Match #32 - Portugal v. Uruguay

After reviewing the match instead changing Neves in the midfield I would take Guerreiro out, move Cancelo to the left and put Dalot in the right, I don't know if it's a good idea to take Cancelo out of the team like some are reporting in the media.

He is the type of player that doesn't react well when thing's don't go right for him, I am afraid taking him out now can deteriorate his confidence levels, who looked low.

Even for him playing in the left isn't a major problem, he played there a lot of times at City, but knowing how Santos is conservative for him Cancelo only plays in the right and Guerreiro/Mendes on the left.

By the way, not popular to say but for me Guerreiro overall had a worse game than Cancelo but didn't made that huge mistake so isn't discussed.

Other problem is Nuno Mendes during the season always with muscular problems, even when he started at Sporting during the season sometimes had to stop.

Going into the WC and already 1 week without basically training doesn't look good for us, and let's face it Guerreiro is miles away from what he was in 2016 or 2018, looking at the state of some Dortmund defenders it's no surprise.

Completely ridiculous Santos didn't called Mario Rui who is in the form of his carrer for Napoli, who is one of the clubs who is playing the best football in Europe.

Even on those small details Santos shows how limited his football approach is. But Mario Rui having the reputation of not being a top player and not being mentioned by the fans and media basically he didn't felt the pressure to call him.

And if Otávio isn't ready to start vs Uruguay the doubt will be between William or Leão, I doubt he will start Leão and go on full risk from the start, if there is one point where Uruguay actually has top players is on their midfield.

Other big mistake is we basically only have Leão as a winger/forward to give us more speed, Neto is always injured, Guedes form turned into crap, Rafa retired, and don't know why but our clubs seem unable to produce the quality of wingers we produced in the past, even looking at Sporting Youth teams I don't know if in the future we will produce a top level player of that type.

 

Chico Conceição and Diego Moreira are two that come straight to my mind and their are others.

some that haven’t found their feet and could still are Umaro Embalo and Joelson. Such a shame Bruma never reached his potential, him at his best would’ve been very useful at a tournament like this

 

Chico Conceição or Moreira so far away from what we produced in the past, even our under 21's in the last couple of years Rui Jorge has been playing 442 diamond because we are producing good midfielders and even strikers.

But classic wingers, great dribblers who can really add someting different to our game? So far I don't see them coming into the first team of our clubs. By the way, do you trust this team to compete against Uruguay after what you saw yesterday?

 

i can’t agree on the Diego Moreira or Chico points, they’re both very talented players and Moreiras pace is frightening. He’s 17 years old starting in a very good benfica B team which are near the top of the table in the second division, I actually think theirs a chance he could be Roger Schmidt’s secret weapon in the second half of the season if his form warrants it.

onto Uruguay I’m not sure if you watched the other group match but both sides were underwhelming imo and I wouldn’t be feeling great if I was a Uruguay supporter, they looked slow, lacked any sorted dynamism you’d expect from a Uruguay side, Suarez and some of the other older players looked really leggy. Even Valverde who I’m a massive fan of looked a shadow of himself. I don’t think Portugal should be anymore concerned after the Ghana game than we were before, they had one shot on target the whole game against South Korea.

 

Portugal has better players and is overall a much better team than Korean, and should logically win this one. Korea will have a word to say, nonetheless.

 

I think Uruguay will make a couple of changes for this one. I would take Guerreiro out of the 11, put Cancelo in the left and Dalot on the right.

If Otavio isn’t available I would start with William and if Uruguay for any reason scores first take William or Neves out for Leão.

I am not liking the rumours he will replace Cancelo with Dalot and Danilo by Pepe, it’s like he is sending the signal that the defensive problems were only individual problems.

 

I don’t mind changes to freshen up the team, our players have played more minutes than any other team at the World Cup. Our squad depth is a massive advantage at this World Cup and santos should utilise it

 

This will be the contest of who can dive and convince the Ref/VAR first that it is a penalty.

If it is Uruguay then forget it. This thing is ending 1-0.

 

Uruguay look to be the South American version of Belgium.

 

In.

 

Allegedly Uruguay will play a 5-3-2.

I'm very disappointed about the coward and conservative approach of this coach. He's Tabarez 2.0
On top of that making baffling choices like starting Godin and Vecino while leaving several players at the peak of their form in bench.

 

We already had 2 exciting games this morning, so get ready for a 0-0 courtesy of Santosball and Alonso possessed by Tabárez

 

I almost had a heart attack when I saw Godin starting last game, but he was the least of my worries at the end of it. Hopefully he shows up again with an amazing performance

 

Not sure Uruguay will be satisfied with a 0-0 unless they truly think they can beat a Ghana team that has been waiting 12 years for payback.

 

He’s worse than Tabarez, he is Pua. I wouldn’t even

Having so many people back to support him is what killed us last game.

 

I suppose it’s Godin’s fault that we can’t string two passes in a row.

 

Who's better at free kicks in 2022 Bruno or Ronaldo?

 

Partially it is in modern football. Passing starts from the CBs but them and Rochet just prefer to blast the ball forward.

 

DeArrascaeta and Suarez in. Varela and Vecino out. That’s what needs to be done. And someone please tell Valverde that white Jersey he’s wearing is Real Madrid’s. Looks like the Celeste seems to be too heavy for him.

 

Modern football! Good one!
You should be working for Fox Sports…

 

Add Canobbio for Cavani also

 

Cr 37! His oldness helped the goal tbh. Totally fooled Muslera... was that Muslera?

 

Alright Suarez! Like seeing people around my age still playing striker for their national team... amazing... where did I go wrong.... sheesh

 

The post denies Gomez. Shame.