Will Messi GOAT it or will Belgium Scrote it?
We'll find out soon.
AND IT'S LIVE!!!!
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Will Messi GOAT it or will Belgium Scrote it?
We'll find out soon.
AND IT'S LIVE!!!!
ITV1's programme on now.
Dixon, Cannavaro and Strachan beachside.
No shorts for Chiles today, somebody must have had a work.
Can't Chiles complete a fucking er a fucking sentence without the er the autocue?
James Rodriguez that famous defender. :bow:
Chiles. :haha:
Go home.
Argentina: Romero; Zabaleta, Demichelis, Garay, Basanta; Biglia, Mascherano; Di Maria, Lavezzi, Messi; Higuain.
Belgium: Courtois; Alderweireld, Van Buyten, Kompany, Vertonghen; Witsel, Fellaini; De Bruyne, Mirallas, Hazard; Origi.
Gago finally dropped. Finally might see some football from the Argentinians.
Mascherano is still there so possibly not.
We get to see Arsenal legend Biglia though. :cloud9:
Hazard destroying expensive equipment. Chav.
Drury on Messi: The goal the world wanted. :lol:
Sure they were ecstatic in Brazil seeing that goal.
FIFA's anti-discrimination day. :haha:
Hearing Kompany speak in anything other than English sounds a bit odd.
Biglia :bow:. GW pressure to start him has paid off.
Argentina will pub their way to an extra time victory again, I think. Although I hope Belgium attack them from the off to see if they wilt.
They can blame Demichelis for any Kompany mistake today too. A negative influence by merely being on the same pitch as the great Vincent.
I saw Hansen wrote an article eulogising over Kompany again, couldn't bring myself to read it tbf.
Mascherono's fall :haha::haha:
If Belgium are just going to lump it to Fellaini all day then please go home now.
Messi. :bow:
Opened a huge amount of space for Lavezzi there; he promptly wasted it though.
Gooner in the crowd. :bow:
Argentina 1-0 Belgium, HIGUAIN!!!!
Kompany. :haha:
Kompany trying to be the all-conquering hero, pubbed it to Messi. Fellaini trying to get near Messi. :haha:
Demichelis :doh:.
Mertesacker too slow.
Koscielny showing a lack of leadership again.
And where was Ozil on the cover?
Biglia is a bit shit.
De Bruyne. :doh:
What was that?
Archie/Hansen :haha:.Quote:
Archie, Aberystwyth: Vincent Kompany has got the experience to match the skill of the Argentina front line.
Maybe he should have used some footballing technique and his brain to not fuck up, rather than some nebulous "experience".
:(Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Technically a good cross from Vertonghen, no sod making a run to the ball though.
That's not to say we shouldn't sign him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master Splinter
Also, after Kompany's pubbery, I can read that Hansen article after all.
Fellaini is a Torres-esque joke now.
He is unbelievably bad. Mental to play him with Di Maria, Messi and Lavezzi playing around him.
Di Maria with the tekkers flick, drifts away from Higuain.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...defenders.htmlQuote:
If I was a Premier League manager with Ł100 million to spend on the best two central defenders at this World Cup, I would probably spend it all on Vincent Kompany.
That is not because the Manchester City captain has been so far ahead of the rest for Belgium, but merely because this tournament has highlighted the dearth of top-class centre-halves in the game right now.
Kompany has only played two games so far in Brazil, against Algeria and Russia, so he obviously has not been tested against the very best, but he is probably the outstanding defender from what I have seen at this World Cup.
There are so many facets to playing at centre-half. It is all about positioning – that is the absolute number one criterion – but you have to be able to read the game, distribute the ball and tackle.
When Kompany has done the defensive side of his job, he can also pass the ball from A to B and that is definitely a bonus quality in a good centre-half.
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But while Kompany can do everything well, the rest of the central defenders in Brazil all have shortcomings and frailties in their game which risk being exposed now that we are in the knockout stages of the competition. Brazil have big problems at the back and I can see the warning signs for Germany, because Per Mertesacker and Mats Hummels are so slow that top teams with pace on the counter-attack will exploit their obvious weaknesses.
There are numerous reasons for the absence of solid defending and outstanding centre-halves in Brazil. Coaches are embracing more offensive tactics, which automatically put more pressure on opposing defences, and there are also no genuine holding midfield players in the competition. You could also argue that the game is just not producing great centre-halves any more - players of the ilk of Franco Baresi, Nemanja Vidic and, in England, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.
That is why City are so fortunate to have Kompany, because there really are very few world-class defenders around at the moment.
The easiest thing in the world as a defender is to hold a line across the 18-yard box and challenge the opposition to break you down. One of the best exercises to fine tune this tactic is to have seven or eight attackers attempting to get through a back four and goalkeeper on the training ground. As soon as the defenders win the ball, you give it back to the attackers, but you cannot believe how hard it is to score if the back four are organised and able to hold their positions.
If you do not have the ball, you get tired very easily, so it teaches you to get in position and hold a disciplined line. And if you are a team who have the advantage of an effective holding midfielder in front of the back four, somebody such as Claude Makélélé, then it really is time to get the cigars out.
Makélélé was the best there has ever been in that role. He was totally destructive and his longest pass was probably no further than two yards, but it was all about discipline and he was the master at it. Germany have deployed Philipp Lahm in that position, but he was an attacking full-back, so he is never going to be able to destroy as effectively as Makélélé.
So there are no natural holding midfielders and teams are not sitting back and holding the 18-yard line in this World Cup. Too many are playing too far forward and being exposed when opponents break.
This is where Germany risk being caught out, because Mertesacker and Hummels can be turned by teams prepared to get behind them.
If you wanted a defender to hold the 18-yard line, I would pick Mertesacker in my top three all day long.
But if you are holding a line further up the field, then he would not be in my top 300. The same applies to Hummels, who is good in the air, but cannot run.
Belgium may have to rely heavily on Kompany because Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Vermaelen have looked so unreliable at centre-half for Tottenham and Arsenal respectively that they are now used as full-backs, so what does that tell you?
In mitigation for many defenders at this World Cup, it is not straightforward to go from playing in a back four at your club to operating in the same formation for your country.
The primary reason I struggled for Scotland was because I had to adjust to a totally different way of playing on the international stage than I was accustomed to with Liverpool.
At Liverpool, we played as high up the field as you have ever seen, but with Scotland, the requirement was to defend much deeper.
It meant that, while everybody else was dropping back, I was the one caught up field because it was an alien concept for me to play so deep.
The personnel changes are also an issue because you find yourself playing with different guys from those you build a partnership with at your club.
Thiago Silva is regarded as one of the best defenders in the world, but the Paris St-Germain centre-half has been unconvincing for Brazil – especially in the opening stages against Cameroon – but it cannot help him playing alongside David Luiz.
At Chelsea, Luiz always looked like a mistake waiting to happen. He has a fantastic range of passing and his ability to switch the game from back to front is out of this world, but the first priority of a centre-half is to keep goals out and he has never convinced me.
He seems to dance around the pitch, he cannot tackle and his positioning is very poor. He dallies on the ball and gives the opponents too many chances.
I cannot believe that PSG have paid so much money for Luiz, but that transfer just goes to show that the lack of centre-halves is a problem that is not going to go away anytime soon.
And the problem is as big for England as for everybody else. John Stones has a chance, but we said the same about Phil Jones and Chris Smalling and we are still waiting for them to live up to the hype.
There is no obvious 100-cap man coming through the ranks, but you could probably say the same for every competing nation in Brazil.
EVERY article of his devolves in to 'what happened at Liverpool'.
De Bruyne shoots from distance, Romero Hollywoods it away.
Kompany with some heroic defending.
:pray:Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Anyone but Arteta
I can guess that it's quite simply a Kompany manifesto blindly praising him for being Kompany rather than an analysis of his actual performances without even a modicum of research getting in the way of the pre-formed glowing opinion and narrative that he is indeed without compare on the world stage.Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Good block from Kompany to deny Di Maria.
Messi. :bow:
Messi GOATing and scroting within a few seconds of each other.
Di Maria off injured, Perez coming on.
Ridiculous control from Messi.
Fellaini. :haha:
Used like a training cone.
Messi clears it from the freekick, should be just going for target there tbf.
Header from Mirallas, not far wide!
Witsel takes one in the face.
Argentina 1-0 Belgium, HT. Fellaini trying to keep up with talented footballers the most entertaining point of this game - mostly the whole half really.