Centre-backs who have marked out Diego Costa for España

I am noticing a trend here with Diego as for each time he starts for España, the opposition usually deploy one CB in particular to be keeping close track of Diego Costa and tasked with marking him out, despite even miles of space not being enough for the Brazilian.

The chain of events commenced with rival Argentine, Gabriel Paletta (for Italia) matching Costa's unfortunate face with Paletta's serial hair loss of Conte-sque proportions.

The trend seems to be in physically matching Costa, in which has seemed to effectively thwart his presence completely out of the game, along with his fish-out-of-water play for the NT.



As if the shame of being marked out by Paletta was not enough;

Here is the complete list of CBs (each of who have appeared in all 5 of Costa's current starts) whom have now completely marked out the Monk Fish of España:

Gabriel Paletta (Italia) (Parma)
Alexander Méndoza (El Salvador) (FAS)
Ron Vlaar (Netherlands) (Aston Villa)
Francisco Silva (Chile) (Club Brugge)
Mamadou Sakho (France) (Liverpool)

And the newest inductee to the list:

Martin *bleep* Skrtel (Slovakia) (Liverpool)

What an astounding collection of quality CBs.

You forgot Sakho Arq

Don't call me James wrote:You forgot Sakho Arq

Added.

Two Liverpool CBs.

Would it be possible that this isn't (fully) due to his ability as a footballer but more to do with how Spain plays?!

Quite possibly, it's a lovely mixture of both because he has done well at Rayo, Atletico and these days, Chelsea.

Can't wait until he scores vs Liverpool now and someone bumps this thread

Then that would be on Rogers if he doesn't man mark Costa... if he has someone man mark him, then fair enough.

Also, you don't have overwhelming talent advantages at the NT level. Every team has flaws. In addition, you don't have the ability to practice together for long periods with NT, so individual ability becomes more important.

What this tells me is that Costa does well when the team works to put him into his zones of comfort. He is not able to make the difference individually... which is why man marking works in the context of NT play.

Other thing to keep in mind is that Chelsea may have enough firepower that the opposition may not be able to afford to take a player out of the basic shape of the defense and man mark... Spain doesn't have another scoring threat like Hazard or Schurrle. You have a bunch of AMs/CMs and Costa.

If VDB is smart, he played Alcacer and Costa together.

Finally, it also shows that Costa is one dimensional and cannot adapt his game to different circumstances. There's only one way he's effective.

Anyhow, some random thoughts...

Costa will absolutely destroy our defense if he keeps the form he is on right now for Chelsea. I don't care how much Sakho and Skrtel were able to stop him at NT level

sportsczy wrote:
Finally, it also shows that Costa is one dimensional and cannot adapt his game to different circumstances. There's only one way he's effective.

Anyhow, some random thoughts...

Its interesting to me how Costa defenders take this point so badly.

There is "nothing" wrong with him being that way, all it means is the coach has to play to his strengths or not use him.

Much better players than Costa historically, have had similar problems.

I don't know how missing sitters equates to defenders shutting you down. Talking about the game vs Slovakia btw. The keeper was a factor as well, not the defenders.

Gary Medel over Silva, Arq.