Spain NT discussion

The 23 players I think VdB will pick:

GK - Casillas, Reina, Valdes
DF - Alba, Arbeloa, Iraola, Ramos, Pique, Puyol
MF - Alonso, Busquets, Cesc, Iniesta, Martinez, Silva, Cazorla, Xavi
FW - Torres, Mata, Villa, Llorente, Navas, Pedro

I think Torres with his recent performances will get in ahead of Soldado, Pedro started scoring and del Bosque will pick him.

Vicente likes continuity and he will pick guys who played at WC. If Albiol plays more often in upcoming matches he may as well be back into contention. Players at the bubble from this list are Iraola, Torres, Villa, Navas, Pedro, the rest will go 100%, no doubt IMO. Villa would be lock if he returned now to the squad, but his rehabilitation progress slowly.

So IMO 18 players who will for sure go to Euros, unless they get longterm injury in one of upcoming games:

GK - Casillas, Reina, Valdes
DF - Alba, Arbeloa, Ramos, Pique, Puyol
MF - Alonso, Busquets, Cesc, Iniesta, Martinez, Silva, Cazorla, Xavi
FW - Mata, Llorente

5 places up for grabs.

Your thoughts?

Javi frees up a spot for a extra midfielder or forwad so that we don't have to carry Albiol.

Will be interesting to see who gets it.

Navas is probably a sure thing by the way.

Yeah, Navas will make it IMO. I think the 23 I posted will be the final one, I don't think del Bosque will pick Muniain and Soldado, he likes continuity and will pick probably Villa and Pedro. Thiago also won't go to Euros.

I have a sneaking suspicion he's going to be a dick and leave Cazorla out. Del Bosque has never liked Cazorla.

With the form Cazorla's in and the form Silva's in it could be a mini disaster leaving him out again.

Honestly if he continues to play 4-2-3-1 that's another disaster within itself, either switch back to the convetntional 4-2-2-2 or the 4-3-3 because Xavi as a free role roaming Am is a troubling site.

He can consolidate posession from the pivot or as a CM.

che wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:

But Torres has consistently came up big in important moments for us, he's a national hero, and the squad loves him.When tensions were high after the classicos he was one of the glue guys who held us together.

People don't understand that even though everything should theoretically be limited to on pitch performance over the course of a season, in this case it isn't.

consistently came up big? the guy scored precisely one, ONE important goal in his entire goddamn nt career

i'm sure the likes of ramos appreciate his hairdressing abilities but seriously... torres was an utter joke for a year and a half, now he's apparently the dog's bollocks because he's scored
1) a goal that didn't even matter when the closest defender was 20 metres away
2) a hattrick against a relegation battler

what a *bleep* joke this is...

exactly lol "

no ffense to le sam but the ' other ' torres loyalists are so annoying.. he is better and more clinical than any spain striker for them just because of that one goal.. how many 30 goal seasons has he had lol

GK: Casillas, Reina, Valdes
DEF: Iraola,Arbeloa,Ramos, Puyol, Pique, Enrique
MID: Busquets, Javi, Xabi, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Silva, Cazorla
ATT: Torres, Soldado, Llorente, Muniain, Mata, Navas

VDB's pick
----------------------Casillas------------------------
---Iraola------Pique------------Ramos-------Enrique--
----------------Xabi---------Busquets-----------
--Silva---------------Xavi-----------------Iniesta--
---------------------Torres-------------------------------

My pick:

----------------------Casillas------------------------
---Iraola------Pique------------Ramos-------Enrique--
--------------------Busquets----------------------
--------------Xavi-------------Iniesta--------------
--Silva------------------------------------Muniain--
----------------------Torres-----------------------

Okay.

I accept all that.

But VDB has always clearly maintained that once he does enough he'll be in the squad.

Since he was dropped from the squad and told clearly what he needed to do.

870 minutes : 7 goals : 6 assists.

Goal/Assist every 66 mins.

Lets just say , regardless of my personal feelings towards him as a player , I kinda like his odds.

Score hatrick against QPR > scoring 27 goals and being consistent all season.

Seems legit.

Please direct me to the particular post where I said he's had a better season.

Le Samourai wrote:

Since he was dropped from the squad and told clearly what he needed to do.

870 minutes : 7 goals : 6 assists.

Goal/Assist every 66 mins.

Lets just say , regardless of my personal feelings towards him as a player , I kinda like his odds.

super cool story bro, except you neglected to mention that of those 7 goals, 2 came against a championship team, 3 against an almost championship team and i feel this last point needs a little emphasis... HE HAS SCORED SEVEN *bleep* GOALS SINCE OCTOBER

Le Samourai wrote:Please direct me to the particular post where I said he's had a better season.

Please tell me why he deserves a spot over Soldado then ?

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:Please direct me to the particular post where I said he's had a better season.

Please tell me why he deserves a spot over Soldado then ?

We could go back and forth on this , I would make thin arguments about team morale, reliability and the fact that he's a national hero and you would simply come back and throw the 7 goals since October and Soldado's 27 goal season in my face.

So lets save time.

He doesn't deserve anything.

Vicente DB made a list with many players that hadnt been called before.

There are no barca, athletic or chelsea players (they have commitments still) and he is giving a chance to some players to impress him during the next friendlies.

He will make the final call on May 27 with the official list for the Euros

Porteros: Casillas, Reina, De Gea.

Defensas: Albiol, Jordi Alba, Arbeloa, Domínguez, Monreal, Sergio Ramos, y Juanfran.

Centrocampistas: Isco, Xabi Alonso, Cazorla, Beñat, Javi García, Bruno Soriano, David Silva y Jesús Navas.

Delanteros: Adrián, Negredo y Soldado.

with Ramos as CB, i have a feeling the competition for the other RB spot is between Juanfran and Iraola. Juanfran is a bit of a revelation at that post this season.

Dominguez is benched at Atletico, not sure why he is there.

Benat is awesome, fully deserved. Finally Javi Garcia got a call , he might even go to the euros if Martinez is counted as a CB, he would be back up for Busquets

Javi Garcia might make it to euros i feel.

He brings steel and toughness and is a pure DM can also act as a emergency CB...all in one pack.

Spains best option in my opinion looks like this:

Enrique is inferior to Alba.

Torres come on dude you can do better than that... Llorente is far better than him so is soldado.

Busquets is a valuable player and Alonso cant operate alone. Replace fabregas with Busquets.

Porteros: Casillas, Reina, De Gea valdes

Defensas: Albiol, Jordi Alba, Arbeloa, Domínguez, Monreal, Sergio Ramos, y Juanfran. pique, iraola

Centrocampistas: Isco, Xabi Alonso, Cazorla, Beñat, Javi García, Bruno Soriano, David Silva y Jesús Navas. xavi, iniesta, busquets, martinez

Delanteros: Adrián, Negredo y Soldado. llorente, torres

plus villa for soldado if he makes it, and i don't think del bosque is above calling up pedro instead of adrian

What I think it should be:


What it probably will be:

aka. the team without any penetration

@Che, you have 24 players in your list.

Here is my list.

Porteros: Casillas, Reina, De Gea valdes

Defensas: Albiol, Jordi Alba, Arbeloa, Domínguez, Monreal, Sergio Ramos, y Juanfran. pique, Martinez

Centrocampistas: Isco, Xabi Alonso, Cazorla, Beñat, Javi García, Bruno Soriano, David Silva y Jesús Navas. xavi, iniesta, busquets, cesc

Delanteros: Adrián, Negredo y Soldado. llorente, torres

plus villa for soldado if he makes it, and i don't think del bosque is above calling up pedro instead of adrian

Mr Nick09 wrote:@Che, you have 24 players in your list.

i don't :vagi:

forgot about cex though, consider him in instead of monreal...

Jesus...Navas deceived me :vagi: lol

VDB a while ago said he's taking Villa once there's a chance he will be back for the knockouts....but he seems to be backtracking on that.

Problem with Che's is that we're not taking a backup left back and taking 2 back up right backs + Navas who sometimes plays there if we switch formation or are chasing a game.

I don't see him taking Juanfran, he will probably just take another forwad if he feels like Arbs can cover LB as well.

My squad:

GK - Casillas, Reina, Valdes
DF - Alba, Arbeloa, Iraola, Ramos, Pique, Monreal, Martinez
MF - Alonso, Busquets, Cesc, Iniesta, Silva, Cazorla, Xavi
FW - Mata, Llorente, Navas, Soldado, Torres, Villa (Adrian)

Nick and che you forgot about Mata If Villa can't make it Adrian should go instead of him. I'm sure though, VdB will pick Albiol and Negredo instead of Iraola/Monreal and Soldado/Adrian. Pedro and Thiago doesn't have a chance to get call-up IMO.

Mr Nick09 wrote:

[b]Porteros: Casillas, Reina, De Gea.

Defensas: Albiol, Jordi Alba, Arbeloa, Domínguez, Monreal, Sergio Ramos, y Juanfran.

Centrocampistas: Isco, Xabi Alonso, Cazorla, Beñat, Javi García, Bruno Soriano, David Silva y Jesús Navas.

Delanteros: Adrián, Negredo y Soldado.

Crossed out ones i dont think will go i am unsure about Isco but i have a feeling he might go if not he will go to the Olympics.

VDB usually dont go to the Euros with 8 defenders, i put Dominguez in because he can play LB as well, and you have guys like Javi Martinez, Garcia, and Busquets who can back up CBs.

I did forgot about Mata, so you can kick Navas out.

Navas is going, book it.

He clearly outperformed Mata during the 2nd half of the season.