Portugal? Probably Egypt though. Not sure on Poland but Argentina has a plethora of excellent players. Aguero and Messi are just the cherry on top.Which team is the most reliant on their best player? Is it Argentina? Egypt? Poland?
Germany
Brazil
Spain
France
Argentina
England
Portugal (i.e. Ronaldo)
Belgium
Someone else
Portugal? Probably Egypt though. Not sure on Poland but Argentina has a plethora of excellent players. Aguero and Messi are just the cherry on top.Which team is the most reliant on their best player? Is it Argentina? Egypt? Poland?
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
That's the tricky thing. It's so much easier to judge Messi and Ronaldo by their goal counts. But what if David De Gea is just as good of a goalkeeper as they are forwards? How do you measure it?
And then, is it even right to judge forwards on goal alone? I know the old school view is yes, but if they're in a system where their job is to do something else, and they do that job well, why is scoring a goal better?
The example I can think of as a Liverpool fan is Roberto Firmino. He's scored 25 this season in all competitions which is really respectable, but it's not quite so impressive when compared to a certain Egyptian team mate. But I think - and I appreciate there are not a lot of people outside of Liverpool fans who think like this - he's actually a better player than Salah because the work he does off the ball, both out of possession in making tackles and in possession in making runs, helps the team more. I don't think it's that unreasonable to say Salah wouldn't have scored anywhere near as much if, say. Harry Kane was Liverpool's no. 9. But then Firmino probably wouldn't have been as effective either if Kane replaced Salah in the line up, so it works both ways.
I guess we'll see how effective the two of them are without the other in the World Cup!
They didn't qualify, but Wales (sorry Manus). I would agree about Egypt and Poland on paper, and also you could probably make a case for Colombia.
Makes me sad that Bobby probably isn't going to start for Brazil, but will be one hell of a super sub off the bench.
De Gea as the world's best player is a very interesting theory too. Has there ever been a time when a goalie was considered the best player in the world?
Take care all.
Just once, 1963. A very familiar name is in joint eighth place. Maybe he really is a vampire after all...
I felt the same about Neymar before he left PSG and was playing for Barca. But as you said it's almost impossible to judge really? Many pundits say scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in football so you can imagine why they side with forwards so often.
You could also look at it as who's the most influential player you could bring in if you had a blank cheque. I'd class someone like De Bruyne as more essential than Ronaldo there.
As for your question - I think you're on the money with Lewandowski and Salah as their more relied on players because they seem to perform well for them when asked the question. I know Poland had the likes of cannon fodder in their qualifying group but the amount of goals Lewandowski got was staggering. I'm really looking forward to Group H. And yeah Wales/Bale definitely is an example close to home that we see. It used to be Roy Keane with Ireland.
Str8 Pimpin'
Mexican, USA and Canadian joint bid for the expanded world cup has gone through. What an utter disaster. I mean, not quite Qatar levels of disaster, but a different kind!
Also, wow, that Spain coach stuff huh?
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
I don’t really have anything to say about the World Cup, but I’ve never understood why forwards are mainly considered for the best player. I guess scoring goals is one of the more exciting parts to watch. As someone who played soccer most of my life. I always felt forward was the easiest position to play as long as the rest of the team is doing what they should. Goal keeper is one of the hardest (and most fun) to play. I was worst at defense. Not that this has much to do with the players you all are talking about. I haven’t watched soccer in a few years now, so I can’t speak for any of the players.
Well Mexico has already hosted it twice since 1970 and the USA has hosted it already in my lifetime, and I'm still in my 20s. How about giving another country a go?
Not to mention the travel times, not just for the teams but for the fans too. Not only is it tiring, inconvenient and expensive but won't there be travel restrictions between the countries?
And don't get me started on the expansion of the world cup, we already get a fair few awful games with 32 teams, there are going to be some serious unwatchables in there, especially with some many players tired and jetlagged from the likely travel times between games.
And if they're intent on hosting it across a number of countries, get on over to the UK!
Expanding to 48 teams is daft, but I have no problems with USA/Canada/Mexico hosting (god knows it's better than Qatar). Everyone would have whinged anyway if they'd given it to Morocco. Mind you, maybe Mexico should have got all of it, as I always say they guarantee a great World Cup.
"Excuse me Miss, do you like pineapple?"
Someone who was born during that World Cup would be 32 years old when the next one kicks off. That isn't really that frequently for one of the only places in the world that's actually got enough soccer stadiums already built to manage an event of that size. Especially given that UEFA countries weren't eligible to bid.
CONCACAF was the region that will have gone by far the longest without hosting by then, so who exactly in CONCACAF do you think should be hosting a 48-team major international soccer tournament?
48 teams sure is a lot! I too worry we'll see far too many watered down group stage games but on the bright side, since the US is a co-host, we already qualified for it! All hail 2026 golden ball winner Christian Pulisic!
Take care all. Allez allez allez.
Meanwhile at the Premier League:
"It's World Cup day! We can't have people focusing on players from foreign leagues - publish next season's fixtures!"
Meanwhile at the agent of every player who isn't at the World Cup:
"My client is like, totally fed up or something. He wants to leave. I've already told all my media chums so they can still get on the back pages during this tournament"
there was a picture here