I'm not a fan of Petit...Sorry to dissappoint you, but he's an average player at best. I would be surprised if anyone outside of Portugal actually made a move to try and get him. There are hundreds of players out there at his level. I could understand Barcelona wanting Maniche, but Petit??? He's found his place on Benfica and to them is an important palyer but Petit in my opinion is a sub on most good teams.
It's fine if you don't like him, but Petit has been one of the better players in the SuperLiga for a few years now. In my opinion, Petit is a better player right now than Costinha, so Petit should start for Portugal. A team like Real Madrid could use a guy like Petit, someone who recovers alot of balls in midfield.
He does have a cannon of a shot, but Simao is much more accurate. Benfica has 4 excellent freekick takers, Simao, Geovanni, Petit, and Zahovic. The 4 of them take turns at freekicks during a game.
i hate his shot, he shouldn't be the benfica's set pieces taker, i hate his free kicks and corner kicks, and his hot, oh my god, the target is the goalie not the public
He's good at Benfica, no argument there. Costinha is lazy.....I've never liked his work ethic. It's seems like he's always standing still, has anyone ever seen him run hard? Bosingwa is way better.
LOOOOOL, defesensive midfielder is to destroy opponents game and steal balls, and for others create attacks, that's his job, not to be a set piece taker
Petit is a pretty good player. He's a ball winner, and has a knack for scoring some goals. Costinha's a positional player..right place right time kinda guy. Maniche is better than both of them. Maniche is a quality passer and has a pretty fierce shot. For whatever reason, Portugal develops way too many defensive mids and not enough strikers, wingers, or centremids, even goalies for that matter. Tiago, Pedro Mendes, Raul Meireles, and Bosingwa are all quality DM's...and surely atleast three of these guys will never see any action with the NT, probably not ever.
I am not sure if this is the right way to look at these players and compare them to Petit and Costinha. Tiago, Maniche, Pedro Mendes...they would all be attacking players if they play for worse teams. I feel the complete opposite, that Portugal doesn't produce enough defensive mids and have to convert attacking players into that position (which isn't a bad thing at all, as it increases the overall talent level on the field). I am curious to how others feel on this topic.
Maniche isn´t at his best level in FC Porto right now but who is... he still is a great player and i am sure if he was bought by Barcelona we would see the real Maniche arise again, he is just dissapointed, the same happened with Deco, we all remember his 2002/2003 season FC Porto didn´t let him go to Barcelona and in 2003/2004 his season was worse, its about motivation, with Maniche the same thing its happening. About Petit, i like Petit IMO he is a great player everyone in here remember Petit from Boavista and Petit from the Portugal starting eleven from 2000 to the 2002 WC, the man was great, he was the best defensive midfielder in Portugal and was spoken to go to several teams in Europe, now he is starting very well finally it seems he is getting back to his form from the Boavista days and to be fair right now i would put him in the starting eleven instead of Costinha, because he is playing better, the only disavantadge of Petit at the moment is on the heading game, Costinha is great and win alot of balls on the air and this is very important during a game.
I always thought that Sporting would've had the next really good DM in Custodio, who really played well last season, however his progression under Paseiro has really taken a beating. The one thing I liked about Fernando Santos last season was the fact that he literally told Custodio that the job was his to take, and really excelled...it's a shame that he hasn't been playing regularly this season.
As far as defensive mids goes, with Maniche, Costinha, Petit, Mendes etc to choose from..we are in very good hands.
There is good depth in almost all areas. I would like to see more keepers developed, as well as strikers. Otherwise, we are solid in all other positions.
Well, if Valdir develops like we all hope he will (especially Sportinguistas ) then we won't need to worry that much about the LB position, but a bit more offensive depth at LB would be nice.
I think these players have more skill than is required for the defensive mid position but are also not skilled enough to be attacking mids either. They fall some where in between. I think it's a good thing as it gives portugal more players that can adapt and vary their approach based on the game at hand. I agree that Petit and Costinha are more natural at that position.
you are a 100 percent correct it only took one game between Sporting vs MU, to have C Ronaldo to be on the way to Manchester