Portugal’s players are good enough, is the coach?
Line-up v Cape Verde
In theory, Portugal playing Cape Verde just before the World Cup was a decent idea. They’ve struggled to score throughout the past two years, so how about a morale-boosting thrashing of a former colony to get the goals flowing?
That was the idea, anyway. An embarrassing 0-0 draw was the actual outcome, with Portugal demonstrating precisely why they struggled to qualify for this tournament in the first place. They dominated, as you would expect, but constantly got into the final third and then seemed to run out of ideas.
Defending is not the problem. Nine clean sheets in the twelve qualifying matches demonstrates a solid, resilient side, helped by the surprise use of Real Madrid centre-back Pepe in a holding role. (He has not played a game since December after suffering cruciate ligament damage in a match away to Valencia, but appears to have returned to fitness in perfect time for the World Cup.)
Problems scoring goals
Further forward, though, they struggled, with three 0-0 draws taking them to the brink of elimination. Of course, they do possess the most expensive footballer in history, but Cristiano Ronaldo has struggled for international form in recent seasons – he hasn’t scored in a competitive game since Euro 2008. Being the main playmaker, main goalscorer and captain, Ronaldo playing below-par is simply not something Portugal can cope with.
Many believe he is playing in the wrong position. Portugal have had the same problem for what seems like an eternity: solid defenders, decent midfielders, skilful wingers…and no top-class strikers. (Pauleta and Nuno Gomes had excellent records in qualifying but often struggled to perform in major touraments). The obvious solution is to push Ronaldo into a striking role where he has excelled at times for Manchester United, but Carlos Quieroz (who was at United during Ronaldo’s best years) has been reluctant to do this.
Here is Portugal's basic shape, kicking from right to left. The two centre-backs (in red) play a relatively deep line. The two full-backs (in yellow) push on. One central midfield player remains deep in front of the centre-backs, with his two colleagues (all in pink) not too far away. Ronaldo (in blue) comes short to get the ball when playing as a winger, and operates too far from goal.
Instead, Portugal have gone for the tried-and-tested solution to their problems – a Brazilian. After Deco in 2003 and Pepe in 2007, Liedson became a Portuguese citizen last summer, being immediately called up to the national side and making an instant impact in his first appearance – coming off the bench to head home a crucial 85th minute equalising header away in Denmark.
The irony of recruiting a foreigner to fill the gap upfront is that Liedson is every inch the stereotypical Portuguese forward. His movement is sublime and his link-up play is excellent, but he’s not a world class finisher and at 5′9 and 63 kilos, he can’t win the ball in the air, or hold it up and wait for the onrushing midfield players. His goalscoring record is good rather than great – he has played for a Sporting Lisbon side who have been quite poor and quite negative for the past two seasons, but the relative weakness of the bottom half of the Liga Sagres means he should be scoring more than he does.
Ronaldo is hardly a makeshift striker – look at his goals record – and he also offers an aerial presence. Some may argue that it is not his best position, but then his qualifying form hardly shows him at the top of his game on the wing. Against Cape Verde, he was too keen to be involved in build-up play miles away from the opposition goal – the main question should be why Quieroz hasn’t used him upfront before…perhaps Ronaldo doesn’t want to play there? If he was deployed upfront, Simao would come in as an additional winger.
Portugal's three central midfielders take up similar positions and play similar roles. Here, the ball is with Fabio Coentrao (marked in yellow) and the three midfielders (marked in pink) all stand level with him, not looking to penetrate the Cape Verde midfield line.
A midfield lacking flair
Opinion remains divided about Pepe in the holding role; he looks what he is – a centre-half playing out of position – for he offers defensive solidity but doesn’t move the ball forward quickly enough. Indeed, that’s the problem with the Portuguese midfield as a whole.
Quieroz likes to play another workmanlike player in the middle – Raul Meireles started every qualification game – as well as Deco. You can’t argue with his talent or medals haul, but Deco now plays quite a low-tempo passing role which doesn’t help Portugal’s game. The problem is not Pepe, Meireles or Deco individually, but the fact that they don’t work well together – on the Venn diagram of what they bring to the side, there’s too much crossover.
Just as Manuel Rui Costa was superseded by Deco after the first game of Euro 2004, you can imagine a similar thing happening to Deco himself. Danny Alves, the Zenit St Petersburg No 10, is in the squad and offers a much more direct threat than Deco, with his driving runs from midfield. Having only really fulfilled his potential having moved to Russia, his stock in Portugal is not particularly high, but he might be the answer to Portugal’s lack of creativity in the centre of midfield. Another option, Miguel Veloso, didn’t play well against Cape Verde, and is probably seen as Meireles’ backup.
Defensively sound
The likely World Cup line-up
The back four is as you would expect. Ricardo Carvalho and Bruno Alves are physically imposing in the centre, whilst Paulo Ferreira replaces his injured club teammate Jose Bosingwa at right-back, having been shifted over to the left for much of qualification.
Instead, the left-back contest is between Duda, the experienced, solid Malaga player, and Fabio Coentrao, the converted winger from Benfica. Coentrao appears to have the slight edge and is certainly the better player going forward – and Portugal really need an attacking left-back. The identity of Portugal’s left-winger is unknown, but it will be one of Ronaldo, Simao and Nani – all wanting to cut inside onto their right foot, meaning width is needed from left-back; not dissimilar to England’s situation with Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole.
Conclusion
The concerns about Portugal’s line-up are amplified by their presence in the toughest group in the tournament. The games against the Ivory Coast and Brazil will be interesting, but so too will be the contest against the defensive-minded North Korea side – considering how Portugal failed to break down Cape Verde, you can imagine a similar situation against Korea’s five-man defence.
The key man is not Ronaldo, but Quieroz; he needs to be bold – push Ronaldo upfront, play Coentrao to offer an attacking threat from full-back, and give the midfield more of an attacking tilt. In the 2000s, this Portugal side arguably had the best balance of any country between being functional and being creative – backed up by three semi-finals in their past five major tournaments – but under Quieroz the creativity seems to be sadly lacking.
Portugal’s players are good enough, is the coach?
I think you’re right about the misuse of Ronaldo. It seems ridiculous to me that Portugal struggled with a lack of quality strikers after Pauleta’s retirement, but now that they have one of the game’s most devastating attacking talents at their disposal they use him on the flanks and blunt his effectiveness.
I’m expecting some good defensive performances from the Portuguese in South Africa, the back four looks impressive, but, unless Ronaldo is used as a striker and Simao comes in on the left with Liedson dropping to the bench, I simply can’t see them scoring enough goals to progress from the group. Queiroz simply isn’t creative enough to get the best out of this group of players.
I really think that starting from outside-left is something that Cristiano himself prefers since it facilitates two particular assets of his game:
1) abundant space behind the full-back to dribble
2) obligates him to cut in onto his stronger right foot and shoot.
Also, even though Madrid have been playing this season in a 4-4-2/4-3-1-2, CR invaraibly chooses to occupy that channel in countless Madrid games. So this would suggest that Queiroz has said to him “play wherever you feel most comfortable”.
If you play Cristiano as a reference N0.9, there is no doubt that he has the physical attributes to do well there – but then would Portugal suffer in other areas – particularly in their build-up play due to their pedestrian midfield?
Let´s bear in mind that playing as a centre-forward in a front three is different to playing in a front two.
In fact, Queiroz has already tried an alternative system – a midfield diamond, with CR and Liedson paired in attack. What is interesting is that Liedson stays centrally whilst Cristiano Ronaldo constantly moves out to the left flank – as per Real Madrid this season.
What about Joao Moutinho as a more attacking, creative midfielder? Is he in the squad?
I haven’t seen much of him, but remember one fantastic UEFA Cup appearance 3 or so years back.
Where’s Joao Moutinho gone? An attacking midfielder, was one of the up-and-coming Portuguese players not so long ago, yet not a single mention of him in this article. Surely he’s the ideal replacement for Deco? Younger, quicker tempo to his passing… No?
Lots of Moutinho love! He’s in the back-up six. Hasn’t performed too well for Portugal and has had a relatively poor season, still very disappointing to see him not there, though.
Just found out that Ruben fractured his foot a wee while back. I thought he was going to be the successor to Deco, just not the world cup.
No mention either of Huge Almeida? Bit more of a presence and also further needed creativity than Liedson and also has that bit of experience that can be essential at tournies.
I’ve always felt that Portugal should be set up basically as a vessel to get the most out of Ronaldo. He is a single handed match-winner and relishes the big time, so I pondered a 4-4-1-1 perhaps like Manchester United use Rooney (and Ronaldo a season ago.) As you’ve mentioned Portugal are strong on the wing, so they should be getting Ronaldo closer to goal at all times. 4-2-3-1 / 4-4-1-1 for me.
The Manchester United side of 2008-2009 often used Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez as an interchangeable front 3, so it was more of a 4-3-3 than a 4-4-1-1; I’ve heard it described as a 4-6-0 as well. I’m not sure that Portugal has enough equally versatile forwards that can adapt to that system (and it is really a little late in the game to be adopting a completely new system, a fortnight before the WC).
But yes, Portugal wouldn’t go too wrong in building a system around Ronaldo, with his multifaceted attacking talents (shoots well, heads well, strong, quick, and technically excellent).
Perhaps he could do well as a deep-lying striker, putting him either in a position to shoot or for that killer pass, or to make a run into the box when needs be.
On a related note, Nani actually seems to perform better when played on the right-wing, and IIRC he’s stated his preference for that position before – but when playing for Manchester United, he normally takes up the left-wing as Antonio Valencia is very right-footed and unable to play on the left, whereas Nani is able to do so.
Your not wrong there, think I got caught in two minds what I was writing but needless to say I meant either using Ronaldo as a focal point for the attack, like Man United have been doing in a 4-3-3 or alternatively get Ronaldo in a kind of Stevie G free-role behind the striker.
It will be more than ironic, if two best players in the world – Messri and CR9, wont be able to bring out their best in the WC – more because of the lack of tactical acumen and imagination of their respective coaches.
Football is a team game (remember Greece in Euro 2004?) but I see your point.
You might find this ZM article interesting: “Is Diego Maradona set to surprise people?”
Ronaldo is at his best in a free role with no defensive or tactical discipline, I am also for playing him “up front”, but he tends to put his head down forget about his team mates and shoot from anywhere when he plays up front.
The most worrying thing for me is the lack of any creativity in midfield. In the past Portugal always struggled to put away chances but we would create a lot of them, lately we barely create any.
We are very dependent on Deco, in 2 areas of the pitch, deeper in central midfield to help us to come out from the back and build our attack, and also further up the pitch to release our wingers and forwards, the problem with Nani, Ronaldo and Simao is that none of them really have that eye for the pass.
That’s why I think that we need to start playing without Deco and split his responsibilities between Veloso and Danny.
All in all this is probably the weakest team Portugal has had in the past 15 years or so yet we are ranked 3rd…. doesn’t make much sense.
Surely the solution would be to play Danny as trequartista, and add Veloso to provide muscle
While I do agree with the majority of your comments, I’d like to stress out a key point: Ronaldo was used in several games as the front man with Nani, Simão or Danny on the wings. Not only it didn’t work, but Queiroz was heavily criticized in the Portuguese media for doing so. I agree that using Ronaldo as the striker seems the best option, more so because Portugal as an excess of quality over the wings. The problem is that Ronaldo doesn’t like to play that role because he has less of an impact on the game.
Queiroz tried to overcome this fact by playing a 4-4-2 in some recent friendlies, with Ronaldo playing up front with Liedson, and dropping back to pick the ball with enough space to do his magic. I think Portugal would do well in this system, putting Simão on the center (he’s done so several times with good results), and Deco playing just like Pirlo does in the role of a regista, although not so deep in the field.
However, Portugal doesn’t have the time to try a new system in time for the World Cup. And there’s also the cultural issue: Portugal is a nation of 4-3-3! That’s how our youth squads play, and that’s how the National squad has played for as long as I remember. Scolari tried to experiment with the 3-5-2 when he arrived but quickly dropped it.
I would expect Queiroz to go for the 4-3-3 without a fixed striker, the same has he did in the youth World Cups of 1989 and 1991. He certainly tried that at the beginning of the qualifications, but the bad results led to a change of plans. Mind you, Portugal played some of the best football in the last 10 years in the game we lost at home 2-3 to Denmark on the last minutes of the game. Portugal should have won by a 3 or 4 goals margin, but our forwards have some difficulty in understanding that in order to won a game you have to put the ball on the net.
I’m fairly optimistic for the World Cup. We tend to do best when we suck at the qualifications. The time the team will be together will also be crucial, namelly to introduce Ronaldo to his teammates so he can recognize them on the field.
Liedson is a fine choice for a striker. You won’t beat the centerbacks of Brazil or Ivory Coast by out muscling them: you have to position yourself better and be smarter than them, and that is what Liedson does. He is actually very good at headers because of his positioning, just like the 1,68m Romario used to be. Against Korea, on the other hand, a taller and stronger player would be better.
As you said, Portugal’s main problem is in the midfield. None of the midfield players are real treats when coming from behind, so all the oportunities that arive from the movement of the forward players are wasted.
Romário was extremely effective, but he played with another forward up front, usually a very good one. Liedson cannot do that, because Ronaldo will move away from the box and nobody will drop Ronaldo to play Hugo Almeida.
I agree that Almeida will be a better choice against Korea.
you are right, you have to see Liedson playing for like 20 games in a row, so you can understando why this is a lethal striker. He is called “Levezinho” (little weight, if you want some kind of translation) because of his physical appearance but hell the man can score goals.
As Bruno Ribeiro mentioned above, Queiroz has been trying the 4-4-2 diamond midfield formation. Actually it is even part of the strategic document he prepared for the organisation of the football association. In his view, the youth teams should be playing 4-3-3 until around the U-19 and then add the 4-4-2 to the alternatives.
The 4-4-2 has the obvious advantage of providing one extra man in midfield and the not so obvious advantage of adding some creativity with the addition of Tiago. Whilst Tiago is mainly a ball playing central midfield with a great reading of the game (most of his goals and ball recoveries come from reading the game) and not a regista-type of player, his ball control and passing ability give him the ability of adding some more attacking creativity up front (he is excellent in killer passes around the box). With the 4-4-2, Deco, Simão or Danny can play the attacking midfielder with different functions (Deco sitting deeper, Simão widening the play to the wings and Danny surging into the box). Personally I’d prefer Danny.
One note about Liedson. He is a very deadly player in the box, with a great killer instinct, but has been subdued by the bad attacking performance of Sporting and by the fact that in the portuguese league, the struggling teams tend to park the bus in front of the box. Since Sporting usually has no other threat in the team, Liedson can be given full attention and ends up not scoring as much as other strikers. In the national team, however, he may struggle to produce an impact, since he is a better player when he has another striker next to him. If Ronaldo ends up being that striker, this means they end up doing the same kind of play (based on movement and looking for the channels) and end up neutralizing each other.
I do think that the 4-4-2 is probably the best option, but either with Danny at the tip of the diamond and Simão and Ronaldo wide up front (with Danny providing threat by moving into the box and Ronaldo and Simão by cutting in) or with Hugo Almeida as a target man to tire the opposition centre-backs and then bring Liedson later in the game.
Ronaldo may be the best player, but if the opposition plays very deep, he becomes subdued. At Man Utd or Real Madrid this is not the case because there are always other obvious threats (Rooney, Tevez, Scholes, Higuain, Kaká, etc), but in the national team, this does not happen. The key will be for Portugal to provide other threats around the box. Only this will free Ronaldo.
In any case, probably won’t matter. Portugal will probably come second in the group phase and then meet Spain (who should top their group) in the first knock-out round. Whatever Portugal does with Ronaldo, I simply do not see them beating Spain, a better team all-round.
Back to reality, does anyone not appreciate the enormous role played by clubs in bringing out the best in players? This simply emanates from surrounding them with the best the club can in their positions. Look at CR7 interchanging with Rooney and the likes of Nani or Giggs on the flanks or playing off Rooney or having Kaka or Benzema behind him. It would be difficult not to excel.
Contrast that with playing for the national team, with players most of whom you’ve not played with before or don’t play regularly with. A national coach’s task is quite difficult but chemistry must also be actively identified and maximized. Portugal seems to have produced a glut of good wingers in the past and so I’m surprised width is actually an issue.
Playing with a holding midfielder while good for the defensive side of the game, can prove negative. In this case a centre back (Pepe) without the requisite technical skill is being played out of position. I suspect Ricardo Carvalho might outdo Pepe in this position.
That said, is Queiroz’s best position that of leader or follower? While an excellent assistant especially at Old Trafford, he doesn’t seem to have an impressive managerial CV (Real Madrid being the most recent example). That said, he’s what Portugal have had for some time and will have to make do with him. To an extent, why not do an Argentina and surround Queiroz with more experienced coaches as consultants?
I’m actually surprised to learn this team struggled to win against opponents in qualifying, considering the caliber of offensive personnel developed at Benfica, Porto or Sporting Lisbon. Soccer is full of surprises. I can’t wait to see how the Portugese handle a group that includes their former colony and giant of soccer Brazil.
I do rate Queiroz very highly as a coach, a man who trains the players every day. I think Man Utd’s european title is as much his as it is Ferguson’s. He is also a fine tactician, especially in what relates the training of movement and positioning (he doesn’t have to be revolutionary to be a good tactician). What he lacks is the star quality (or simply put: charisma) to lead the team. He did well at the youth level, because by being older than the 19 year-olds he had at his disposal, he would be obeyed. At the national level he contrasts with Scolari (an average coach and tactician at best but a superb leader and motivator with tons of charisma) and he simply doesn’t have a Figo, Rui Costa or Fernando Couto to be the real captain of the side. His most obvious leaders, Simão and Bruno Alves either are not guaranteed starters (Simão) or have a too recent history in the national team and lack weight in the dressing room (Bruno Alves). With Queiroz such a lightweight personality, this means that Ronaldo ends up doing whatever he well wishes and that is not good considering he is the team captain.
ZM,
just a heads up on Spain, in case you are publishing something on them in the next few days.
There is, on fan forums and amongst certain pundits, a level of discomfort about Del Bosque’s insistence on starting Buisquets and Alonso together as central midfield. I know one couldn’t ask for a pair of more technically gifted holding players, but many people feel that having the two in the anchor role will just slow the team down, and that Alonso is not athletic enough to hold the midfield on his own. Some people are lamentiong the loss of Senna.
I tend to agree, I believe that only one is needed. What’s your view?
I think that playing with Xabi Alonso AND Busquets forces Xavi to play practically as a trequartista, something he can do but which diminishes his greater attributes.
Of course, there can be a halfway house: Xavi playing not so advanced but rather in his left-of-centre Barcelona role and then pushing one of Alonso/Busquets up to the right-of-centre slot and the remaining one assuming defensive midfield duties. The trouble is, in the game against Saudi Arabia it looked as if this is what eventually happened (perhaps by osmosis if not under exlicit design from Del Bosque)and it was Alonso who tended to push up parallel with Xavi. Busquets looked comfortable in the holding role whereas Alonso’s lack of mobility was noticeable. Trouble is, even if you were to invert the arrangement and place Alonso as the holder and tell Busquets (who is more comfortable advancing with the ball and with receiving it in tight areas)to push up, it would still leave Xabi exposed; I adore the guy’s football, but even so it seems that in order for him to play against top sides (not Saudi Arabia)he needs to have a destroyer beside him, like Lass Diarra who will do his running and fetching. Spain literally have not one single player in their squad who is suited to such a task. By playing with just one holding midfielder, Spain can carry out their 4-1-3-2, 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-3 gameplans because in these formations, there is a greater array of playmakers positioned just ahead of the holder who can then exert high pressure on the opposing team when chasing the ball.
Maybe Del Bosque can get away with this Alonso-Busquets arrangement in the group stage, but I think that if it does come down to a choice of having a single holder, as much as it vexes me to bench Alonso (as surely it would Del Bosque who is a staunch admirer of the Basque), it would have to be Busquets. Yes, the same Busquets who, despite all his infuriating play-acting and kamikaze backpass moments, has the nasty guile to draw professional fouls and is somewhat quicker across the turf than Alonso.
For what it’s worth I’m also more partial towards Spain starting with only David Villa as striker, and not only because Torres is coming off an injury. That having been said, when Torres is fully fit, there will be games in which he is needed especially if Spain are drawing opponents on to them, protecting a lead and therefore facilitating a counter attack or a more vertical ball down the channels. Then Alonso will also be vital for launching long “Hollywood” passes into the path of Torres – I do not intend the term as derogatory, by the way, since Alonso’s 60-yard passes are invariably skidded along the floor unlike , ehem,,certain players. Not even Xavi or Iniesta can carry off such a feat.
Roberticus,
That is exactly what I was thinking Pepe and Veloso in midfield rotating 3 of Nani, Danny and Ronaldo with Liedson up front. The typical Portuguese 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3.
Queiroz is s sham, he called up 6, thats right 6 central defenders for the final squad: Alves, Carvalho, Rolando, Ricardo Costa, José Castro and Pepe.
He left out Carlos Martins, who is a more physical attacking miedfielder with a strong long distance shot and Nuno Assis who is more of a Deco type player that is playing better than Deco at the moment.
He also left Makukula, the top striker of the turkish league, out of the World Cup, but called up Hugo Almeida who as always been trash when he played for the national team, he and Liedon are the only two strikers that Portugal is going to take to South Africa.
This all campaign as been a disaster since the beginning and I’m prepared for a disaster worst that the 2002 campaign. I think we have a chance not to lose against North Korea, maybe, but Ivory Coast and Brazil are going to walk all over us.
Ronaldo, Simao and Nani could play a fluid 4-3-3. When the wingers try to play the ball inside the box, they should keep on the ground or Queiroz should instruct Pepe or Meireles to make occasional runs into the box. I am curious to know to what extent moving the ball quickly in midfield will really make a difference in this group. Cote d’Ivoire and Brazil aren’t England so they’ll be ready for it. Queiroz is thinking about playing really defensive. Anyway even if they do make it out of the group, there in for some real trouble in the elimination stages. This “group of death” and the winner of Spain’s group have an unbelievable road to the final.
people criticise messi for being poor with the national team but ronaldo’s poor performances cannot be compared to him at all. No goals in competitive matches for more than 2 years is ridiculous for the second best player in the world and the captain..surely this gos on to prov what an over-rated player he is..one important point u miss in this article is that ronaldo’s selfishness and poor poor team play..it often looks that he wants to score a gola on his own..
I can’t argue with you. Well you’re right when you say we can’t compare Ronaldo’s and Messi’s performances on their nationals teams. Messi looks like he has 2 right foots in Argentina despite being an outstanding player simply because his coach his a disaster (let’s say no more).
But Ronaldo fails to score because of the Portuguese supporters. For some reason the Portuguese people instead of supporting him are always bringing him down saying he doesn’t play in the national team as good as in Real Madrid or Man United because that’s when he gets his paychecks or because he’s selfish, rude or some other crap. This gives him an extra (doesn’t he already has enough) motivation and will to show service and prove he’s important to the national team.
Therefore he tries to score at any cost on this friendly matches and he has even played injured in the qualifying against Hungary causing him to sprain his ankle and be sidelined for over a month.
What I can’t understand is why Carlos Queiroz has nominated him captain. Ricardo Carvalho, Simão, Deco???
The captain band has put on too much pressure on his shoulder and it was simply premature and made no sense.
About Pepe. I believe he was a great adaptation and it was very useful during qualifying. He offers security to the midfield and is also good on passing running up front. What I can’t understand is why was he called up to play in a position where Portugal has players like Miguel Veloso and Pedro Mendes who defend has good as Pepe and attack better and have the advantage of not being sidelined for the past 6 months.
Instead Queiroz should drop Pepe to centre-back (he’s a much better substitute than Rolando or Ricardo Costa) and instead of calling up Ricardo Costa (what the hell is he doing here?!?!) he should call a more creative midfielder to replace Deco like Nuno Assis or Joao Moutinho (since Ruben Micael is injured). Ok Simão and Danny can also do that but they don’t have that classic #10 creative skills of the previous ones. It’s just not the same thing.
As far as Ronaldo playing as a center-forward this is my opinion: in a 4×4x2, he would do great. In a 4×3x3 he’s useless. Yeah, yeah I know he has done it before in Man United but versatile strikers like Rooney or Tevez are way too different from pure wingers like Simão and Nani (and Danny was also experimented by Queiroz as a #9 against Sweden and, guess what? The match ended in a goalless draw with tons of created opurtunities, the usual stuff…)
What do you think about the idea of dropping Deco deeper into a more ‘deep-lying playmaker’ position a la Pirlo and dropping Pepe into defence? Surely this would correct the problem with moving the ball quickly and effectively(especially on the counter-attack, which I would say is probably Portugals best opportunity if making it far – they have players who excel on the counter).
The solution might actually be to move him further forward, because fast passing is more vital around the box, and he is the master of one touch passing. On the counterattack, he will probably be very deep anyway. His stamina seems to have gone down, but with the right midfield to cover defensively, he should still have the skill to influence games, much like Nedved and Zidane in their 30s.
Perhaps they should play a 4-1-4-1 with Deco alongside Danny, and Ronaldo cutting in to the centre often. The added threat of Danny would also give Deco more options for the killer pass, which he excelled at in Barcelona, rather than in his current regista role. That would be an immediate injection of creativity into the team.
4-6-0 on the counterattack seems like a good option against stronger sides as well, given the obvious pace and quality of their wingers.
I think for Portugal to be successful Veloso needs to step up and play the futebol he is capable of, and by doing this either robbing Meirelles or Deco of his spot like this.
Ferreira Carvalho Alves Coentrao
————Pepe—————-
—————–Veloso———
Nani——-Deco——–Ronaldo-
———–Liedson————–
or
Ferreira Carvalho Alves Coentrao
————Pepe—————-
—–Meirelles——-Veloso—–
Nani——————-Ronaldo–
———-Liedson—————
The only argument I would make for not playing Coentrao is that although as the article says he will offer overlapping width with Cristiano Ronaldo more often than not cutting in on his right-foot, however Cristiano Ronaldo is not known for being defensively minded and therefore will not always be covering back, whereas on the other side Ferreira is more likely to stay back more often and cover Nani’s attacks. I would guess in the end it all depends on your opponents and how attacking or defensive they are down their right?
Neither Coentrao or Duda are the best defenders, if anything Coentrao is probably the better tackler of the two.
Quieroz is Quieroz, he has never and probably won’t ever change! A top class coach, one of he reason’s United worked so well during his time there, he lacks 2 very key aspects. 1, he cannot make the vital decisions that influence games. Much like Diego (Maradona), his substitutions are logical but late, well-timed but useless. 2, his authoriy and control over a squad is questionable. He is liked and respected, but thats about it. Felipao had more when he was in charge, Mourinho will have more when his time comes.
Portugal’s problems with strikers is embedded in their DNA. Figo was class, but he had one negative impact, and that’s influencing too many young talents to be wingers. of every 20 kids on the wing, 1 is a genuine winger, the rest are Ronaldo-look-alikes or step-over kings with no end product. Fabio Coentrao, Bruno Gama, Helder Barbosa, Januario Jesus, Ricardo Quaresma, Daniel Candeias, Diogo Viana and so many more, just wasted their talents by not having much substance to add to their obvious abilities.
I’m predicting Portugal will end their WC2010 campaign with a maximum of 4 points, but more realistically just 2!!!
Carlos Queiroz, not Quieroz.
Great article, as usual. In the Cameroon game the midfield worked brilliantly. There was a very interesting movement pattern which worked quite well. Deco moves into the wing and Meireles makes a run into the box. Deco’s movement opens space in front of the area for Meireles and if Ronaldo goes into the box then suddenly there are three important threats in the area with an unbalanced defense (the DM accompanies Deco).
I think the overlap in the midfield can be a handicap or an asset. If Queiroz is able to use work this overlap into fluidity and interchangeability then Portugal might be in for a good tournament.
Portugal are so underrated now that they qualify as my dark horses for this tournament. They can go out with a whimper, but if they pass the group I see them shocking the world by eliminating mighty Spain.
Portugal played much better against Cameroon.
Some ideas about the first half:
- the starting XI is the expected for the world cup;
- much better physical condition, higher pace and faster offensive transitions;
- Deco and Meireles oftenly switching positons in the midfield; Liedson and Ronaldo doing the same in the attack;
- Deco and Ronaldo closer to Liedson in finishing positions;
(Check my tactics board here: HERE )
About the second half, lots of alternative solutions tested on the same 4-3-3:
- Miguel for P. Ferreira; Coentrão For Duda; Danny for Liedson; Nani for Simão; Rolando for Bruno Alves; R. Costa for P. Mendes (injuried);
- Miguel, Coentrão and Nani showed they’re good alternatives for more attacking and less cautious play.
Well, I hopes this adds something!
I’ll try to keep you posted about Portugal national team!
Cheers!
i think querioz might end up playing pepe as a defensive mid, if all else fails.
danny will probably take deco’s spot, but deco did pretty good at chelsea this season, if not for injuries he would have been very good.
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
Nani is out for the tournament, by the way. Shoulder injury.
I wish all people to be like you!