch central defender should perform. Always on time in his coverage, with good criteria when playing with his feet and impassable over the top, the 'Pollo' was the grand leader of the defense in last night's duel. He even came close to scoring on a couple of occasions with a header, but his first shot hit the crossbar and the second went inches wide.
Pressure as an infallible weapon
El Chiverío once again showed their physical potential by overwhelming Los Rojinegros in several instances of the match. Their high pressure in the first minutes of both halves was very well exerted, which made it difficult for their rival to circulate and led them towards making errors, a situation that Guadalajara took advantage of to maintain a permanent sense of danger on the opponent's goal.
To close the match, Veljko opted for a line of 5 and the team also showed correct positioning to close the spaces for Atlas and try to seal the match through counterattacks.
