Tigres 0-0 River: Gallardo may retreat back (even more)

Key to River Plate's successful continental stride so far under Marcelo Gallardo have been the full-backs Leonel Vangioni and Gabriel Mercado. When Gallardo deployed a diamond in midfield with traditional playmaker Pisculichi and the squad became thus too narrow, both defenders thoroughly maintained their positions and formed a defensive line of four centre-backs that gave much solidity behind. That's why River gets ultra-competitive in finals and that's why they got a draw in Monterrey against Tigres that leaves all to be decided in Buenos Aires next week.

Gallardo, a traditional number ten himself as a player, got rid of his trademark diamond in favor of a more pragmatic 4-4-2 with no playmaker ahead of this Libertadores's first leg against Boca Juniors. The wingers, Uruguayans Carlos Sánchez and Tabaré Viudez, work their flanks so Mercado and Vangioni are scarcely exposed to the rival's full-backs and Matías Kranevitter brilliantly guards the front of his defense while Leo Ponzio harries whoever gets the ball. In front, Teo Gutiérrez used to drop and work the channels to provide the width lost by the cautiousness of Mercado and Vangioni. Recently signed forward Lucas Alario is completely different: the strategy with Rodrigo Mora against Tigres yesterday focused in making life difficult to Guido Pizarro, Tigres' holding midfielder.

As a result of harassing Pizarro and pushing him deep between the Tigres centre-backs, the Liga Mx side's game-building became a bit nervous and prone to making mistakes under pressure. Soon before Hugo Ayala was subbed off due to injury in the first half, he and Juninho got entangled with the ball, Nahuel Guzmán forced to sweep behind them, and Ayala knocked over by his own goalkeeper. In some ways Gallardo was astute enough to identify the key players in Tigres' tactical backbone (Pizarro, Rafael Sobis and André-Pierre Gignac) and isolate them with double covers. Maidana and Funes-Mori, River's central defenders, more often than not alienated and annoyed the Frenchman with harsh maneuvers; and Kranevitter negated Sobis any pocket of space between the lines with his positional awareness throwing him into Ponzio's custody. It's not strange then that Tigres boss Ricardo Ferretti instructed Sobis to exchange positions with Damián Álvarez in the left wing to form a 4-3-3 during the last minutes of the match when the locals got the best of a now shaky River Plate backline.

Despite the fact that Gallardo tells Vangioni and Mercado to keep position and be cohesive, River Plate get distressed when their opposition launches wingers and full-backs to attack high up the pitch. When faced with Edgardo Bauza's San Lorenzo at Recopa Sudamericana, full-backs Emmanuel Mas and Julio Buffarini showed that River bleeds at the outside. The best chances of Tigres came when right winger Jürgen Damm took on Vangioni: the first half promising cross that Sobis should have headered home, and the second half poor Vangioni tackle that left Damm alone in front of River's goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero. The flanks, the flanks, the flanks, appears to be the mantra for Ricardo Ferretti at Monumental de Núñez.

Gallardo may resort to promising young defender Emanuel Mammana to cover the absence of Mercado due to a second yellow card, but otherwise his side will be as expected from the Monterrey leg. Individually, Tigres seem a superior squad and pretty much well trained, but the Argentines should appeal at their crowds and Gallardo surely may retreat back (even more) to set his squad on 'finals mode'.