Türkiye vs Deutschland 97-117 (67102)A defeat that's the result of a complete tactical failure on my part. The winner was decided early on, considering that there's no way we could've win with a double missed gdp.
So far, I couldn't talk too much about our team, without revealing stuff to our opponents. But considering that we've already played against 4 strongest nations from our group, and that the remaining 3 games are against easy opponents, I think it's fine if I explain my decisions in these 4 games.
First of all –
Bingün. Without him, it's very difficult to play man to man defense and inside oriented offenses, since he's a key player for those tactics. Our best guards aren't as good in man to man defense as the players from other top nations, which is why I chose to play 3-2 zone in our first 3 games, in order to cover up their defensive flaws.
Considering that Bingün wasn't the only one with poor game shape, but our key inside players - Oluk
(47577115) and Soral
(46649612), also had poor game shape at the start of the season, I thought we were limited in our first 3 games to either play outside or neutral tactics.
For the games against Macedonia and England, I chose to play Run & Gun, as I thought that was our strongest offense considering our game shape. For the game against Italy, I was contemplating on switching to play Look Inside, but since Bingün and Soral still had game shape 7, and Oluk was in 8, I decided to play outside again, thinking that Italy probably won't try to guess gdp. However, they did put very strong defenders outside.
Finally, for our game against Germany, I wasn't brave enough to play outside for the 4th time in a row. I thought that Germany will do the same as Italy, and put strong defenders outside, and I was even considering that they may play a 3-2 zone. Even though Bingün and Soral still had game shape 7, at least Oluk was in 9, so I thought it was somewhat possible to play Look Inside. I was certain that they won't guess inside gdp, so even without Bingün and Soral, I thought that our offense would function well.
But the problem was our defense. I ruled out playing 3-2 zone again, since 3-2 zone requires good shot blockers, but I didn't wanna play Look Inside with 2 defensive centers. So I was thinking between man to man and 2-3 zone. After scouting the German team, I thought that they would most likely play inside. Two very important players for their outside tactics were in game shape 7: Maiwald
(45679221) & Bohnsack
(46668682). And, considering that we played 3-2 zone until now, I ruled out that they will play outside. Since I didn't guess any gdp so far, I thought that they won't try to avoid being predicted, and will play inside. Their coach played inside oriented tactics with German NT 46 times in official matches, 35/46 he played Look Inside, and 11/46 he played Low Post. So when he played inside, ¾ times he would play Look Inside, which is why I tried to guess the entire Look Inside, including tempo.
Of course, that was a mistake. Our team that played today is great at defending against inside oriented tactics, but terrible at defending any other tactics. It was a risk that I was willing to take, but it didn't pay off. Germany has the same NT coach since season 51, and in 100 official games, he only played Patient 1 time, against Senegal in season 54, so honestly I didn't even consider that they would play Patient. Congrats to him, he was a smarter coach today.
I decided to call Tanridag
(46649843) and Bingün
(46648773) for today's match. Even though Bingün's game shape was 7, I wanted him to at least be a backup in case of injuries, and considering that Oluk was injured early on in the game, he did play some minutes.