Nani

ArmchairCritic

Thought he arguably the best player on the pitch tonight, work rate was good, interplay was superb, movement was spot on and he's strong as an ox. Really think he'll thrive in a team with Kagawa.

RonaldoVII

Yeah thought he did well, had the beating of Lahm a few times.

kps88

Thought he was average at best.

Orton

Done alright, but wasn't in the game much since the midfield liked to play hoofball for the majority

KM

I really didn't think he was that good IMO. The best players on the pitch were Ozil and Hummels. From Portugal, Coentrao was better.

ArmchairCritic

Not sure what match you watched.

Baxter

Almost every German attack came down Coentrao's side.

ArmchairCritic

Come on he had Postiga up front for the first hour, hard to look good with him linking up with you.

thepolice123

I thought he seen little of the ball, given Portugal's inept midfield. Used the ball well when he received it though.

Rado_N

Last 20-25 minutes he was superb.

Tactics kept him largely quiet before that.

Randall Flagg

He came alive towards the end, but well below par for most of game

Orton

He can't do much when he doesn't have the ball, he became much more involved and played some wicked balls in the second half which if they had decent strikers could have been put away.

kouroux

He's surrounded by shit.

Walrus

He was quiet, but Portugals tactics didnt suit him. Postiga hardly the kind of striker he would want to be playiing with, and the Portugese midfielders were sitting deep and belting it forward rather than making any attempt at playing through the Germans or create any genuine chances from out wide.

When he got the ball he looked lively, didnt waste much possession and his crossing was reasonable, given what he had to work with. Got back and did his duties defensively so cant criticise him for much.

Orton

This pretty much, a midfield who don't know how to create anything, a striker who plays for relegation candidates in Spain and obviously Ronaldo who can suffer from the same problem as Nani. They lack the quality of the former Portugal sides (Rui Costa, Deco, Maniche...)

ArmchairCritic

When the emphasis was on defending he tracked back really well and kept the ball well on the rare time he got it, when he given support he was great. No one apart Ozil and Hummels and maybe Muller impressed for Germany. Thought Coentrao was good going forward but it's not tactically great to have him and Ronaldo on the same side.

KM

They had Moutinho, Meireles and Veloso. Moutinho is very good and other two are decent, harsh to say their midfield doesn't know to create anything.

Orton

It's harsh but compared to the 2004/2006 sides it's extremely weak. Veloso looks unfit, Meireles isn't renowned for his creative side and Moutinho flatters to deceive whenever i've seen him. The recent record for this side shows that they aren't good enough. Failed to score in 4 out of the last 6 games.

ArmchairCritic

I hope Nani steps it up next season, I really think he can be a 15-20 goal and 15-20 assist a season man for us, he's been great on the whole for the last 2 seasons but I think he can get better.

kouroux

Meireles is just simply shit.He takes ages to release a ball, a good counter attacking requires the midfielder to pass the ball with good timing.It's like a short window before the midfielders and defenders close the spaces.
Once I can recall a very good pass from him to Ronaldo on the wing.

Neutral

Not great...

6/10, but twice as good as Ronaldo, who was crap.

Orton

The whole Portuguese team was a 5/6 out of ten, they only started playing once they went behind. Next game will hopefully be a different story

Neutral

He was horrible(defensively he made 2-3 great tackles)...I don't care if it was a tactical decision by the manager, but 80% of the time, he got the ball, and then simply hoofed it upfield towards Ronaldo, handing back quick possession to the Germans.

amolbhatia100

Strange comments by him after the match about the referee being poor unless the translator messed up.

#07

Certainly agree.

On the one hand you can say Nani was a bit peripheral to the game but on the other hand you can say when he did get the ball he was never wasteful with it.

People often accuse Nani of running down blind alleys or over indulging but tonight I thought his first touch when receiving the ball was immaculate, his decision making very good and his end product was awesome.

I remember the days of Nani hitting the first man with his crosses and corners. His delivery today makes those days seem unimaginable as well as ages ago.

Not harsh at all. Most Portuguese would agree that this side is vastly inferior to previous ones. Go back a decade or so and you had players like Figo, Paulo Sousa, Joao Pinto, Conceciao and so on in the side. The golden genration (a real one not a media creation) is gone and hasn't been replaced. There are only a handful of players in this squad who could comfortably fit in with the generation of players that went before.

Brwned

I don't even think he was that peripheral, he touched the ball more than Meireles and Veloso and constantly made himself available for the ball. Certainly their best attacker again. His first touch really is magnificent at times.

surf

Nani and Ronaldo were dangerous when they got the ball, which was not very often. Portugal's tactics are wasting their 2 best players. Plus they need a much better striker than Postiga.

Cina

Yeah I really don't get the way Portugal set themselves up, it's not as if they're not technically good enough to attack games, we saw that when they went down. Their system is in no way suited to Ronaldo or Nani, both of whom were good when they actually got on the ball.

ricky-romeo

portugal just doesn't have a good centre forward. postiga is shit.

nani did okay. hit the crossbar with his cross/shot effort. beat his marker few times as well.

jakec

what other striking options do they have?

Orton

Almeida and a youngster called Oliviera

Tomuś

I'd put Ronaldo as a striker there, and get in another winger, let it be Quaresma or anyone. Ronaldo would still be allowed to come deeper to see more of the ball, and Nani, for instance, is more than capable of filling the finisher's role for a bit.

Baxter

If Evra played like Coentrao he'd be slaughtered.

Ole'sbodyguard

The effort that hit the bar was obviously not intended and an overhit cross. I'd hardly credit that as intended as a crossshot. He did okay in the last 20 minutes and that cross he put in for Varela that was defended well by Hummels was very good. Personally I thought Ronaldo was slightly better but again hindered by Portugal's tactics.

Cold_Boy

Sorry mate but Coentrao really wasn't better at all.

Homeomorphic

If they attacked, they would have gotten slaughtered. Germany is a magnificent counterattacking side, probably the best in the world, even better than Real Madrid, but pretty mediocre and 1-dimensional in being proactive and taking the game's initiative, as was seen today. "Get the ball to the wings => blind cross in => hope for something." Germany's 2010 outings will now lead to every team parking the bus against Löw's boys which will make them as "boring" as Spain post 2008 when all teams in the world admitted inferiority and decided to not play against Spain anymore and get 10 men behind the ball instead. It's how these things roll. Portugal's gameplan almost worked, mind you.

711

Think Nani's potentially world class, but he struggles to find space, he spends too much time in heavy traffic.

Is he too willing to work back or doesn't he have the engine or nous to move in to real space, I don't know?

Amar__

He was marked by one of the best fullbacks in the world, but still he did good. His workrate at the end of the game was fantastic, I bet he covered more miles in second half than Ronaldo did in whole game.

CLK_FPC

Yet people would happily take Coentrao and turf out Evra if given the chance

Adam-Utd

Portugal should of stuck to the 4-2-3-1 they had once postiga and meireles went off.

Varela and ronaldo wide with nani as AM and Oliviera up top.

In that last 20 minutes they looked alot more dangerous and Germany were on the Backfoot. If only they started like that they would have won IMO.

The midfield 3 of mourinho meireles and veloso is good on paper, but there is too many ball players and nobody wanting to break forward, the front 3 were abandoned against 5/6 Germans. They must stick with mourinho / veloso and free up nani or ronaldo behind the striker, nani looked great in the hole IMO