Thought Koscielny was better than Boateng. But the official team is spot on

I haven't watched much but Payet? Thought he was poor in matches I watched personally.

I.E Iceland, Germany and Portugal.

Would have given it to Pepe tbh

Payet was one of the best players in the group stages. I think he did well overall tbh. Who would be your choice if not for Payet ?

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I haven't watched much but Payet? Thought he was poor in matches I watched personally.

I.E Iceland, Germany and Portugal.

Iceland doesn't really count as it was a training match. Wasn't poor by any stretch but didn't have much to do. He was invisible against Portugal yes but he was outstanding in the group stage and I thought he was good against Germany actually. France spent most of the game in their half so he didn't get many touches but he had some good passes on the counter to create chances. Overall he was their best player after Grizzy IMO.

RealGunner wrote:Would have given it to Pepe tbh

Griezmann or him imo.

Griezmann voted best player of the tournament but no in the best XI

Kroos?

Mr Nick09 wrote:Griezmann voted best player of the tournament but no in the best XI

What are you talking about? He's in the best XI


Would've given it to Pepe personally. Him or Ronaldo. Never been a huge fan of giving player of the tournament to a loser. At least start calling it best player.

S wrote:Payet was one of the best players in the group stages. I think he did well overall tbh. Who would be your choice if not for Payet ?

Didn't really watch the group stages, that's why i was asking because you all watched much more than i did and i didn't think he played well in the matches i saw.

He was best player of group stages and played well vs Iceland.

Payet was really outstanding for France in the group stages, player with the most flair and creativity in the tournament; he was less prominent in the knockouts, but not so much worse that he'd lose his place in the team of the tournament.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnGD_WKWcAEG7Fy.jpg

Kimmich

No Bale

Kimmich

Bale deserves to be out though, was absolutely awful all tournament.

His overall play was not the best but you cant deny how clutch he was. Iirc he was directly involved in all of Wales' goals bar that corner. That's more than Allen or Payet. I would have removed Allen and replaced him with Bale

urbaNRoots wrote:

Rui Patricio
Sagna Pepe Koscielny Guerreiro
Ramsey Kroos
Bale Griezmann Payet
Ronaldo

imo.

Mine too

This is mine.

halamadrid2 wrote:His overall play was not the best but you cant deny how clutch he was. Iirc he was directly involved in all of Wales' goals bar that corner. That's more than Allen or Payet. I would have removed Allen and replaced him with Bale

Involved in every goal

He didn't score or assist at all in the knockout rounds unless you count the own goal. Other than two great freekicks he did nothing all tournament.

Cruijf wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:His overall play was not the best but you cant deny how clutch he was. Iirc he was directly involved in all of Wales' goals bar that corner. That's more than Allen or Payet. I would have removed Allen and replaced him with Bale

Involved in every goal

He didn't score or assist at all in the knockout rounds unless you count the own goal. Other than two great freekicks he did nothing all tournament.

Bale was involved in almost every goals though.

Even the winner they scored vs Belgium originated from Bale long ball to Ramsey.

Hala said directly involved i.e scoring or assisting which is simply not true.

Ramsey and Robson-Kanu were more crucial to Wales' attack than Bale. Other than the freekicks, can you really point to one moment in the tournament where it was his genius that won a game (or even scored a goal) for Wales?  His pass to Ramsey was good but hardly WC or defence splitting. That goal was all down to Robson-Kanu.

How many goals Wales scored from open play? Very little. Infact 1 ? .You can't just ignore Bales freekick goals in that context. Freekicks are one of the hardest thing to score out there so you need to stop dismissing it as some kind of penalty.

They played 541 with Bale as striker for majority of the time. They weren't creative nor were they ready to attack any team, they relied on their defense and counter attack+ set pieces to reach here. He was integral part of both their counters and set piece goals despite playing out of position.

Adit wrote:How many goals Wales scored from open play? Very little. Infact 1 ? .You can't just ignore Bales freekick goals in that context. Freekicks are one of the hardest thing to score out there so you need to stop dismissing it as some kind of penalty.

1 goal from open play? 7 out of Wales' 10 goals were from open play

But I will concede free kicks are difficult and it is impressive that he scored two. But if the rest of your all round play is poor the free kicks alone shouldn't be enough to get you into the team of the tournament. Especially when neither of them were "clutch" in terms of being game winning goals or anything.

They played 541 with Bale as striker for majority of the time. They weren't creative nor were they ready to attack any team, they relied on their defense and counter attack+ set pieces to reach here. He was integral part of both their counters and set piece goals despite playing out of position.

This is just lazy. Why don't Ramsey or Robson-Kanu get the same excuse? They were playing in the same defensive setup and yet contributed much more in attack than Bale. If anything, the fact they relied on the counter attack should have helped him, as it meant he got much more space.

What I hate the most is seeing a player perform poorly for 89 minutes and have that wiped away by one flashy moment, and that's what happened with Bale in this tournament. He was poor against Slovakia but got a pass because of his freekick. He was poor against England but got a pass because of his freekick again. And then he was poor for the rest of the tournament, not scoring or assisting a single goal in the KO rounds, but gets a pass because of those 2 freekicks in the group stage and a few flashy runs where he sprinted into space and then gave the ball away.

You say again that he was "an integral part of their counters and set piece goals." When? What exactly did he do that was so special that he deserves this praise and recognition?