World Cup: National Team threads #2

[Eye of Ra]

For Sweden, Its a new generation.

Robin Olsen
Emil Holm - Victor Lindelöf - Isak Hien - Gabriel Gudmundsson
Mattias Svanberg - Jens Cajuste
Dejan Kulusevski - Anthony Elanga - Jesper Karlsson
Viktor Gyökeres

Holm and Hien is doing good in Serie A. Gudmundsson plays for Lille. Isak is just as bad as Marcus Berg was, Gyökeres is better and will be a good PL player next season. Forsberg is still good but i would like us to play the younger players to let them grow into it.

 

[Evilo]

Big fan of Cajuste's talent, but the guy is never healthy. His career is going nowhere.

 

[koyvoo]

Santos booted as Portugal boss

 

[cgf]

Big fan of Cajuste's talent, but the guy is never healthy. His career is going nowhere.

I was actually just thinking about him the other day and meant to ask you while we were discussing Doku.

 

[Apex Predator]

Santos booted as Portugal boss

Should have done this after the last Euro. I hope the new coach makes it clear to Ronaldo if you want to play it’s off the bench and not a starter.

 

[Power Man]

Algeria's Bensebaini was sent off for 2nd yellow after not so frindly elbow into opponent's head in the match against Sweden. Somewhat oddly ill-tempered match for a friendly, and there were couple of pitch invasions too, and even snow started to fall towards the end of the match.

Very disappointed in Bensebaini with the NT lately (not his play but his attitude)

He has a short fuse but he usually keeps things under control but lately with the NT, not just vs Sweden, he hasn't been very disciplined

He has little to no competition at the LB sport with the Algerian NT, so he doesn't fell like he has to control himself; we do have a couple of good LB's in Algeria but coach Belmadi has gone senile on us, not sure what he's waiting for to call them up

In Bundesliga, Bensebaini doesn't do that shit


Too bad we got an early red vs Sweden, because we were playing well up to that point

 

[Evilo]

So France will likely lose some decorated vets after this WC.
Lloris, Varane, Giroud, Mandanda maybe Griezmann, Pogba, Kante.
Depending on the next coach, Pavard, Fofana, Guendouzi, Veretout will disappear.
As for Benzema, who knows?

Leaving this group :
GK : Maignan as starter
CB : Saliba, Upamecano, Konate, Kimpembe, Lucas, Lukeba, Badiashile, Kalulu
RB : Simakan, Gusto
LB : Theo, Ferland, Merlin
CM : Tchouameni, Camavinga, Rabiot, Caqueret, Doue, Kone, Thuram
Wingers : Dembele, Coman, Mbappe, Thuram, Tel, Cherki, Olise
Striker : Kolo Muani, Benz?, Gouiri, Ekitike, Rutter, Wahi...

 

[Karterthadon]

So France will likely lose some decorated vets after this WC.
Lloris, Varane, Giroud, Mandanda maybe Griezmann, Pogba, Kante.
Depending on the next coach, Pavard, Fofana, Guendouzi, Veretout will disappear.
As for Benzema, who knows?

Leaving this group :
GK : Maignan as starter
CB : Saliba, Upamecano, Konate, Kimpembe, Lucas, Lukeba, Badiashile, Kalulu
RB : Simakan, Gusto
LB : Theo, Ferland, Merlin
CM : Tchouameni, Camavinga, Rabiot, Caqueret, Doue, Kone, Thuram
Wingers : Dembele, Coman, Mbappe, Thuram, Tel, Cherki, Olise
Striker : Kolo Muani, Benz?, Gouiri, Ekitike, Rutter, Wahi...

Forgot Nkunku

 

[Evilo]

Yep, sorry forgot him.

 

[bluesfan94]

So France will likely lose some decorated vets after this WC.
Lloris, Varane, Giroud, Mandanda maybe Griezmann, Pogba, Kante.
Depending on the next coach, Pavard, Fofana, Guendouzi, Veretout will disappear.
As for Benzema, who knows?

Leaving this group :
GK : Maignan as starter
CB : Saliba, Upamecano, Konate, Kimpembe, Lucas, Lukeba, Badiashile, Kalulu
RB : Simakan, Gusto
LB : Theo, Ferland, Merlin
CM : Tchouameni, Camavinga, Rabiot, Caqueret, Doue, Kone, Thuram
Wingers : Dembele, Coman, Mbappe, Thuram, Tel, Cherki, Olise
Striker : Kolo Muani, Benz?, Gouiri, Ekitike, Rutter, Wahi...

Is Varane really retiring? He's 29.

 

[N o o d l e s]

Depressed to even start thinking about this but Italy need to qualify for Euro ’24 convincingly or Mancini should be gone. Getting drawn with England after seeing some of the other groups has me skeptical already because losing out to Ukraine also wouldn’t shock me at all. That said, this along the lines of what I ultimately want to see:

Donnarumma

DiLorenzo - Bastoni - Scalvini - Dimarco/Spina/Parisi?

Tonali

Barella - Pellegrini

Chiesa - Zaniolo - Raspadori

Do you play three at the back? Can Zaniolo for once not get hurt? If it’s a 4 at the back, who’s the LB? How would you structure the midfield? Verratti in?

@Juve @Incubajerks @TheGreenTBer and anyone I forgot?

 

[Incubajerks]

Depressed to even start thinking about this but Italy need to qualify for Euro ’24 convincingly or Mancini should be gone. Getting drawn with England after seeing some of the other groups has me skeptical already because losing out to Ukraine also wouldn’t shock me at all. That said, this along the lines of what I ultimately want to see:

Donnarumma

DiLorenzo - Bastoni - Scalvini - Dimarco/Spina/Parisi?

Tonali

Barella - Pellegrini

Chiesa - Zaniolo - Raspadori

Do you play three at the back? Can Zaniolo for once not get hurt? If it’s a 4 at the back, who’s the LB? How would you structure the midfield? Verratti in?

@Juve @Incubajerks @TheGreenTBer and anyone I forgot?

I'm not that depressed, that's the midfield but I think Verratti is in. I like Parisi a lot, I'd like to see him in a team other than Empoli but I'm pretty sure he's very good. I don't know what hierarchy Mancini has for that role, otherwise Zaniolo, Chiesa and Raspadori are ok but I think we will also see Immobile often. In defense there is more to think about. Mancini has an important job to do and I think he will do it well.

 

[N o o d l e s]

I'm not that depressed, that's the midfield but I think Verratti is in. I like Parisi a lot, I'd like to see him in a team other than Empoli but I'm pretty sure he's very good. I don't know what hierarchy Mancini has for that role, otherwise Zaniolo, Chiesa and Raspadori are ok but I think we will also see Immobile often. In defense there is more to think about. Mancini has an important job to do and I think he will do it well.

I am pretty good on Immobile I think tbh

 

[Evilo]

Yep, sorry forgot him.

Also somehow forgot Kounde, Diaby, and Wesley Fofana.

 

[Evilo]

One down

 

[cgf]

Also somehow forgot Kounde, Diaby, and Wesley Fofana.

I can imagine lol. Your top rivals for the Euros may be producing comparable young attacking talent to what you've produced since Mbappe*...but none of us can compare to your depth in CBs and 6s.


*don't wanna get into a long discussion about this, so to clarify: I'm not saying anyone produces more attacking talent than you or even that any of us have matched you for U23 attackers. All I'm trying to say is that others have at least comparable young talent to the creative- / attacking-talent that you've got coming up around Mbappe; Nkunku, Tel, Doue, etc.

England with Saka, Foden, Mount, etc.; Portugal with Leao, Felix, Vitinha, etc.; Spain with Gavi, Pedri, Fati, etc.; us with Musiala, Wirtz, Mouki, etc...they're not a rival for the Euros but Brasil's Vini, Rodrygo, Endryck, etc. also look like a comparable set of young attackers / creatives at this point.


But none of us has that same depth behind the attacking and creative bands.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

I can imagine lol. Your top rivals for the Euros may be producing comparable young attacking talent to what you've produced since Mbappe*...but none of us can compare to your depth in CBs and 6s.


*don't wanna get into a long discussion about this, so to clarify: I'm not saying anyone produces more attacking talent than you or even that any of us have matched you for U23 attackers. All I'm trying to say is that others are at least producing comparable to the creative- / attacking-talent to what you've got coming up to surround Mbappe.

England with Saka, Foden, Mount, etc.; Portugal with Leao, Felix, Vitinha, etc.; Spain with Gavi, Pedri, Fati, etc.; us with Musiala, Wirtz, Mouki, etc...they're not a rival for the Euros but Brasil's Vini, Rodrygo, Endryck, etc. also seem to be a comparable set of young attackers/creatives.


But none of us has that same depth behind the attacking and creative bands.

England's RBs wipe the floor with everyone else tho, and that's what wins tournaments

 

[Rob]

Santos booted as Portugal boss

Not surprised. They were terrible against Morocco.

 

[cgf]

England's RBs wipe the floor with everyone else tho, and that's what wins tournaments

Kyle Walker is a beast indeed

 

[N o o d l e s]

I'm not that depressed, that's the midfield but I think Verratti is in. I like Parisi a lot, I'd like to see him in a team other than Empoli but I'm pretty sure he's very good. I don't know what hierarchy Mancini has for that role, otherwise Zaniolo, Chiesa and Raspadori are ok but I think we will also see Immobile often. In defense there is more to think about. Mancini has an important job to do and I think he will do it well.

I’m sure we can assume Zaniolo will be out injured at some point. In that case I could see Veratti in the MF, play Barella higher and move Chiesa more centrally? We need more depth

 

[Corto]

Depending on the next coach, Pavard, Fofana, Guendouzi, Veretout will disappear.

You don't think Fofana has a future in the French squad?
I quite like him, and he's only 23.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

One down

I am starting to think he should never have come back.

The things I read about how they basically exagerated his injury to get rid of him, ouch.

Guy never had a problem in 13 years at Real Madrid. But with the NT, always a problem child. The weird dichotomy of Benzema...

 

[Evilo]

You don't think Fofana has a future in the French squad?
I quite like him, and he's only 23.

I like him but don't see him overtake Tchou, Cama, Pogba, Kante and Rabiot and I rate him lower than Kone or Caqueret or Doue and Thuram.

 

[Karterthadon]

You don't think Fofana has a future in the French squad?
I quite like him, and he's only 23.

Whenever he was on the pitch in this WC, he looked completely in over his head.

 

[Incubajerks]

I’m sure we can assume Zaniolo will be out injured at some point. In that case I could see Veratti in the MF, play Barella higher and move Chiesa more centrally? We need more depth

Offense I think the idea has always been to play with Chiesa-Immobile-Zaniolo, but Raspadori as far as I'm concerned has proven to be very functional and to do well what Mancini wants.

Barella can't wing, hard to see Chiesa as a 9, i don't think Mancini wants to see Chiesa play with his back at the net.