3 lessons from Jimma Abba Jifar's match!

St George is back to victory winning Jimma Abba Jifar by 3-0. This match, as it was between two consecutive teams on the Ethiopian Premier League table, was a highly expected one. Yeferesegnochu Gets/የፈረሰኞቹ ገጽ / would like to discuss on lessons we can learn from this match.

1. Reacting by attacking with the wings for opponents trying to create goal opportunities using the side!

Jimma Abba Jifar is a team that builds up the ball from its goalkeeper and directs the ball to the sides when they reach their opponents' field. Jimma Abba Jifar's prominent strength is the usage of the corridors and their fullbacks are the major participants on this. It's known that Jimma Abba Jifar creates goal opportunities with balls that come from the sides.

On yesterday's match, St George players controlled the corridors almost completely. It was like St George, having had played Abebaw Butako and Abubeker Sani on the left and Abdulkarim Mohammed and Behailu Assefa on the right, predicted Jimma Abba Jifar's game plan well. They made the wing strikers and the wing defenders to play deep in to opponent's field repeatedly and use this space properly and adequately.

Jimma Abba Jifar's wing defenders and wing midfielders were forced to stay in their own field to defend the above play by St George. Especially the right and left defenders were heavily pressed by wing strikers to stay only on their positions. We observed Jimma Abba Jifar's side defenders desperate and play by force and with anger.

Jimma Abba Jifar's side midfielders were losing the balls they push forward to St George players since they were not having support. And this helps us learn from Jimma Abba JIfar's match that controlling and attacking with the wing, one can tackle an opponent's play.

2. Early goal makes the work easier for St George!

There are undeniable facts from the past few Addis Ababa stadium matches. St George when played and beat Ethio Electric, Arbaminch Kenema and Jimma Abba Jifar, they scored 3 goals on each. Scoring more goals on the matches won tells us a fact.

St George's opponents, unless they concede a goal, put their players behind the ball and mark St George players one by one and play just to abort St George's attack. This game plan is mainly for the first half and other plans may be added to it in the second half. We observed killing time and interrupting the game every now and then by opponents as a game plan.

The most important solution for this kind of play is what we have seen on yesterday's match. The goal scored at the 3rd min was the one that made it easier for St George and changed the game's tempo into a competitive one. We observed St George players moving without much pressure on the pitch after the goal. Although they had a difficulty creating goal opportunities from a moving ball, they looked like they played as their will.

We have not seen St George in distress after they score a goal in the matches they played in Addis Ababa stadium in this season. They tend to create more goal opportunities reaching the far 3rd of the pitch repeatedly. And this is the second point we can learn from Jimma Abba Jifar match that scoring earlier and first and playing with a game plan that leads to this is the most efficient option.

3. Covering our gap in attacking midfield by wing forwards and fullbacks is an apparent alternative!

St George is running out of options in attacking midfield. Especially on yesterday's match it was not possible to have a substitute on this position following the injuries of Abdulkarim Nikima and Alula Girma and Tadele Mengesha from before. Besides this players on this position showed weakness when executing what was expected of them and carrying out their responsibilities.

St George was different yesterday from previous games in regards to playing with the wings. This although related with the point we mentioned on number 1, has another indication. The team's attacking midfielders were directing the ball to the side repeatedly. The way St George wing strikers and side defenders cooperatively used the corridor compared to the previous matches needs to be encouraged.

On yesterday's match, wing strikers and side defenders were able to beat Jimma Abba Jifar's last defenders with one to two passes and get in the box more than 5 times. We observed that although the balls were not turned into clinical shots, this game plan was a better one so far to create more goal opportunities and score goals.

We observed balls directed to the side relieving attacking midfielders from pressure. Especially when either the wing striker or the side defender push the ball wide and when one of the players runs into the box diagonally, the side midfielders could find themselves free. And this let the Horsemen shuffle the ball in mass near to the box. This is the 3rd pointer from Jimma Abba Jifar match, playing side defenders and wing strikers deep in offence and making the wing a game plan to cover the deficit in side midfielder and to create goal opportunities.