Radja Nainggolan has supposedly retired from the national team because Roberto Martinez didn't call him up again. I am so tired of these feuds between our national team managers and some of our players. We've had Advocaat and Kompany, Leekens and Hazard, Wilmots and Nainggolan and now this.
According to Nieuwsbad journos Radja decided to retire after the team selection press conference, which was quickly dismissed in other newspapers (and VTM), and again later, during the night, Nieuwsbad used direct quotes from an interview with Radja which left no room for speculation. http://www.football-italia.net/108801/nainggolan-i-quit-belgium http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20170825_03036051 Today Nieuwsbad journos claim he had a change of heart. http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20170826_03036711 It sounded like Nieuwsbad journos have been selling outright lies ... being contradicted by others. HLN did add to the Le Soir claim (the Estonia incident): The lack of professionalism still lingers. Sure Nainggolan hasn't been a model professional but I very much doubt he'd disrupt the team. At Roma he seems fine. Besides it's his performance on the pitch that matters most. Instead of 1 player, for me the focus should be on the whole team. It's very positive that our players like spending time with each other ... however they aren't on holiday ... you'd expect them to push each other, to go above and beyond, and maybe this is crazy but for once bring the best out of this insanely talented squad ... go balls to the wall so the team gets a win or at least there won't be regrets like after past tournaments ... hold each other accountable for results ... it seems they're too nice, too soft for each other ... scared to make waves? ... mainly concerned about their club careers? ... not much of a winner's mentality? ... the leaders in the dressing room, at least the ones you'd expect to take on that role, must speak up more often ... Martinez acting like a stern school teacher isn't nearly enough.
IIRC Fellaini is suspended for today's game (and reportedly carrying a knock anyway). Hey-ho we're playing GibBentekeSevenSecondsToOpenScore. For the other tie ... Greece captain and right-back, Torosidis, is ruled out, Mitroglou is being rushed back from injury (won't play today but might play v. Belgium) and Papastathopoulos returns from suspension in time to face Belgium.
Witsel out Nainngollan out. Heard rumous that Eden Hazard might not play. Apart from Dembele , who else is gonna be on the midfield?
If KDB is moved up a line I'd expect Fellaini ... Tielemans, Defour (looks to be in good form) or Dendoncker (doubtful) are options too ... don't think he'll go with Dembele + KDB.
Not a great game, but we qualified. We looked better after Hazard came on and KDB could move back to midfield. I'm not sure if we can get away with the Fellaini-Dembele midfield.
How likely is it that you guys will take the game against us next month seriously/will you field your A team?
Our players didn't even take the previous game against Greece seriously ... playing at a walking pace ... hardly creating any chances ... no tempo, no movement ... giving up acres of space for the Greeks to exploit. Bosnia will be fine if you avoid a football game from breaking out ... even though I respect Bosnia for actually wanting to play football ... your best shot is to frustrate our team. Regardless, I prefer to watch an open, attractive game. In recent campaigns our players put in more effort during the first game of any international break/double header ... even though next month we'll face you first (and Cyprus second) ... Bosnia could get lucky and our players won't try too hard ... in previous campaigns the players weren't really focused once qualification was secured. Still, we probably need two more wins to gain top seed status at the World Cup draw ... we're 9th ATM but we'll climb the rankings after the current international break ... Belgium should be well-positioned ahead of the final two games but our FA pays so little attention that they most likely won't alert the manager and players to the fact that top seed status at the World Cup is up for grabs (also for the Nations League).
I suspect that Martinez will play his strongest team, or as close to his strongest team as injuries and form allow him to.
Projected Fifa ranking ... good news, we'll go up from 9th to 5th ... the top 7 = top seeds ... expecting Fifa to use the standings after next month's games (so excluding play-offs) ... still have to be wary about our results v. Bosnia and Cyprus 1. Duitsland 1.606 2. Brazilië 1.590 3. Portugal 1.386 4. Argentinië 1.325 5. België 1.265 6. Polen 1.250 7. Zwitserland 1.210 8. Frankrijk 1208 9. Chili 1.195 10. Colombia 1.191 11. Spanje 1.184 12. Peru 1.103 13. Wales 1.089 14. Mexico 1.085 15. Engeland 1.056 16. Uruguay 1.044 17. Italië 1.035 18. Kroatië 977 19. Slowakije 967 20. Noord-Ierland 945 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_seeding
Nainggolan's exclusion is very hard to swallow, AGAIN ... Dembele (out), Fellaini (injury doubt), Defour (nowhere near Radja's level), Tielemans (inexperienced in a big league and playing very little ATM), Witsel (Chinese league and probably has to serve a match ban during the Bosnia game) ... also, Dendoncker is playing poorly this season (I wouldn't look forward to see him in our back line; they keep listing him alongside our defenders for a reason I guess) ... very odd that Martinez picked Dendoncker, Vermaelen, Boyata and Ciman over Kabasele (who's displaying great form) and there's still doubt that Kompany is match fit ... Chadli (injury doubt) and Mirallas (warming the bench) ... SMH.
J.Lukaku out, Kabasele in ⚽ @J_Lukaku94 out (hamstring) voor #BIHBEL & #BELCYP na blessure gisteren op training. @ChrisKabasele27 komt bij de groep. #RoadtoRussia 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/o1m9yXcATd— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) October 4, 2017
I give Bosnia a lot of credit for playing actual football games against us, as opposed to Greece who were primarily interested in defending.
Was somewhat suprised/impressed by the "grinta" of the players. They really wanted to fight for a good result. This is the first time since 2002 I had that feeling during a game of the red devils.