Which NT has the best defense in Europe?

Sepi wrote:It's funny how Johnson started getting stick after allowing ONE cross in when England were up 5-0 vs Croatia already, and the media forgot his 2 assists in that gam and focused on that, yet, Ashley Cole allowed both Montenegran crosses on friday and no one even mentions it.

media darlings and all.

Ashley Cole? Media Darling?

Four words I never thought I'd see together.

Despite suspensions to Evra and Abidal + injuries to Abidal, Mexes, Rami and Sagna + having played 13 different defensive starting lineups... France has conceded 6 goals in its last 15 games. 3 of them were in friendlies where we had experimental lineups in. Never more than 1 goal in the games where a goal was conceded.

In Euro qualifying, only Italy has conceded less (2 compared to 3 for France). Keep in mind, however, that Italy was forfeited one of the games (against Serbia) and played in an easier group.

Ganso wrote:----------Hart-------------
Glen-Rio-Smalling-Cole

pretty good imo

Walker, Jones and Richards are above Johnson in the pecking idea i agree with you its pretty good though

Between Italy and Portugal imo tho.....

Germany NT is not very good defensively btw. Other than Hummels and Lahm... you have Badstuber and Mertesacker as the main guys. Boateng is coming on now. Just not very impressive... nowhere near the quality of the elite defensive teams in Europe.

sportsczy wrote:Germany NT is not very good defensively btw. Other than Hummels and Lahm... you have Badstuber and Mertesacker as the main guys. Boateng is coming on now. Just not very impressive... nowhere near the quality of the elite defensive teams in Europe.

Howedes?

RB is an issue for them though, i dont understand why Low doesnt call up Andreas Beck or Gonzalo Castro tho....

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Ganso wrote:----------Hart-------------
Glen-Rio-Smalling-Cole

pretty good imo

Walker, Jones and Richards are above Johnson in the pecking idea i agree with you its pretty good though

Between Italy and Portugal imo tho.....

They are not. Glen has just been injured. (he is turning into another Aurelio :facepalm), though I think Richards and Glen should fight it out for starting spot in Euros.

If people slate Glen defensively, I wonder what they think of Walker

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Germany NT is not very good defensively btw. Other than Hummels and Lahm... you have Badstuber and Mertesacker as the main guys. Boateng is coming on now. Just not very impressive... nowhere near the quality of the elite defensive teams in Europe.

Howedes?

RB is an issue for them though, i dont understand why Low doesnt call up Andreas Beck or Gonzalo Castro tho....

Yeah... Howedes too. But again, nothing great. They've given up 6 goals in euro qualifying... can't understand people voting them as the defense in Europe lol. They're not even in the elite group.

And btw, Portugal has given up 10 goals in euro qualifying... that's right, 10!!! Some of the voting here is comical.

Sports i have slated international football before so as you imagine i dont watch much of it so iam basing my opinions on paper.....

Oh Sepi, Walker offers more going forward imo.....

sportsczy wrote:Germany NT is not very good defensively btw. Other than Hummels and Lahm... you have Badstuber and Mertesacker as the main guys. Boateng is coming on now. Just not very impressive... nowhere near the quality of the elite defensive teams in Europe.

Well, I do hope that it will help when Boateng, Stubsi, Lahm & Neuer play together at Bayern and thus achieve some really blind understanding there. The drawback is that the positions are not as fixed as they could be (with Boateng always taken out of the CB position).

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Ganso wrote:----------Hart-------------
Glen-Rio-Smalling-Cole

pretty good imo

Walker, Jones and Richards are above Johnson in the pecking idea i agree with you its pretty good though

Between Italy and Portugal imo tho.....

Same Portugal that just conceded 3 to ICELAND?

Lionel Messi wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Ganso wrote:----------Hart-------------
Glen-Rio-Smalling-Cole

pretty good imo

Walker, Jones and Richards are above Johnson in the pecking idea i agree with you its pretty good though

Between Italy and Portugal imo tho.....

Same Portugal that just conceded 3 to ICELAND?

Immaculate_Mole wrote:Sports i have slated international football before so as you imagine i dont watch much of it so iam basing my opinions on paper.....

sportsczy wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Germany NT is not very good defensively btw. Other than Hummels and Lahm... you have Badstuber and Mertesacker as the main guys. Boateng is coming on now. Just not very impressive... nowhere near the quality of the elite defensive teams in Europe.

Howedes?

RB is an issue for them though, i dont understand why Low doesnt call up Andreas Beck or Gonzalo Castro tho....

Yeah... Howedes too. But again, nothing great. They've given up 6 goals in euro qualifying... can't understand people voting them as the defense in Europe lol. They're not even in the elite group.

U cant really base much based on qualification really.Teams experiment a lot and also affected by injuries and form and strength of group vary a lot too.

For example England had an outstanding qualifying campaign for Last world cup whereas Uruguay only qualified through play offs.But hardly they bought their qualification form into it.

Also didnt frnace struggle to qualify for 2006 wc only then to make final.Germany certainly did that in 2002.

As for German defense Neuer - Boeteng - Badstuber and Lahm are part of the defense for bayern who havent conceded a single goal is god knows how long.If they carry the same form into Euros they are more than elite.

If Nesta would get called back up, or even Paolo Cannaravaro, id say Italy would be #1 (Maggio/Cassani - Chiellini - Nesta/P. Cannavaro - Balzaretti) or at least be among the top. Right now, id say Germany is number 1 (Lahm - Hummels - Mertesacker/Howedes - Boateng/Trasch), followed by Serbia (Ivanovic - Vidic - Subotic - Kolarov). Portugal (Bosingwa - Carvalho - Pepe - Coentrao) deserves a mention too.

Lionel Messi wrote:

Immaculate_Mole wrote:

Ganso wrote:----------Hart-------------
Glen-Rio-Smalling-Cole

pretty good imo

Walker, Jones and Richards are above Johnson in the pecking idea i agree with you its pretty good though

Between Italy and Portugal imo tho.....

Same Portugal that just conceded 3 to ICELAND?

They didnt had their first choice deefence for that match.All of Carvalho Pepe Coentrao and Bosingwa were out for one reason or another.So u cant judge based on that match.

Actually BG, qualifying games are official and are exactly the ones you should be basing your opinion on. There is no experimentation there... The best play and play seriously. Depth is as much an indicator as the starting 4 because injuries and suspensions happen regularly. Friendlies are the ones that are difficult to judge because not everyone plays as hard, less pressure and a lot of experimentation

Italy let in 2, makes them top atm

Serbia.

Nobody wants anything to do with

Ivanovic--------Subotic----------Vidic-----------Kolarov

If they had a decent keeper it would be almost impossible to score.