Pretty unlucky with our finishing so far. Ronaldo should’ve had that chance directly in front of the net then Joao Neves shot saved.. Ehpa let’s get rid of this lineup.. Absolute cagão..
Brunos crosses are only second worst to Bebe. Just useless Hollywood passes that never connect. Get him off
FT win for us Games vs hungary are always high scoring for some reason but we got the 3 points away. Should be well on our way to qualification
Cancelo won the ball and then finished brilliantly. His attitude cost him a place in a European powerhouse but he is arguably the best RB on the planet. Ruben Neves is not a CB Martinez inventions keep costing us and needs to end
Hopefully for the next call up our injured players return: Dalot, Chico, Semedo, Leao.. need more garra on the wing..
Continue to win in spite of this dummy of a manager. Incredible really. This experimenting won't fly against top opposition. Martinez needs to stop believing he is Pep.
I hate to be THAT guy but he kind of did this with Germany and Spain.. Two of the best teams in the world and we beat them... Lol.. Trust I am not a fan of this bs experimenting it is so annoying. Stop putting midfielders on the wing or at CB.. We should have cracked Hungary today like 5-0 but this clown wants to gamble with out WC qual...
A proper centre back that isn’t a midget would have prevented those 2 goals. WTF is Neves and Vitinha doing defending in the CB position on those goals? We dont have anyone to partner Dias?
Exactly what I thought. The first goal only happens because the cross passes right over Vitinha's head. I don't blame Vitinha, you can't be expecting someone who's about 5'6 to deal with crosses. Martinez starts two CBs against Armenia, then against the more dangerous side he decides to mess around with this one CB bs.Your average 6 ft CB probably clears that cross. Only reason Portugal succeeds under him is because of the sheer quality of the squad. Not flaming out in the Nations League was terrible in the long run.
There's something strange going on with who plays and gets called up. Playing players out of position when you have adequate players for those positions on the bench tells me that Martinez is either completely inept or he's being told who to play.
We were all happy with the Nations League win of course, but yes all it did was provide this man with false hope in the long run. More leeway to experiment with his asinine lineups. I'm still shaking my head at the 11 yesterday, that was absolute madness. He is 100% inept. I've said it before and I will say it again: Roberto Martinez fails upwards. He'll get in the way of this squad with his stupidity and luck will run out at a major tournament.
Get ready guys..... felix is killing it in saudi arabia..... so you know what that means. Hes going to be an undisputed starter for the national team lmaoooooo
To me what it proves more is that Ronaldo shouldn't be starting any longer because scoring in Saudi and in qualifiers dosent mean so much ..which means he shouldn't be called because he isn't someone you want on the bench. It's a tricky situation. I did a deep dive on Portugal and all the advanced stats for the players and I think this year they have the player base to genuinely win the world cup mainly because of 4 players Ruben Dias Mendes Joa Neves and Vitinha to a lesser extent Cancelo. Bruno has incredible numbers but he requires his teams to go through him and his flaws can somewhat nullify his attributes when its best on best but still he has incredible quality in his right foot. Ramos has fantastic numbers per 90 and will do the off the ball work that Ronaldo can no longer do. Neto Concecaio are not world class by any means but they are good enough. Leao is the big question mark as he could have a breakout season as a CF this year for Milan but his advanced stats are not top level the way a Nico Williams is outside of assists which he does get but again if the base is as strong as it is he is enough to be a true weapon. -----------Leao------Ramos--------Neto -----------------------Bruno ------------Vitinha------------Joa Neves Mendes-----Inacio-----Ruben------Cancelo -------------------------Costa this could win the world cup the weakness is the attack as there is no Mbappe like threat but we've seen teams win International tournaments with less in fact we've just seen PSG win without a true CF because Krava can create Doure can run and dribble and Dembele can finish. This is the closest thing to what PSG is that any national team has and it's a proven formula but you need legs and pressing. The big question mark would be Leao he has the talent but does he have the desire. Now this won't happen bc Ronaldo is too big a figure to be dropped and because he wont be dropped neither will Felix even though Felix's advanced stats in europe over the last 5 years are truly mediocre. With that said as a fan of the sport I want to see Ronaldo play everyone does its his last world cup and if the base is so strong they could win despite the shortcomings he and Felix will bring to the squad when its best on best and you can never discount his finishing which is still all time great when he has a clear chance but it gets to the point of hope when we see that in 2022 and 2024 he not only did not score more than 1 goal he was easily defended because he is not a true CF and he nullified Portugals attack and made it predictable. We can go back all the way to 2018 really 2016 and see Portugals issue has not been its midfield control or its defence but its ability to score open play goals especially in knockout games. They have virtually scored none in 90 minutes against top opposition. Quote this post when Ronaldo scores 6 goals in the world cup and Portugal win because that could very well still happen. I am thinking at this moment Portugal will win. I have a hard time seeing France or Argentina reaching another final or Spain winning back to back tournaments. it seems to me like it is England Portugal or Brazil and Brazil is a shambles and England is England. Feels like this is the window opening and yet if it dosent happen logic tells me it will be because Felix and Ronaldo nullify the attack against a strong defence in the knockouts again.
It is hilarious how they don’t even try to hide it. When Otavio was on that team, always called up. Now that he’s not he’ll be completely written off. Felix doing so well just goes to prove how truly terrible that league is
Portugals problem is in strategy. Not attacking up the middle and being obsessed with pass around the box with one person in the between 4 defenders. End of. Anytime we put a few in the box we get goals. Isolate Ronaldo and play pass around and we will not score, although even then he finds a way sometimes, unlike Pauleta, Almeida, Nuno Gomes, Makukula, Liedson, and Ramos
i agree Portugal are best when they play vertically which was the strength of Santos .. Portugal are not Spain.. the issue with Ronaldo tho is he has not scored for 2 tournaments now if we are talking about knockouts and non penalties goals his record is even worse. this is fine you can win without a number 9 that is putting goals in the back of the net see France with Giroud Italy with Immobile Spain with Morata. Plenty of examples. Issue is those players did work off the ball that created space for the other attackers and were not the focal point nor were they attempting to take the most shots. For this reason alone if Ramos were to have as bad a goal record as Ronaldo has had in 2022 2024 and potentially 2026 if the trend continues (I think he'd manage better few strikers could manage worse) he would at least create confusion and link up play as he is simply better as a CF. Again Ronaldo's right foot is not just world class it is all time greatest 11 class so I won't be shocked if he has a great tournament and wins the world cup at 40 as the star forward. History tells us this is unlikely both his recent history and all time history of the world cup with players of his age. But history also tells us a foreign manager has never won the world cup. So maybe Martinez and Ronaldo with both make history and prove the doubters wrong. I think it is logical to think both he and Ronaldo may be standing in the way of a team capable of winning the world cup. For me Ronaldo hanging around is increasing his odds of winning a world cup while decreasing Portugals odds. With that said there is no point debating it because he will play and start as log as he wants to and if anyone has earned that right I suppose it is him.