Are Belgium the next big thing in International Football?
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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.
Vermaelen has been killed by injuries, he needs to get fit and re-establish himself.
His drop in form at club level hasn't been evident for the NT, I have to say. Him and (especially) Kompany are rocks most of the time.
How the hell you in pot three then? Seems mighty harsh- presume it's your dismal recent record in qualifying? How highly is Fellaini rated in Belgium?
Because we were 37th at the time of the draw (hence pot 3), it's only really been since March 2012 when Marc Wilmots took over as manager that we've improved so much.
Fellaini was among the best Belgian players (if not thé best) around 2007-2009, the majority of the media still rate him highly, but personally I don't think he's good enough to be playing as CM in our current system (and with our current depth in the offensive positions there's no way he'd start there). I much prefer Witsel and one of Defour/Dembélé.
I'm quietly hoping that Youri Tielemans could make such progress that Wilmots would consider him for Brazil. It's far too early to tell of course but him and Bakkali have had excellent starts to the season so far (and Wilmots had called up Bakkali as consequence, which unfortunately led to his being injured against Milan). Denis Praet is the cautionary tale so far, not having a great start after an excellent couple of months last year.
Cheers that explains a lot. At least you guys seem to have a lot of options in several positions unlike England. Would like to see Belgium get to Brazil. I do have fond memories of that David Platt goal at Italia '90 though
Belgium currently 20/1 to win the world cup.
I could add a reply on how the brain works - but in your case it would be a waste of time
I've barely posted this weekend so you essentially won by default. Nothing to be proud of, cnut.
Aaaaand NoLogo is #2 again.
Lots of potential in that Red Devils' squad. Having said that, i think its ridiculous to see them bigger favourites than The Netherlands for the WC in Brazil.
Looked extremely professional tonight. They need a point to be sure but they've basically qualified now. Ignoring the rankings and in the real world they are probably just about one of the top 8 sides in the world right now so should be looking at QF's next year.
The only thing is they were playing Scotland who in all honesty have a pretty poor squad in terms of player quality. Strachan has got Scotland looking much much better but if Belgium are a top 8 side they really should have humpedScotland tonight. I thought belgium looked competent but not WC last 8 contenders.
It's not really as simple as that to be honest. They were missing some key players tonight, and all they really needed to do was get a professional win. We may be a very poor side, however very few of the big nations come to our own turf and walk over us; most of the time if they win at all, it's by the odd goal or two and Belgium did better result wise tonight than the likes of Italy, France, Holland and Germany have all done here in recent times.
Belgium outclassed us twice but we've fallen some distance since we played those teams.
Unbeaten in their group. P8 W7 D1. Very impressive.
True, although our side that drew with the Germans in that 1-1 game about a decade ago were hardly our most impressive side. Was more of a general comment to say that Belgium wouldn't really be expected to completely destroy us on our turf, but I know what you mean.
Fair enough.
I wish Strachan had some more quality players to work with. He has done a great job of getting what we have to play as well as they are.
Pretty sure if they win the last games they will finish with the highest points total out of everyone.
He's done a better job so far and looks like he'll be an improvement on our last couple of managers at least. Burley and Levein both turned out to be awful, but we've shown some signs of improvement so far. While we've got a poor squad, it's just so frustrating when we've played extremely negative football on past occasions. Seeing us go to the Czech Republic and play a defensive 4-6-0 against a relatively average team, for example, was embarrassing. Hopefully we've turned some sort of corner now, though.
Yeah they have been very efficient if not spectacular. To be honest though they're up against a Serbia side who have gone backwards, a Wales side who have some good players but are very poor defensively and very average Scotland and Macedonia teams. Only Croatia are really capable of offering any threat and they certainly aren't what they were a few years back.
We did alright. Again De Bruyne with a decisive and excellent assist for the 1-0, but other than that and the goal in the end there was very little efficiency in our forward play. We had at least 4 or 5 occasions where we were 2v2 on the counter but just slowed play down and eventually wasted the chance. In the absence of Hazard, I would have preferred Mertens to start ahead of Chadli who was very underwhelming. Benteke (impressive link-up play) and Witsel (the engine in midfield) were probably our best performers on the night. Defour was Wilmots' ace up the sleeve, no-one here in Belgium expected him to start the game but he went and scored a nicely taken goal to put us 1-0 up.
Our away form in these qualifiers BTW: 4 played, 4 wins, 9 goals for, 0 goals conceded. Next game away to Croatia, which won't matter as long as we at least take a point from our final (home) game against Wales.
Our away form in these qualifiers BTW: 4 played, 4 wins, 9 goals for, 0 goals conceded. Next game away to Croatia, which won't matter as long as we at least take a point from our final (home) game against Wales.
Agree with that. The way they unfussily turned us over in both legs suggests they are well set for a berth in the last eight in Brazil.
I remember wilmots as a player, has been underrated during his career. The belgian Nedved
I don't think you can read all too much into qualification really, England cruised qualification for world cup 2010, Holland for Euro 2012, both teams faltered badly. Portugal meanwhile regularly do the opposite and make a struggle of qualification then get it together come tournament time.
Agreed. Ditto Brazil before WC 2002.
I think they'll be dark horses & might cause a upset along the way. It is a tournament anyway - so who knows. Ghana & Uruguay went further than expected in 2010.
There's always cupsets, but its hard to look past any of Bra, Spain, Arg, Italy, Ned as winners. Belgium's probably in tier 2, with Eng, Por, Fra etc. the 1 benefit though - they have a extremely young & talented side who'll probably hit their peak in 2018?
Pundits took so long to notice they were getting a squad together they're tripping over each other to praise and overrate them now. I think Dowie just said they're up there with Spain and Germany.
They will most likely be tied with Germany and Holland, finishing with nine wins and one draw.
I think they are in the top 5 sides in Europe right now and should be looking at reaching the last 16 or even QF's. With the quality of player they have the QF's is not an unrealistic expectation.
Germany and the Netherlands are on the same path. They've played 7 games each and each drawn once and won the rest.
With the talent they possess, QF's is a minimum... just the names of Hazard, Benteke, Kompany, Courtios in the same side... and we've barely touched the surface, they've got the likes of Janzuaj and Bakkali coming through too.
So the game against Scotland was a very different lineup to the one I've seen Belgium use most of the time in the recent past. Was Dembele carrying a knock or something? Almost always picked over Fellaini, next to Witsel
Not that I want to take anything away from Belgium, but I think they are a bit hyped, because people perceive their players differently since they are from a small country. For every good player Belgium has Spain and Germany have a couple of them, most of them even more experienced. You Name Courtois for example, he's looking like a great keeper but so are most other keepers from the top nations. Or Benteke, who is looking very interesting and will probably end up at a big club in the near future but what has he accomplished aside from 20 PL goals? Don't pretty much all nations have a striker that scores 20 goals in a top league? If Fellaini was from Germany he'd be just one among many CMs, same with Dembele.
QF is certainly a realistic possibility, but they are just one of many tier 2 teams (which of course for a country the size of Belgium is a huge accomplishment) and might just as well be taken out earlier.
Agreed hence why I don't rate them as winners but I still think they should be aiming for QF's/Semi's as they seem a well-balanced side, good mix of defensive talent, midfielders, wingplay and strong centre-forwards... and all of them theoretically young and hungry.
I've got feeling the British media in particular massively overrate us. Just look at us, we're thrilled just to (almost) qualify again for the first time since 2002. I'm not expecting fireworks at the World Cup, I'd be happy just to get out of the group stages. As a team, we have zero experience at that level at the moment, only our head coach Wilmots really. This World Cup will be a learning experience for us. If we can get somewhere and eliminate a strong side it will be a bonus for me. We won't be at our best until 2016 or maybe 2018.
Wow, what a level-headed, not to say down-beat view. I'm trying to imagine what English expectations would be like with a squad like that at their disposal. Not much imagination needed to be honest. True enough, it's usually the old heads for the long road but ye should be strutting it in Brazil, a squad of super talented youngsters with a sprinkling of proper solid older players like Kompany. They should be gunning for anyone they come up against. Why not aim high?
Well some of the current crop were around to fail in qualification last time, so its no wonder the Belgium fans arent getting ahead of themselves. Obviously they're better players now and surrounded by talented young players. But still, they're only just starting to achieve anything at all
It's not down-beat, absolutely not. We savour every victory and everyone is extremely positive. I'm sure our players will aim to beat any team in front of them and that's surely the message Wilmots will be sending them, but as supporters we try to keep our feet on the ground. Playing against the really big teams is still a bit of a step into the unknown for this squad, with only a 0-0 draw against France as a reference point in recent times (and they're a level below the real top sides). So why expect too much? Even if we fail to achieve much on the World Cup, I doubt you'd see much negative reactions from the supporters in Belgium. That's what more than a decade without a big tournament will do to you.
Best starting eleven for Belgium?
At the moment I would say:
Courtois
Alderweireld - Kompany - Vermaelen - Vertonghen
Witsel - Fellaini - Dembélé
De Bruyne - Benteke - Hazard
In midfield only Witsel is a certainty. The other two could be any combination of Fellaini, Dembélé and Defour. But this seems the most likely to me.