Probable line-up? Courtois Alderweireld-Lombaerts-Vertonghen Meunier-Fellaini-Witsel-Carrasco Mertens-Lukaku-Hazard Defour is hitting great form and could start over Fellaini (Bob seems to like Witsel) ... reportedly it has been decided on the training pitch today. Expecting Carrasco +/- Mertens to start ... but they'll face stiff competition (Mirallas, Chadli, T.Hazard, et al.) ... has been decided in training as well.
"Is Wilmots echt beginnen geloven dat hij de beste trainer ter wereld is?" Onlangs kwam Marc Wilmots in het televisieprogramma Alloo bij... nog eens terug op zijn periode bij de Rode Duivels. De gewezen bondscoach haalde daarin stevig uit naar de pers, waardoor hij volgens hem onheus behandeld werd. Kritiek die door columnist François Colin nu stevig gecounterd wordt. "‘In een ander land was ik een god geweest’, jammerde de Jeukenaar. Alsof hij niet jarenlang god is geweest in Vlaanderen en Wallonië. En alsof bondscoaches in andere landen kritiekloos worden benaderd. Nee, Marc Wilmots heeft weinig reden tot klagen", stelt Colin vast in Sport/Voetbalmagazine. "Hij heeft nog steeds niet begrepen dat er vraagtekens konden worden geplaatst bij zijn beperkte tactische knowhow, zijn onbekwaamheid om de Rode Duivels naar een hoger niveau te tillen en finaal ook bij de resultaten. Of is hij echt beginnen te geloven dat hij na de waardeloze trofee die hij in januari in Dubai kreeg op de Globe Soccer Awards de beste trainer van de wereld is?" Oh yea that was also one of Marc's laughable comments: "in another country I would have been a god" ... LULZ http://sportmagazine.knack.be/sport...etbalgeschiedenis/article-opinion-724145.html "Wilmots was een uitstekende bezigheidstherapeut, maar faalde volkomen als strateeg." ... hit the nail on the head.
T.Hazard will also have to miss the game against Bosnia ... De Bruyne, Kompany, Vermaelen, Engels, Dembele, Nainggolan and now T.Hazard ... that list is getting too long ... Tielemans staying with the senior squad.
Jordan Lukaku is playing ... I'm scared ... please, hold me. Also our U21s conceded in the 17' ... deflected shot from outside of the box ... and now a 2nd goal ... it's beginning to look very bad. Line-up #belbih | Courtois, Meunier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, J. Lukaku, Witsel, Fellaini, Mertens, Carrasco, E. Hazard, Lukaku— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) October 7, 2016
How did you feel about the game? I don't really understand why everyone is so excited. We were dire until Bosnia gifted us an own-goal. I thought the performance was mediocre, though there were some bright moments in there. In spite of that, we scored four goals, had three penalty shouts (two of which could have been given) and Lukaku missed a sitter.
I was expecting Bosnia to give us a much harder test and a lot less space (despite their manager claiming otherwise) ... their performance was mediocre ... our performance was more than decent enough ... FFS it ended in a 4-0 win over our strongest opponent in the group (and could have been a bigger rout, like you said) ... we weren't dire before switching to 3 ATB (after Jordan's injury ... I'm not comfy when he's playing ... but I wouldn't cheer the injury of an opponent and definitely not when one of ours gets injured ... as a fraction of us did) ... we were in full control throughout the game ... a win for us was inevitable (the own-goal didn't change the game) ... even without unleashing the full potential of what, on paper at least, is a great team. Also don't forget that we were missing a lot of players ... important ones as well ... De Bruyne, Kompany, Vermaelen, Engels, Dembele, Nainggolan, T.Hazard and Lombaerts (birth of his first kid) ... while it was only Bobby's 2nd competitive tie in charge ... there's a lot of room for improvement ... and yes, to beat better teams we will have to improve ... no reason to start celebrations after only 2 ties (instead use the limited time a NT manager has with his players to work hard) ... Bobby has until 2018 to get the team there ... Russia is where we need to shine (not in the Qs). Maybe Greece will present more of a challenge ... we've been struggling to break down packed defenses for a long fvcking time ... expecting the Greeks to bunker down hard and they seem to be on the up ... looking forward to see how the team evolves in what will be Bobby's 5th competitive tie (and halfway point of these Qs).
Derby of the Low Countries in 2 weeks ... the last one before the Nations League kicks off ... curious if we'll go all out on the attack ... we haven't lost to the dutchies in roughly 20 years ... while we've seen some crazy, open and often hugely entertaining games. Obviously I don't mind Martinez taking risks, playing football in an attractive and more adventurous way with plenty of end-to-end action ... and Hazard seems to really enjoy playing in a 3-4-3 ... for country and for club ... first winning every Russia2016 qualifier so far (by a combined 13-0) and since Chelsea switched to 3-4-3, they've won their past three games as well (by a combined 9-0) ... must also make Courtois happy as Chelsea's defense was leaky AF ... the win over MUFC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...-inspired-by-formation-desire-to-put-one-ove/ http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/05/16/wigan-stay-up-after-a-switch-to-3-4-3/
Oddly no Nainggolan (since the smoking ban we've seen very little of him; Martinez claims he isn't match fit and wants to give the younger talents a shot) ... no Lombaerts (seems fully fit though but has been fighting for minutes at Zenit; Martinez confirmed and said there's enough experience already while stressing he valued Lombaerts) ... Alderweireld (a shame he hasn't returned to full fitness). Holland: no Promes, no Strootman and no Robben
Probable line-ups? Stekelenburg Karsdorp-Van Dijk-Bruma-Blind Wijnaldum-Schaars-Sneijder Lens-Janssen-Depay??? Lukaku Hazard-KDB-Mertens Fellaini-Witsel Cavanda-Vertonghen-Kompany-Meunier Courtois http://nos.nl/artikel/2141325-blind-selecteert-zeegelaar-lens-en-schaars-voor-oranje.html Except for Robben's replacement, no Dutch squaddie will start ... however Blind is planning to make 4 subs in the first 60' or so and in case calamity strikes he still has 2 more subs ... nothing unusual ... especially as the dutchies face lululand next, they don't have to give starters extra rest. Nainggolan and Lombaerts sound unhappy as they expected to be in the squad ... Nainggolan would have been happy to be a squaddie and only play in the friendly/derby if Martinez wanted to use well-rested starters in the qualifier ... Radja is making more sense (I was hoping he'd start in the derby as well). Both exclusions are odd ... ATM we're thin at the back ... we could have used a solid CB like Lombaerts ... Kompany and Kabasele lack match rhythm ... Vertonghen is the only classy CB that's fully fit ... Meunier & Foket to be used as RBs or wingbacks while Cavanda will occupy the opposite wing ... Vertonghen, being the only left-footed CB, either keeps Cavanda on the bench or he's the only back-up ... another leftie like Lombaerts would have been useful.
Not sure how I feel about Martinez starting a needless feud with one of our better midfielders just a few months into the job. He had alienated most of the players at Everton by the end of his run there. I hope we don't see a repeat of that in his new job as Belgium manager.
Not so sure that it's needless ... the players have to take their share of the blame as it wasn't only Wilmots shitting the bed ... if this is a kick in Nainggolan's ass, he probably deserved it and it serves as an example for the others ... Wilmots's approach also seemed too soft ... don't mind a manager that's a bit harder on the guys ... some wanted LVG in and he isn't exactly known for his soft touch.
I expect something like this myself: --------------------------------Courtois--------------------------------- ------Kompany---------------Ciman--------------Vertonghen------- Meunier----------------------Witsel--------------------------Carrasco --------------------------------De Bruyne------------------------------- -------------Mertens-------------------------------Hazard------------- ---------------------------------Lukaku----------------------------------
Nainggolan and Lombaerts should be there. Nainggolan has been playing consistently well for club and country and is in my opinion intrinsically a better player than Fellaini and Defour. It looks like we have a decent amount of depth at the CM position, but it seemed that way with central defence only 4 or 5 years ago. Don't needlessly alienate good player Roberto. The Lombaerts omission is worse though, because it's so poorly explained. He says he wants younger players; fair enough, but in central defence, he's picked three guys who are fairly old in Kompany, Vertonghen and Ciman, and a guy in Kabasele who hasn't played at all with a worse club. Ciman is worse than Lombaerts; he gambles and accrues cards and penalties and he was caught out a couple times against Gibraltar. Lombaerts is a sober defender, who knows his capabilities and is positionally very astute. He doesn't get enough credit in Belgium. We're also very limited if we want to go to a 3 man defence, because there's no way Foket and Cavanda are defensively good enough to play there.
This doesn't really bode well for Martinez' future as our manager. He is already alienating older players, for no good reason. If he had problems with Nainggolan not coming to the camp in October, he should have said so back then, not give us this whole "he isn't fit enough" nonsense.
Usually managers tell white lies because they like to avoid airing dirty laundry in public ... Martinez was caught off guard however when one of our journos told him Radja was playing with Roma just before the match against Bosnia IIRC ... the journo chose a shit moment and it could have left a bad taste ... who knows ... maybe it's a totting-up of many things that cast doubt upon Radja's professionalism (was he training well in BE, annoyed about his woeful club form, etc.) ... a return to the days that international duty was an inconvenience or at best a short holiday break from club football is always a worry ... and TBH too often there's an immense gap between performances for club and country ... IMHO there's a laxness that wouldn't be tolerated in top NTs and players have a share in the blame. Doubting Radja will stay home and sulk ... expecting him to fight for his place as a starter and Martinez to accept Radja with open arms when he delivers ... his form has already improved ... Radja is also a high energy kind of player and you need him fully focused ... when you push him as hard as you can, he's such a great player ... take foot off gas and he can be a liability.
England bias. It's the only reason I can think of. Lombaerts is certainly a much better defender than Kabasele and it's not like he is that old. He's 31 years old, FFS.