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Portugal - Euro 2016


Baptista_8

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Who would you have called up ahead of those? Nani is only 29. There are good youngsters in the squad still - Andre Gomes, Renato Sanches, Danilo, Carvalho, Rafa Silva.

You are completely correct about Nani's age, but he isn't the player anymore he once was. I always like to see a good mixture of some experience and a lot of young talent but this is maybe just personal. I would have liked to see for a example someone like Joao Cancelo in the squad, or maybe Goncalo Guedes who had a pretty decent season at Benfica as far as I know. Bruno Fernandes also did good at Udinese and Diogo Jota had a great year at Paços. Also a pity of course that Bernardo Silva got injured.

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The squad weaknesses are the lack of a decent striker and the defensive difficulties of the 4 fullbacks (all 4 started out as wingers). 12 changes from the WC2014 squad.

Probable line-up (strikerless 4-4-2 Diamond):

Rui Patrício

Vieirinha

Pepe

R. Carvalho

Eliseu

W. Carvalho

Danilo/André Gomes

J. Moutinho

João Mário

Nani

C. Ronaldo

The only doubt is in midfield, between Carvalho, Danilo and André Gomes, one of those three will sit out.

Names such as Ricardo Carvalho, Bruno Alves, Nani, Eder, Eliseu, really?

They are the best available. Maybe not Éder, but not much to choose from. He will only play in desperate situations anyway, when a big guy upfront can be useful.

What happened to Andre Andre and Ruben Neves though?

André André was intermittently injured for the most part of 2016 and his form has dropped significantly from last year.

Rúben Neves lost out to Danilo, just no room for him really. Will go to the Olympics.

The midfield is actually very strong, lots of good players left out. Tiago was out for a few months injured, otherwise would 100% make it ahead of R. Sanches. Guys like Veloso and Pizzi also left out.

Where is Bernardo Silva?

Unfortunately got injured last week. Coentrão and Danny also miss out because of injuries.

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I still thought Eliseu and Vierinha were wingers until recently :D

I thought Fonte might have had a chance at starting over Carvalho.

Doesn't Daniel Carrico get a look in?

It will be Pepe/Carvalho guaranteed unless not fit.

Carriço is around 6th or 7th choice for CB, behind Neto at least. In midfield has no chance.

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Who's Andre Andre? Still think Neves is highly rated, all I'm going off is the January FM update though in which he got a nice boost.

Andre Andre is also a Porto midfielder. There were highlights of goals of him on reddit earlier in the season. Maybe he tailed off as well? Somebody from Portugal could give me a review on him? Only remember his name because his actual name is that :D

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Andre Andre is also a Porto midfielder. There were highlights of goals of him on reddit earlier in the season. Maybe he tailed off as well? Somebody from Portugal could give me a review on him? Only remember his name because his actual name is that :D

FaceCrusher already answered you above.

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i would never choose William Carvalho as starter, Danilo Pereira is much better at the moment, then Moutinho and João Mario in the midfield

This would be my choice of lineup out of the 23 men

Patricio

Guerreiro

Vieirinha

Pepe

Carvalho

Danilo Pereira

Moutinho

João Mario

Quaresma/Rafa

Nani

Ronaldo

such a shame Bernardo and Coentrão picked injuries :(

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Andre Gomes looks class when I've seen him though?

I assume you've seen him at Valencia, because he always plays poorly for Portugal, ever since the U-21s.

I don't think the the team/style suits him much. But has a good chance to make the XI now that Bernardo Silva and Danny are missing.

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André Gomes had a really poor season at Valencia. He's a technique gifted midfielder but weak mental traits, not to mention that he is one of the most inconsistant players i ever seen. I truly hated him at Benfica.

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The squad weaknesses are the lack of a decent striker and the defensive difficulties of the 4 fullbacks (all 4 started out as wingers). 12 changes from the WC2014 squad.

Ehm, Portugal have the best striker at EURO 2016.

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I think we have a much better squad than people are making it to be, but there are some clear weaknesses, and our football just hasn't quite gelled yet in all of Fernando Santos' era, despite him having the right idea with a strikerless formation (due to the utter lack of strikers and surplus of talented midfielders). I think making it to the quarter-finals sounds realistic, maybe a semi-final if the draw's really kind, but if we come across Germany/Spain/France/Belgium/England in the last 16 that should probably be it.

João Mário is the one player that's going to become a star this Summer. From that bunch of midfielders he's got the best combination of talent and current form, with William Carvalho far from his best, Renato Sanches starting to tail off a bit despite having earned a massive money move to Bayern being unknown just a year ago, Moutinho and André Gomes probably not at their 100% best neither; and Adrien, Danilo not fantastically special despite both having come off the back of very good seasons.

It's still hard to feel truly excited about this side, because the new talents are starting to come good but aren't fully ready yet, Ronaldo doesn't quite fit them neither and they've probably arrived too late to support him at his best, and we are also going to have to rely on some other aging or average players for other positions - we are now finally seeing the result of about a decade of generations of players that weren't properly developed - pretty much everyone aged 24-30 in this side is poo. Thankfully this trend has clearly started to turn now and Portugal is starting to look like a factory of talents again.

It's also a massive shame to see Bernardo Silva miss out, as I think he's one of the biggest gems; Coentrão's recurring injuries are quite annoying as well as he is the one player from those crap years that came out properly gifted and capable of occasionally playing at a top class level, but doesn't seem to be very lucky in his career.

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I think we have a much better squad than people are making it to be, but there are some clear weaknesses, and our football just hasn't quite gelled yet in all of Fernando Santos' era, despite him having the right idea with a strikerless formation (due to the utter lack of strikers and surplus of talented midfielders). I think making it to the quarter-finals sounds realistic, maybe a semi-final if the draw's really kind, but if we come across Germany/Spain/France/Belgium/England in the last 16 that should probably be it.

João Mário is the one player that's going to become a star this Summer. From that bunch of midfielders he's got the best combination of talent and current form, with William Carvalho far from his best, Renato Sanches starting to tail off a bit despite having earned a massive money move to Bayern being unknown just a year ago, Moutinho and André Gomes probably not at their 100% best neither; and Adrien, Danilo not fantastically special despite both having come off the back of very good seasons.

It's still hard to feel truly excited about this side, because the new talents are starting to come good but aren't fully ready yet, Ronaldo doesn't quite fit them neither and they've probably arrived too late to support him at his best, and we are also going to have to rely on some other aging or average players for other positions - we are now finally seeing the result of about a decade of generations of players that weren't properly developed - pretty much everyone aged 24-30 in this side is poo. Thankfully this trend has clearly started to turn now and Portugal is starting to look like a factory of talents again.

It's also a massive shame to see Bernardo Silva miss out, as I think he's one of the biggest gems; Coentrão's recurring injuries are quite annoying as well as he is the one player from those crap years that came out properly gifted and capable of occasionally playing at a top class level, but doesn't seem to be very lucky in his career.

I agree with most of your analysis, except about Danilo, I think he is fantastic.

Also, that "poo" 24-30 age group includes Rui Patrício, Danilo, Moutinho, W. Carvalho and Nani, so maybe not that poo. But I get what you mean, they could have been more. Scolari completely ignored the youth teams set-up during his time.

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Portugal beat Norway 3-0 on a Friendly match today, goals by Quaresma (his trademark goal) Raphael Guerreiro (superb free kick) and Eder (tap in)

[video=youtube;jC5UkUyhjrQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5UkUyhjrQ

[video=youtube;-eMlHFqZCDE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eMlHFqZCDE

[video=youtube;jfC6lhiaVe4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfC6lhiaVe4

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I agree with most of your analysis, except about Danilo, I think he is fantastic.

Also, that "poo" 24-30 age group includes Rui Patrício, Danilo, Moutinho, W. Carvalho and Nani, so maybe not that poo. But I get what you mean, they could have been more. Scolari completely ignored the youth teams set-up during his time.

I didn't realise Danilo and William were 24 already.

I'm not a completely converted fan of Danilo. I think he has improved dramatically but still is a old-school "defend is the first priority" type of midfielder which I don't like as I don't think his playmaking is anything special, and I still find his positioning slightly suspect. He reminds me of Fernando in his Porto days except not as good. And Fernando didn't exactly take the Premiership by storm...

Decent performance today vs Norway, things seem to be slowly gelling although Norway are hardly a good measure of opposition. Interestingly I think Éder is starting to look less crap upfront. He comes on the back of a good half of the season with Lille, and I thought his goal despite being a tap-in was a pretty well-timed movement, which is probably the first time I've seen him do anything like that for the national team. I wonder how much better he'd be if he was playing relaxed; and not having been turned into the national clown/target for jokes with his poor games in the past and lack of goals. I think half the problem with him is purely mental/lack of confidence.

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What you are saying about Danilo is William Carvalho's definition.

Danilo is way better technically and better going forward. (very good runs)

Danilo at Maritimo in 2014/15 played as playmaker all the second half of the season. He has a pretty decent vision, not even remotely close of Fernando's style.

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I don't agree at all and find William much better technically, he just can't be arsed to run and put a serious effort in. It's really quite bizarre, I realise you don't need to play on headless chicken mode to be effective (in fact I prefer players that know when to run and when not to), but he's the other way around, it's like he's complacent 100% of the time every match. Maybe it's just his relaxed personality but it's costing him and the team, with and without ball.

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Oh believe me, Danilo is very good technically for a defensive midfielder, much better than William. On the other hand William seems to have a better long passing accuracy, but almost never risks doing such kind of passes. Funny thing that his short passing is worse than long passing. Danilo has better short passing percentages.

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Danilo is miles ahead of Fernando with the ball. Personally I can't even compare the two, so big is the difference. Fernando was better without the ball, but then again without the ball Fernando is pretty much better than anyone. With the ball he's useless.

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Pepe 100% certain

Carvalho 80%, Fonte may start instead of him but Carvalho did very well against England and I think got the place

Bruno Alves I think is 4th choice. Shouldn't even be in the top 5 or 6 choices tbh.

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Could Quarema start now? Give us your predicted XI noikeee...

Rui Patricio

Raphael Guerreiro

Vieirinha

Pepe

Ricardo Carvalho/José Fonte

Danilo Pereira

João Moutinho

André Gomes/Renato Sanches/Adrien (toughest one to know, but i'd say Gomes vs lower teams, Sanches when Portugal losing, and Adrien vs tougher opponents)

Quaresma

João Mário

Ronaldo

Nani has been horrible during friendlies and might have lost his position.

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--------Quaresma-------Ronaldo---------------------

André Gomes---Moutinho---Danilo----João Mário

Guerreiro---Pepe---Ricardo Carvalho---Vieirinha

-------------------Patrício-----------------------------

This is what I'm expecting. Likely Eliseu in for Guerreiro in the tougher matches. Not so sure Moutinho is hanging on to that midfield spot neither, he's not on good form. Adrien would be first in line to replace him.

I think André Gomes isn't going out of the starting 11, but Fernando Santos has chopped and changed a lot and everything is possible.

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I was just thinking I hope he goes to the MLS at some point in the future, US "soccer" to catch on needs someone that can do some absurd crap and be an entertainer like him, not hardworking dull players like Lampard or Robbie Keane.

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