Euro 2020 (in 2021)

wok said:
Holland going into the tournament in an ultra-attacking 5-3-2 formation :lol: Don't have high expectations for Oranje this time around

I will be supporting Scotland as well, DEFINITELY NOT England :embarrassed:
Click to expand...

Holland do have some good players...but an absolutely clueless manager. Much like England. :embarrassed:
 
Dexter Inferno said:
:lol:

Definitely a bit of a drop in quality without van Dijk and de Ligt, for sure. :embarrassed:
Should get through the group quite easily, but can't see the Dutch going very far really.
Click to expand...
With van Aanholt and Blind it was quite good. The double sub wrecked what was up to that point a solid (by Dutch standards :embarrassed: ) defense. But yeah, against offensively strong teams they're going to suffer.

I was still quite surprised by how well they played today though. Yes, Ukraine was dreadful, but the pressure and control was really nice. Up until the 10 minutes of lazy nonsense.

I do hope that the whining about 5-3-2 being "too defensive" is finally going to stop now though. I really don't understand how people can get so upset that their precious 4-3-3 looks slightly different on paper but works out being just as aggressive but with a different wing setup.
 
ColourofFire said:
With van Aanholt and Blind it was quite good. The double sub wrecked what was up to that point a solid (by Dutch standards :embarrassed: ) defense. But yeah, against offensively strong teams they're going to suffer.

I was still quite surprised by how well they played today though. Yes, Ukraine was dreadful, but the pressure and control was really nice. Up until the 10 minutes of lazy nonsense.
Click to expand...

A great game to watch for a neutral though.

We're playing the Netherlands in the WC qualifiers this autumn so hopefully the Dutch defending isn't a whole lot better by then. :embarrassed:
 
Today Sweden will meet Spain. Without Zlatan, who has some problem with a knee, or something. It will probably be an easy match, for Spain.
 
WilmerTheWhite said:
Today Sweden will meet Spain. Without Zlatan, who has some problem with a knee, or something. It will probably be an easy match, for Spain.
Click to expand...

Spain seems to have returned to their pre-2008 mess of being an unorganised bunch. They look quite a lot weaker than for example Italy, Belgium and France.
 
Yeah, Spain hasn't been particularly good for a while now. In a bit of a generation shift at the moment, and almost all of the big players they've relied on previously are gone.
Biscuits, eh sorry...Busquets is still out with Covid as well I think, which is a big loss for them.
That game could be a lot more even than a lot of people think.
 
Dexter Inferno said:
Yeah, Spain hasn't been particularly good for a while now. In a bit of a generation shift at the moment, and almost all of the big players they've relied on previously are gone.
Biscuits, eh sorry...Busquets is still out with Covid as well I think, which is a big loss for them.
That game could be a lot more even than a lot of people think.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a generation shift, I think it's mostly, they weren't good, then they had an amazing generation that could play together really well, now they're back to what they were before. They'll always have some amazing players, but somehow it's super hard to get it all to work in the national team.
 
ColourofFire said:
I don't think it's a generation shift, I think it's mostly, they weren't good, then they had an amazing generation that could play together really well, now they're back to what they were before. They'll always have some amazing players, but somehow it's super hard to get it all to work in the national team.
Click to expand...

The generation shift isn't necessarily the main reason they've dropped in quality, but nonetheless they are having one (pretty much only Alba and Busquets left from their golden generation) - and the majority of players they have now are nowhere near the quality of the 2010/12 squads. That said, replacing guys like Alonso, Xavi, Silva and Iniesta is near impossible. Now, guys like Adama Traore make their squad, and Morata is their first choice striker...and a huge part of their squad don't play together all year at Barca or Real these days.
Not sure how good a coach Enrique is really either. The gig he had at Barca for a while was easy in comparison, given the system and players he had available there at the time.
He's largely failed elsewhere over the years, and international football is another beast entirely to club football.
 
Dexter Inferno said:
The generation shift isn't necessarily the main reason they've dropped in quality, but nonetheless they are having one (pretty much only Alba and Busquets left from their golden generation) - and the majority of players they have now are nowhere near the quality of the 2010/12 squads. That said, replacing guys like Alonso, Xavi, Silva and Iniesta is near impossible. Now, guys like Adama Traore make their squad, and Morata is their first choice striker...and a huge part of their squad don't play together all year at Barca or Real these days.
Not sure how good a coach Enrique is really either. The gig he had at Barca for a while was easy in comparison, given the system and players he had available there at the time.
He's largely failed elsewhere over the years, and international football is another beast entirely to club football.
Click to expand...

What I meant more is that usually if people talk about a generation shift, they mean that the previous generation is phasing out but a new one is coming up that's going to take their places, but needs some time. I have to say, I don't really see that happening in Spain's case. They've been losing really good players for a quite a while now, but there's no real replacement in sight. The huge majority of players that give the big Spanish clubs some flavour are foreigners, they have a few good guys like Thiago playing in the premier league, but that's about it. I think they won't find a coach better than Enrique, cause no one really good would want to touch the huge burn risk that comes with the difference between quality and expectation. I just expect them to slip back into their old role of being a tough opponent, but not a title contender (or actually, they've already slipped back into that).
 
The Dutch defense isn't much but dayummmm Scotland looks like it would be better off just playing 10 midfielders/strikers and try to outscore the opposition without bothering with defending :embarrassed:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top