World Cup 2018 Qualifiers

Mogget said:
That just shows your lack of football knowledge more than anything else.
Click to expand...

Obviously I know who fekir is , but he has no business in being in a french squad when the same manager refuses to pick martial and dembele. If you want to support Deschamps, then good but for me he is a very average manager managing some of the best talents.
 
JPRouve said:
No that's on the players, between Pogba who tries to shoot at every half opportunity and Kurzawa shutting down his brain, it's on the players. I don't really agree or understand the starting lineup particularly Giroud who was lazy against Netherland and lazier tonight but the players had plenty of opportunities that failed to take because of stupid decisions and general greediness.
Click to expand...

The Players lack of finishing in the first half played a part in it.

Who made the decision to make the starting lineup that made no sense? The coach. The fullbacks were so isolated in this game because they hardly had any true wide players out wide especially when Mbappe went off who isn't even a winger.
 
Damien said:
Martial wasn't in the squad.

Not sure but I didn't see the logic in taking Giroud off, only to start punting in loads of crosses.
Click to expand...

Martial not being in the squad is just criminal in my opinion, especially if Fekir is in the squad.

Totally agree with your point on taking Giroud off. He probably shouldn't have started in the first place then.
 
Obiorahking_ said:
The Players lack of finishing in the first half played a part in it.

Who made the decision to make the starting lineup that made no sense? The coach. The fullbacks were so isolated in this game because they hardly had any true wide players out wide especially when Mbappe went off who isn't even a winger.
Click to expand...

But the lineup wasn't the problem, France created an awful lot of opportunities Luxembourg have been under siege for 85 minutes and the only reason they didn't lose is because the players are absolute morons.
 
Lemar was very frustrating going with the wrong decision every time he was through, very similar to Ox in that regard. Also, I can only assume crossing is not his biggest asset, lad was terrible at it.
 
JPRouve said:
But the lineup wasn't the problem, France created an awful lot of opportunities Luxembourg have been under siege for 85 minutes and the only reason they didn't lose is because the players are absolute morons.
Click to expand...
To be honest I can only recall like 3 clear cut chances and Luxembourg had 2 going the other way aswell.
 
Pff, so bad to watch, I was totally depressed after the first 45 minutes, the only positive note from this match was that we took 3 points from Hungary and might dream of finishing first, sick and tired of playoffs tbh. :mad:
 
Sly said:
Didn't understand their negative approach. They gave us a good match in the Euro's just focusing on football, today they played like they had 11 Bruno Alves in his Porto prime.
Click to expand...
:lol::lol::lol: And Santos in the flash interview preparing everyone to a "terrible travel to Andorra"
 
Sly said:
Didn't understand their negative approach. They gave us a good match in the Euro's just focusing on football, today they played like they had 11 Bruno Alves in his Porto prime.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what happened but I think some important players retired so that might be the reason. They looked pretty bad in Lisbon too.

As for us, that wasn't a great performance but I wouldn't call it bad either. We should have done more to get the second goal and finish off the game but other than that it was ok.
 
AshRK said:
Obviously I know who fekir is , but he has no business in being in a french squad when the same manager refuses to pick martial and dembele. If you want to support Deschamps, then good but for me he is a very average manager managing some of the best talents.
Click to expand...

Dembele did not play one competitive match this season and was on strike the recent weeks... No reason to pick him right now especially as Deschamps had enough other players.

Fekir is after Neymar the best rated player after the first four games in Ligue 1 and had scored 3 goals and an assist in the first 3 league matches. Deschamps has a big pool of players - why not call up the ones that seem to be in their best form right now.
 
Peyroteo said:
I'm not sure what happened but I think some important players retired so that might be the reason. They looked pretty bad in Lisbon too.
Click to expand...
We made them look better than they really are in the Euros, physical team but we were tactically a mess on that match.
Peyroteo said:
As for us, that wasn't a great performance but I wouldn't call it bad either.
Click to expand...
I was depressed after the first 45 minutes, Santos is working with this team almost 3 years, and we don't know how to play in possesion, no diagonal movements to cut inside, our passing sometimes is shambolic, smells Estrela da Amadora 95 battling for relegation all the way.
 
harms said:
France drawing with Luxembourg :lol: Fecking hell.

edit: Luxembourg have surprisingly good stats - 2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss in their last 4 games. I seem to remember that even scoring an international goal was a reason for a country-wide celebrations.
Click to expand...

They are surprisingly solid these days for such a small country. In general these smaller nations that used to be terrible are quite competitive these days - Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands and Luxembourg have caused bigger footballing nations some real trouble.
 
Blackwidow said:
Dembele did not play one competitive match this season and was on strike the recent weeks... No reason to pick him right now especially as Deschamps had enough other players.

Fekir is after Neymar the best rated player after the first four games in Ligue 1 and had scored 3 goals and an assist in the first 3 league matches. Deschamps has a big pool of players - why not call up the ones that seem to be in their best form right now.
Click to expand...

But the problem is he has not called the players who are in their best forms otherwise we would have seen martial and not coman. The other problem is he is not using players correctly. He can build a great starting 11 and a brilliant squad but what he is doing is playing wrong players and hoping for things to work.
 
Sarni said:
They are surprisingly solid these days for such a small country. In general these smaller nations that used to be terrible are quite competitive these days - Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands and Luxembourg have caused bigger footballing nations some real trouble.
Click to expand...
Yes, everyone is laughing, but they do have some interesting results at this level, they are not San Marino or Gibraltar tbf.
 
SCP said:
Yes, everyone is laughing, but they do have some interesting results at this level, they are not San Marino or Gibraltar tbf.
Click to expand...
San Marino, Andorra and Gibraltar are the only teams that are basically losing everything these days I think. Liechtenstein are pretty weak and lose all games too but they don't get completely hammered anymore.
 
SCP said:
I was depressed after the first 45 minutes, Santos is working with this team almost 3 years, and we don't know how to play in possesion, no diagonal movements to cut inside, our passing sometimes is shambolic, smells Estrela da Amadora 95 battling for relegation all the way.
Click to expand...

We could have easily been 2 or 3 nil up at half time. We played with low intensity but I don't think it was a poor performance.

Now we should beat Andorra and then Switzerland will come to a full Estádio da Luz where we'll be favourites. The truth is before Fernando Santos we hadn't finished first in our qualification group since 2006 but now we might be achieving that 2 tournaments in a row. We've also climbed to third position in the FIFA rankings which means we'll be top seed for the World Cup draw if we get there, meaning we won't be getting Brazil or Germany like in the past 2 tournaments. The football might not be as good as expected but if the results are good I don't see any reason to change it.
 
Sarni said:
San Marino, Andorra and Gibraltar are the only teams that are basically losing everything these days I think. Liechtenstein are pretty weak and lose all games too but they don't get completely hammered anymore.
Click to expand...
Andorra in our group managed to beat Hungary 1:0 and a draw with the Faroe Islands 0:0, Switzerland only won there 1:0, they play with ultra defensive tactics, and when we played them at home they kicked so much our players that they made today the Hungarian players look very soft.

As stupid it may look, it will be as hard as it was in Hungary to beat them, at least if we play like today, when we have to play in possesion we struggle to create spaces with 11 players behind the ball.
 
AshRK said:
But the problem is he has not called the players who are in their best forms otherwise we would have seen martial and not coman. The other problem is he is not using players correctly. He can build a great starting 11 and a brilliant squad but what he is doing is playing wrong players and hoping for things to work.
Click to expand...

Really? Coman is in good form right now. He struggled with injuries last season but now he is fine again. But he is more winger than an inside forward that Martial and others are when you play him on the wing. That is probably why he was chosen and not Martial. Squad building is not always about who is the best but about what you need for your tactics. Maybe in addition who best adapted to the team in the past - that at least is a big factor in Germany's squad building and that is not so wrong prior to a tournament in which all have to live together for weeks.
 
Peyroteo said:
We could have easily been 2 or 3 nil up at half time. We played with low intensity but I don't think it was a poor performance.
Click to expand...
I think we lack coordenation in our movements and passing, we don't create spaces, we just ask fullbacks or wingers to cross balls to the box, we must do better than this.
Peyroteo said:
Now we should beat Andorra and then Switzerland will come to a full Estádio da Luz where we'll be favourites.
Click to expand...
We have to play better than today at Andorra let alone Switzerland, Andorra will not only park 1 bus, it will be entire Andorra inside the box, and they will kick so much our players that they will make today match look a soft one.
Peyroteo said:
The truth is before Fernando Santos we hadn't finished first in our qualification group since 2006 but now we might be achieving that 2 tournaments in a row.
Click to expand...
I know you like Santos, and I find him a likeable and serious person, but as someone who grew up watching our NT play at Euro 96 or 2000, even 2004, no way this team plays the same sort of football, but 1 credit I give to him, he made us a hard team to beat even without playing atractive football.
 
Gerson Rodrigues for Luxembourg did the match of his life! great showcase for him. What a speed demon.
 
I still don't get why Lloris is captain. I mean I get keepers being captains as a whole but I feel one the cb's or someone like Pogba in midfield being capo would benefit them more. It shouldn't matter how the teams perform but I think it matters.
 
JPRouve said:
We are terrible during qualifiers so it's not really a special moment.
Click to expand...
I think after the generation of Deschamps, Zidane, Blanc was World Champion in 98 they almost got a draw at Andorra on the qualifiers to Euro 2000, only winning the match with a Frank Leboeuf penalty at minute 85, and Andorra with 10 men, not exactly the same, but sometimes we need to put things in perspective.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.