Galatasaray SKThe Goal Machine comes to a grinding halt

Oct 05, 2009 | By: Musab | Comments (6)

As we went through 6 wins and a draw in our first 7 games, many expected Galatasaray to perform well away at Ankaragucu. Nobody expected the 3-0 defeat we suffered. The game was one of extreme frustration as Galatasaray boasted 69% ball posession and yet conceded 3 goals in the last 7 minutes of the game. However that posession consisted of back passes and defenders passing amongst themselves. Ankaragucu played a thoroughly defensive game, put pressure on the Galatasaray players as often as they could, and tried to break through with counter attacks. At around the 20th minute I openly declared that we would not be able to win this game.

The problem with this Galatasaray team is very simple. If it can't find open spaces where it can play football, it simple doesnt have the strength to defeat its opponent. Our defenders are unable to play the ball succesfully and our star players are easily lost when they aren't given the ball. Rijkaard is trying to overcome this by playing players out of their natural position in defense (Caner Erkin as a left back) And while this sometimes works, overall it isnt as succesful. During the transfer window, before we went and got Elano, I stated on this site that Galatasaray needs to spend very big money (~$10 million) on a very high class defender that can use the ball effectively. Unfortunantly we went into the season with only adding Gokhan Zan as a central defender on a free transfer.

Another important point is the fact that Mustafa Sarp has strayed away from his early season form and I believe that it is time we give him a break. Unfortunantly both Mehmet Topal and Ayhan are playing way under their ability. This would be the perfect time for Linderoth to come in and save the day but unfortunatly the Galatasaray board dont see any problem with paying a million dollar salary to a player who hasnt played in 15 games for us in three years.

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