My 2022 World Cup Group Stage Predictions: What do you think?

Meanwhile according to several reports Morocco are coming closer to part ways with Halilhodzic.

 

Diogo Costa (great young keeper, FC Porto)
Cancelo (man city) Pepe (Porto ) Dias (man city ) Nuno mendes (PSG

Palhinha (Fulham) Nunes (Sporting) Vitinha (PSG) Bernardo Silva (man city )
Cr7 , Joao Felix

4-4-2
Something like
That would be Portugals best lineup and I think santos will go with something similar.

there’s also Bruno fernandes , Ruben neves., Diogo jota, Rafael Leao (serie a mvp last season) Renato Sanches (psg now) Otavio , Danilo, William Carvalho Raphael Guerreiro

 

its now official.

3 times in a row he has qualified a team for the world cup and then fired before the tournament began.

Ivory Coast, Japan, and now Morocco.

Something must be wrong with you as a coach if you have such a record.

 

Well, something right, then something wrong.

It sounds like he's one of those coaches who excels in motivation and/or training, but whose social skills are so deficient that after a while no one can stand to be around him anymore.

 

If it brings back Ziyech probably a good move.
Group gets a bit more "equal".

 

It's not just about Ziyech IMO.

morocco just wasn't playing to their potential.

Also coach preferred a lot of lower profile players over some bigger names.

 

BTW just occured to me that Kalidou Koulibaly and Benjamin Mendy will be playing week in, week out together. Could be massive for Senegal's defence. Especially with the shortened prep time.

 

Absolutely incredible, considering that the only action Benjamin Mendy should be seeing from here on out is quality time in a prison cell.

 

Eduoard

 

why should iit be the coaches fault?

why wasnt he fired during qualfieres or immediately after if it is his. character?

why did. algeria keep him to reach the biggest success. in their history 2014?

 

About Belgium defense options:

Southampton’s Romeo Lavia has the best defensive duel success rate (91.67%) and the sixth-best passing success rate (94.74%) in the Premier League so far this season (@wyscout).

Absolute star 💫👏 #SaintsFC https://t.co/omSpJMsWCN

— Saints Analysis (@saints_analysis) August 15, 2022

 

There's no chance a guy like him who hasn't been capped yet will get any significant minutes in Qatar. Other than that I wouldn't read much into stats this early into the season. Three matchdays is basically nothing.

 

Agreed, unlikely to make the cut or see much action if he does go to Qatar. Still Martinez said he didn't expect him and a few others he has worked with to progress so quickly and these guys, Lavia in particular, still have a shot at getting into the final 26. Witsel is being used as CB at Atleti, Dendoncker has consistently done a great job at CB, Theate has stepped up, Onana might be in with a shout (Mangala also moved to the PL but doubt he is anywhere close to the 26, same goes for Arsenal's Lokonga). Lavia is seen as highly talented but largely unproven; Southampton is a good club to develop and they believe in him; so he made a good choice moving there this summer. We'll see what happens in the first half of the season. If they perform Belgium might bring more fresh faces, alongside the likes of Doku and CDK, even bringing a couple for experience is never a bad idea (like Tielemans who played in 4 out of Belgium's 7 WC2018 games, incl. the quarters v. Brazil and the 3rd place final).

BTW rejuvenating a defence is a continuous, enduring process; also more than just the backline. Doing it abruptly is a recipe for disaster. Belgium are going about it the right way. Van Buyten got written off before Brazil2014 yet was Belgium's best defender there, Kompany was written off a gazillion times yet always turned up, same for Vermaelen (Belgium's best defender in the last two EUROs). I wouldn't write off Alderweireld, Vertonghen and Denayer quite yet, the last one is only 27. Plenty of talent coming through, also plenty of time to properly bed them into the team.

 

Belgium's squad dept is its weak point, but they have the benefit of Kevin de Bruyne being the best player in the world.

 

When things are going well for his side in a game I agree he’s in that top echelon of players, when the chips are down he’s a myth.

 

What are you talking about? When did De Bruyne fail when the "chips were down"? Man City has won the league four of the last five years. When City collapsed in injury time against Real this year in the CL, KDB wasn't even on the field. Same thing in the CL final in 2021 against Chelsea. And, thanks to Palinha against Portugal and a slicing tackle from behind, De Bruyne was only about 50% against Italy in the following Euros match last year. Moreover, Belgium beating Brazil at the World Cup and cruising through the field to the semi-finals was due largely to KDB and Lukaku.

De Bruyne has achieved as much as any player in football the past few years.

 

Kevin to me is the real best player of the last decade, with no one in sight behind him.
Thanks to shit refs in the epl he was demolished several times by thugs.

 

Gotta agree. That's why I don't put him among the very very best players of the last decade.

 

Can you be more specific? When has he failed when the chips are down? Certainly not in the Premier League. In the CL, City has come tantalizingly close without winning (especially the last two years), but I can't think of any year that can be blamed on De Bruyne.

What player has won more in the last five years? Maybe Modric and Benzema (although he wasn't on France's World Cup team), but I can't think of anyone else.

 

KDB won because of Bernardo silva, who is in fact man city’s best player and underrated.

 

I can't refer to any special matches but the fact that he couldn't lift Man City to the CL title nor Belgium to a final in a major championship (even Nations League although he himself doesn't rate this competition at all). At the end of the day it's my vibes and feeling. I have rarely see him standing out when the chips are down.

 

You can’t be serious. Bernardo Silva doesn’t even start half the time. Moreover, City has been shopping Silva around for months. They like him, but not enough to absolutely hang on to him.

 

So winning the PL four out of five years doesn’t rate with you. Interesting. I also noticed that you said a player had to WIN the CL but just MAKE the Final of the WC, which allows you to exclude KDB even though his team made it to the CL final. Clever of you to make that distinction, lol.
‘
Anyway, if winning the CL or the World Cup is your criteria for a top player, that doesn’t leave us with too many. I guess we’re just looking at Modric and Benzema from Real, someone from Chelsea (who?), Lewandowski at Bayern, a player or two from Liverpool, CR7 from a few years ago (certainly not now), and Mbappe from the World Cup, although he hasn’t been all that successful in the CL. That’s generally it. A pretty short list, and not a very objective one.