Pre-match: [Friendly] Portugal x Cabo Verde

I agree that one of Portugal's biggest problems if not the biggest is a lack of professionalism. You have to be ruthless and concentrated for all 95 minutes or so.

 

Same old crap, no strikers.

 

People expected a blow out? Yeah right. I agree with the chemistry. It's one freaking game, as for Lopes, give him time. He's still got potential. Not gonna say much but there are some quality young players still developing.

 

Agreed. I don't anything changes but we do have some talent.

 

Just read on Twitter: Bruma would have scored 3. Haha

 

Everyone needs to chill out. What did you expect from a game where it was incredibly obvious to the players on the field that they either wow the coach or not much will change going forward? For them to play as a team? Lulz. They did what any young, inexperienced player/person would do and put themselves over the team. I have a feeling Santos is too experienced of a coach to think that this was never a possibility. The game could have just as easily ran as he expected.

 

After cooling down a bit, what can we take from this game aside that we dont have strikers?
Actually, nothing!
We dindt lose points to qualify to the Euro, we wont drop as seeds to World Cup Qualifying, we actually could show some individually quality for Santos.

It was just a friendly with newbies, and the majority of them are in mid range clubs and not that young, and we probably wont see in a true call up.

This means that our youngster are not what we expect? No! Absolutely not. The best players today were the u-21 core. Paulo Oliveira, João Mário, Cédric all made very good games, while we learn that Bernardo Silva can be our answer as AM.

Other than that, our best u-21 are all focused on the U-21 European and the U-20 World Cup.

And, you can't deny the talent, to be pushed in the main squad GRADUALLY, of Bruma, Rony, Ruben Neves, Horta, Gonçalo Paciencia, Gonçalo Guedes, André Silva, Iuri Medeiros, Mané, etc.

 

We played shit, most players were shit and arnt good enough.

Only a few good things:


Bernardo Silva was good, playmaker we desperately needed.

Joao Mario had his flashes and showed quality and a real engine.

Vieirinha at RB is a decent option

Andre Andre looks alright, lets see how he does next season.

 

That is true!

 

I would love to try out a line up where Vierinha is a RB and Quaresma is in front of him. We would have some creativity from that side and would just need to figure out who to pair with Fabio on the left side. Maybe keep Fabio at the more advanced role he played the other day and have Raphael Guiriero(sp?) behind him or flip them two and have Fabio further back.

 

its from inferences drawn from every post you hate on Ronaldo's attitude

sound like a typical Braga/Minho/Closet Drampiao and anti-Sportinguista fanboy douche, saying ignorant shit left right and centre.

yes we get it Ronaldo has no heart, is a crybaby blah blah blah blah he didn't play today but its his fault cause they look up to him and appropriate his mannerism.
if only he was a warrior like Sa Pinto or Jorge Costa.

its his attitude thats the problem!!
most Portuguese players need the attitude of all those typical Portugal players who once they get to a decent level F off to Turkey Cyrpus or Ukraine and take it easy the rest of their careers for easy money instead of striving to be the best they can be.

All of this overthought jargon over a friendly using several fringe players, first time youth debutants, and some players who will never have a realistic hope at becoming a squad regular in the future

this was basically a charity game for victims of a disaster in Cape Verde.

 

I knew from the start that this was going to be a poisonous game and CV were going to give their all. We don't have a good history with friendlies and playing against an ex-colony it was likely to end up bad for us. The only player on the field that gave his all was Bernardo Silva. If they all put their heart on the field that day then we would of won it very easily. That and not playing Hugo Almeida. The most useless striker i've ever seen with the nt colors.

It doesn't matter now and no one should really go mental over this. This stupid friendly doesn't really say much about the players we have. And Anthony Lopes certainyl doesn't deserve the hate. The 1st goal it's much harder to anticipate than most people think.

Let's just hope that F. Santos calls the right guys when the time comes. That's the only thing that matters right now (despite the continuous lack of professionalism in certain games).

 

I remember when Vierinha got so much hate, the guy has been working his butt off to get the attention he deserves. Not an elite player but could prove valuable. RB seems like a realistic idea, actually could benefit us cause his crosses are underrated.

 

Just wish Santos would get Figueiras on this team, he's basically a Coentrao clone who has decent speed and can make things happen.

 

So all the young guns were in the Under 21 teams and weren't used for this friendly?

 

Except Andre Gomes, Joao Mario and Bernardo Silva. It was mostly fringe players or guys that will never see the NT again, except those 3 and Vieirinha/Cedric should be considered as our next RB, also I think Danilo deserves another shot. Always find it funny how people react to friendly games, let alone a friendly game with a C team, like we don't have a mountain of evidence to suggest these games never matter.

 

Vieirinha / Cedric will be probably our duo of RB in 2018 for sure. Bosingwa is too old for the World Cup in Russia.
Danilo was EXTREMLY well as CB, he should focus in this position, because as DM we might have William, Ruben Neves and Tiago (if he manage to be healthy at 37, and by what we saw, him playing better as getting older is a possibility).

The young CB are still having difficulties to breaking in their professional squads (I think only Ilori and Paulo Oliveira are startes), while Carvalho and Alves are all too old for 2018. Pepe (35) and Fonte (34) will depend on their physics.

 

I doubt that Tiago will still have it in him for the Euro, nvm the WC. He's also not a ball recover to play the DM properly. This nonsense about looking at William Carvalho as a half back with only good passing skills has got to end. He provides much more to the offensive transition than it seems. Either Santos is like P. Bento and oblivious or he's fielding Tiago due to his experience. I'm more inclined to the first after seeing André Gomes playing the DM role against Cape Verde.

Key element for the DM role: agressiveness. A player can have decent tackling, but he won't accomplish nothing in that role without garra and bravery. Neither André Gomes or Tiago have that in them. Which is also another reason why I don't want 2 MCs with similar passiveness ever playing together. It will be the death of us (e.g.: João Mário & André Gomes or Adrien Silva & André André). One of the MCs need to have world sized lungs and keep the tempo right (like Moutinho, Bruno Fernandes or Bernardo Silva are able to ).

I would say that Danilo Pereira is closest to the perception that people in general have about W. Carvalho. I think he's good to come off the bench when defending an advantage. And worth a shot at the CB role, yeah.

Rúben Neves is certainly an option though. Love the kid. He looks like a veteran out there.

 

Look at the highlights today we are in serious trouble at the ST position.

Against CV we should of tested out new strikers like trying Matias or even Toze Marreco (has like 30 goals for promotion hopefuls Tondela) or even with Bernardo as a false 9