Let the speculation commence! My preferred setup with the available players: Mignolet Alderweireld - Denayer - Lombaerts - Vermaelen Nainggolan - Dembele Hazard Mertens - Lukaku - Carrasco With some luck Portugal will want to press giving space for Lukaku and Carrasco who will benefit from this. I know Courtois will be in goal, but with his mistakes I'm simply expressing my interest for Mignolet. Defensive midfield to soak up the enemies attacks and create space up front for Lukaku. Thorgan because we don't really have anything else, though that's up for debate. I opt for Lukaku because at some point he has to explode. On the Portugal side: Ronaldo's been called up (not sure he plays, there's a clasico coming up) as well as Renato Sanches (first time).
I'd like to see Denayer at RB (Jason has been used as RB a lot at Galatasaray, more often than CB) ... and move Alderweireld to the CB spot (to make better use of his distribution, potentially let Engels debut alongside Toby) ... IIRC Wilmots said that Vermaelen will be our captain and he'll start as LB ... either start Engels or Lombaerts as the other CB (I've high high hopes that the likes of Denayer and Engels will come good ... wouldn't mind it one bit if Engels gets plenty of time to prove himself) ... if Kompany doesn't return in time we could consider making use of the club chemistry between Jan and Toby (when Toby joined ... Spurs went from one of the worst defenses, with only a few sides conceding more, to the best defense in the league ... yes, it isn't only thanks to the Jan-Toby partnership but they have a big hand in it). I don't watch Thorgan (since KDB moved, I hardly watch any of the BuLi ties) ... wouldn't be surprised if Wilmots opts for 3 out of Witsel, Fellaini, Nainggolan, Dembele ... or uses Chadli centrally ... I'd like to see Michy start and make a strong case for himself (no worries about Lukaku if he remains fit/in form for the rest of the season). I'd go with: Courtois Denayer - Alderweireld - Engels - Vermaelen (wouldn't mind Lukaku if Vermaelen or Lombaerts partner up with Toby) Nainggolan - Dembele (Wilmots probably opts for Witsel though) Mertens - Chadli - Carrasco Michy
And suddenly the chances of Belgium-Portugal taking place have diminished substantially. But that is not important now. My heart goes out to all people hurt in the Brussels bombings.
I normally do not post on this board, but my heart goes out to those injured. I take students from the US to Switzerland every few years and about 18 months ago we took a day trip to Brussels. It was a great day, EU, Belgian Military Museum, The plaza. It was a great day. We sat in the Brussels airport waiting for our flight, and celebrated Thanksgiving. It was one of their favorite days. Here is to a quick recovery.
Thanks for all the support. While none of my family was hurt by those crimes, I've heard stories that leave little to the imagination. F*ck the Daesh. As for the game, Dembele of all people should be a starter, now we have no creativity in the midfield at all.
Good game Belgium despite missing some players you guys did ok. Jordan Lukaku is very underrated. I have a soft spot for Belgium many Flemish immigrants that migrated to the Azores after the 100 years war moved to the Azores https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jácome_de_Bruges Cheers and good luck
Well, I'll say it again: Wilmots needs to go or hire someone that has an intact brain and has some experience in coaching. It's not that we lost, it's the complete disorientation with which Belgium played that was unbearable to watch. Wilmots, no matter how much he nags on about the collective, has survived because of individuals like De Bruyne, Hazard, Alderweireld and the such. For me this was the game where Wilmots had to prove he possessed some primitive form of strategic acumen, and he failed. A midfield of Witsel, Fellaini and Nainggolan? Really? I cannot fathom a more dull and defensively choice of midfielders. You don't deploy whatever comes next in the ranking order, you need a balance of working rate and creativity. It became a crapfest of sideways and backward passes and all around slowness. In between lapses of falling asleep I found myself yelling on several moments for one of these yokels to make a pass forward with an offensive intention. Nainggolan would still do such a thing, but I hardly noticed him this game. Dembele should have started. Mertens showed he had passion, but the guy is also very limited when it comes to crosses, something that Lukaku crucially needed (not surprisingly a decent cross gifted Belgium a goal). Portugal did it's homework, clearly saw through the primitive tactic to drop back and give Lukaku "space". What Lukaku needs is an alternation of crosses, stretching their defense, and dropping back. You need alternatives. Chaos people, not order. More crosses is something Fellaini would have benefit from, he was more of an unneeded player in this system. It was clear from the counters of Portugal we had no control over the midfield. That thing leaked harder than Europe's borders. Collective my arse, this was a "team" that had no idea what it was doing.