From sending home Belgium's golden generation in the group stage to keeping consecutive clean sheets in Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages, Morocco made history for African teams reaching the last four of the World Cup.
In its first game since the World Cup, the dark horse beat Brazil 2-1 and defeated the world's top 10 football powers for the fourth time in half a year. Amrabat single-handedly limits the Real Madrid twins, and the team with a good waist is different.
01. A good team is good: Macron knows the ball well
A. Clean sheet Real Madrid Gemini: Moroccan backs to send Barca a letter of bidding
In the past four months, from 2-0 Belgium, to the elimination of Spain on penalties, to the one-goal Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal, Morocco has kept three consecutive clean sheets in the world's top 10 in the World Cup.
This time against Brazil, the 2-1 victory was also the first time in the country's history that they had won against the Samba Legion. The only goal conceded was because goalkeeper Bunu made a low-level error.
An important reason for winning against Brazil was that the back Amrabat was entangled in the opponent's attacking initiator Venicius.
In fact, not only him, but even Rodrigo was restrained by Amrabat. Clean sheet Real Madrid twins, is the Moroccan back a bid for Barca?
b. The first midfielder of the World Cup selected by the President of France and the German Transfer Network
Despite being named in the 2022 AFCON squad and being included in the list of signings for Tottenham and Liverpool, Amrabat has really been in the spotlight because of his excellent performances at the World Cup.
Facing France's semi-finals, Amrabat, who came out with an injury, relied on a beautiful catch-all tackle, took the ball away after bringing down Mbappe, and was voted the "best defensive moment in the World Cup" by the media.
After the team won and advanced to the final, French President Emmanuel Macron not only visited the French players, but also visited the Moroccan dressing room.
He praised Amrabat as the best midfielder of the World Cup to his face! This may be another great example of Macron's understanding of the ball.
In the candidates for the best player of the World Cup subsequently selected by the German transfer network, Messi, Mbappe, Alvarez and Amrabat were selected.
After playing 6 games, running 70km and recovering 51 possessions, Amrabat deserves to be called one of the best.
02. Dare to play the confidence of the single back: too fast horizontal + very hard confrontation
A. Morocco is defensively oppressive: Amrabat is at the heart of the system
Since the World Cup, the Moroccan team has followed a 4141 system. Amrabat as a single back, his traverse speed is fast and his confrontation is tough.
Combined with the team's two fast-moving full-backs and the wingers who retreat deeply, this is why Morocco defends well.
The key to this wave of offensive and defensive switching was that when Brazil found the contact point behind the Moroccan midfielder four, they tried to go straight to Rodrigo, only to be intercepted by the fast-moving Amrabat.
The team countered on the spot and instantly advanced in front of the Brazilian penalty area. However, Morocco's attacking efficiency in the core area is average, and this time it is also a tiger, and long-range shots are blocked by defenders.
The key point was the control of the drop from the perimeter, and it was Amrabat who broke the ball in time, so that Brazil's counterattack was stillborn.
Looking at the defense this time, Brazil still have to find opportunities to meet behind the Moroccan midfield line.
The problem was that the ball came and finally turned around to get rid of it, only to be amrabat moved into place in time to destroy the ball.
Because the wingers and full-backs on both sides of Morocco are fast, the opponent directly plays on the wing and gains little (which is also the biggest difference between Fiorentina and Morocco), so I want to make a fuss in the ribs.
As a result, Amrabat's defensive movement is always quick to protect the ribs, and at the same time the use of full-backs can make the midfield line more daring to press up.
This time, after Ashraf successfully broke the ball, Amrabat pushed forward on the spot to launch a counterattack. He has a certain ability to dribble the ball, and this kind of taking advantage of the change in the center of gravity to deceive the opponent and dribble forward is one of his characteristics.
b. Confrontation is tough: another characteristic of Amrabat
Against Brazil, Amrabat won eight one-on-one matches, contributing five steals, two interceptions, two blocked goals and one clearance.
His confrontation is tough, and although he cannot be said to crush his opponents in terms of strength, his advantage against most wingers and central midfielders is quite obvious.
This time, Amrabat suddenly made a grab and broke the ball after knocking over Telles. His lateral advantage, which allows him to often play against opposing wingers, now uses his physical advantage to break the ball easily.
His strength doesn't have much advantage against center players, so he still has to take advantage of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.
Looking at this wave of offensive and defensive conversions, Onasi's catch-and-turn is extremely exciting. Then came to the 30-meter area, he had another beautiful pass, but unfortunately a wonderful pass to his teammate, the middle of the kick was actually empty.
When Brazil fought back, Amrabat once again faced Venihues. Fierce tackles bring opponents down, and despite the referee's foul, it is impossible to play for it, and the Moroccan defense has turned the corner.
03. As a single back: Dribbling is better than passing
a. Good ball control and dribbling
As a single back, Amrabat is good at dribbling and possession. In Serie A, despite averaging a small number of passes per game, he has a success rate of 69%, which shows that he is capable of doing this well.
If the other party wants to take the initiative to put pressure, Amrabat is actually not afraid because he has the ability to defuse.
After this successful break, Amrabat was directly dribbling the ball and wanted to pass the half, but was fouled by the Brazilian winger back to win a free kick opportunity.
Look at this time, when the Brazilian team wanted to press the Moroccan central midfield, Amrabat suddenly started after taking the ball, and defused the opponent's intention to grab up.
However, his subsequent pass can only be said to be decent, and he cannot be expected to do more in this regard.
b. Single-back shots are more important than defense
Many people believe that the most important point of a single back is to see whether the defense is good or not, which is probably inaccurate. The key to the success or failure of a single back is to see whether the defensive end can form a system with teammates, and the other is the level of passing.
Because there are no other back teammates, once the single back is mispassed, the opponent's counterattack threat will be great. Therefore, compared with double back, single back does not require higher defensive ability of individual soldiers, but pays more attention to the ability to pass and control the ball.
Amrabat's passing wasn't bad, but it wasn't good enough. Especially when it comes to switching between attack and defense after breaking the ball, he is much worse than Busquets (although Busquets can also make mistakes).
The main problem is that Amrabat's passing requires more pauses, dribbling or observation, and the first direct plug and handling has a large error rate.
Brazil's goal, Amrabat's first defense on the wing was very good, and he cut the ball directly. However, he then shoved straight into striker Ennesri, which seemed a bit casual.
The teammate was unprepared and the ball was broken, and Brazil counterattacked on the spot. Casemiro scored from distance and the main problem was goalkeeper Bunu's low-level mistakes, but Amrabat is not a single back who is good at attacking directly.
Conclusion:
At 26, Amrabat is still the best single-back option in today's Mesozoic Generation. Unfortunately, compared to a historic player like Sergio Busquets, he still has some shortcomings.
This may also be a common phenomenon in today's football, the new generation of players are much worse than the post-80s, and more systems and teams are needed to make up, which also leads to the new generation of players, more and more dependent on running ability and confrontation.