I dunno, De Gea was probably one of the best 3 or 4 keepers in EPL this year, despite the rest of ManU imploding. His shot stopping ability was pretty awesome. Not familiar with his past troubles with La Furia Roja. I know Simon did not have a great Euros last year, especially in that Croatia match.
It's fine, the average european fan has been underrating our team and players for the last 4 years. Kinda deserve it for that shitshow in Russia but nothing new. However, the goalpost keeps moving. At first, our players were trash and we were going to struggle to even qualify, then before the copa america it was that we hadn't played Brazil yet, then a month ago it was that we hadn't played any serious european team. And so on.
I haven't talked about Argentina for years. M'y comment has nothing to do with what happened in Russia but with thé level of certain players at certain key positions. Nothing else.
Lmao North Macedonia won in Germany and in Italia in official matchs it doesn't mean shit. With nations League UEFA teams play too much games. Thé last World cup winners had serious midfields. Pirlo Gattuso Totti Xabi Alonso Busquets Xavi Iniesta Kroos Ozil khedira Kante Pogba Matuidi If you think you will win a World cup with paredes lo celso or de paul at the Heart of the game you are delusionnal.
We were a whisker away from beating Germany in 2014 with a midfield consisting of Mascherano, Biglia and Enzo Perez. Of course I think we can be champions with this better team.
It could be, supposing things go well for the Orange Squad, that they meet Argentina in the ko rounds. What's your assessment of the defense/midfield/attack head to head of both teams?
I can't Say that i see Argentina lose from the first good team they will meet in KO stages but i just don't see them not being exposed with thé players they got at a step or another. You Can see m'y point in UCL as well with PSG. Some clubs will spend 100-200 millions in strikers but all the teams that won the compétition in the last years had very good midfields. The Orange squad is the kind of team that can beat anyone in the tournament but also struggle against weaker opposition i don't know what to think about your chances.
@Nico777 Full Match: Argentina v Iran, WC14, with the pre-match commentary and English report Watch the entire 2nd half. Argentina's midfield wasn't great (weaker than now) in WC14, although in WC14 Iran had decent midfielders. Still, I don't see Argentina winning 1 v 1 duels except, surprisingly given the average height of that Argentine team, on some set pieces in our box. Argentina's defense was also not very good either. Overall, to me, Argentina in WC14 was testament to how a well marketed side with an above average squad and a superstar to deliver when needed, can go far. Iran, otoh, actually had decent team without any real international level stars. It was being treated by pundits as some amateur team" when in fact all of our midfielders in particular had past experience playing for top 5 leagues in Europe: 1- Ashkan Dejagah who had been an important player for the VFL Wolfsburg which had won the German Bundesliga title in 2008 and had a reasonably good showing with Fulham before the World Cup; 2- Javad Nekounam: one of the annoying commentaries in the coverage I linked, trying to exaggerate the difference between the club pedigree of Iran and Argentina, was saying how Iran's captain plays in Kuwait. Nekounam has 8 years experience in La Liga including as captain of Osasuna. Towards the latter part of his career, he had a short stint with a Kuwaiti club who paid him handsomely for the 6 months he played there as a "superstar". 3- Andranik Teymourian (Timotian). A hard-working player, Teymourian also had top flight experience playing some games for Bolton in the EPL. 4- Masoud Shojaie: Nekounam's teammate for several years with Osasuna in La Liga, Shojaie has had plenty of European experience 5- Ehsan Hajsafi: in his prime those days (he is technically our captain right now but many feel he should retire), playing as a left midfielder, Hajsafi also had European experience before WC14 with Frankfurt and more since. 6- Alireza Jahanbaksh: a very young largely unknown Jahanbakhsh came in as a late 2nd half sub and almost assisted a goal. But even then, Jahanbaksh had already made quite an impression in Holland with NEC even before his exploits as top goal scorer in the Eredevisie with AZ. Our WC14 team wasn't our most talented, but it wasn't the amateur side some liked to claim either. Sure our best forward was often riding pine in the English championship, but Ghoochannejad would later have several very good seasons at Holland.
One point I should make for those (e.g., @vancity eagle) who often confuse ball possession with midfield quality. Ball possession is mostly a function of tactics. It has no real reflection on the quality of midfielders unless both teams are using similar numbers challenging and pressing in midfield. Low block teams often employ this tactic concerned about the speed or abilities of their defenders against an opponent's forwards. Quality of individual players, including midfielders, is shown mostly by their stats in 1 v 1 duels and the key plays they make and the mistakes they commit.
I am not saying that their midfield was great i am saying that Mascherano was better than all thé midfielders they got now that's all. Guy has been a World class UEFA Champions League serious player and won it. And Argentina 2014 didn't win the World cup. I was talking mainly about thé last winners. Italia 2006 Spain 2010 Germany 2014 France 2018 they had all World class midfielders.
It is kind of obvious why you want to overemphasize the importance of one line as opposed to others A very good goalie, a strong defense, a potent offense, in a side that doesn't having glaring weaknesses in these areas that can be exploited and create the kind of mistakes and opportunities that are the critical element deciding most games, are what also give a side the best chance to go far and win. But of course that doesn't mean "midfielders" don't matter: they are a critical component in helping the defense, offense and the transition. But ultimately its their contribution to defense, offense and the transition game that matters since control of the area in the middle of the park is control of the least critical part of the pitch.
Of course you need a good balance all over the pitch you won't win it either if you have a good midfield and other lines are too average but if you have 2 good lines from 3 you need your midfield to be among thèse 2. To me Champions League is the NBA of football the best compétition and i just see that year After year. PSG spent almost 2 billion since a decade bought Neymar Mbappe messi etc etc and didn't win shit at this level. Without a midfield that Can challenge thé best you Can have a run but you won't win thé title.
Every where around the world you can find examples of some super rich owner trying to buy his way to titles. It usually doesn't work, not because he bought forwards instead of midfielders, but because of other things. PSG at least enjoyed some level of comparative success. I know of examples, which relative to the competition, the failure was even more glaring. In Iran, for instance, some rich dude in 2009-11 period went on a spending spree buying pretty much the cream of the crop of Iran's national team in all sectors, including midfielders, for a newly promoted club he purchased, Steel Azin FC. One season, still in the middle of the spending spree, his club finished 5th. By the next season, even adding Ali Karimi and Mehdi Mahdavikia to a roster already bloated with "stars", the club relegated to the 2nd division. We had the same story repeat itself a few other times. A few years ago, a rich dude bought a club highly popular in Iranian Azerbaijan (and among Azeris more generally). Tractor was doing well before but in the 2017 season when Tractor got this new owner and signed, among others, Ashkan Dejagah, Masoud Shojaie, and Ehsan Hajsafi (all midfielders part of the WC14 lineup against Argentina) on top of several expensive (by IPL standards) foreign players, they finished 10th.
My opinion has changed based on a couple of events in the last months. This is the best chance for a South American winner since Brazil won in 2002. Still UEFA is likelier to win as they have more top class national teams but the odds aren't as one-sided I thought a couple of months ago.
To make chance on progressing through the rounds every team with that ambition has to have a spine of the team of top of the world class. So to see which ones are the ones to make it, you have to look at their outstanding player in each line and compare those spines of each national team. The best chances are with the countries with more than one world class player in a line. So for those with not much at hand, make the comparison. Goal keeper-defense-midfield-attack
Brazil is the favorite to me but i feel they will be eliminated in a tight game. I think it's the dark horses Time and i believe in Croatia-Serbia's chances but if i should pick one team i would bet money on now, it's Portugal.
I feel honestly the exact same. This feels like Brazil get their sixth star or a team that never won will win. Portugal comes to my mind.