GunmaN1905

This is the biggest problem of this World Cup for people who want to go. Take your average football fans in their 20s, 30s and even 40s, they just want a clean bed and shower, minimum expenses, no time spend at the place except for sleeping. And there are barely any of those in Qatar, it's all luxury stuff. Match and plane tickets aren't the biggest problem, accomodation is.

But on the other hand, other than Neymar (when he's up for it) they don't have a single world beater, just a bunch of quality players. I trust Argentina's front three to deliver way more than Brazil's.

Yeah, but if one of the defense starters get injured, they're in big trouble. Should've added one more defender instead of Pedro.

Yeah, just wanted to check so you don't get mad if I think of something.

@Gizzy Did we have the prediction game last EURO, can't remember? Stuff like how many goals total will be scored, cards and so on over the entire tournament or phases of it?

National team football will always be different from club football. Talent doesn't mean much if the system isn't in place to use the talent well. Argentina being the best example. When they had overwhelming number of great players, they did nothing. Now they have just enough and with the system in place, they look better than ever. And there is obviously Messi. He's been on a decline for a couple of years now, but if you ask me, this is the only tournament he's cared about ever since 2018. He knows it's his last chance and I fully expect him to be on top of his game. Now or never. And when he's on top of his games, he's still by far the best player in the world. Also, Lautaro and Di Maria in current system work better with him than any of the previous strikers they had. France has too many question marks because of injures and winning two in a row just doesn't happen. Portugal and England should be top4 with Argentina and Brazil, but they've got horrible coaches who can't use the talent they have at their disposal. Brazil lacks a clinical striker.

Yeah, seems like the right side of the draw can get really easy relatively to the left side. I really expect us to beat Belgium because they've been really unconvincing and now Lukaku is also most likely out. Even if he does play, he'll be in his MUTD form. Then there's group D. Pogba and Kante are out, with Denmark being a great team. They outplayed France in Nations League and I think the same will happen in the World Cup. Which leads us to draw that looks easy on paper. Imo, Germany-Croatia, Portugal-Serbia and whoever progresses are all 50-50% matches if they happen, can go either way. Same goes for Spain-Brazil and Brazil-Argentina if it happens. Can't shake the feeling that Portugal should've been the favorite of the right side of the draw if they fired Santos on time. As for the groups, the only changes I can see happen are Poland-Mexico, Ecuador-Senegal, Uruguay-Ghana and Serbia-Switzerland-Cameroon triangle, which is the only great group, imo.

Is it that bad? I'd say that Croatia is definitely better now, we found a pretty much entire new backline and they've been rock solid in Nations League, while Belgium seems to be stuck with the old guard. As of now, Lukaku is in horrible shape. He physically looks like MUTD Lukaku and even if he's healthy for the World Cup, he won't be anywhere close to his peak level. KdB will have to carry the entire team. Morocco is in their usual shambles, fired the coach because he turned them into a team and kicked Ziyech out, who knows how they set up for the groups. They've got some quality, but nowhere close to Belgium or Croatia, so it would take some shambles for Belgium to get eliminated. Canada...can't see them do anything. Davies and David are quality, but a lot of their players are not up to World Cup standard and Croatian team will be plenty motivated to put as many as they can behind that disgusting scumbag in Canda's goal.

Argentina's play has improved drastically over the past few years and they're surely one of the top favorites. Don't just look at the names in the squad, they're playing as a team. If they get eliminated, it will surely be an all-time classic game, we won't see any more of those mid-tournament implosions. Brazil are up there with them, it's all about if Neymar can deliver, though. And they don't have as good of a striker as they should, because it's...you know, Brazil. European's heavyweights are held back by inadequate coaches, no other way around it. For me personally, France, Portugal and England have a ridiculous amount of talent to be playing the way they are. And no doubt turgid gameplan will be the end of all three on this world cup. Germany is a strange one, because we always expect them to deliver, but their talent in some positions is lacking. Still, Flick is probably the best coach in the tournament alongside Van Gaal and he will surely make them into a top contender. Werner isn't a top class striker, but his injury hurts them a lot, they've got no other options up front. Then there are Croatia, Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark in second tier. Quality teams, but all of them have their own issues and are missing something compared to top teams. But they can all get far if some things play out in their favor. That would be my top10. I honestly have no clue about African teams, hopefully at least one gets out of the group. Serbia and Switzerland are good, the rest of South Americans are kind of disappointing. Also, not sure if it's still true, but some days ago I read that Argentina is the only FA that sold out all their group stage tickets already. Those people deserve it after so many years, noone loves football like Argentinians.

Because when the opening game starts, he'll write on this day...

Pogba and Kante are both out for France, all but official. Can't see them getting far unless Mbappe and Benzema replicate their club form. Maignan being out is a massive loss considering Lloris has become a liability for the Spurs.

34 man squad as of now. I expect Kotarski, Labrović, Ćaleta-Car, Pongračić, Jakić Mišić, Brekalo, Čolak to be out for sure. That leaves us with 26. Sučić picked up an injury, idk who makes it if he doesn't. I'd take Jakić or Mišić, because Brozović has no replacement whatsoever. Vida surely won't play as he's the fifth choice, but he'll be on the list.

Since he's a non-factor for Inter, might aswell put it in here, because it concerns Belgium more. Lukaku got injured again, returned after two months, played 30 minutes over two games and now he's out. If he makes the WC, he'll be in horrible physical condition. Idk what they did at Chelsea, but he's looked worse than when he first arrived at Inter.

Idk if it's been mentioned before, but some of the kit selections really need to be fixed. For example, light-blue is way closer to white than blue. Have you ever seen Chelsea play in white kits at Etihad? They always play in blue. I'm managing Inter and the kits are licensed. This year's away kit is kind of light blue and white mix. But officially white. Every single away game against Napoli, Lazio and Manchester City (played them every season in CL), my team uses those light blue away kits against home team in light blue. And frankly, I can't see sh*t and it's incredibly frustrating. Been happening for years now. Instead of using the home kit with black short, socks and the top itself that's black and blue, I have to watch 20 players in identical kits run around.

I swear people mention this guy just because he had a few great games at EURO. Literally half a tournament wonder. Bonucci is also worse than Maguire these days. I wonder who even came up with that idea.

And the schedule itself is definitely messed up. I'll have streaks of 3 away games, then 3 home etc. Never happens irl. You play two in a row at home twice in the season, same for away.

I'm playing in Serie A and it's been happening. 33 teams have 3 matches played, but for some reason Milan has 5, with Feyenoord and Arsenal that played against them at 4. I also missed one week, with only 2 matches not being played and played one week earlier than everyone. And because of it I missed a league game, not sure what's going on. And yeah, all the matches are on Wednesdays, same kickoff time.

Is the scheduling of new CL format supposed to be all over the place? Because right now, some teams have 4 games played and some are at just two. Then there are league matches being played on the same day as CL matchdays. As in 6 fixtures played and 4 teams in CL not playing.

Iran should definitely get kicked out, but Ukraine lost on the pitch and European team shouldn't replace Iran.

Considering that there's so much player/agent interaction stuff added, I just can't believe I don't get a notification when the player I'm bidding for gets a new contract offer from his current club after my buyout clause bid is accepted. So I can improve my contract offer and compare it to how much the current club offered.

I hate to be that guy, but it's just mind-boggling how years upon years every single ME struggles with more or less the same thing...pinpoint passes over the defense. Long range pinpoint passes. Remember Modrić's assist from last year's CL game that was considerend as physics-defying? It happens every single game in current ME. Both for and against me. Drop the defensive line? Doesn't matter, the ball will drop just at the edge of the box for a perfect volley. Push higher up? Even the keeper will make a perfect kick to the forward. I know there's more to the pass than just passing+technique+vision, but this game just desperately needs some kind of passing range stat. Not even all the top class passers can make those trademark Pirlo passes, but in this game even CBs with questionable skills on the ball look like Pirlo. The entire point of high press is to make the opposition hoof it because they have no options, but in current ME that hoofball gets underdog teams way more goals than actually playing football would. Also, it feels like contesting the passer or the receiver plays no impact. Very few players in the world have the first touch to perfectly make the ball stick on long range passes with the defender on their back, but in the game that's not an issue. Neither is making the pass while being closely marked. And those long passes are always directly on the striker that has the perfect touch and scores with ease. You'll never get exploited by balls being sent behind your defense on the ground, by wingers exploiting your high press and beating slower defenders, just balls over the top. As for the passing itself, it's still way too accurate. And dispossessions are unrealistic. Most of the time the ball is won because the opponent is forced to make bad passes, you don't just take it from them and have full control right away. But in current ME everyone still has ridiculous pass completion percentage, with most dispossessions being mistakes that are considered horrible in real life. Defenders and midfielders dwelling on the ball for no reason and losing it, even top class ones. Other than that, ME feels way better. You can actually make plays through the middle, there's way more variety for the goals and player movement is actually good. Fixing the long pass accuracy would go a long way and give us the best ME in years, hopefully it's done come the full release.

Anyone managed to get wingbacks in 352 to work like they do irl? As in making them get all the way to the box and actually score goals. For example if the cross is coming from the right side, to have LWB be on the far post and be in position for a shot if it gets to him. Even with CWB-A and a player that has the preferred move to get forward, I've yet to even see a situation witch CWB getting all the way up into the box. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Am I crazy or there seem to be scheduling issues? Scehdule before the CL starts for all Serie A participants. In order: Inter, Napoli, Juventus, Milan. I'm playing with Inter and I only get to play 3 league games before the first CL matchday. Napoli plays 5, Juventus 4 and Milan 3. As you can see, teams are missing weekends for unknown reasons. There seems to be no pattern or reason for this. No Cup games for the opposition or anything. And irl it didn't happen.

To add some content, here's how some of the all-time (and not) so greats see the best XI before the tournament. Some questionable choices in there, to say the least.