Qatar no playground for playmakers as defenders clamp down

(Corrects spelling to Maradona, not Maradonna)

By Philip O'Connor

DOHA :A high number of 0-0 draws in the group stage of the Qatar World Cup has seen playmakers squeezed out by defensive solidity and organisation, closing down the spaces that the world's most creative players usually thrive in.

The four scoreless draws in the first 16 games in Qatar quickly eclipsed the one such stalemate in the group stage in Russia in 2018, as teams string five men across the back to protect themselves from the likes of Argentina's Leo Messi, Croatia's Luka Modric and Denmark's Christian Eriksen.

"There's a lot of teams out there who are saying, 'We're not going to lose this game, we're going to have to put in a very solid defensive structure'. Those playmakers generally need that space," former Australia international Alex Tobin told Reuters.

"They need those sort of areas to play into, and they haven't had a lot of space here."

Tobin has plenty of experience in facing down the world's best number 10s. He faced off against Diego Maradona in the OFC-CONMEBOL playoff for the 1994 World Cup, which the Argentinians won 2-1 on aggregate.

"Maradona was the one where you could just say, 'I just can't take anything for granted', because the guy will do something that you just can't predict," the former centre-back who won 87 caps for the Socceroos recalled.

"There were moments where I thought like a regular defender, 'Well, that player can't do that'. And then I actually visually thought, no, that's Maradona, so I have to defend in a different way."

UNDERDOG TACTICS

That Australia side almost upset one of the world's soccer superpowers using exactly the kind of tactics that the underdogs in Qatar have been deploying to great effect.

"I think it would