What country do you tip for national success over the next ten years?

hasanejaz88

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England certainly have a talented squad this time around, though I'm not sure if they are more talented than the generation from 2002-2010. One thing this squad does have more than the previous one are world class wingers in Sancho/Sterling, though there isn't nearly as much talent in the center of the pitch.

A fantastic manager to lead them is still left though. I'm not sure Southgate will be the one, neither am I saying he won't be.

France have always had one of the best squads in a tournament dating back to the late 90's but squad problems for some reason have plagued them more than once. This squad has bucketloads of talent that has already won one world cup. If there is a squad of players you can will dominate the world scene for the next decade, they will be the favourites.

I like Germany's current make-up though, they aren't nearly as talented as the group before them but seem to be building a good squad cohesion lately. One thing I don't understand is that people wax lyrical about the Netherlands squad, and cite their win against Germany as evidence, but fail to look at the fact that Germany finished above them in the group (including beating them away).

It's a squad full of solid players who won't be so ball dominant but rather play quick football (reminiscent of 2010 when the previous batch was just coming through). Gnabry, Sane, Kimmich, Sule, Brandt, Can, Ter Stegen, Klostermann, Werner and Havertz are a solid group of players to build around for the next years. I was rather hopeful for this year's Euro, thought Hummels and Muller might be back, but next year might be more difficult with age catching on with them and also players like Reus, Gundogan, Kroos, who could guide the younger players.
 

broccoli

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Netherlands are on to something and they certainly have the players to do well in the next 2 or 3 tournaments.
France and Germany as well but can't see a clear favorite this time.
Portugal will be a potentially good side like they used to be pre Ron, but no more than that. Same with England, there's a world class player with TAA and perhaps Kane and Stirling but I don't think they have what it takes.

In any case, the winner will be the best team and not always the best group of talents so i think we are up to some surprises.
 
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Rozay

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England are 100% within chance from a talent perspective of creating successes. There's a good quality of selection in almost every position with the only lighter areas left hand side of the defence and maybe the no 8 role. Young talent there's Sancho, Greenwood, Rashford, Saka, CHO, Trent, AWB, Henderson etc then more more recognized seniors Kane, Sterling, Maguire etc.

Can't think of a time in recent memory there has been various options for the national team but it solely depends on the management to get the most out of the players end of the day.
I think they will even be okay in the 3 and 8 positions. Saka looks a monstrous LB talent, and I’d expect him to move past everyone else and cement that role. Regarding the 8 role, I think Foden will play there for the national team, and then there is Bellingham coming through as a more traditional version.
 

FootballHQ

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Would be interested to see how Norway do.

For next 10 years they will have one of best forwards in world football and a brilliant CM so that's pretty decent to build around. Just need 4-5 reasonably good players in other positions to continue to develop like Sander Berg and that's a team that should be getting to ko rounds of major tournaments at least. It's similar to Wales with Bale and Ramsey. Had them playing long before euro 2016 but need the defence to get experienced playing together and also likes of Joe Allen to kick on before it all came together.

Sweden and Denmark usually get to last 16 at least of tournaments they get to and Iceland have started doing it so don't see why Norway can't have another purple patch like in the 90s (although ironically they only went past the group stages in one of the tournaments, 98 world cup).
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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Call me pessimistic but I think no national team could dominant the next ten years like Spain did a decade ago, and the quality of international football would continue to drop.

France originally had a good shout with all those wonderkids but from the way most of them failed, I had lowered my expectations. People had high hopes in Martial, Coman, Dembele and Lemar but they hadn't reached the height and fulfilled their potential. The performance of their U21 in the Euros was disappointing to say the least. Their elder players seem to be declining earlier than expected as well.

England, Portugal, Germany and Spain each has some promising talents, and they may get a flukey win over one or two tournaments depending on management and form, but long term success takes much more than that. I just don't see any team capable of achieving that.
There are better talents than Martial,Coman,Dembele or Lemar coming up though so it doesn't really matter that they didn't live up to expectations.
Right now from players born inbetween year 1998 to 2003, there is no country with more talent than France.
 

TheReligion

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There are better talents than Martial,Coman,Dembele or Lemar coming up though so it doesn't really matter that they didn't live up to expectations.
Right now from players born inbetween year 1998 to 2003, there is no country with more talent than France.
I think England push you pretty close tbf.
 

paraguayo

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The quantity doesn't really matter because you can't play 30 players on the pitch. I don't think this new generation of England comes close to 2000-2006ish era, in terms of starting Cambell, Rio, Gerrard, Scholes, Lampard, Coles, Owen etc
 

Josh 76

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There are better talents than Martial,Coman,Dembele or Lemar coming up though so it doesn't really matter that they didn't live up to expectations.
Right now from players born inbetween year 1998 to 2003, there is no country with more talent than France.
I remember not long ago, France's midfield was the best in the world.
Dembele. Pogba. Kante. Lemar.

How things change so quickly in football.
 

rcoobc

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France and Germany

England Quarter Finalists and occasional Semis
 

FootballHQ

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Actually could see Holland making a final in one of the next three tournaments. Already got good defence forming, De Jong in CM and have plenty of pace about them. Just need some good front three players to emerge in next year or two.

Hopefully Koeman is alright with these heart problems being reported.
 

NoPace

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Beneath them, I think Nigeria are building another top generation
-----------Osimhen---------------
Onyekuru---------Chukweze
---------Iwobi----CM-------------
--------------Ndidi-----------------

looks great if they can find a decent passer to play there, or just use Iwobi deeper and throw Dennis or another promising attacker in, but the defense still looks real weak, no? Aina at RB promising, but then it's lot of 12-15th placed center backs like Troost-Ekong and Omeruo and keeper is even worse.
 

NoPace

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Actually could see Holland making a final in one of the next three tournaments. Already got good defence forming, De Jong in CM and have plenty of pace about them. Just need some good front three players to emerge in next year or two.

Hopefully Koeman is alright with these heart problems being reported.
Very easy to see a Van Dijk led defence with De Jong in midfield being solid enough in defence and good in possession to be in a bunch of low scoring knockout games for sure, like a Pirlo Italy side.
 

NoPace

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I think Portugal are producing some great players, but after Ronaldo, they will go back to where they were pre-Ronaldo in not having a reliable striker to go with the embarrassment of riches behind him.

In the Figo, Rui Costa, Conceicao days they were all 10 yards behind Pauleta - who was not of the same class. That’s where they are heading again, and a reason the postponement of the Euros will hurt hem them if Ronaldo drops.
They might be best hiring a Spaniard and recreating the Busquets/Alonso teams with lots of possession and a false 9 with Wolves' Jota or Joao Felix good candidates, and fullbacks do a lot of attacking:

Guedes-Felix-------------------
----------Bruno--BernardoSilva
--Neves-Renato/Gedson----
Cancelo------------------Pereira
----------Dias--CB-------------------

and hope Guedes or Jota can be a Villa/Pedro style wide goalscorer for them cutting in from the right along with Bruno and Felix, with Bernardo helping dominate the midfield
 

NoPace

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Wan Bissaka will have a great international career I think, on the basis that he’s almost a cheat code. The way modern football is, and given most players are right footed - I think 7 or 8 out of 10 times, a teams biggest attacking threat is going to play directly in AWBs channel. The #10 role is becoming more obsolete, and the real individual threats like a Sterling, Hazard, Mané, Neymar will come against AWB. The temptation for Southgate will likely be to neutralise that threat by playing AWB, rather than opt for Trent I feel. And I can’t blame that view. It’s more beneficial if you are playing Brazil to shut down Neymar than it is to have crosses from your RB. Taking Neymar out of the game is 50-60% of their threat suppressed.
I'd play them both. It's international football, you're not going to be fluent anyways.


------------------Kane----Sterling------------------------
Sancho--Henderson-_______--Alexander-Arnold
Chilwell---Maguire-----Gomez--------WanBissaka

I won't pretend to know who Henderson's partner should be. But you could defend a fair amount and still have Sancho and Alexander-Arnold create chances for the front 2 (Rashford replacing Kane if he's crocked I suppose).

Basically Alexander-Arnold can be like Beckham, getting assists without having to leave his fullback unprotected. Won't be exciting but yeah it could work. Would free up Sancho to go attack constantly since you'd still have 3 in midfield basically.
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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I remember not long ago, France's midfield was the best in the world.
Dembele. Pogba. Kante. Lemar.

How things change so quickly in football.
I don't think we've ever had the best midfield in the world, Lemar and Dembele are neither starters nor midfielders for our team though.
 

Rozay

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They might be best hiring a Spaniard and recreating the Busquets/Alonso teams with lots of possession and a false 9 with Wolves' Jota or Joao Felix good candidates, and fullbacks do a lot of attacking:

Guedes-Felix-------------------
----------Bruno--BernardoSilva
--Neves-Renato/Gedson----
Cancelo------------------Pereira
----------Dias--CB-------------------

and hope Guedes or Jota can be a Villa/Pedro style wide goalscorer for them cutting in from the right along with Bruno and Felix, with Bernardo helping dominate the midfield
Jota maybe. Guedes is useless, can’t get over his rubbishness in the last World Cup.
 

Peyroteo

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I think Portugal are producing some great players, but after Ronaldo, they will go back to where they were pre-Ronaldo in not having a reliable striker to go with the embarrassment of riches behind him.

In the Figo, Rui Costa, Conceicao days they were all 10 yards behind Pauleta - who was not of the same class. That’s where they are heading again, and a reason the postponement of the Euros will hurt hem them if Ronaldo drops.
We'll do alright, Bruno and Bernardo are both 25, Ruben Neves is 23, Semedo and Guerreiro are 26, Renato Sanches I still believe can turn into a starter, Felix is coming up, Ronaldo is eternal. Only problem is the defense but Ruben Dias is only 22 and he's already starting so hopefully he develops and he gets a decent partner.

We won the Euros with a team that wasn't even close to this so that should give us plenty of confidence at least.
 

Rozay

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We'll do alright, Bruno and Bernardo are both 25, Ruben Neves is 23, Semedo and Guerreiro are 26, Renato Sanches I still believe can turn into a starter, Felix is coming up, Ronaldo is eternal. Only problem is the defense but Ruben Dias is only 22 and he's already starting so hopefully he develops and he gets a decent partner.

We won the Euros with a team that wasn't even close to this so that should give us plenty of confidence at least.
You will do well and get far in tournaments, but a team with no goalscorer will always find it hard to get over the line. The talent you have just listed isn’t too different from the previous generation, but again with no striker. You got to the final in 2004 but couldn’t win.

I hope you guys can find a good striker as the rest of your team is quality. Portugal just doesn’t produce top strikers regularly.
 

JPRouve

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I remember not long ago, France's midfield was the best in the world.
Dembele. Pogba. Kante. Lemar.

How things change so quickly in football.
That midfield has never been a thing, if I'm not mistaken they started together once against England and an other time but never in official games. Dembélé and Lemar have never been regular starters for France.
 

NoPace

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Jota maybe. Guedes is useless, can’t get over his rubbishness in the last World Cup.
From what I've seen, Jota is smarter so maybe a better false 9 option, but Guedes can be proper scary on his best day. Probably come down to who fits better with Joao Felix, Bruno and Bernardo as those 3 are presumably going to start. Might even be a bog standard 4-2-3-1 with Joao or Guedes on the left and a proper striker up top.
 

lsd

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So long as England win nothing i don't mind who is on top
 

paraguayo

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You will do well and get far in tournaments, but a team with no goalscorer will always find it hard to get over the line. The talent you have just listed isn’t too different from the previous generation, but again with no striker. You got to the final in 2004 but couldn’t win.

I hope you guys can find a good striker as the rest of your team is quality. Portugal just doesn’t produce top strikers regularly.
Isn't Trincao supposed to be that striker? I havent watched him but iirc he's a striker
 

hmchan

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There are better talents than Martial,Coman,Dembele or Lemar coming up though so it doesn't really matter that they didn't live up to expectations.
Right now from players born inbetween year 1998 to 2003, there is no country with more talent than France.
Can you give me some examples? I watched every France U21 game in the Euro 19 and this 1997-1999 side was hugely overrated. They were behind Romania in the group stage and got beaten up in the knockout stage. As I look for more record, the U19 and the U21 for Euro 21 haven't enjoyed much success either.

In fact, the same also applied to England. They were even more disappointing as they were knocked out in the group stage. The highly rated Maddison, Foden and Mount were basically non-existent and struggled to influence. The backline bar Wan-Bissaka was poor. The likes of Ryan Sessegnon sparkled in the Chamionship, but failed to impress in the Premier League.

Fact is, the media tend to overhype youngsters as if they are superstars, but most of them don't live up to expectaions after all. I understand U21 and U19 competitions may not be comprehensive, and some players were not included in the squad, but don't you think they should do much better if they've really got as many talents as you suggest?
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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Can you give me some examples? I watched every France U21 game in the Euro 19 and this 1997-1999 side was hugely overrated. They were behind Romania in the group stage and got beaten up in the knockout stage. As I look for more record, the U19 and the U21 for Euro 21 haven't enjoyed much success either.

In fact, the same also applied to England. They were even more disappointing as they were knocked out in the group stage. The highly rated Maddison, Foden and Mount were basically non-existent and struggled to influence. The backline bar Wan-Bissaka was poor. The likes of Ryan Sessegnon sparkled in the Chamionship, but failed to impress in the Premier League.

Fact is, the media tend to overhype youngsters as if they are superstars, but most of them don't live up to expectaions after all. I understand U21 and U19 competitions may not be comprehensive, and some players were not included in the squad, but don't you think they should do much better if they've really got as many talents as you suggest?
Well I'll only list what I consider truly elite talents
1998 : Mbappe, Aouar, Upamecano
1999 : Konate,Zagadou, Kamara
2000 : Caqueret
2001 : Saliba, Ait-Nouri, Geubbels
2002 : Camavinga, Kouassi, Aouchiche
2003 : Cherki, Da Silva, Mejbri

Obviously there are dozen more great talents but these ones are the standouts in each age group I'd say and I think Mbappe, Camavinga and Cherki are all the best players born in their year of birth, by a distance for 1998 and 2003, a bit closer for Camavinga

As for our youth results, not only do we have horrible youth coaches who benefit from having ties to high placed people to get jobs they don't deserve but we've also been playing without players such as Mbappe, O.Dembele or Ndombele at these competitions even though they were young enough to participate
 

Thiagoal

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On paper, no team can match England for potential! TAA, Sterling, Kane, Rashford, Sancho are all potential (or already) world class talents. Add into the mix the likes of Foden, Saka, Greenwood and other stand out youth players and England has a very solid squad!

However, England’s problem has rarely been lack of talent- their mentality and ability to fall apart when the stakes are raised is the major issue! And it’s going to take a lot to fix it!
 

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On paper, no team can match England for potential! TAA, Sterling, Kane, Rashford, Sancho are all potential (or already) world class talents. Add into the mix the likes of Foden, Saka, Greenwood and other stand out youth players and England has a very solid squad!

However, England’s problem has rarely been lack of talent- their mentality and ability to fall apart when the stakes are raised is the major issue! And it’s going to take a lot to fix it!
We've already gone a long way to fixing that after the world cup I think. That was a massive moment for us.
 

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Not necessarily winning things but I think Ireland could have a great next 10 years if the young lads we have coming through from the under 21s develop well. I think Kenny is the best manager for them and has coached them for a good while. I seen this group play against Italy (with Tonali and others) and they not only outplayed them but they did it playing proper football and utilising a playing out from the back style. I don't know if any of them will reach the level of a Duff or Robbie Keane but it may be the first time in a while that we have an 11 that can play good football. O'Connor who used to play United youths was a big part of that and he looks a good talent. Parrott is the stand out, however all going well I see no reason why most of them can't be playing in the PL in the next few years.
I'm not getting too carried away with Lee O'Connor. He's gone to a league that is League One level and has yet to get a game and was then sent on loan. He will be a solid player but whether as a midtable SPL player or Premier League player, we'll have to wait and see.

Troy Parrot urgently needs a loan. I'm not sure he's the standout talent from the group anymore and there's question marks over his attitude. I think Aaron Connoly and Molumby are most likely to make it from that bunch. But the rest of them could well end up like the last batch who we all thought would be world beaters from the U21's, the likes of Jack Byrne, Callum O'Dowda, Conor Shaughnesdy at Leeds, Shodipo etc

Obviously this ireland u21 team looks really exciting, but the likes of Idah, Kilkenny, Obafemi could end up in league of ireland unless they start getting minutes either off the bench or on loan.
 

Champagne Football

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On paper, no team can match England for potential! TAA, Sterling, Kane, Rashford, Sancho are all potential (or already) world class talents. Add into the mix the likes of Foden, Saka, Greenwood and other stand out youth players and England has a very solid squad!

However, England’s problem has rarely been lack of talent- their mentality and ability to fall apart when the stakes are raised is the major issue! And it’s going to take a lot to fix it!
The demands of the Premier League has resulted in world class English and non Englush talent being finished at the top at 28 or 29 years old. The likes of Robbie Fowler, Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole, Fernando Torres, Michael Owen and arguably Beckham too.

Raheem Sterling is 25, Kane is 26. Are they gonna be already displaying signs of burn out 2 years from now, that the likes of Rooney, Owen displayed at a similar age, when at the 2022 Qatar WC?

At least England will still have Greenwood, Sancho, Foden, Mount coming through. But probably still not the strength in depth that France have. So injuries to key players could be costly at Qatar 2022.
 
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11101

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Based on talent coming through and performance at youth tournaments, the next 10 years should be all about England. We won the U17 and U20 World Cups and we have a number of those players coming into the PL now. There is absolutely no doubt we will screw it up though.

France have great talent although they might have the same problem they had 20 years ago in getting rid of players like Griezmann and Kante, keeping them in the team too long because of who they are.

Brazil have some good kids coming through and their league is getting stronger again instead of their best players all having to come to Europe to sink or swim. I would love to see some proper Brazilian superstars coming through again. It's been far too long.
 

Champagne Football

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Switzerland are always a tight unit and can beat anyone on their day
Breel Embolo and Denis Zakaria are having great seasons at Monchengladbach.

Italy don't look too shabby, particularly central midfield
Donnarumma
Conti Rugani Bonnuci Spinnazzola
Tonali Veratti Jorginho
Bernardeshi Belotti Chiesa​
 

Dancfc

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I'd play them both. It's international football, you're not going to be fluent anyways.


------------------Kane----Sterling------------------------
Sancho--Henderson-_______--Alexander-Arnold
Chilwell---Maguire-----Gomez--------WanBissaka

I won't pretend to know who Henderson's partner should be. But you could defend a fair amount and still have Sancho and Alexander-Arnold create chances for the front 2 (Rashford replacing Kane if he's crocked I suppose).

Basically Alexander-Arnold can be like Beckham, getting assists without having to leave his fullback unprotected. Won't be exciting but yeah it could work. Would free up Sancho to go attack constantly since you'd still have 3 in midfield basically.
It wouldn't work, as Carragher once famously pointed out the reason the majority of great attacking fullbacks play fullback in the first place is because they didn't cut it higher up the pitch.

I remember once Pep tried Dani Alves as a winger and he looked a bog average mid table standard player.
 

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Isn't Trincao supposed to be that striker? I havent watched him but iirc he's a striker
He’s a winger and still very unproven.

We don't do strikers. Currently our best strikers are André Silva, Dyego Souza and Gonçalo Paciencia... Eder actually has a half decent chance of returning to the Euros if he scores a couple of goals when football returns.
 
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Dancfc

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He’s a winger. We don't do strikers. Currently our best strikers are André Silva, Dyego Souza and Gonçalo Paciencia... Eder actually has a half decent chance of returning to the Euros if he scores a couple of goals when football returns.
Would a way round that be the false 9 system? Liverpool have shown just how effective it can be with the correct personnel.
 

Peyroteo

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Would a way round that be the false 9 system? Liverpool have shown just how effective it can be with the correct personnel.
Yeah that's pretty much what we've been doing already. Jota and Felix will be getting a lot more game time from now on and Guedes is actually decent for us despite the horrible World Cup and the bad form/injuries at Valencia. It will all depend on how long Ronaldo wants to play for us, he'll be 50 with grey hair and a fat belly and I'm pretty sure he'll still be our best goalscorer given the state of the strikers in this country. Once he goes we'll struggle to find a goalscorer and I guess we'll be back to the days of playing alright but failing to capitalize. My hope is that Felix can become a lot more prolific as he gets older.

Defense is a much bigger problem given that our fullbacks are all attacking and we don't have great centrebacks. Next year we might have to call up a 40 year old Bruno Alves or give Ricardo Carvalho a call and see what he's up to.