Such a conflicting game in many aspects: - We played some quality fluid soccer at times as Neves/William and their ability on the ball/vision allowed Bernardo/Bruno to receive the ball deeper in the opponents half and play their proper positions. Bruno Fernandes had his best game, in that first half and before we subbed in a lot of players he was making a lot of game breaking one time passes and plays. Here's the frustrating part, Neves/William offered tons of space to Israel the few times they broke and were easily dribbled...imagine against kimmich/Goretza/Gundagan/Kroos or Pogba/Kante/Tolliso...we need to find a balance where someone compensates for them defensively. Naturally it seems to be Danilo but hes not the same player he was pre injuries as he's slower. Palhinha is still untested at the highest level. At the end of the day I bet we see Neves/William vs Hungary as they'll be 10 behind the ball, and then Danilo-William vs the other 2. -Bruno Fernandes had his best game in the shirt playing in the middle in a free role, shows how vital he is to us. Ned to keep him there and not staple him outwide like Santos has done in the past. -Ronaldo, with all the chances we were creating, was so frustrating. How many times did he attempt to dribble around the box and fail when Bernardo or Jota were wide open for virtual tap ins? How many free kicks is he gong to take when we have freekick specialists staring onwards? He has to realize he can't do what he's done in the past, he needs to be part of the team, not the one focal point. -Nuno Mendes was great, I think Gurreiro should still start as he's coming off a really excellent season for Dortmund where he was healthy year round and was a huge part of their play, but Mendes as an option is great to have. Gurreiro also offers more attacking threat and set piece capability, in full health he should be the starter. Things will change though in a year or so once Mendes gains more experience. -Cancelo not playing in the CL final was Pep being Pep, what a fullback. Bernardo Silva supporting him is perfect, they work well together. Bernardo with some great interplay as well, we need him to do that and show up in the middle like he did at times to control games. -Pepe got beat a few times, showing his age a bit but I want to think he'll turn it on vs Germany and Spain, he tends to save his best for this massive matches.
Ok, every time I kept seeing Eran Zahavi on the screen I thought it was Sebastian Maniscalco.... He should of grabbed a mic and started doing stand up from midfield.
For the game I thought it was ok and glad no one got injured. You can tell the players played at 80 to 90%. You can see the difference in quality between both teams and Portugal could've/should've done better. Both Fullbacks looked great and Bruno Fernandes was really good. Not sure if I am ready to switch Geurreiro for Mendes yet. Sure he might have more upside but at 18 lets not throw him into the Lion's den yet. Yeah you can definitely tell they were trying to force some passes to Ronaldo. Good on Bruno for taking the shot and getting the goal instead passing it off to CR7. That left footed goal by Cancelo was world class. It's a crime he was left on the bench for Man City for the CL final.
Gurreiro was one of Dortmunds best players this year and was our starting LB and was in Euro 2016's team of the tournament. He's fully fit and in good form, so whats the reason not to start him? Mendes is good, but lets not get carried away, throwing him into the fire right away wouldnt be for his benefit or ours. Not even Ronaldo started right away, and he was clearly an amazing prospect who had come off an entire season at Man United playing at a high level. There's no disrespect to the Portuguese league in any way, shape or form. I'm betting we see Mendes for a game in the group stages, maybe France if Santos pulls of us typical 1-0 win vs a minnow game plan and draws Germany with tractors in midfield. As for Palhinha, Danilo has more experience in tense matches and against better opposition for club & country in the eyes of Santos, hence why he'll start. That's the engheinros mindset...we all know that. Palhinha shold have honestly started vs Spain to see what we had there, because if he could replicate his performance at that level it's a no brainer to play him as DM to shield the back 4..he's more mobile than Danilo at this point.
It streamed on ESPN+ in the U.S., so it should still be available on demand. They're showing all of Euro 2020 on the app as well (live and on demand), so now would be a good time to pay the $5.99 for one month anyway.
Having watched every Wolves match for the past few years, it seems like this Portugal squad could be absolutely devastating in a 3-5-2: Rui Dias - Pepe - Mendes Cancelo - Bernardo - William (or your preferred CDM) - Bruno - Guerreiro Ronaldo - Jota Instead, we'll get a highly defensive double pivot, Guerreiro will be stuck at LB despite his positional flexibility, and some extremely in-form attacking players will be picking bench splinters out of their ass. I get it: stick with what you know. The traditional Santos formation just seems so limiting when you have this level of talent, though. Obviously, you can't switch to a 3-5-2 overnight, I'm just daydreaming for a bit here.