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

VBI

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I think Argentina will finally end this hoodoo of theirs at the Copa America next year, although I do not expect it to lead to a golden era or anything, more a last hurrah for some of the current squad. The format for this tournament, the aging of star players in rival teams, and the fact that they are co-hosts are huge factors. If they finish in the top two spots in their Group, which they should, both the quarter and semi matches will be played in Argentina and only the final would be in Colombia. Home advantage is astonishingly important in the Copa America, in the modern era, Brazil have won it twice the two times they've hosted it, Chile and Colombia both won their first ever tournaments as hosts, Uruguay won one of their two modern wins as hosts. In fact, Brazil's wins were all as hosts or during that run of tournaments when the smaller nations (Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela) all hosted events when Brazil had an extremely strong set of players.

Argentina can't keep missing out, surely. :( :lol:

I wouldn't be surprised to see France, Netherlands and England establishing themselves as the current top teams in Europe over the next few years.
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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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!
England has a severe lack of top class midfielders compared to France, no one on the level of Pogba or Kante, then you add that we've also got way better CBs (both starters and young talents).
Offensively I agree that It's close but Mbappe is head and shoulders ahead of any English player right now and we're not exactly short on world class attackers (Griezmann) or promising talent either.
 

paraguayo

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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.
Oh, I could've sworn he was a striker.

Maybe you guys will have to naturalize Tiquinho :lol:
 

Peyroteo

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Oh, I could've sworn he was a striker.

Maybe you guys will have to naturalize Tiquinho :lol:
He's already in the process of getting naturalized :lol:

Every half decent brazilian striker that comes to play in Portugal gets naturalized because they have no chance of playing for Brazil but our strikers are so bad that they always believe they can play for us. Tiquinho Soares from Porto, Dyego Souza from Benfica and now even Luiz Phellype from Sporting are naturalized and want to play for the national team even though they're all average in our league.

People used to complain about our strikers when the options were Nuno Gomes and Pauleta, now everyone wishes we had strikers like those two. It's been over a decade of Postiga, Hugo Almeida, Liedson, Nelson Oliveira, Andre Silva, Eder, Dyego Souza, Gonçalo Paciencia... It's insane.
 

NoPace

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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.
That's fair. I originally had it as a 3 man backline to let Chilwell and TAA be wingbacks since neither can defend. Might work better:


------------------------Kane-----------------------
------------Sterling----------Sancho--------
Chilwell--Henderson---CM---------TAA
--------Maguire---Rice----WanBissaka---

if Rice becomes a proper star I don't think this is crazy. Chilwell really is pretty bad defensively and if TAA is gonna finish top 3 in the Prem in assists every year you'd have to figure the basic idea of the team will be defending well and having him and Sancho create enough chances to win games.
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

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All these England lineups with players out of position, it's as if you haven't seen our failures of the past.

Trent stays at fullback. Wan-Bissaka, Reece James or whoever won't play CB.
 

NoPace

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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.
Timing is on your side, though. Cristiano can play in the Euros in 2021 and World Cup in 22 and probably still be a Mandzukic for Croatia type by the 2nd one at worst and then you have until 2024 for Felix (then 24) and just one more guy from Jota, Guedes, Trincao and all the less likely options to have developed into a proper goalscorer, receiving passes from 29 year old Bruno and Bernardo in their final tournament as stars.
 

Dancfc

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All these England lineups with players out of position, it's as if you haven't seen our failures of the past.

Trent stays at fullback. Wan-Bissaka, Reece James or whoever won't play CB.
Reece played CB (all be it in a back 3) when he made his massive burst to overtake even Hudson Odoi as the star academy player. For a 3atb RCB suits him more than wingback in my opinion.
 

Cloud7

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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.
One thing that seems very different in this current France is squad is that they have a great, great team spirit. Like they all seem to be great friends and get along well with each other, so I don't think the infighting that has plagued them before might be as much of a problem. Deschamps seems like a good, solid head that they all look up to as well.
 

tenpoless

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I would say England but I don't trust the manager really... but talent wise They're great. With very very good youngsters incoming.
 

Ramos

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If you look at the best players born after 1998 in international football right now, you would have to say England or France are fairly obvious answers. And they are already at the very top so ...

After that maybe Italy with a comeback? Donnarumma, Chiesa, Bastoni, Tonali, Zaniolo ... None of them older than 22.
 

UpWithRivers

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China and India. How populations of nearly 1.5 billion each cant put together a decent team is the greatest mystery. Yeah its not their first sport and finance is an issue but at some point even as a minority sport with their economies booming surely they will start producing great teams. Maybe 10 years is too soon but sooner or later their will be a really good Chinese and/or Indian team.
 

matbezlima

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@matbezlima I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic (one of my threads).
Holland and Italy may build a complete full good generation in the middle to the end of this decade, though I bet that they can suprise and do well even already in Euro 2020. For now, Holland, for example, lacks quality attacking options. Mancini's job with Italy so far is good. Football needs Italy and Holland back to their best, they are football patrimonies for decades, Italy even more. The three biggest and most important national teams in history are surely Brazil, Germany and Italy. Every other country else is clearly in a tier below. Italy is a rival that every country needs, that football needs. As I said once in r/soccer:

There is a saying that Italy is a team that needs to be killed in the group stage or you will regret it and they will cause serious trouble in the KO, no matter how the odds may be against them or if they were terrible in the group stage and just barely went through, they love to triumph in the most unlikely scenarios and when they are seen as underdogs against the other top teams in the tournament. NEVER, NEVER UNDERSTIMATE ITALY IN A WORLD CUP KO!
 

Krakenzero

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It's cute how many people still say England.

If I would have to bet on a dark horse, it would be Japan. They did a fine WC in Russia where they almost defeat Belgium, their youth team left a good impression at the Copa America 2019 and were runners up at the last Maurice Revello tournament in Toulon. Plus, they have really promising young players like Hatate, Kubo or Abe. Anyway, it's likely that the main contenders will still be Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France and Italy/Spain.
 

TheReligion

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Holland and Italy may build a complete full good generation in the middle to the end of this decade, though I bet that they can suprise and do well even already in Euro 2020. For now, Holland, for example, lacks quality attacking options. Mancini's job with Italy so far is good. Football needs Italy and Holland back to their best, they are football patrimonies for decades, Italy even more. The three biggest and most important national teams in history are surely Brazil, Germany and Italy. Every other country else is clearly in a tier below. Italy is a rival that every country needs, that football needs. As I said once in r/soccer:

There is a saying that Italy is a team that needs to be killed in the group stage or you will regret it and they will cause serious trouble in the KO, no matter how the odds may be against them or if they were terrible in the group stage and just barely went through, they love to triumph in the most unlikely scenarios and when they are seen as underdogs against the other top teams in the tournament. NEVER, NEVER UNDERSTIMATE ITALY IN A WORLD CUP KO!
Interesting. I would agree with Italy in the sense I would enjoy seeing them become more relevant again. I always quite enjoyed watching them tactically in world/European competition. They have struggled for forwards in recent times but this seems to be something they have addressed lately? Since the likes of Vieri they had a dry patch but Chiesa, Immobile, Belotti, Insigne are all good options.
 

kirk buttercup

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Would love to see Holland and Italy back at the top . But England and France are the best in Europe at the moment with the most promising talent emerging , can never rule out Germany either.

Being Irish I am very interested to see the rising youth under Kenny in the next few years.
 

matbezlima

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Would love to see Holland and Italy back at the top . But England and France are the best in Europe at the moment with the most promising talent emerging , can never rule out Germany either.

Being Irish I am very interested to see the rising youth under Kenny in the next few years.
Belgium is probably better than England.
 

FootballHQ

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Belgium is probably better than England.
They are now but Belgium are entering last chance really.

By 2022 world cup:

Toby will be 33
Vertonghen 35
Menuier 31
Witsel 33
De Bruyne 31
Hazard 31
Mertens 35

Some young players will come through but you're still talking the spine of Belgian's starting 11 there and given their small population they're not getting a generation like last decade for a long while.

Think Euros next summer is their chance given the level they showed at the world cup.
 

NoPace

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All these England lineups with players out of position, it's as if you haven't seen our failures of the past.

Trent stays at fullback. Wan-Bissaka, Reece James or whoever won't play CB.
That's all well and good but how far is this team going?

--------------------Kane---------------
Sterling-----Maddison----Sancho
----------Winks----Henderson----------
Chilwell--Maguire-Gomez--TAA
-----------------Pickford-----------------

or change out Maddison for a different 10 or Winks for a different 8 or whatever changes you wanna make. Bottom line, this team just isn't very smart, I don't see the nous or whatever you call it needed to win 4 knockout games, as good as those wingers are. I'd rather have an extra defender to play on the break or something like that.

England probably has to figure out something other than hoping Winks-Henderson or Rice-Henderson or Rice-Winks or one of them holding and 2 AMs in front of them. I'm not saying that's 3 at the back or a diamond or whatever, and I was definitely bullish on Hodgson (did well in 2012 apart from not man marking Pirlo) because I thought he could do something other than a bog standard 4-2-3-1.
 

NoPace

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If Uruguay can find a couple defenders to go with Gimenez, a keeper and one attacker of really any style (winger or striker would be good but a christmas tree could work), they have a great setup of 22-25 year olds:

Maxi Gomez-----Forward
----------De Arrasceta-------
Bentancur---------Valverde
-------------Torreira------------
LB--Gimenez--RCB---RB
----------------GK-----------------

2026 World Cup is in North America, and while they might have lost a bit of pace, we've seen teams full of players aged 28-31 do well at the world Cup, though ideally there would have been a 2024 World Cup when they're mostly 26-29 and not 28-31.

2022 might be a bit soon for them but that midfield looks perfectly suited for sloggy internationall football.
 

hmchan

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China and India. How populations of nearly 1.5 billion each cant put together a decent team is the greatest mystery. Yeah its not their first sport and finance is an issue but at some point even as a minority sport with their economies booming surely they will start producing great teams. Maybe 10 years is too soon but sooner or later their will be a really good Chinese and/or Indian team.
As a Hongkonger I may be able to answer your question. In Chinese societies, money is the top priority of many people, and there is a general belief that academic excellence is the only way to become rich. As a result, parents arrange all sorts of tutorials and make their children study 24/7. Under these circumstances, many children miss the best opportunity to develop basic skills in football.

Even if some take the path of sports, they tend to choose small ball games (e.g. table tennis, badminton) over big ones (e.g. football, basketball). This could be due to multiple factors, maybe because China has a better past record, maybe because the development system is more mature, maybe because of genetics.

Meanwhile, there are also plenty of problems regarding Chinese football. Top local players are paid so high that they become unwilling to challenge themselves in foreign leagues (Wu Lei has been the only one in recent years). Match fixing is still a serious issue. Like other East Asia countries, they struggle very hard when they face the physicality of West Asian players, that's why they recruit Elkeson to their national team.
 

Ramos

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They are now but Belgium are entering last chance really.

By 2022 world cup:

Toby will be 33
Vertonghen 35
Menuier 31
Witsel 33
De Bruyne 31
Hazard 31
Mertens 35

Some young players will come through but you're still talking the spine of Belgian's starting 11 there and given their small population they're not getting a generation like last decade for a long while.

Think Euros next summer is their chance given the level they showed at the world cup.
True. Postponing the Euro's also didn't work in our favor. The back three consisting of Vertonghen-Vermaelen(or Kompany)-Toby is already a problem. Remember, Boyata had to play the three group games at the WC and that was two years ago. Everybody's still waiting on Denayer to make that final step.

After the Euro's the days of being contenders are probably over. I don't think we'll fall back to the truly dark days we had after the 2002 WC (which almost lasted ten years) though. There's more young talent now than there was then.
 

kirk buttercup

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Belgium is probably better than England.
I would have agreed with this last year , but as mentioned they have alot of ageing players . I think England have a more exciting team coming through and I think might edge Belgium now( their golden Generation looks to be running out of time) only my opinion . France are class and have a great team and amazing emerging young talent .
 

Champ

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Anyone saying England is deluded.
Flatter to deceive, the supposed stars coming through are really just average compared to what France are still bringing through.
 

JPRouve

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Since a lot of people mention France, it's worth remembering where France was in 2010, Spain and Germany were supposed to be untouchable like France and England are today but the latters put a shift and overtook youth football in 5 years. So it's near impossible to make that type of predictions, I wouldn't be surprised if both France and England end up being underwhelming.
 

In Rainbows

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England or France and I'm usually someone who thinks England gets overrated. I simply think they have a lot of young talent coming through at the right time. I'm a big believer in the 2001-2003 generation of English talent, coupled with a few from other generations to fill the group.
 
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MancunianAngels

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England.

This is the best group of players the country has had since 66.

Even the golden generation of the early 00s had huge issues.

David James being #1 Goalkeeper and always being 1 injury to Owen from having to use Heskey or Vassell as the main striker. There’s a lot more depth now.!
 

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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
Just remembered that Rafael Leão exists, he has potential to be a decent striker for us actually as he is doing ok at Milan. Pretty much guaranteed he'll be the best one since Pauleta. Here's a under 25 team:

Nelson Semedo---Ruben Dias----Ferro?????----Rapha Guerreiro

Renato Sanches------Ruben Neves----Bruno Fernandes

Bernardo Silva-----------Rafael Leão---------João Félix

Looks pretty good, definitely has a lot less weaknesses than we've had in the past decade.
 

padzilla

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England have nearly always had great squads on paper. I don't see what's different about now other than they had an easy run to a world cup semi final and even then managed to lose to every half decent team they played.
 

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There is no denying England's attacking talent, but what about defense and midfield, aside from TAA?
 

SilentWitness

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There is no denying England's attacking talent, but what about defense and midfield, aside from TAA?
Tomori, Tuanzebe, Gomez, Wan-Bissaka, Reece James, James Justin in defence is a decent selection. Maguire is only 27 so definitely has at least 2 more tournaments left in him so that helps some CB talent to come through. RB is way too overstocked and an issue though to get them all in. Reece James, TAA and Wan-Bissaka could all be at a very similar level at the age of 25 as they have huge potential. LB is lacking - there is also the Sessegnon lads and people like Williams, Chillwell etc but nobody at an elite level I don't think in comparison to the RB spot. I suppose you could add Saka into the mix also, he's been very good for Arsenal.

Midfield you have Rice, Mount, Willock, Bellingham, Winks, Tom Davies, Choudhury, Foden, Gibbs-White etc who are all starting or rotational players for their clubs at the moment. Foden is the only one though from that lot that I can see becoming a real star. I don't know too much about Bellingham so couldn't comment but he's obviously highly rated. I think that our attacking talent can compensate for a 'good' midfield though as long as it's solid enough and gels well which those lads could potentially do. Ideally we need someone like Choudhury, Davies or Rice to really kick on because England lacks a tenacious box-to-box type player that does the dirty work. They have too many lads that are good in the final third but not good enough in our own half. Henderson too has another 2 tournaments in him considering his style of play and his age.

Obviously I am also omitting Grealish and Maddison here, they are top talents too but I see both of them playing as the most advanced of a midfield three (along with Foden). It is the two behind them that we really need a bit more talent.
 
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BigDunc9

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There is no denying England's attacking talent, but what about defense and midfield, aside from TAA?
I think that is a bit unfair on Henderson and Gomez considering they have been to back to back champions league finals along with two brilliant league campaigns in the past 3 years.