How come the Dutch have such a bad generation since third place in WC2014 and second in 2010? Last WC they didn’t qualify, now on this list apart from good defense (even if arguably most of them are far from their peak) there’s not a single stand out player. Goalkeepers completely anonymous, what happened with Dutch attackers too if Depay is probably the best one that had in last 10 years? I have no emotional attachment to this team other than being a huge fan in late 90s/early 00s as a kid but it’s weird to see a footballing powerhouse turning so average.
World Cup Squads 2022
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Frenkie de Jong is most definitely a standout player. Especially in our national team. Our attack is wank indeed.
Thiagos career is a disappointment
Thiago probably Spain’s best midfielder, Enrique does pick some odd squads.
The defence is strong though - Van Dijk, De Ligt, De Vrij, Ake, Timber etc. Probably as good a Dutch defence on paper as ever. De Jong is great in midfield and then the rest is just meh. Top heavy towards defensive players.
Senegal Final Squad
Senegal just dropped their squad. Sadio Mané makes it.
Senegal:
Goalkeepers: Seny Dieng (Queens Park Rangers), Alfred Gomis (Stade Rennes), Eduoard Mendy (Chelsea)
Defenders: Fode Ballo Toure (AC Milan), Pape Abou Cisse (Olympiakos), Abdou Diallo (RB Leipzig), Ismail Jakobs (Monaco), Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea), Formose Mendy (Amiens), Youssouf Sabaly (Real Betis)
Midfielders: Pathe Ismael Ciss (Rayo Vallecano) Krepin Diatta (Monaco), Idrissa Gana Gueye (Everton), Pape Gueye (Olympique Marseille), Cheikhou Kouyate (Nottingham Forest), Mamdou Loum (Reading), Nampalys Mendy (Leicester City), Moustapha Name (Pafos FC), Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham Hotspur)
Forwards: Boulaye Dia (Salernitana), Famara Diedhiou (Alanyaspor), Bamba Dieng (Olympique Marseille), Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal), Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich), Ilimane Ndiaye (Sheffield United), Ismaila Sarr (Watford).
Senegal:
Goalkeepers: Seny Dieng (Queens Park Rangers), Alfred Gomis (Stade Rennes), Eduoard Mendy (Chelsea)
Defenders: Fode Ballo Toure (AC Milan), Pape Abou Cisse (Olympiakos), Abdou Diallo (RB Leipzig), Ismail Jakobs (Monaco), Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea), Formose Mendy (Amiens), Youssouf Sabaly (Real Betis)
Midfielders: Pathe Ismael Ciss (Rayo Vallecano) Krepin Diatta (Monaco), Idrissa Gana Gueye (Everton), Pape Gueye (Olympique Marseille), Cheikhou Kouyate (Nottingham Forest), Mamdou Loum (Reading), Nampalys Mendy (Leicester City), Moustapha Name (Pafos FC), Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham Hotspur)
Forwards: Boulaye Dia (Salernitana), Famara Diedhiou (Alanyaspor), Bamba Dieng (Olympique Marseille), Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal), Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich), Ilimane Ndiaye (Sheffield United), Ismaila Sarr (Watford).
Portugal have potential but that will be destroyed by Ronaldo's ego and pressure to play him
I think it also has to do with a lot of talented Dutch players leaving their clubs for rich foreign clubs and not making it there. The previous good attackers all played in our Eredivisie and became stars in the league (Robben, Sneijder, van der Vaart) or atleast played quite a few games for their Dutch team (van Persie).
And just bad luck i guess, we have defenders this time. When we reached the final we had a defense of very average players like Heitinga, Ooijer and Mathijssen and world class attackers. Now we have some very good defenders in van Dijk, de Vrij, de Ligt and Timber but very average attacking options.
Vangle saying we have a big chance to win the world cup. Gotta love the mental git.
It was rumoured that he was going to take Balde on the left but in the end Alba will go, meh. The doubt in defence apart from that is Eric or Pau.
The conservative option is with Busquets and Rodri, Pedri, Gavi and maybe Sarabia/Olmo and the emergency option, without a central midfielder and with Ansu Fati, Nico Williams or even both together. If Ansu or Nico come good it changes our scenario a lot.
Yeah between Felix Leao Bernardo and Bruno Portugal have something that could potentially be a lot of fun but alas
Martinez' stubborness. He's hoping he'll have a tournament like Kompany or Vermaelen who barely played aswell due to injuries but went on to have great tournaments in the past conveniently forgetting that those are defenders who didn't have to rely on their pace to deliver. To top it off he's probably gonna start him for most of the games over Trossard which is a disgrace given the form of both.How the feck does Hazard get called up to the NT?
He's such a nutjob
This is a very good point.
I agree with him! Been saying it for a while, but my top 3 are Germany, Spain and Netherlands. Argentina possibly in there as well though I havent seen them enough. The others with possibly better squads play shit on a stick sufferball and have far worse managers who will rely on luck to get past these (which might happen, cup competition after all, but I'm confident that they won't outplay the 3 best managers in the tournament).
Their squad this year is far better than it was in 2014. 2014 Robben was world class but the rest of the squad was beyond average. There's a very good team there who suits eachother now, Frenkie is world class in midfield for them and plays like it, and then Memphis is actually really consistent for his country. Gakpo as well making the step up.
Spain is such a weird nation, Fabian Ruiz and Thiago could both be starters in a lot of national teams.
Bit harsh on Van Persie and Sneijder, but on the whole I agree. We don't have the extreme dross like De Guzman, Martins Indi and Janmaat.
Hummels was not part of the squad in South Africa. The only ones left from 2010 are Müller and Neuer - from 2014 it is additionally Götze and Ginter.
Thiago has never done anything for Spain. It's a crappy version of Tiki Taka. He already has enough players to control the ball.
I agree with Fabián, he could have called him (instead of Koke) but I imagine he's looking for different profiles.
Yes, so what? We were talking about last World Cups and that Hummels didn't expect 2018 being his second and last participation.
Argentina Final Squad
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It's a joke about surnames, japanese surnames sounds like japanese products (cause they tend to use the surname of the creator/developer as a brand name).
Nothing crazy.
Seen so many jokes about german and italian surnames here, not much different.
It's not just the places but also mixes it up with relatives, trades of their parents, etc.
And then you have people wondering why we would go through brickwalls. That's what we bring onto a pitch with us, always.
Don't even remember Sneijder playing at all in 2014? 2010 yeah he was world class. RVP in the 2014 world cup was pretty woeful apart from the 1 header
Also the important equaliser against Australia. Though honestly, apart from the amazing Spain game, we werent that good in 2014 on the whole. Robben's ridiculous form masked it mostly. We very nearly went out against Mexico, then didn't manage to score for 240 minutes (though we also didn't concede). The 3rd place game is irrelevant, so I'm not counting that win against a mentally shattered Brazil who just came off their worst defeat of all time. Sneijder was a bit past it, but still an important creative force.
God how I miss Robben in our national team though. He was so fecking good. I can endlessly watch his goals against Spain, the first were Pique and Ramos tumble over eachother and the second were he utterly murders Ramos over a 60 meter sprint.
Argentina have maybe the 5th best squad on paper but the best team chemistry of any big nation imo, let’s see how far that takes them.
The key is that the spine of the team (Emi Martinez, Romero, Lisandro) and the midfield (De Paul, Paredes, Enzo Fernandez, Mac Allister) are both in way better now than in 2018.
They’ve always had good attackers.
Is he though? What's he done to earn that? Far ahead of LVG, Deschamps, Scaloni, Flick and home bringer of football Southgate?
That's debatable and could make a lot of controversies.
LVG, Enrique, Deschamps and Flick are the four best coaches at this tournament. There isn’t a clear and obvious best among them.
Scaloni is completely unproven at club level so not him.
Scaloni is completely unproven at club level so not him.
It's LvG, Flick and Enrique for me as the top 3. 3 (deserved) CL winners and while LvG isn't cut out for club football, he's still a top coach for international football and his issues at club level just don't come up at national level. Enrique and Flick are the only 2 who would get truly top club jobs IMO.
Deschamps is a sufferball coach and that's it. These days that will more often than not come up short. Same reason why I don't rate Tite.
Not enough experience with Scaloni to say how he ranks. Can't be at the top though with 0 club experience.
Get Deschamps out of there
Forgot about Flick although I rate Enrique higher. The other names you mentioned aren't close.
Couldn't agree more, you're totally right.
There isn't anyone clear and all of them have different approaches of tactics( Flick and Enrique are totally different too).
Le Colso is a huge miss.
Id say there's the 3 and then Deschamps is in the bucket of negative managers who are a bit out of place in modern football. It's like saying Mourinho is still an elite manager. But generally having 3 elite managers who know how to implement dominant, attacking football in charge of one of the best squads makes them the 3 favourites for me.
No - it was about players with the fourth participation.