I find it possible you may be overrating spain

anyway Germany a clear top 5 team in this, rest is variance anyway, gg. I do think competency at all positions is underrated, see Argentina.

So, which of those 3 + Schweiny was better than Spain's midfield (same+Xavi) in 2014?
Germany never has the best individual players.
However, football is a simples game, etc.

xavi and to a degree xabi alonso too no longer had the legs for it in 2014. i think the germans had the best starting 11 of anyone last time

Germans do well in Russia until it starts to snow

Solid

---

Also don't be shocked when Croatia win the group

Nigeria to advance confirmed.

you are not wrong

In other news, Felix "The ****" Zwayer, the referee who studied this slow motion and decided, "Nope! Everything fine here! No penalty!" will be on the VAR team for the upcoming LÖRLd Cup.

He's also been the linesman for Robert ****ing Hoyzer during the 2005 scandal.

LÖL

sergio romero injured during training and will miss out of wc. god damn it must suck to sit on the bench for 3 seasons and then get injured when you are needed.

some 31 year old with no caps called franco armani is apparently now the most likely argentina starting goalkeeper

what a disaster of a team

Goycochea GÖAT ÖAT

World Cup betting thread : https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/4.../#post53853267

Speaking of betting, bet the house against Belgium, overrated as **** and Martinez will field a bunch of lolplayers in the midfield/defense

Seems really stupid if Argentina don’t slot caballero in. No idea who the other guy is.

^^^

That’s a shame; rooting for England, Argentina and Belgium and Belgium seemed promising.

I went years thinking the first choice keeper Pumpido had actually severed his finger on the rings of the cross bar hence Goycochea got the spot. Turned out Pumpido broke his leg in the 2nd game allowing the GOAT to GOAT. What makes his Italia 90 performance all the better is that he hadn't played a game for 8 months prior.

Quick look at his Wiki and he didn't have a particularly great career after that. Would have moved for a huge sum off the back of it nowadays.

Yup,

he almost had Brehme's pen, too.

Is Mertens a starter?

Pretty sure he is yes.

"Front" 6 is likely going to be witsel-fellaini-kdb-hazard-mertens-ROMELU

This is assuming 4 defenders although martinez always had a hard on for 3-5-2 and has been using it for the latest friendlies . Some of the wing-backs he has used includes kdb, chadli, carrasco

He doesn't play Dembele? Lol.

yes i can see why someone would prefer witsel-fellaini over dembele-nainggolan midfield jfc aidstinez

tbf when playing 3 at the back he goes with a midfield 2 of KdB and Witsel with Hazard Mertens and Lukaku up top. So, Dembele and Nainggolan can not get in that mid 2.
At least that's the way I'm expecting them to play at the World Cup.

It's hard to say because of all the friendlies and games against Gibraltar, Estonia and other games with qualification wrapped up, he's been switching a lot but the latest friendlies where he tried to field his best team was always a 352 with carrasco on the left wing and meunier on the right wing.

Questions remains will it be 352 dropping mertens or 343 dropping one of the midfielders.

If you look at his last serious lineups he has played:

-343 (vs Greece) with witsel/dembele (fellaini was injured) and kdb/mertens (hazard was injured)

-352 (vs Mexico) with chadli lwb, witsel/tielemans and mertens dropped

-343 (vs saudi arabia) with carrasco lwb, mertens in and kdb/witsel in.

Only thing i know for certain is Witsel has got priority over both dembele/radja

I think it will be the last option. I believe it's the best one defensively as well because with 4 at the back, the full backs are just meh.
- It gets the best out of Meunier.
- Toby and Vert have that certain freedom to go forward.
- It protects Kompany.

The one thing I don't like in that 3-4-3 is Carrasco, but from what I saw this year, Jordan Lukaku should be more than ready to play LWB for Belgium.

One thing I really hope to see is Belgium down 0-1 to Tunisia with 10min to go and all that's left is KdB putting crosses to Michy + Benteke + Fellaini.