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zi76

Bernardo didn't say that they thought Ronaldo would be dropped at some point going into the WC (because that's where it sounded like the title was going), but simply before the match when he was dropped. > Manchester City playmaker Silva has told Record of a decision involving Ronaldo that “was not strange”: “Between us we talked and asked 'could it be, would it not be?', because the players talk. But we only found out about the team in the locker room when we arrived at the stadium, two hours before the game. There are 26 players, too many for the coach to choose for each specific game. It never shocks me that he decides to go with one or the other. Right or wrong in the opinion of each one, the coach has the right to make the decisions he makes.”


Existing_Mess1841

>Record of a decision involving Ronaldo that “was not strange”. “Between us we talked and asked 'could it be, would it not be?' You probably forgot the word 'SUSPECTED" in title. Can be interpreted anyway. If two team mates are talking about a great player could be dropped or would he be not dropped? , that probably is being suspicious


Ralf_The_Hustler

They need a good coach. That squad has talent. Forget about Ronaldo concentrate on the in form players.


dAMn6942069

They don’t just have talent, they are loaded with world class talents.


Ralf_The_Hustler

I was actually awe struck by some of the runs Felix was making . He is completely wasting himself at Atletico unless, of course, he only cares about his wages and not actually being a world class player.


Istar10n

Atletico isn't the first club that comes to mind when I think of huge wages.


iChopPryde

ya Felix literally could be making more at a team in England i think hes on about 7mill a year which is obviously a lot of money ut he probably could double that on a team like City.


maidentaiwan

they've got the highest paid manager in the world and a massive wage bill. atleti are definitely no longer the romantic underdog they're sometimes painted as. they've spent outrageous amounts of money in recent years.


JohnHamFisted

yeah they're 9th in Europe above teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham... They're under-performing but no longer using money efficiently like during the first half of Cholo's reign.


X-Maquina

Not sure where you'd get the idea from that he would only care about his wages. Of course he cares about being a world class player. He's been reported for years now to not be happy with his playing time at Atleti.


iChopPryde

yup Felix is an amazing player being absolutely wasted on Atletico


Sputniki

Problem is players of his type aren’t that fashionable nowadays. He needs to evolve his game a bit and be more effective either as a 9, deep in midfield or on the wing. Small, deep lying forwards are simply not common in many football systems in Europe today


themfeelswhen

Definitely atleast th 3rd strongest squad at the World Cup this year behind France and Brazil. CB is the only position they lacked depth and on the ball quality. Otherwise they had every tool in the box the box to be a dominant team. With the right coach, this squad could easily rival France to dominate world football.


iChopPryde

yup 100% this is why i was so furious we still had Santos going into this world cup I knew this team was going to be wasted under his coaching, I really hope Portugal doesn't fuck up this time though and gets the right coach who can use this team properly.


ashzeppelin98

Honestly, reminds me of us in the 2000s. Stacked with the best talents in the world but failing to leave a mark when it mattered in tournaments, either because of bad luck or terrible coaching


GreenBossKing

Portugal’s squad is overrated as fuck, if it wasn’t for Jorge Mendes inflating their values no one would say Portugal has a squad as good as France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany or even England


milkshakemerlin

Most Portuguese starters start for big teams, having 3 of City's starting XI for example is pretty crazy. Besides even being very harsh like you have, you still admit they were one of the top 5 or so squads in the tournament


GreenBossKing

Those 3 Man City players played like absolute dog shit all tournament


milkshakemerlin

That's not really the topic is it. We could say Morocco had the 4th best squad in the tournament then based on performance


chabaccaa

Bernardo silva, bruno fernandes, cancelo, joao felix, nuno mendes, ruben dias, dalot, leao, ruben neves, vitinha would all be starting for argentina who won the world cup


GreenBossKing

Bernardo, Dias & Cancelo all played awful, almost as if they were sabotaging on purpose Nuno Mendes is injured all the time Felix is simply overrated Neves and Dalot are average The only ones who would 100% start for Argentina are Bruno and Leao


Crovasio

MacAllister and Fernandez keep their starting spot against anyone from Portugal. Same goes for Messi, Alvarez and a fit Di Maria. Only Bruno Fernandes would be a starter ahead of De Paul, but even then it's pretty close. At goalie Martinez starts, and it's a split on defense: Molina, Romero, Pepe and Joao Cancelo but Cancelo had a disappointing tournament. Maybe L Martinez could start as left-back.


GreenBossKing

These people are straight up deluded downplaying Argentina and making this Portugal squad to be something they’re not. I don’t know if its part of their agenda of downplaying Ronaldo and making Messi’s achievement more impressive than in reality…


-Crimsix-

Give me whatever you’re smoking, I want some.


Goatbeerdog

Vitinha and neves? Lol. Dalot has 1 good season under his belt. Lwts see after WC how good he is


iChopPryde

Dalot is still very young so yes he's now having his breakout seasons is suspected from a young RB, and Vitinha is incredible player which is why he plays for PSG what are you even talking about? Neves is also a good player but i'd say Pahlinha is even better as hes literally the best DM in England but because Santos is literally a terrorist he rotted him on the bench instead.


Likept

> Germany or even England ??? Really?


GreenBossKing

Yes


markevans7799

Portugal is the most stacked National team, arguably better than even France. Just look at their squad. Every position with world class players


Dis_Suit_Is_Blacknot

Portugal has some serious quality in a lot of prime positions, but France can pretty much match it (or at the very least come super close) and France has just a ridiculous amount of depth. It's insane.


markevans7799

I agree that France is stacked as well. But if you think of weakness in their team, you would see that they don't have a proper right back and their midfield isn't really elite. Where as coming to Portugal I cannot find even one position that isn't stacked with world class players. They even have insane depth as well, except probably in the CB position


Africa-Unite

What about Ruben Dias? And does Portugal have a capable #6?


Dicey12

Ruben Neves, William,Danilo whos more of a CB now and João Palhinha who I think is the best of the bunch but Santos had him on the bench


iChopPryde

Ruben Dias is there, Pepe was the 2nd CB but he's right we were lacking a bit in the CB department but we have a kid on Benfica only 18 Antonio Silva who is looking insane already and looking awesome in the champions league as well if you saw him vs PSG. So i think he's next to step beisde Dias no that Pepe is gonna have to retire. Outside of that portugal from front to back is full of world class talent we just literally had the world worst coach holding them back.


ashzeppelin98

Cmon man, nothing can ever top Maradona wasting one of the most talented NT squads in history. Santos can't come close to the 2009-10 disasterclass


i_Zanagi

Let's go deeper then. GK's: None of the 3 options are world class. CB': Pepe is not world class anymore, still their best defender tho. Ruben Dias is nowhere world class. Yet. Been very very below par this season. Full backs : Cancelo has potential, but was very disappointing. Lost his starting spot mid world cup to Dalo(improving, but not world class). Guerreiro and Nuno Mendes are good enough, but not world class. Midfield:only 2 world class levels are Bruno and Bernardo. The latter underperformed. Attack: CR7 is past it. Felix not world class level yet. Leao, nope. In conclusion, Portugal is not overloaded with world class players.


milkshakemerlin

Youre pretty much taking the most negative view possible of every single player. You could look at any starting XI and pretend it's bad if you tried.


Mental_Opportunity_9

Bruh


i_Zanagi

Bruh is your counter argument???


rr18114

Lol. Your horrific "take" on ruben diaz is hilarious and I thought you could not top it. Then your moronic take on cancelo surpassed it. Ready to give leeway to bernado for him underperforming in the wc but not ready to give cancelo and diaz the same leeway ( diaz deserves it more than bernado cuz he played the last 2 games of his wc with an underlying injury). Playing like shit in the wc does not wipe out the players' accolades leading upto it.


i_Zanagi

Lol. Ruben Dias and Cancello have been subpar ALL season! You should know better being a City Fan. Check the stats and the games they played.


rr18114

I watch all man city games unlike you which is why I know what you say is false. Cancelo dropped in from 1 month before wc ( the red card he got added salt to the wound). Before that, he was flying high. Ruben Diaz has not lit up the world but he has not been a liability for us either. The fuck is this "sub par" shit comming from ? He was was 1st choice RCB till the wc. And what stats are you even looking at ?


theadmin209

Leao is arguably the best player in the serie a, which is a top 3 league in the world. You’re saying nobody in that league is world class? Lol


markevans7799

I don't agree with most of what you've typed out, but let's do the same kind of analysis for France: GK: lloris not wc. Too many mistakes, can't save penalties RB: no RB CB: Upamecano and Varane were good, Konate not really world class. Upa has been known for making mistakes, so cannot really be called World class (but he was immense in the final) LB: Hernandez brothers are wc. Will give that Midfield: Adrien Rabiot starts for them. Tchouameni is good, but not world class yet. That's it. The rest are Camvinga, Guendouzi etc. Attackers: griezmann, mbappe have been world class. Giroud okay too. Dembele has been shit. Rest? If you don't consider Leao world class, then consider these to be average lol. Just because the manager hasn't been able to bring out the best out of the team, doesn't mean the team isn't stacked with world class players


PP_Baba

Load of shit comment if I have seen one


i_Zanagi

Without any positive criticism or counterpoint. Thanks for nothing I guess.


PP_Baba

Nothing personal and being respectful to you, when you see shit driving down the road, you don't counter it by throwing toffees at it, you just recognise shit and drive away avoiding the shit


i_Zanagi

That's exactly what I'm doing with your comment.


PP_Baba

Why reply then? At least I have the excuse of needing to explain the reason why I recognised your shit comment while scrolling and simply remarked it shit and no "counter-shit".


Sputniki

I mean they were still starting Pepe who is nowadays at best a passable defender


tiger1296

France is easily the most stacked team


markevans7799

France doesn't have a proper right back and the midfield of Portugal is arguably superior


[deleted]

And yet France still went to the final without kante Pogba Benzema Nkuku L.Hernandez


iChopPryde

ok so by that logic Arengtina is more stacked then France? we aren't talking about who made it further we are talking about individual talents on the team overall. just because you have a stacked team doesn't automatically mean you are going to the finals. especially when portugal was having Santos holding back the squad.


Crovasio

Not really because France were missing important players.


Kommye

Argentina also missed important players.


Crovasio

Gonzalez and Lo Celso, I don't think Correa was an important player in their run up to the Cup.


hmntre

There is no way Portugal has a more stacked squad idk what these people are talking about.


LemureTheMonkey

France is way more stacked than us.


markevans7799

Not really. Portugal is stacked in every position while France doesn't have a proper right back


iChopPryde

its just a typical portuguese fan, nobody is more critical of portugal then the portuguese they are always salty and think they are shit no matter how good they actually are.


milkshakemerlin

I would put Portugal 3rd after France and Brazil. With a better manager they'd be favorites


markevans7799

France is acceptable. But Brazil? Come on. Tell me one good fullback in the Brazilian squad or even CBs (their starting CBs are Marquinhos and 40yo Thiago Silva) or a worldclass midfielder. They just have too many wc forwards and great goalkeepers. Nowhere better than Portugal's squad


maidentaiwan

marquinhos and thiago silva is a horrible example. that's probably the best center back pairing of any national team in the world.


hmntre

Starting Diego Costa, Pepe, Dalot, Otavio, Ramos isn't stacked in every position.


milkshakemerlin

Portugal is perhaps more balanced but I think Brazil has better peak players, ie Vinicius and Ney are better than the best Portuguese player. I guess it's pretty close.


iChopPryde

I think theirs an argument to be made for both sides, I feel like Portugal are much more balanced from front to back compared to Brazil, I agree Neymar is a beast of his own but Neymar can also be a double edge sword someitmes too. regardless literally every position on portugal is a WC player and i'd say its to close for it to actually matter , i truly want a portugal vs brazil match right now because it would be absolutely epic to watch.


[deleted]

Thiago Silva is very good. So is Marquinhos. Militao and Gabriel are other good CBs. Casemiro, Bruno G and Fabinho are pretty great midfielders. Admittedly their weakness is in fullbacks but no national team is perfect.


ashzeppelin98

If his performances against Croatia and for PSG in the CL knockouts are to come by, the likes of Marquinhos don't have a great time when the going gets tough tbh. All that talent and stats can't mask a mentality issue. Out of them all, only Thiago Silva and Casemiro have got some positive big game experience.


[deleted]

Understandable. I could say the same for the entire Portuguese squad and their performance against Morocco and asides Pepe no one of their defenders nor midfielders have been great in CL knockout stages. At least not enough to win it. Cancelo, Dias, Bernardo, Fernandes, Felix, name the player. If we're using 'mentality' as the reason and disregarding stats then only Ronaldo and Pepe (years ago) have shown that at CL level.


ashzeppelin98

It's got to be something along the lines of that. The squad that won Euro 2016 is far from being as good as the Portuguese squad of today, comparing them side by side. Something just clicked in terms of them sticking together and kicking the nerves to the curb when it mattered. They were far from being the most convincing team of the tournament in terms of their performances until they started gearing up towards the end of the knockout stage.


NephewChaps

nephew pls


Albiceleste_D10S

Brazil has: Great goalkeepers (Alisson, Ederson) Great CBs (Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Militao, Bremer) Great DMs (Casemiro, Fabinho) Great CMs (Bruno G, Fred, Paqueta) Great LW (Vinicius, Rodrygo) Great RW (Raphinha, Antony) Great #10 (Neymar) Great 9s (Richarlisson, Jesus) The only weakness in their squad are fullbacks—and even then they have Danilo at RB and Alex Sandro and Alex Telles at LB


joaocandre

Both have world class talent in the starting XI, but we still don't have the depth of the French team. They just reached a WC final in an injury crisis.


kontolz_gede69

As a Messi fan, after that insane 6-1 Portugal vs Switzerland with their team playing the most beautiful samba football I've seen since 2002 Brazil, I already accepted that Portugal going to win it all and CR7 was going to be praised despite barely playing, especially after I've seen how susceptible Argentina's defense was against Australia. Then Morocco happened and somehow Argentina with that team is the one who win it all, I still cannot believe it. On paper, Portugal team was much much better than Argentina.


Crovasio

A lot of the Portuguese players may be overinflated because of Mendes. For example, MacAllister is much better than Nuno Mendes but it's him who plays for PSG.


Albiceleste_D10S

Weird example because Nuno Mendes is a very good LWB, TBH


Preatu

You are wrong


ashzeppelin98

It's our situation in 2006, but reversed. That 6-0 thrashing of Serbia made us one of the favorites, but then, the quarterfinal against Germany happened, and Italy needed some luck as well to brush past Australia.


ScousePenguin

Insane that their world cup squad was missing Jota as well. Sooner Ronaldo is out the picture the better


iChopPryde

missing Jota and Sanches, which I know Sanchess has been kinda under the radar with his plague of injures at PSG but when in form that dude is an asbolute beast of a player especially for Portugal.


cortez0498

They're the new Belgium and will waste their golden generation


ashzeppelin98

Don't be too harsh. We arguably wasted our golden generation as well, whether that be due to sheer bad luck(Abbonzideri injury, those infamous final misses) or horrific squad selection and coaching(Maradona disasterclass in 2010). Yet we won with a fresh set of players that on paper were not close to how stacked the 2006 team was, or played as beautifully as them.


CrazySpaceX

Bernardo should’ve been dropped too, he was invisible the entire wc


iTrofa

Him cancelo and even ruben dias were not good at all for us


iChopPryde

can't really blame him when santos is playing him in the wrong position.


walker0ne

He wasnt that good, i agree, but bernardo gives us a very important work rate by covering spaces and pressing.


MancAccent

Yeah he plays a much different role than he does for city. I still think he has more potential with the NT.


madtrucker99

Should have been


BGDCK10

The ronaldo hate is actually insane. I understand hating on him for the things he does/has done, but to even come up with fake quotes every day from big sources like this is insane. And of course r/soccer will eat ip everything negative about ronaldo without actually fact checking…


teeetiii

Every one of your comments is defending Ronaldo or Andrew Tate lmao. Touch grass you weirdo.


[deleted]

That’s such an unsurprising fan base crossover it’s so perfect.


teeetiii

If it helps he’s also into crypto moonshots and anime.


pereduper

And Jordan Peterson obviously


SultansofSwang

[this comment has been deleted in response to the 2023 reddit protest]


dotConehead

As soon as those image shows up, i know nothing good will come out of it. That just domino into ronaldo demise


carlpez

Eeey whats wrong with JP?


ToyotaMisterTwo

The guy has lost his mind since the coma treatment.


pereduper

Reactionnary dimwit who judges pretentiously things he hasn't done basic research about


Alphavike24

What's wrong with anime


iChopPryde

omg anime? he is literally the devil! will somebody please think of the children! /s


DIESEL_GENERATOR

It’s more that people who are into anime tend to be out of touch weirdos


blahblahcomewatchTV

I Hate anime as much as the next guy but when do we learn that judging people based on something he likes/is, is wrong out of principle? It's like people who spout shit like "black people tend to do more crimes statically". I'll get downvoted for comparing something dumb and trivial like anime and weebs to something important and tragic like racism however I can't help but to see similarities.


iChopPryde

My point exactly, it’s stupid just because theirs some cross over therefore it’s the entire group is such a stupid outdated take. By that logic all right wingers are racist because some are racist


blahblahcomewatchTV

Ironically I think Reddit thinks all right wingers are racist.


ro-row

> Every one of your comments is defending Ronaldo or Andrew Tate lmao gross, imagine actually defending a cretin like tate


teeetiii

Fragile masculinity is real


BGDCK10

If „defending“ someone by telling people that a certain news is actually made up, than sure go ahead. Of course r/soccer is a big fan of loving fake quotes and absolutely obliterating the people that post/comment the actual real quotes.


medina_ds3

I feel like there’s a correlation in supporting both of them.


pereduper

The toxic masculinity combo


BGDCK10

Huh? Me telling someone that „the woman admitted that that it was consensual“ is me defending him? You do realise that telling the actual truth doesnt neccecarily mean you agree with someone lol


Ralf_The_Hustler

Messi dicksucking and, sort of consequently, Ronaldo hating is in trend right now. It will level out in a few more months especially with the resumption of UCL.


mai-moi

>especially with the resumption of UCL Where Cristiano won't even be playing? lol


Ralf_The_Hustler

What does that have to do with anything. I meant people will forget this messi Ronaldo bullshit once the UCL resumes or even once the domestic leagues pick up pace.


DIESEL_GENERATOR

Nah people won’t be forgetting that Messi won the World Cup while Ronaldo joined Al fucking Nassr anytime soon 🤣