Michael O’Neill: England’s pace can cause overhyped Uruguay problems
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Version 0 of 1. Uruguay’s limitations as a team leave them overly reliant on Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani up front and vulnerable at the back to England’s raw pace, according to the Northern Ireland manager, Michael O’Neill. Last month the former Newcastle and Hibernian midfielder took his team to Montevideo, where they were narrowly beaten by a second-half Christian Stuani goal, despite La Celeste enjoying the bulk of possession at the Estádio Centenario. Suárez was absent from that fixture because he was in rehabilitation following keyhole surgery on a knee but will return to Uruguay’s starting lineup for the crucial Group D fixture against England in Sao Paulo on Thursdayas both teams seek to recover from defeats in their opening World Cup matches. O’Neill spied plenty of positives for Roy Hodgson from that friendly in Montevideo and does not share others’ belief that Uruguay should be considered dark horses to excel in Brazil. “They’ve come into the tournament with a lot of hype but they only qualified via a play-off and were only fifth in the South American group,” he said. “Having looked at them and played against them – we looked at a lot of their games beforehand – they are so heavily dependent on the front two. “The rest of the team is solid and it’s workmanlike but they don’t have a midfield player who is particularly creative. There is no [Andrea] Pirlo in there, or any player of that level. Stuani is kind of a threat but they are there to be got at because [Diego] Lugano wants to play deep, so the team plays deep, and that means the front two sometimes get isolated. The team gets kind of fractured and they go direct quite a bit. They don’t play a typical South American game. When you watch Suárez and Cavani they want the ball early. “Suárez wants to get into the wide areas and run the channels where he can run at people but, given the significance of the first game, why didn’t they throw him on when they were 2-1 down? If he wasn’t fit enough to play the last 15 minutes when there was still something on offer, how much fitter is he going to be five days later? I wonder how realistic it is to think he will have an impact on this game. “Cavani likes to play the width of the box more but, in terms of what is behind that, it is a very, very rigid 4-4-2. They didn’t get a lot of men forward against us. Neither of the central midfield players get themselves into attacking areas in the box. They condense the pitch and then rely on the front two. Obviously, Suárez didn’t play against us and Diego Forlán didn’t give them the same energy that Suárez would have given them. They don’t press like, say, a Chile or an Argentina.” Uruguay, who will be without the suspended right-back Maxi Pereira against England, were beaten 3-1 by Costa Rica in their first game, despite taking an early lead, with the back line’s vulnerability exposed by the Central Americans’ eager running, which exposed Lugano, of West Bromwich Albion, in particular. “I spoke with the Uruguayan FA while I was out there and they believe Lugano is a really important player for them,” said O’Neill. “They see him as the mainstay of the team because he is a leader but I think he is the one you can play on. He doesn’t have the legs any more. “The pace England have – particularly in the areas where Raheem Sterling played and picked up the ball – will cause Uruguay a lot of problems. There is no doubt that Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck, with their pace and directness, will cause problems for Lugano and [Diego] Godín. And Uruguay are suspect to anything that goes into the box. There wasn’t anything special about Costa Rica’s movement when they scored from a free-kick. It wasn’t out of the ordinary. They just got the better of their markers.” |