I am hoping Cuadrado benefits from having to play other styles of teams and tactics other than CONMEBOL. It does seem like his cheeky dribbling skills and stop and go action moves are rendered useless against South American teams who scout him and know how to defend against his bag of tricks. Against Asian, African and some European teams he can get away with it and make their defenders look bad as he does for Juve at times.
Duvan has two appearances for Colombia 1. 25 minutes as a sub against Bolivia....in Bolivia 2. This week against Peru....in Peru That's a bit quick to comment on his inability to score for Colombia....i would save that for after he gets a run of games under his belt before you can make a true assessment. I like the idea of playing different formations based on who we are using at any given time. Germany and Spain are great at that and don't try to force the players to play in a structure, but do the opposite and let the formation be based on our strengths. With that said, i would love to try (but i doubt it will happen) a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 where we utilize our CBs as opposed to keeping such talented players on the bench. But i think it would require having the mix of the Murillo brothers, Mina, Zapata, Davinson on the depth chart. I know you don't rate Zapata, but like Yepes was in the 2014 WCQs, Zapata brings leadership and experience - knowing pekerman i think he will start Zapata and Mina before playing Mina-Davinson at the same time, although Mina-Davison sounds unstoppable What we haven't seen out of Davinson yet at the NT level is his playmaking ability. For those of you who have watched Ajax play, Davinson often times was the genesis of a lot of the possession and set the table for the attack. in a weird way, he was like a deep/deep playmaker. For the NT, he has only been playing just defense for now and getting acclimated to these international games. if and when it happens that Davinson gets into his comfort zone, we may only need someone like Barrios in the future as opposed to a Sanchez-Aguilar pair. i wouldn't even consider Fabra a weakness anymore - he's done enough to instill confidence. as for backup LB, your guess is as good as mine
2 things: Most NTs in the world, have the same quality gap, at most , if not in all positions on the field. From time to time certain countries develop deep squads, but even then, there are reasons for starters to be starters. Right now, besides Germany and Brazil, probably France, Spain, Belgium and Argentina could plug some of the players on the bench and make a seamless transition into the starting lineup. But for most teams all over the world, their best players have no replacement. And, as much as I like Mina, the team has performed decently on the field without him, with Sanchez looking really sharp since joining Spurs. The 3 goals received in the last two games were more flukes than actual gaps on the back. Without Neymar, they'll still have Coutihno, Paulihno and Gabriel Jesus to fill the void. A little drop in quality, but probably they could make it all the way to semifinals... And Germany... Their B squad basically walked through Confederations cup without even playing good matches and only controlling games for short stints... That is undoable for any other team at this moment...
Not only at this moment but I can't recall seeing such a strong bench in history. Like yeah there has been NT who had like 4 or even 5 strong bench players but like a full blown B squad? No way What I think is that Germany rather than having an A and a B squad they just have two A squads.
and a C squad. Remember they also won the U21 Euro championship this summer. I imagine a player or two from that squad will go to Russia as well
I don't want to check wikipedia, but I'd say that Spain 2010 had probably 10 bench players that would be starters on any other NT (Valdes, Reina, Albiol, Puyol, Capdevilla, Xabi Alonso, Mata, Fabregas, Pedro, Llorente, Navas)... Maybe France in 1998, Brazil in 2002, Brasil in 1986... Now, to have almost the same level, yeah, unheard of...
Capdevilla was the starting LB for Spain. for someone who did not play at Barca/Real, it was impressive how integral he was whenever Spain had possession
If Osorio ever takes over we will have more formations than we know what to do with...careful what we ask for! My biggest gripe is that Pekerman sometimes tends to give his marquee players the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes it pays off (Falcao return) and sometimes it doesnt (Armero) but I hope he does find a better transition game in that defensive block of midfielders.
The 4-2-3-1 without Falcao worked very well in the WC but since then we had more bad games than good with this system even when we won. Falcao with Duvan worked giod in Lima. Why not to try it in the future friendlies?
Yeah, the Falcao - Duvan team looks like it has potential. I hope that Pekerman keeps playing this line up see if it pans out.
The Talent is there but Neymar provides a lot more than talent. We all saw how they folded like a deck of cards without him in 2014 and in the 2015 Copa America. Maybe with Tite as manager they would find a way to adjust and still do very well but I remain a bit skeptical until I see that happen. I would favor most big teams (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Argentina, etc.) against Brazil without Neymar in Russia.
What worries me about Brazil more than just Neymar is their defense basically plays every week together. The cohesion being developed by dani alves, Marquinhos and Thiago Silva every week at PSG makes them pretty dangerous. Throw in Marcelo or felip Luis and you have a backline that rivals any marquee defense
And Tite is a good tactician when it comes to organization and defense going back to his Corinthians days. They are great, no doubt.
Ok, let's just give them the WC trophy now... folks... We did play Brazil VERY will on their own home court and had a solid 2nd half in Barranquilla. Thiago Silva crapped his pants when it mattered in his country's WC. Alves is no spring chicken so you have to exploit the space he leaves behind and F Luis is very similar to Arias.... can be sloppy. Marcelo is the only one that can change the game in the backline imo but his form has also been in down form. If our issue in the WC 18' is how Silva keeps on stopping Falcao than it means we've made it past a couple WC stages
Not giving Brazil the title but if you look at past WC winners all their key players play together at the club level: Italy 06: Juventus/ Milan Spain 10: Madrid/Barca Germany 14: Bayern/Dortmund Don't think any nation can say 3 of their defenders play on the same team on a weekly basis. Think of it as a NT team having informal training sessions every week.
Just two players of ac milan in he starting XI... actually roma, inter, palermo and fiorentina starters
I Dont care. i want to inform and discuss with real facts with the other posters. that accept different opinions....like you
i actually just read his post to humor myself. i see i was informed that AC Milan only fielded 2 players during the World Cup 2006. Big F'n deal....what's the point? Couple of things: 1. Those two players....the CM duo of Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso both of whom made the world cup all-star team. a CM duo of that caliber who also had 49 games together at the club level for AC Milan further strengthens my point that about players who play on the same club/NT together. So thanks for highlighting that. 2. Every game of the 2006 world cup Italy had 3, 4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2 players from AC milan on the pitch at the same time: So one game was nitpicked and does not take anything from my overall comment about national team cohesion being a result of having a core group that play club futbol together....my point being that Brazil has this advantage if the PSG backline of Alves, Marquinos and Silva remain healthy.....
@ryu79 this is disrespectful.......humor myself? sound like a troll. then the same poster was complaining because someone doesnt have his same opinion and argued with him.
i was accurate with my post about 2006, 2010 and 2014 previous world cup winners and their teams being comprised of players who play on the same club team. There was nothing wrong with what i said. i'm asking you politely, please stop replying to my comments altogether. you have a strong propensity to take a comment that people make and you twist it to make it seem that it is incorrect or misinformed. @pibe10 @ryu79 - I'm sure I am not the first person to describe how @pepinointer is disruptive to the flow of many of these threads. i ignore you for a number of reasons and I will continue to do so. Have a good day.