Gillet 6: Didn't have much to do this game. Has great reflexes and always remains calm. Saved a penalty kick at the end. Vanden Borre 8: owned the right flank like no other Belgian can. Let's hope he finally gets his head straight and Belgium finally has a right fullback. Vertonghen 6: Can't hide he is a central defender but does his job well and is so far the best option at the leftback position. Van Buyten 5: Like always he was better offensively than on defense. Scored a good goal on a corner kick. Later caused an extremely dumb penalty and shaky defending when the romanians scored. I never want to see this man in the NT again. Kompany 7: Absolutley world class. He is just far better than anyone else on the pitch. Defour 5: Defensively excellent but offensively very unlucky with a bunch of bad passes. Nervertheless showed he brings more to the table than Simons. Fellaini 6: Quiet game. Won a lot of duels. Witsel 6: A controlling midfielder playing as a playmaker. Leekens has had more than a year to see this doensn't work but I guess he never learns Mertens 6: Gave the assist for the first goal. Had a decent game but dribbled a bit too much Chadli 5: Missed a good chance to score. Lacks match rhythm after a long injury. Mirallas 5: Is doing great in Greece but never showed it. Leekens 0: How many more chances for Van Buyten? Why keep playing Witsel as a playmaker? Why claim Simons is the most important player for Belgium? 66% possession and we still hardly create any chances. Again we scored from a setpiece and the other goal was an owngoal. Anyone who believes we can reach the WC with this coach is crazy.
Yep we r not going to go anywhere with leekens. He is just not the coach for this team.He is a great coach for mediocre teams but this team ain't mediocre.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-b7cuJlaBs&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-b7cuJlaBs&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
Hard to give ratings for that game. The defense played well. Courtois hardly had anything to do. The attack had to defend so much they had little opportunities to go forward. Probably the best game Van Buyten played for us in a long time though. But I still want him to go.
Courtois 6 : Didn't have much work to do. Oozes class and I'm 100% sure he will be one of the best gk's in the world in a few years. Alderweireld 5: Had a hard time against Ribery. Very poor on offense as well. Van Buyten 6: Can't say anything bad about him about this game but he needs to go asap. Kompany 6: Not his best game with a few silly fouls and bad passes but did his job on the defensive end. Vermaelen 6: Great tackling, exclellent marking. Showed why he should always play centre back next to Kompany. Simons 5: Could have had a red cart in a friendly. Funny how the most "experienced" player is always the one to get these silly yellow cards. Fellaini 6: Defensively awesome. Recuperates all the balls Simons is supposed to get. Showed why Simons is redundant. Poor on offense though. Witsel 6: great player but getting raped by Leekens at the playmaker position. Could absolutely boss the midfield if he gets to play in support of a playmaker like in Benfica. Hazard 6: The French were scared of him so every time he touched the ball , 3 or 4 defenders would come at him. Didn't get any usefull balls thanks to Leekens ultra defensive tactics. Dembele 6: Not his best game but his ability to protect the ball and keep possession is world class. Why not try him as a striker? Vossen 2: Laughable performance. I admit playing striker in leekens' tactics is very ungrateful. But still Vossen is vastly overrated limited player. Chadli 6: looked better than against Romania Mirallas 6: Was much more dangerous than Vossen and had the best opportunity of the game Leekens 0: Doesn't learn from his mistakes. I read some articles in the French press after the game. They glorify our players but say there is one man keeping them down: Leekens. They can see that after just one game but the Belgian press remains vast asleep
Two for Vossen is harsh. He was just hopelessly miscast in that role. Chadli did not have a better game than he did. It's really hard to properly judge the attack just because they were involved so little going forward. The one thing we can agree on is that Fellaini was our MotM. We all know that Witsel needs to be pulled back a little further. They should play Chadli in front of him.
Interestingly enough, we likely had more open chances in this game than against Germany (a game which we dominated in the opening phases). Couple things. First, when Lombaerts gets back, he should slot into the left-back role and Vermaelen should replace Van Buyten. I also think Vanden Borre be a better choice than Alderweireld. Simons looked a step slow when dealing with the accelerations of the French, and his passing range is downright terrible. Defour should take over (especially in a game like this where the counter is so crucial). I'd also like to see one of De Bruyne or Mertens in Dembele's place (De Bruyne might be a nicer contrast to Hazard's game). And Mirallas should have started in the first place. But I think for all his flaws, Lukaku is still our best option (big, strong, fast) in a defensive-minded 4-3-3. All in all though, France had few real chances, and they were playing at home. If we can do this against Croatia in Zagreb, I would be pretty content.
Yeah, Hiddink will really be interested in taking over for a tenth of his current fee. I disagree on Lukaku, time and time again he has shown he isn't ready for the 4-3-3. Not to mention the fact that he NEVER plays for Chelsea.
Lukaku does play for Chelsea. I have seen him against Arsenal & Man U and he gets to start in cup games. However in none of these games he showed he was good enough for Chelsea. In fact it was embarrassing to see him play. Lukaku will be loaned out to a smaller team in january and that should help him get adjusted to the higher level of football.
On the first place why play defensive with so many good attacking players! That shows the coach's limitations.
Completely agree with you Gorando on this one, but who do you see as the playmaker in our current selection?
Kevin De Bruyne is the perfect playmaker. He has great vision, excellent passing skills, technical skills, can play a one touch game. Too bad his being a little bit abused on the left flank at Genk although CAM is his favourite position. Furthermore Hazard, Chadli, Dembele are all playing CAM at their respective clubs for the moment so I guess we have plenty of options. This is my perfect squad with this current selection: [LINEUP-4-3-3]Mertens, Dembele, Hazard, Witsel, De Bruyne, Fellaini, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Kompany, Vanden Borre, Courtois[/LINEUP-4-3-3] Still a few weak spots like no real leftback, lack of a deep striker and Vanden Borre is always a question mark.
The way things are going Leekens might have to call up Mpenza again to fill up his striker's position.
Watching the performances of hazard, witsel and vertonghen in the champions league frustrates me even more. All of them were just awesome for their respective clubs. Once again it pointed out the relevance of handling talented players by good coaches. I have seen you guys chatting about a creative player in the national side. If you guys watched how Garcia played hazard and cole in a free role behind the lone striker I think your questions had been answered. In the national side Leekens gives hazard a limited role on either flanks with defense in mind. Hazard not for once did any defensive job in the Lille team and he was the man of the match. No wonder he went out for a piece of Hamburger!
You guys have so much talent. It is the coaches fault for not getting the best from them. I think somone like the great zdenek zeman who plays a version of total football would be the way foward for this side. He always gets his players to believe in themselves and play to their strengths. This squad has the talent to play this style and could achieve something special.
You could say the softest thing about him is his teeth! Overall, Cagliari are ok but not great. When Roma come to town, they play like champions every game. He played a good game, but that has become normal for him. A big club awaits him at the end of the season. Can you guys explain how you produce so many young players? Belgium seems a diverse country with many different nationalities living in Belgium, this must help? but the system must be incredible. You have become my second favourite's
Against Greece feb 29: Doel: Thibaut Courtois (Atlético Madrid), Jean-François Gillet (Bologna),Simon Mignolet (Sunderland) Verdediging: Toby Alderweireld (Ajax), Laurent Ciman (Standard Luik), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Nicolas Lombaerts (Zenit Sint-Petersburg), Thomas Vermaelen (Arsenal), Jan Vertonghen (Ajax) Middenveld: Nacer Chadli (FC Twente), Steven Defour (FC Porto), Moussa Dembele (Fulham), Kevin De Bruyne (Genk), Marouane Fellaini (Everton), Guillaume Gillet (Anderlecht), Eden Hazard (Lille), Maarten Martens (AZ), Dries Mertens (PSV), Radja Nainggolan (Cagliari), Timmy Simons (1. FC Nürnberg), Axel Witsel (Benfica) Aanval: Igor De Camargo (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Benjamin De Ceulaer (Lokeren), Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) en Kevin Mirallas (Olympiakos Piraeus).
Does anyone understand the De Ceulaer inclusion? Much respect to Benji, but he is 28-year old who has just earned his first cap and he isn't likely to be of any importance come qualifiers. I'd rather have Leekens use his friendlies to forge the team that will do the actual work than hand out empty gestures to players, however sympathetic it might appear.