His performances lately have spoken for themselves, the proof is pretty evident he's still a quality CB and can't be denied. In a tournament we need to keep him fresh and have someone alternate with him against weaker opponents, and we need to pray he stays injury free at his age. One of the best defenders in the past generation.
Just watched it again if he took the shot he would have just hit a defender he was being marked well in that play, If anything he should have passed to Ronaldo earlier and made a run past the defenders and called for a low cross into the box.
He definitely is but they didn't let us have him. He loves Portugal and decided he wanted to play for us from the get. He's been here since he was 16. He's now 37. Portugal has been the majority of his life, not Brazil. This wasn't a case like Deco, although even to his credit, you can tell he will also always be Portugal > Brazil, at least when it comes to football. Pepe loves Portugal more than Brazil, and his wife and kids on top of that, are Portuguese. Best CB of his generation and a legend of the game. Sergio Ramos wishes he was still at Real so he could keep learning from him.
PEPE was the best player yet again. Portugal will be in big trouble when he retires. We should have beaten France. We will get them in the next game. Great Generation of players.
When Pepe retires some other guy will step up/same thing with Ronaldo. Once there's a football tradition in a country the players will appear. Lets say portugal benches there starting 11 and start a different 11. They should and would still be competitive and make euros or world cup tounaments
Are you a relative new Portugal fan? I've been a Porto fan since day one and come from a family of die-hard Portistas. Portugal always had a football tradition, but we lacked the winning mentality. If you understand Portuguese football history, the big shift came in the 1980s when Porto changed our mentality. FC Porto managed to break barriers and compete on the international scene, we narrowly lost the 1983 Cup winners Cup to a strong Juventus side. We followed that up by shocking the world, by claiming the European Champion's Cup (That is the champions league to you Gen-Z kids) in 1986/87 season. The man who changed Portugal's mentality was Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and his coach, Jose Maria Pedroto (who was better than Mourinho, btw). After 1987, we saw the emergence of the golden generation and Portugal became relevant on the international scene once again. if it wasnt for FC Porto, we would still be at the level of a Sweden or Bulgaria. Sportinguistas to be fair might have something to say about producing some talents, but none of them ever won anything with Sporting and they had to learn how to be winners elsewhere. At a macro-level, Porto has been the main driver of Portugal's success from a mentality perspective. Benfica doesnt even factor into this equation.
Big trouble when Pepe retires, and great generation of players within the same paragraph. So we're in big trouble without Pepe, because a great generation of players means nothing when our CB retires? I'm trying to make sense of this.
Although Portugal has good young talent, do you honestly deny that we could easily replace Pepe? Pepe is almost like our CR7 when it comes to CBs. I still have hopes for Diogo Leite.
CB has always been a position that I have worried about Portugal filling. It seemed like for quite a while we were waiting to hear of the next Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho Fernando Couto, etc. With that said, I have been really impressed on how solid and in command Ruben Dias has been for the Seleção. He has done great since coming on to the senior side especially going against the likes of the Netherlands, Croatia, Spain, and France. Now it seems like we may have some good talent coming up with guys like Diogo Leite and Eduardo Quaresma. Pepe still has a little left in the tank but once he hangs them up I think Portugal will be just fine as Dias is handed the torch from him.
Dias is one guy and let’s not forget he just switched to Man City. He can get lost there. Leite and Quaresma are not ready yet. Semedo was okay against Spain but I’m not sure he is able to play consistently at the top level.
Yeah Semedo is ok. I wouldn't want him to be a regular starter for the Seleção. If he stays out of jail, he can probably be a decent backup. I dont think Leite or Quaresma are ready yet either but by next year Leite should be ready or close to. Ruben Dias is 23 years old and Leite is 21 and will be 22 when the Euros start next year. Ruben was about 21 years old when he made his first cap. Quaresma is still too young at 18 so it may be a few years before he gets a chance for the senior side. Also, Duarte is another option at CB.
What is the name of his partner at Benfica young player played few times even got him self a really nice goal in the Champions league
Replacing Pepe with someone of equal quality is more than likely not going to happen, he's a world class CB. I just wouldn't describe Portugal without him in "big trouble". I feel like we will find a solid replacement, just not at his level as it's obviously rare.
The Dias-Semedo CB pairing looks very promising, for the the next 5 years. Portugal have not struggled with CBs quality for a long time, obviously some were better than others but we had, Carvalho, Couto, Andrade, Costa, Alves, Meira...
He started out quite well then just dropped form and now from the first choice pairing at SLB he has maybe gone to the 4th option, still Young but needs to be loaned out or sold because JJ is not going to give him time, JJ is not a youth developer.
Ferro, He had a sophomore slump last season hes gonna have to earn his way back in the 11, If he does it will be incredibly impressive considering his competition. Ferro is a Jesus style CB so I have faith he will earn a role at some point this season.
One guy i like is Domingos duarte very composed/good size and has great timing. He will eventually outgrow granada and move too a bigger club