Bosnia need more structure against big sides

Bosnia and Herzegovina are one of Europe's most underrated sides. In the past two qualification campaigns, for World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012, they've been desperately unlucky to have drawn Portugal at the play-off stage. They would have been favourites against almost any other possible opponents, and wouldn't have looked out of place at the tournaments.

Bosnia's qualification was running extremely smoothly until this week -- they'd won every game aside from a good draw away at second-placed Greece, and were one of the top goal scorers in UEFA qualification.
They have benefited from a particularly easy group, however, with Lithuania, Latvia and Liechtenstein all lacklustre also-rans, with only Greece and Slovakia worthy of much attention. This week, Bosnia faced Slovakia in back-to-back encounters, and struggled -- losing 1-0 at home before a late turnaround in Slovakia resulted in a narrow 2-1 victory.

At home they conceded from a set piece but had looked more vulnerable to counterattacks -- it was a brilliant goal on the break by Marek Hamsik that opened them up in the away fixture. Only a set piece and a superb long-range strike from Izet Hajrovic secured the points.

Coach Safet Susic is incredibly open, both in his tactical approach and his evaluation of that tactical approach. "We have two top strikers in Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic, a couple of very creative but also attack-minded midfielders like Zvjezdan Misimovic and Miralem Pjanic, then Senad Lulic, Sejad Salihovic and Mensur Mujdza. We have to play like we do," he told World Soccer this month. "It may sound tactically immature ... but it would be unfair to the fans, to the game and to us if we were to suppress such a skill."

It's a refreshing attitude, but Susic shouldn't get carried away by his successes against the three minnows in his group. If Bosnia reach the World Cup, the side must play with more structure.

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/1805?cc=5739