Sanchez 'cumple' for the NT but I agree with you that he becomes the anchor and weights down any attack. I wouldnt be surprised to see stats where his ball possession is amongst the highest in the team. He holds the ball too long and cuts off any quick counters.... but that's not his fault. I don't expect him to be any different than that type of player. Now with Seba and Barrios being benched for so long and with an Argentine league in a sad state of affairs, I don't feel comfortable putting Seba back in that position. That's a lot to ask for and we could see Barrios overcompensating vs Argentina. But I agree, we need a Seba type of player (Uribe, Celis and Abel fit that bill) and a formation that had us look dominant. Why he would change that is beyond me? He did the same with Abel in WC vs Brazil.
In adition falcao since young was considered captain of river, porto, atletico and now monaco. A deciison that is beyond his football qualities. this fact: MisterChip (Alexis)Verified account@2010MisterChip 2h2 hours ago More #OJOALDATO - @FALCAO es el tercer colombiano que capitanea a un equipo en Fase KO de UCL tras Iván Córdoba (Inter) y Jackson Mtnez (Porto)
Yeah i talk about the type of player...... Not sanchez fault....but sousa in fiorentina found a better position for him .....than pekerman and the guy of aston villa that prefered to not uses...... With the age players change functions......for example bedoya was lb and then DMF Yeah you see that sanchez participate a lot in Nt but coincdentially team plays worse.....
I would not mind Pabon being called up but it won't happen. I think it is more likely someone like Yimmi Chara gets called up. He is also playing very well for Monterrey. As for the Midfield I would like to see what Uribe or Celis can offer. As I said earlier though, LB and to a lesser degree RB have me the most concerned. Last cycle we could rely on Zuniga and Armero to be okay on defense and help add some offensive attack on the wings. Diaz and Arias are just not that dynamic.
i hear ya. there's been a lot of things that haven't worked out since 2014 which i feel has led to the problems you identified. just to name a few: 1. 2015 Copa America - Falcao struggled and was ultimately a sub by the time we got to the Argentina game; Edwin Valencia was injured; Roca Sanchez was solid in the group stage (especially the Brazil game), but couldn't play against Argentina b/c of yellow cards; a lot of key players struggled for consistent playing time at the club level heading into that tournament; and overall our tactics were simply not there. the ball movement was horrendous and we looked like a group of guys who were on the field for the first time ever. the only bright spots of that tournament was the emergence of Jeison and Ospina's GK performance. 2. 2016 Copa America - we couldn't put teams away; inability to finish; seemed like we on 2nd or 3rd gear the entire tournament 3. WCQ's - we have been shuffling the lineups a lot and trying to find out what works and doesn't work. players like Muriel and Cardona have been coming along and have developed into crucial players while others have been on the fence and have been slow to develop outside of Colombia at the club level which has made things difficult for them to be a core player at the NT level (Marlos, Seba Perez, Celis, Barrios); Abel/Mac20 - while they were very important leading up to 2014, they have been in and out of the NT scene since 2014. GK - ospina is solid CBs - i feel we have a good group of reliable CBs - Zapata, Murrillo brothers, Yerry Seinfield and Davinson needs time before he's a regular member RB/LB - while i like Arias, he's a step down from Zuniga when he was at his best. and LB's have been a mixed bag of inconsistency between Fabra/Diaz. Fabra is like Medina in the sense that we are always going to think of him negatively b/c of the Chile game and Diaz at his best does not have the same potency as what Armero brought. as for James - along the lines of what you said, i feel like his situation at RMA is forcing him to play with more weight on his shoulders. his frustration shows at times and that is not how a "captain" or "leader" is supposed to play. hopefully now that he is seeing more playing time at the club level, he can play a little more relaxed for NT since Bolivia/Ecuador are the only two games we have for the remainder of this club season (before the summer break), it's important that we get 6 points from both games and we get on the scoreboard. we really need to go into the bolivia game with a mindset to put in 4 goals that game. if there is a time to shift gears and play to win convincingly, it is these two games....
El equipo le falta cohesión desde cierto sector del campo y pasa con tambien con los experimentados...... Sanchez y Valencia solo se uso en esa copa america.....y dejo en evidencia como hacia falta un volante central que no sea de corte exclusivamente de corte defenisvo
We don't beat Bolivia and we are eliminated. Beat Ecuador and qualification is ours to lose. We need to knock out Ecuador. FIFA going to find a bullshit reason for Chile, Argentina to qualify. They are going to screw us or Ecuador out. So better to be in the top 3. I am happy with a tie in Ecuador but a win in Ecuador I will feel real good about our qualification by leap frogging a direct rival. We also need to get past the Venezuela being our daDs qualifier issue we have. As for the reason we sucked since the WC. It's forcing players who just didn't have it or in good form as well as bad player transfers. Celis/Barrios/Cuellar/Perez should all be starters but they went to places that didn't play them and that hurt our NT. You all say Valencia but wasn't he coming out of a injury? Shouldn't have been called. Sanchez I don't like he kills our play and can't pass for shit. Also blame lack of friendlies and games against shit teams to give Falcao,Zuniga, Armero confidences. Yes he is a monster this season but we spent 2015-2016 basically trying to review a players form when his club wouldn't play him.
1. Ok, so now Chile is part of the FIFA conspiracy ?? Somehow FIFA favors them? Is that how they won 2 Copa Americas? 2. "Bad player transfers "...that one is rather obvious now, but you're playing Monday morning QB. At the time of the transfers, they were well received and everyone attributed some lack of playing time initially to other issues. Every time we have a more offensive minded DFM scheme we look better. Personally, I would have started Abel instead of Barrios against Argentina but I don't recall a better Messi ever playing for his NT...it was his night and he was just going to be unstoppable. I have bigger issues with some of his 2nd half substitutions (waits a bit too long and many subs in/out are rather questionable---ex: Copete vs Arg/Balanta starting in a position that's not his strength).... Lack of friendlies or playing against "smaller" futbol nations has always been a Pekerman m.o. ...it worked before for him pre WC so why wouldn't it work now post WC.... And Pekerman left Falcao out of some call ups and also didnt start him until the most recent WCQ.
All the pre Copa America matches were an excuse for Falcao to net 25 goals and be our top scorer ever. They were to basically Jack that dude off and bring back his confidence lead many including myself to hate the guy and Pekerman. Also did it with Armero. Pekerman being insanely lazy when it comes to friendlies is another reason I don't like him. Reason we did well at the WC was James playing on god mode and a very easy group. The Brazil game we had to play against the crowd and the ref but we were out coached as well. I don't want to start a bash or a hostile convo because I bashed Pekerman twice already and mentioned Falcaos 2 very dark EPL years but these are the reasons why I think we sucked.
Why do you think James plays every minute for Colombia when he hasn't been relevant for club in ages? When you have players who've proven to be world class, you give them whatever opportunities you can to regain that quality. Pekerman cut the cord with Falcao when he had to: the dude had no confidence and Bacca was killing it. Should he have been cut sooner? Probably. But yesterday justified Pekerman's reasoning. Falcao just needed to get things sorted to look like a world class player again. As for Armero, I can't blame Pekerman for that either. Diaz and Fabra don't give me the slightest bit of confidence.
James form/confidence is really worrisome. And it's something that's been spilling over to the NT now for some time now. Cuadrado was also going thru similar peaks and valleys (more valleys than anything else) until his last couple matches for NT and more so his recent Juve experience has been overall very positive. But Pekerman had options outside of Cuadrado and may also see Cuadrado (who is a bit older) as a bit more resilient when he sat him on the bench. I don't know if Pekerman would ever sit James, even if he's having a lucid game? Personally, give the choice, I don't think I would sit him either but something has to change to give him a partner to pull some pressure off in MF. It's rather obvious that when he's on the ball, teams give him zero space. Pekerman will need to find someone that constantly links up with him. But he also needs to find someone (hopefully Falcao) that can relieve some pressure about carrying this team. That last game vs Argentina was as hotheaded and angry as I have ever seen him and that does zero for his play or our team.
NT with 3 days of team training before a qualifier then another game in under a week can't regain form. Read Falcao say all he needed was games under his belt but those need to be for their clubs. James hasn't been killing it since The Italian was fired. But he also didn't have an almost career ending injury happen to him. He is also not replaceable at that time we had Bacca and Jackson killing it. I mean it's in the past. Just Pekerman the past 2 years has been doing a lot of weird/bad calls
Thats very tough on Pekerman. Most of his squad had a huge valley in form after the WC and he still has zero fullback play... And he has been trying to replace a leader in Yepes that captained the team for more than a decade. If he gets the results he should next month, i hope this tone starts to shift. But those fbs really worry me. Falcao needs crosses...
then change formation !!! We played a 4-2-2-2 when everyone was in form and we were good. Then he switched. We now have 0 wingbacks but a ton of CBs..... then play with 3 in the back
And if they dont know or aren't comfortable in a back three? A 3-5-2 is even more dependent on wingbacks and we went from having one of the best pairs to having basically no one dependable.
Enserio falcao todavía lo toman de chivo expiatorio de esa copa América Yo no sé qué hizo en esa copa : James , Bacca , cuadrado y los otros . Ningún gol ni una asistencia , y el loquito sigue culpando a falcao
As I mentioned in another thread I am more optimistic with the way James, Muriel , Falcao and Cuadrado have been playing for their clubs lately. Playing against Bolivia boosted our chances and confidence last cycle with 5 goals. I am hoping for something similar this time around too.
Ecuador is the make it or break it game. 6 points in our next 2 games then qualification is ours to lose. We also have to beat Brazil in Barranquilla. Make our house respected and get rid of the big 3 in South America being our daddies
I don't have a good feeling about the Ecuador game at altitude after playing in the sauna of Barranquilla. I'd be celebrating like Pinto if we get a point in Quito quite frankly.
I agree. But that is a very important point, since usually Ecuador gets most of their points at home and is probably our most direct rival. I think that Brasil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile are all but in and the last spot will be decided between us and Ecuador. These are their fixtures: Colombia: Bolivia, @Ecuador, @Venezuela, Brasil, Paraguay, @Peru. Ecuador: @paraguay, Colombia, @brasil, Peru, @chile, Argentina Not to say that we are going to qualify for sure, but we are playing teams in 9th, 3rd, 10th, 1st, 7th and 8th places. Our only real tough matches are two (yeah, we have to play them all but we are playing the 4 bottom teams, all but eliminated). OTOH, Ecuador plays 7th, 6th, 1st, 8th, 3rd and 5th, I'd say at least 4 very tough matches with 3 teams very well alive and another one on a make or break moment. If lets say, Ecuador draws Paraguay and then us, we will have the same points but then 3 of our remaining rivals will be eliminated teams while Ecuador will be playing 3 teams at the top of the table.
We need to get 9 points from our next 3 games then beat Peru. Qualified. Obvjously getting 1 point against a direct rival is better then 0 but if we have less points then a tie doesn't work well for us Venezuela and Brazil are the two teams who have me worried as we do badly against them.
Venezuela is the worst team in the Qualifiers and the worst they've been in a while. Brazil might have qualified already when we play them.
like CRZD says, 6 points against Bolivia and Ecuador puts us back in the driver's seat. i would really be disappointed if we drew against Ecuador - i realize they are a "direct rival" and we are playing in Ecuador but this is the last NT game during the club season. After this, we do not play again until after summer time. as we get closer to these games, the core of our attack is looking impressive at the club level so we need to make a statement that the Colombia people saw in 2015/16 was an aberration, not the norm. first thing is first, we need to win and play a strong 90 against Bolivia. a 1-0 win / put on the breaks in the 2nd half will not cut it in my eyes. we need to improve our goal difference and this is the perfect game for that opportunity. As for Venezuela/Brazil: Venezuela - has given Pekerman problems no matter what. i have learned never to count them out anymore LOL Brazil - even if they qualify by the time we face them, they are not one to let up much considering all the scrutiny they have been under the past few years. i think they will look to build off of a strong 2016 finish and build cohesion with their revised core lineup as they wrap up the qualifiers. they will look to keep their top 7 FIFA ranking so that they can earn a top seed position for the group stage of the WC.
I'm playing with the numbers a little bit and you know who is in the mix too? Argentina. And do you know who plays Argentina in the last match day? Ecuador.