How is Patricio still in Sporting?
If only Benzema and Lacazette were called up, and ofcourse Ben Arfa at the right wing instead of Sissoko. And why was Kante dropped out of the team?
Congrats to Portugal, Joao Mario and Guerreiro are going to be some players in the future :' ) (though Guerreiro needs to learn how to defend)

when a team reaches the final and loses, you can criticize a coach for his decisions in THAT game. its weird to now start criticizing who he called up and who he left at home at this stage. that criticism could have been made in the first couple of games of the competition if the team suffered an early exit or have been scrapping by. football's not logic...all those players could have been called up and the team could still very well lose to say, germany for example. portugal had their game plan well, france had a few chances e.g. the gignac chance. if most of these names were forgotten up till the final, no need for them to be brought up now

BusterLfc wrote:How is Patricio still in Sporting?
If only Benzema and Lacazette were called up, and ofcourse Ben Arfa at the right wing instead of Sissoko. And why was Kante dropped out of the team?
Congrats to Portugal, Joao Mario and Guerreiro are going to be some players in the future :' ) (though Guerreiro needs to learn how to defend)

Sissoko was terrific all the tournament. Have you watched the competition ? Even today he was the best french player. Benzema was not selected because of non-football matters.

Matuidi having more freedom than Pogba was baffling especially when the game was even. Kanté should have come in to allow more freedom to Pogba. Overall France was very close too.

Congratulations to Portugal, today they showed courage.

titosantill wrote:when a team reaches the final and loses, you can criticize a coach for his decisions in THAT game. its weird to now start criticizing who he called up and who he left at home at this stage. that criticism could have been made in the first couple of games of the competition if the team suffered an early exit or have been scrapping by. football's not logic...all those players could have been called up and the team could still very well lose to say, germany for example. portugal had their game plan well, france had a few chances e.g. the gignac chance. if most of these names were forgotten up till the final, no need for them to be brought up now

You're right , but one can't help but notice the redundancy  in some of his selections .

farfan wrote:

titosantill wrote:when a team reaches the final and loses, you can criticize a coach for his decisions in THAT game. its weird to now start criticizing who he called up and who he left at home at this stage. that criticism could have been made in the first couple of games of the competition if the team suffered an early exit or have been scrapping by. football's not logic...all those players could have been called up and the team could still very well lose to say, germany for example. portugal had their game plan well, france had a few chances e.g. the gignac chance. if most of these names were forgotten up till the final, no need for them to be brought up now

You're right , but one can't help but notice the redundancy  in some of his selections .

-Ben Arfa could have made a difference today.
-Martial , since that one game where he played badly didn't play until today which is a mistake imo nut more importantly
- Pogba should have had more freedom than Matuidi.

@titosantill Yeah but imagine having Lacazette, Gameiro or Ben Arfa as a golden substitute in the final instead of Gignac.
@LeBeninois I understand about Benzema, but having Giroud and Gignac over Lacazette and Gameiro is asinine to say the least. Tbf Sissoko was good, but Ben Arfa could've been just as good if not better was he called up after such a season behind him.

But yeah it is pointless to argue now over who should have been called up, it's all over, congrats to Portugal, it will be fun to see their journey in Moscow with more developped Joao Mario, Renato Sanches, Bernando Silva (who was unfortunately injured for this euro), Guerreiro etc

titosantill wrote:when a team reaches the final and loses, you can criticize a coach for his decisions in THAT game. its weird to now start criticizing who he called up and who he left at home at this stage. that criticism could have been made in the first couple of games of the competition if the team suffered an early exit or have been scrapping by. football's not logic...all those players could have been called up and the team could still very well lose to say, germany for example. portugal had their game plan well, france had a few chances e.g. the gignac chance. if most of these names were forgotten up till the final, no need for them to be brought up now

titosantill wrote:when a team reaches the final and loses, you can criticize a coach for his decisions in THAT game. its weird to now start criticizing who he called up and who he left at home at this stage. that criticism could have been made in the first couple of games of the competition if the team suffered an early exit or have been scrapping by. football's not logic...all those players could have been called up and the team could still very well lose to say, germany for example. portugal had their game plan well, france had a few chances e.g. the gignac chance. if most of these names were forgotten up till the final, no need for them to be brought up now

I get what you're saying, but what if the players left behind are only needed in the final? Benzema for me was the biggest mistaken omission and he would've done much better than Gignac today, whereas in previous rounds he clearly wouldn't have been as necessary.

But I do agree actually that Deschamps' main mistakes were on the night, such as taking Giroud off, not moving Pogba further forward, etc.

Even with this squad they could've and should've won the tournament.

when you leave out a player like that it alters your whole set up, you're not going to "only need him in the final" cos he'll play in the earlier games, not a sub. and it wasn't even an omission. he wasn't left out because he couldn't play but a legal issue. that's not on their coach. not like he wanted to leave benzema out. and even with him i still don't see this game as something he would have lit up...he'll have his chance to return and make a push for france at the next world cup, so all's not lost for them. for now, its just portugal's time.

as for pogba, i don't even think he looked up to it. in these kind of games you expect your main players to come up with something regardless of the coach's strategies. maybe he was deplored deeper, but i honestly don't think he wanted any part of the risks involved with going forward and making offensive moves. both sides were a bit cautious as expected

Tito, I don't know where you stand on the Pogba spectrum. Would you be so kind as to tell me whether you'd like us to move for him or not?

I respect you a lot and, obviously, your opinion is very important to me.

@Tito: Sure, but do you really think Benzema would have actually made the team worse?

The questions for me are, would Benzema have improved the team overall? And could he have made the difference in this game? For me the answers to both are definitely yes. Just because France made it this far doesn't mean they wouldn't have been better with Benzema. I don't buy the legal business by the way. Valbuena wasn't even in the team so the whole restraining order wouldn't have applied. The question was whether the federation would stand by Benzema or not and I think from a footballing perspective Deschamps should have fought for him. As for Pogba, I do think if he was deployed deeper he would have been much more effect offensively. Both teams as you mentioned were justifiably cautious because it was a final. So if you're playing as a DM you're going to be much more afraid to make runs forward or affect the game offensively than if you're in a b2b role.

I'm curious however, if you were Deschamps, what would you have changed?

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Tito, I don't know where you stand on the Pogba spectrum. Would you be so kind as to tell me whether you'd like us to move for him or not?

I respect you a lot and, obviously, your opinion is very important to me.

After this game I changed my mind a bit on pogba. He is good but seriously a raw player. Not as good as some people say he is

@cruijf my issue isn't with benzema as some of his fans would like to think. its the same issue i had with the germany italy game. i'm not delving into the deschamps decision now because, they all knew they would go into the tournament without him, had time to prepare for that, and actually overachieved. to wait all this time, up to the final to bring up benzema as some martyr is my issue. if his absence had been raised in other rounds yes, but come on, france didn't lose because he was out, and it does a disservice to the effort the others put out there. its not even like they were making it to tournament finals all this while.

deschamps did what he could with the players he had, sometimes that's just football. this is a game where someone had to just say *bleep* it, go at the defense, with a dribble, a shot, an intuitive trick and not just pass pass...and that's what eder did.

i get your point, as football fans we always want to scrutinize and analyze every tactic; a lot of times, its just what it is, someone wins someone loses (real atleti, germany italy, atleti psv) are some games where to me it was just fate. france, amazing hosts, probably the most entertaining team at the tournament, just wasn't their night....

@demon, pogba's a good player, i mentioned on one of the threads that when you get into club season, and have other good players around you who u train with day in day out, whether at utd or at juve, you're not playing most of your games against teams as disciplined as portugal were tonight (portugal played with heart, let's take nothing away from them).

BUT, there isn't a footballer worth a hundred million euros, pounds, dollars today. he's young so i get that the fee is hiked. but anything over 50 million is highway robbery for juve. btw i'm not some financial adviser, i'm just guestimating. i wouldn't mind him at madrid, but i wouldn't want us to kill for him neither.

when it comes to madrid transfers, i get pessimistic, because i've seen stars come to madrid and turn to scrubs overnight....good player, regardless of the loss. and even if france won, and he scored a trezeguet like shot in the last minute, i'd still see hundred million and above as way too much....you know how many decent serie a midfielders juve can replace him with from that price tag?

I'm so disappointed in pogba. He's just not elite. Period. He's a good player but not great. His off the ball movement, tenacity and decision making suck dick.

I don't care if he's 6'2 and technical. he's not fast at all either. Seriously, I have my money on modric being faster

Any country that wins its first major international tournament is always beautiful.

Give them credit where its due. Portugal deserved it.

FennecFox7 wrote:I'm so disappointed in pogba. He's just not elite. Period. He's a good player but not great. His off the ball movement, tenacity and decision making suck dick.

I don't care if he's 6'2 and technical. he's not fast at all either. Seriously, I have my money on modric being faster

he's 6'3 and can't pass for shit. And yes he's fast but on long distances, he has slow acceleration. when it comes to midfield play modric and kroos are both superior by quite a margin I'd say. they just know the game better.

I always found it perplexing how Gignac who plays in the Mexican League got into the squad over Gameiro who has played well for Europa League winner Sevilla.

https://twitter.com/Fabian__LH/status/752328798205509633

Beautiful. So touching.

S wrote:https://twitter.com/Fabian__LH/status/752328798205509633

Beautiful. So touching.

an unusual matured act by a child

Class act from farfan, i can't imagine myself doing the same

Lmao Marca. Belittle Barca players in full force. He was one of the best CBs on the day. Much better than his partner for example

Samuel Umtiti - 5

France had very little to do in defence, but when they did they looked a little shaky and Umtiti never looked 100% confident

ES wrote:Class act from farfan, i can't imagine myself doing the same

How would you have reacted ?

I'd be fuming and discrediting Portugal

farfan wrote:

ES wrote:Class act from farfan, i can't imagine myself doing the same

How would you have reacted ?

You guys would have seen me next week. Would have been too busy saying very hurtful things about Portugal and Ronaldo in a bar somewhere.

Valkyrja wrote:

FennecFox7 wrote:I'm so disappointed in pogba. He's just not elite. Period. He's a good player but not great. His off the ball movement, tenacity and decision making suck dick.

I don't care if he's 6'2 and technical. he's not fast at all either. Seriously, I have my money on modric being faster

he's 6'3 and can't pass for shit. And yes he's fast but on long distances, he has slow acceleration. when it comes to midfield play modric and kroos are both superior by quite a margin I'd say. they just know the game better.

Not even that fast either way. He has stamina, but I'm pretty sure Ronaldo is still faster. Pogba is on par with khedira pace wise (which who, I would not mind at all back in Madrid). Except khedira is much stronger, and is a class above him. He has a lot to learn.