Lol panama did well
Day 5: Sweden vs South Korea, Belgium vs Panama and Tunisia vs England (19H00)
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
They do lack cohesion and it’s a disgrace they haven’t addressed that yet over the years. Don’t rate Martinez at all. De Bruyne playing so deep makes absolutely no sense.
Is this going to be another 1-0 (probably of a penalty with the help of VAR)?
6 touches in that first half from Lukaku. Comparatively, Panama's striker has 12, courtois has 12, Panamas goalkeeper has 15 (the 3 closest to him). Say what you want a out everyone else and how they're performing. This is why he gets criticized. He is completely invisible far too often.
Lukaku's problem is that too many times he is just static in the box waiting for a ball to be played onto his head. Games like these you need the striker to be more involved, drop deep sometimes, try to mix it up but he just doesn't move.
That's because the team play for Ronaldo
From an England perspective, would love this to finish 0-0.
You realize central forward can be the position with less touch in game? In certain system their job is not getting involved. Even fecking LVG a possession based master, described his ideal CF as having few touch, but occupying CBs, and expected to put away most of the chance coming his way
Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/30/louis-van-gaal-manchester-united-strikers
Unlike the other big teams, Belgium have always been that underwhelming despite big names in every big competition. Zero chemistry between players.
They're focusing on collecting as many big names on the pitch rather than building a balanced coherent lineup.
They're focusing on collecting as many big names on the pitch rather than building a balanced coherent lineup.
I noticed this, he dont seem to like passing the ball to him on goal scoring situations.
This is rubbish. The Senegalese ref for the Serbia-Costa Rica game did a grand job of letting the game flow. You're being prejudiced.
Agree. The only time I've seen De Bruyne is taking corners to be honest. He's not supposed to be playing so deep and by the time he's sprinted up the field, Hazard has already tried to take on 3 defenders or done something else that doesn't involve him.
Bring on Fellaini and move De Bruyne up (United bias is a possibility)
De Bruyne needs to play further forward. Being completely wasted.
Cesc blaming the strikers for Hazards display
This is all Hazard, De Bryune, and Mertens. Belgium is such a disjointed team. Martinez is a joke.
Is LvG managing Belgium?
Just look at lineup. They're playing 2 men midfield with KDB and Witsel. Since when KDB plays in 2 men midfield in a box to box way ? Mental stuff to just have all the big names on the pitch.
Go Panama go!
vámonos Panamá
vámonos Panamá
dembele or fellaini for boyata is the obvious switch
Playing KDB as a 6 is like playing Carrick up front. Why would you?
Also why wasn't this wanker Mertens booked for his dive in the box earlier on?
bring on adnan!
He thinks he's pep now, playing all the attacking midfielders in the squad at once.
This is also the criticism that I have of him. I've seen many comments about him not getting involved enough on his own, but I'm of the opinion that he isn't the kind of striker who will ever be getting lots of touches in the game. That's just not his game, and it doesn't play to his skill set.
Great strikers can influence the game in ways other than just being on the ball a lot - some of the most lethal strikers knew how to manipulate defenses with their movement, pulling defenders out of position to create space for their teammates and then making clever runs to exploit those spaces. Modern-day Ronaldo is the perfect example of this. He sometimes only has 15-20 touches per game, but he always is manipulating the defense because of his movement.
I'd rather Rom put in the effort to work on his football IQ and off-the-ball movement so he can put himself into better positions throughout the game.
Belgium, France and Argentina are all shite. Thanks for you time.
They wish.
All the games in this world cup have been close affairs with low scoring and this is another one. Smaller countries are pushing the boundaries a lot more when it comes to the world cup with lots of niggly fouls creating stop start games with no rhythm at all. The only exciting game was the 3-3 between Portugal and Spain and that's because they're two top quality teams. Germany, Brazil, Argentina all failed to win. France struggled and scored the winner in the last 10 so there are no easy games and certainly no thrashings in this world cup. The next top game we will see is belgium - England maybe. Until then there will be more low scoring games.
VAR. It's there to review penalty incident. There is no point to book divers when they ain't tricking anyone. You can try but you can't dive
Sack Bobby Martinez right now and Belgium will win this, and the group as well.
Belgium just reminds me of England when they were searching for ways to shoehorn Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes in one lineup, ending up with Scholes not in his favorite position, instead of building a balanced team on the pitch.
Lukaku is our own, admittedly, a better version of Benteke.
Yeah, Dembele should have played in de bruyne's position, and someone should have made way for De bruyne from the front 6.
Watch Belgium play like men possessed against England.
But he wants his transfer to Madrid!
Bit like the Netherlands really. Though they ve clearly done a bit better the last few decades but similarly have suffered from having star stuffed teams without a lot of cohesion. I've often wondered how much that has to do with a perhaps perceived lack of national pride. Playing for the country rather than just playing for glory.
And Argentina haven't?
I don't disagree with all of that. All sensible points.
That's because the team play for Ronaldo
Even so, it's better than pretending that the team doesn't revolve around the star player. I'll credit that to Fernando Santos.
League wasn't significantly better in 2010/14 either.
They gave always had their top players playing for the best sides outside their league . They don't have that now .Especially in attack.
They're incredibly similar.
A squad which on paper looks fantastic, but for a number of reasons it just never ever worked.
I expect Belgium to make it no further than thr 1/4 finals too.