Beşiktaş's Europa League journey ended dramatically against unbeaten Portuguese league leader Sporting Lisbon. Even though the Eagles controlled the game in the opening 45 minutes, taking advantage of the hesitance of the Portuguese side in the first half, the second half was a total disaster for the whole team and especially goalkeeper Tolga Zengin.
Sporting Lisbon started the season with the same coach that made Benfica champions last season and strengthened their squad with new players. Thus, it was not the usual "third-placer" Sporting that Beşiktaş found in both games of the group stage. Frustratingly for the Turkish side, Jorge Jesus and his team determined the fate of the game while Beşiktaş just conjecturally reacted to their opponent's moves.
Firstly, obviously Beşiktaş did not play its own game throughout the Europa League, saving their more possession-based game in the Turkish Super League. Nevertheless, this strategy partially worked against relatively weak opponents like Lokomotiv Moscow and Skenderbeu, but Sporting coach Jorge Jesus apparently built his strategy upon the concept of domination and easily intercepted Beşiktaş's simple counter-attacking game. In both games, whenever Sporting decided to step on the throttle, Beşiktaş had no chance but to merely protect its half like a fifth class European team.
However, the point is, in the second half of the first game and the first half of the second game, Sporting coach Jorge Jesus did not let his team press Beşiktaş in their half and dominate their opponents. On the latter occasion, it could have cost them a place in the last 32, if Beşiktaş's forwards had been decent finishers. Added to that, Beşiktaş only scored two goals in total in the two games when they were better, while Sporting found four. Hence, the difference in goalkeeping quality and finishing skills finished Beşiktaş's Europa League dreams from the beginning.
On the other hand, it was quite hard for me to understand why coach Şenol Güneş followed a different path in Europe, while he has found the winning formula at home. Seeing as the Europa League is a nuisance for the big names of Europe, why sacrifice the golden reforms that might spark make a revolution in Turkish football if they succeed succeeds? Although I do not agree, I guess Şenol Güneş and his crew did not want to test the new style in the Europa League and focused on qualifying for the last 32 while Güneş settles his system.
The reason why I disagree with Güneş is that this "care-taker" Europa League strategy does not offer us anything more stable or consistent than Beşiktaş's natural game. The team found its way to the top in Turkey by circulating the ball patiently, pressing and outnumbering the opponent in almost every corner of the field, and both physically and mathematically this is how you control the game. Otherwise, as Sporting Lisbon showed, it is easy to eliminate a mere counter-attacking game in the same way that Beşiktaş uses in the domestic league.
In the end, this elimination can help toward better results for Beşiktaş in the long term and the club's main goal this season, the league championship. Three games in a week would be exhausting for Beşiktaş and might crucially affect the team's fragile performance, as it did to Slaven Bilic's team last season. Nevertheless, I hope Şenol Güneş will take lessons from the consequences of using short-cuts and "clever" tactics and be even more loyal to his reformist strategy. The only difference between Beşiktaş and their opponents in Turkey is how their coach interprets the utilization of time and space, without that, Beşiktaş is a usual a "third-placer," just like the old Sporting Lisbon.
Keeper Review:
Even though saying "I told you so" has become a cliché, seeing Beşiktaş goalkeeper Tolga Zengin's disastrous performance proved me right. All the fundamental deficiencies I have criticized almost directly cost Beşiktaş qualification. There is not much to say. If you do not dare to dive at a striker's feet and punch the ball as if it were a meteor, then do not do goalkeeping, simple as that. A goalkeeper should want to save the tough shots that other players would turn their backs on. I am not going to repeat myself, Tolga does not have the ability to carry Beşiktaş forward, period.
