Re: World Cup 2010 - The Portugal Thread - Um sonho, uma ambição... Portugal campeão!
So fucking bad! Unbelievable! Expectations were not high, but after these last days and this display vs the Ivorians i must admit we are truly fucked! It is a shame this Queiroz crew display. A guy who worked and helped Ferguson all those years, managed to nurture a talent like Ronaldo and shaped into a world class footballer; shared the secrets of the winning Manchester United mentality and approach, cannot make our national team play to it´s strenghts at the very least!? This means a lot things; the ovious one is that the players do not respect this coach . When a good bunch of players underperforms this badly, this becomes evident. There is no respect for the tactics, the system, the strategy or ideas he has for the group. For us, "simple mortals", the obvious thing when a team plays with a creator like Deco, is to give him room to dictate play and tempo. We know he is perfect for this, even if he is far from his best. To do this, one must ensure the forwards push deep and wide when in possession, so the middle of pitch becomes less crowded and lines of pass present themselves up the pitch. What we saw was the opposite, tactically and strategically! No wingers or overlapping full-backs, nor a pair of strikers. Deco had no options to try his killer pass like this. To ensure total failure of the system, Danny and Ronaldo, kept making inside runs to come and pick the ball deep in our midfield from Meireles, Mendes and even Deco himself, instead of moving in the final third of the pitch, trying to confuse markers and ensure space in our midfield giving passing options and criteria to our players in that zone. This is not the players doing solely. It is the idea of a coach, and a very weak one.
