We need a 9 asap. Falcao is becoming a burden. Morelos is the most promising young striker. Who else is there?
Borja if he ever gets back his form at whatever new club he plays at. Also, someone who has the strong target striker characteristics Queiroz may like is Jhon Cordoba. Other than that we have way too many guys who are "tweeners" or guys who do better out wide.
Duvan is number one obviously, but we need more strikers that can score. There will be injuries. Falcao can be used as a sub at best. Borja and Morelos are the best options I guess.
I doubt that yesterday the problem was if was falcao on the top or duvan on the bench....the bic problem was estructure and team. Yeah duvan was the man to startes and arias over medina... We played horrible agsint qatar and queiroz repeated that 11....
There is truth to this - I think the bigger issue was that we had been riding high playing CQs high press system and couldn't react when we got punched in the mouth with the first disallowed goal. The way we were controlling the game in the first ten or fifteen minutes, if we had scored early I think it's a very different game. The point on Duvan isn't criticism of Falcao or that Falcao cost us the game - he didn't - but that based on his season at Atalanta AND his scoring in THIS tournament Duvan had earned the start. I think Radamel is an important figure and has much to offer, even at this stage, but on the NT the guys in best form should start... Separate point - shouldn't lose in this that we exited this tournament with no goals scored against, after a WC where Davinson and Mina were also successful when paired. I am heartened to see us having such success with such a young pairing. You take them as an anchor, Barrios at the 5, James at 10, and Duvan at 9 - structurally that's a terrific vertebrae for a team moving forward. We should feel good with what we learned about the team these past few weeks, especially with hope on the fullbacks the first time in three years. To that point, I really hope we see Tesillo + Arias moving forward at fullback - they both offer the projection on overlap and solid defending to give us balance. Here I DO think CQ made a decision that hurt yesterday playing Medina - we just lost balance in midfield with our attacking players needing to compensate for his inability to help in possession, esp after the scare with the first waved goal.
Now that it has been 24 hours and the frustrations have hopefully simmered down What do you prefer 1. 2016 CA run and 3rd place finish 2. 2019 CA run and QF exit I personally liked how we played the 3 group stage games this CA - our fitness seemed fine and there looked to be a strategy with the subs and we were bringing it to all three teams in the group Although we exited in QF rather than semifinal 2016 - Chile did not pull down our pants this time like they did in 2016. I think there is a lot to build off of this CA team for next year. I think one thing our team needs and I’m probably going to get some flack but we need a guy on our team like Sergio Ramos / Dani Alves, Luis Suarez, Busquets, Pepe, Roy Keane, etc. Players who are proven winners but @$$holes at the same time. Someone you are glad is on your team but everyone else in the world hates. Maybe Barrios or even Cardona has that potential but we have a team of nice guys who lack that killer instinct. Many have noted that despite the VAR help our team lost that bravado/machismo / whatever you want to call it and we started to let Chile dictate the game. Having a “bulldog” who can keep everyone else in alpha mode is what we lack. Back to my question. - I’m curious as to how people here rate this Colombia overall performance va 2016CA run?
The opening round of this tournament was great football from Colombia. We were eliminated on pens after not giving up a goal in four games. Everyone needs to chill.
I have made up my mind that someone like Farbra or even Mojica would serve us better than Tesillo at LB. RB we are in real trouble though because there's no one better than Arias or Medina and they both have deficiencies. Maybe someone like Orejuela can get more chances if he plays well in Brasil? But he seems to have problems defensively from what little I have seen. This system relies on guys who can cross and give good service from the LB and RB spots and we just don't have consistent guys there.
Midfield looks good. Between Barrios, Uribe, Lerma, Cuellar, Campuzano, Cantillo we are set at DFM. The "Cuadrado" role though is Cuadrado's unless we can find someone who can do the things he does but better. Creatively it is all James. Cardona just did not look himself (maybe his injury was worse than they thought?). If JuanFer can gain back his form I think he will be the main backup creative player and not Edwin but with Quinterito's injury situation that may not happen until March. Support strikers/wingers are set and we have some good youngsters/inexperienced guys on the way. Way too many for me to list. #9s comes down to Duvan, Falcao, Borja, Morelos, Cordoba, and whoever looks the best in the Sub23 Maybe the kid from Magdalena Márquez.
I think that's a bizarre view after this tournament. Tesillo looked far more comfortable on the ball and connecting with the midfield than Mojica does...he crosses better, is a touch faster and shares the high work rate... I really hope a penalty kick doesnt prevent us from playing with a balanced line up rather than what we had at the last WC.
Tesillo was one of our best players in the 3 games he played. He missed a PK.... doesn’t change that Fabras defending and attacking is much worse then Tesillo he is just much faster and plays for Boca Mojica is better offensively and crossing but is more of a winger and is bad defending. Borja just plainly sucks.... Hope someone pops up before the next Copa America and World Cup but seems tough
Mojica is interesting. His crosses have more speed and power to them but he struggled so much to even put the ball into play during WC. I simply found him overwhelmed against tougher competition during World Cup play. Granted he kinda came into the process late, but with his recent injury, who knows how long before he can be a viable option. Right now the depth chart for LB is Tesillo, Borja, Fabra, Deiver - would be nice to see a kid from youth ranks with Colorado lungs come into the scene Borja did show the most confidence I have seen from him against Paraguay, so I won’t close the book on him yet. Tesillo missed a pk - like you said. Doesn’t change anything. You know who else has missed PK’s - Baggio, Messi, CR7, Suarez, Heskey, etc etc.
I actually haven't seen a single normal crossing from either full back. But I do agree with you that Tesillo did a very good job, surely for a center-back who is not in his natural position I would like to try him also in this position but he needs to cross much better IMO, especially when we have guys like Duvan and Roger up front. (Same goes with the right side). As for "Cuadrado's role" that someone mentioned here, we have a huge problem. I can't recall a very good game of Cuadrado since the 2014 WC. He does fight, aggressive and defensive but his dribbles and movements don't work on his rivals any more. He's too predictable. On the other hand, we do not have another fast and defensive option from the bench, so it's hard to take him out of the lineup.
I think Cuellar could be a potential replacement for cuadrado.... I was never awed with Mojica, it struck me as another correlón... Tesillo was better in my opinion.
Results/finish wise, I would prefer and rank the 2016 ending more. The 2019 ended too disappointing, cause I have to accept that we lost in the knockouts as one of the best performing teams in the tournament, zero goals allowed(thank you VAR), perhaps with one of the better team/roster of players, finally beat argentina without controversy and lost to an aging and IMO, less talented Chilean team for which we had numerous advantages tangibly yet we still screw this up? Expectations were higher here vs 2016 where we came off our WC run basically. At least then there were "excuses" for the defeat to the better Chile team(3 years later and we still can't beat the nearly same group of guys).
seeing as we are still mostly thin on full backs, I think its safe to say CQ will probably give him another shot. Personally im not huge on him.
Let’s see how Mojica does at the start the season. Hopefully he’s fit and ready to go I think Fabra played in the Boca friendlies that came through NYC. So both of these guys have a lot to prove at the start of the upcoming season Will be nice to see 4 guys making a claim for LB
If Fabra can regain form he's still number one on the depth chart. He offers more then anyone else we have in the player pool, Tesillo was really good and he should get the job at this point but we've seen Fabra's level before he got injured. Mojica was decent but man he was one dimensional and couldn't really do anything with the ball at his feet other then cross, we need a fullback with a broader skillset, when teams at the WC realized he was a one trick pony he looked lost.