Roberto Martinez


Greece weren’t exactly packed with stars either…..
Their peak was 2016 and they got dumped out of the Euros by Wales. Martinez wasn't in charge then. They finished 3rd at the 2018 World Cup under Martinez which is their best ever performance, and they lost to the eventual champions. I think that was their ceiling anyway.

I'm not convinced they've ever been that good and Martinez has done a pretty decent job I think. His main mistake at this World Cup was giving the old guard one last victory lap. They're finished and it would have been far better to blood the youth with an eye on the Euros in 2024. They'll regret that.
….and what was Greeces ceiling?
 
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Stacked - in what way?

Problem is whilst they've had an awful lot of top players (Kompany was way past it in 2018) they all played centre half (pre 2018) central midfield, up front (and that was when Benteke was meant to be decent) and they lacked fullbacks and good right sided players for years. Their squad therefore was made up of lesser players and they struggle to get the balance right whether to play players out of position or play lesser ones. They were never that good.
Spot on. Playing CB’s as full backs iirc and Belgian football journos said at the time it was a problem. Lack of experience / pedigree compared to the likes of France, Italy, Spain and Germany probably didn’t help either, but ultimately they just weren’t that good.
 
Stacked - in what way?

Problem is whilst they've had an awful lot of top players (Kompany was way past it in 2018) they all played centre half (pre 2018) central midfield, up front (and that was when Benteke was meant to be decent) and they lacked fullbacks and good right sided players for years. Their squad therefore was made up of lesser players and they struggle to get the balance right whether to play players out of position or play lesser ones. They were never that good.
Think that one of their biggest problems is the gulf between their better players and their weaker ones and this is why they can't gel as a team.
Most national teams, Germany, Italy, Spain and even England the majority of there squads will all play in the top leagues in the world, whereas that's not always the case for them. They have some players playing for the biggest clubs in the world and some how are championship level at best
 
Spot on. Playing CB’s as full backs iirc and Belgian football journos said at the time it was a problem. Lack of experience / pedigree compared to the likes of France, Italy, Spain and Germany probably didn’t help either, but ultimately they just weren’t that good.
Germany won their last World Cup playing four centre halves, think they were inspired by the football maverick called Tony pulis
 
Greece weren’t exactly packed with stars either…..

….and what was Greeces ceiling?

Greece and Denmark before them played in a way that was probably accepted by their fans and media due to the lack of talent available and lack of expectations and are two pretty freak results in God knows how many years.

Can you imagine how much stick the Belgium team and manager etc would get for being so negative? Sure they'd celebrate a win, but how likely would it really be and how do you get everyone on board? It would be nigh on impossible to get everyone pulling together and do it with a team and nation with any level of expectation and talent.

Southgate for example is a touch negative and despite being more successful in tournaments than all but one English man in history pretty much gets vilified for playing two defensive central midfielders to protect an obviously weak defence - it just wouldn't be accepted in a nation with talent and would build more negativity.
 
Greece and Denmark before them played in a way that was probably accepted by their fans and media due to the lack of talent available and lack of expectations and are two pretty freak results in God knows how many years.

Can you imagine how much stick the Belgium team and manager etc would get for being so negative? Sure they'd celebrate a win, but how likely would it really be and how do you get everyone on board? It would be nigh on impossible to get everyone pulling together and do it with a team and nation with any level of expectation and talent.

Southgate for example is a touch negative and despite being more successful in tournaments than all but one English man in history pretty much gets vilified for playing two defensive central midfielders to protect an obviously weak defence - it just wouldn't be accepted in a nation with talent and would build more negativity.
Southgate should just come out n say it. “It’s the only way we can compete and it nivver did the Greeks any harm” we could all choose to watch or not. Instead we’re talking ourselves into believing summet that he’s got no intention of delivering ie “exciting football”. Just led Foden, Trent, Maddison, Grealish etc stay at home and have a well earned rest instead of dragging them around the world for the occasional comfortable 15 mins or desperate 10 mins.
 
Southgate should just come out n say it. “It’s the only way we can compete and it nivver did the Greeks any harm” we could all choose to watch or not. Instead we’re talking ourselves into believing summet that he’s got no intention of delivering ie “exciting football”. Just led Foden, Trent, Maddison, Grealish etc stay at home and have a well earned rest instead of dragging them around the world for the occasional comfortable 15 mins or desperate 10 mins.

True. To be fair how exciting is tournament football these days, especially the knockout phase - most teams concentrate on not making mistakes. Look at Brazil today and their fullbacks- little supporting attacks, overlapping etc.
 

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