Belgium National Team

[Zidane98]

EPL commentators are going mental over them. Scary how good they will be with the following lineup:


----------------Mignolet------------


Verthongen-----Kompany----V.Buyten----Vermaelen


----------------Dembele--------------


Defour---------Fellaini------------Hazard


-----------Mirallas--------Lukaku




Can see them being an outside chance for Brazil 14 with that lineup. Discuss.

 

[Thistle]

First XI is quality but do they have much depth?

 

[mojito]

First XI is quality but do they have much depth?

This.

Through the centre of the park, they're set. Where they're let down IMO is out wide.

 

[Tulip]

This.

Through the centre of the park, they're set. Where they're let down IMO is out wide.

Hazard, Defour, Vertonghen and Vermaelen?

Far better than England and most nations, not that JV can play right back...

 

[mojito]

Hazard, Defour, Vertonghen and Vermaelen?

Far better than England and most nations, not that JV can play right back...

I mean in terms of depth out wide.

beyond that...who have they got?

 

[Tulip]

I mean in terms of depth out wide...beyong that...who have they got?

Oh, I see.

Not a clue...

 

[pantskyle]

Should do well as long as they never have to make a sub, don't get any injuries or suspensions.

 

[Magma]

the lineup in the first post is very odd. verm isn't a right back, defour isnt a winger, fella plays as a def mid, van buyten will be 36 when the wc comes round. any team playing 4-1-3-2 would get killed by teams like spain, argentina and brazil too.

mignolet
alderweireld kompany vert verm
fella
mertens dembele nainggolan hazard
lukaku

subs: courtois, lombaerts, vanden borre, witsel, defour, de bruyne, mirallas

how they'll lineup at the world cup imo, give or take a few changes in the midfield. not enough mertens love, his game against the netherlands was supreme, a goal and 2 assists in 20 mins. nianggolan is also quality, who i suspect won't be at cagliari

 

[GrandBlue]

Overrated as hell. You're not even going to come close to winning a World Cup with the entire defense consisting of four centre-halves. Sorry, it doesn't work, plain and simple.

They have talented players, but seriously lack good structure.

 

[Flameboy]

Defense looks incredibly ...slow? Aside from that they look super.

Also don't forget Thibaut Courtois, who by mid 2014 might be their no.1 keeper

 

[Flameboy]

the lineup in the first post is very odd. verm isn't a right back, defour isnt a winger, fella plays as a def mid, van buyten will be 36 when the wc comes round. any team playing 4-1-3-2 would get killed by teams like spain, argentina and brazil too.

mignolet
alderweireld kompany vert verm
fella
mertens dembele nainggolan hazard
lukaku

subs: courtois, lombaerts, vanden borre, witsel, defour, de bruyne, mirallas

how they'll lineup at the world cup imo, give or take a few changes in the midfield. not enough mertens love, his game against the netherlands was supreme, a goal and 2 assists in 20 mins. nianggolan is also quality, who i suspect won't be at cagliari

Did you watch him tear shreds off United a week ago playing CF?

 

[Hatchy1992]

De Bruyne will challenge for a first XI spot. The loan deal will do him good. Him and Hazard behind Lukaku will scare any national team defence. Dries Mertens is already a star. Their defence is solid too. Vermaelen is arguably Arsenal's most important defender.

They'll challenge for many years to come.

 

[apollo_creed]

football isn't won on paper.

 

[GrandBlue]

football isn't won on paper.

Couldn't have said it better. You can be a world class team on paper, but what if the manager is clueless? or if all those class players don't gel together in the same team?

Even on paper I'd still say they're not even close to winning trophies, because they don't seem to have any good fullbacks.

 

[Latro]

Vermaelen is not that good at full back. Would fit better playing 352.

 

[Zidane98]

Vermaelen is not that good at full back. Would fit better playing 352.

Agreed. Don't know of any top quality L/RB's from Belgium - playing 3 at the back is probably the way to go with them since they have 4 top quality central defenders (3 if you don't include Van Buyten who probably won't play at Brazil 2014).

Apparently there are some internal issues within the team between players who speak French and players who speak Flemish (sort of similar to the dutch infighting). One thing's for sure they are a fantastic team on paper. And most of the squad are probably good to go until Russia 2018.

 

[Rack Watts]

OMG, my friends and I were talking about this on the weekend when we realised that Hazard was Belgian and that Everton had signed Mirallas (sick signing)

 

[mojito]

Where's Kompany when you need him?

 

[Magma]

the only thing with the belgium team is the 'if's'

if guys like lukaku develop
if they can do away with their infighting
if they can gel together
if they can get fullbacks (aldweireld will be class)

and fella is a defensive midfielder, nothing else. he's not suddenly an attacking midfield because he tore apart united, he is and always will be a defensive mid, and will be deployed as such for belgium.

 

[Hap Hapablap]

quality side but as some have said, depth is an issue.

and fergie should learn, whoever rapes united, bring them to united. marouane has done it numerous times. time to buy him old scottie.

 

[Redalert]

I notice Axel Witsel hasn't been mentioned, saw him in the Champions League last season and he had a fair bit of quality about him, you'd expect him to slide into the start XI. He'd help the midfield depth a bit, quite a versatile player by all accounts, capable of playing in the center or on the right.

 

[LeverPuller]

Could 3-5-2 be functional internationally?

Also, Dedryck Boyata (Man City) and Anthony Vanden Borre (Genk) are probably the right-backs. Left-back is still a problem and probably the achilles heel.

 

[Cruyff14]

van Buyten is a dinosaur, no way he will be in the starting lineup at 2014

 

[Kompany]

First XI is quality but do they have much depth?

Should do well as long as they never have to make a sub, don't get any injuries or suspensions.

There's plenty of depth actually, but not in every position. As mentioned by some, the lack of fullbacks is the real problem. So far it's choosing between playing center backs out of position (Vertonghen on LB and Alderweireld on RB) or playing guys who aren't international level. Vanden Borre has the talent but he's not up for it mentally. The day he gets his act together...

The problem with the fullback position is that you need a guy who plays there every week. You can't expect a guy like Vertonghen or Vermaelen to sprint down the flank all game when they train every day to play in the center.

But otherwise there is plenty of backup in other positions. I'd like to play with Courtois; Alderweireld, Kompany, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Dembele, Fellaini, Defour, Witsel; Hazard, Lukaku. That gives Mignolet, Lombaerts, Van Buyten, Mudingayi, Nainggolan, Chadli, Mertens, De Bruyne and Mirallas as backup. For a country like Belgium that is a very solid group of players.

And for the future, there's more of the same - it's remarkable how many talents we are getting now after years and years of darkness. Obviously they won't be ready for the next 2 tournaments but those are players who are likely to end up playing with many of this current young generation - there's Charly Musonda Jr (Chelsea), Andreas Perreira (Man Utd) and Zakaria Bakkali (PSV), Hazard has 3 brothers (not saying they'll be his level but who knows one of them gets decent enough as well), Lukaku has one, Dennis Praet is very promising...

Through the centre of the park, they're set. Where they're let down IMO is out wide.

It's not that bad actually. Chadli, Mertens and De Bruyne can all play on the wing. Even Dembele has played there in the past for club and country.

Unless you only meant our defense of course, then you couldn't be more right.

Apparently there are some internal issues within the team between players who speak French and players who speak Flemish (sort of similar to the dutch infighting).

Yeah nah, the atmosphere in the group has arguably never been better really. The players love playing for the NT at the moment.

the only thing with the belgium team is the 'if's'

if guys like lukaku develop
if they can do away with their infighting
if they can gel together
if they can get fullbacks (aldweireld will be class)

and fella is a defensive midfielder, nothing else. he's not suddenly an attacking midfield because he tore apart united, he is and always will be a defensive mid, and will be deployed as such for belgium.

Lukaku seems to have started well at West Brom. Hazard is developing quicker than all of us had hoped, De Bruyne is at the right club right now, Witsel has done brilliant in Portugal, Fellaini has become a much better player than I thought he was, same for Dembele... I'm mentioning some of the 'older' guys as well, but it just shows that almost all our young talents have answered their high expectations. Only Vanden Borre has disappointed and Defour's development has been slowed down by injury, but he was sublime against Holland earlier this month.

There's no infighting at the moment, if anything, this team seems to stick together more than any other Belgian team in my lifetime. But fullbacks are a big problem indeed.

I notice Axel Witsel hasn't been mentioned, saw him in the Champions League last season and he had a fair bit of quality about him, you'd expect him to slide into the start XI.

Yeah Witsel starts every game really. Probably his last season for Benfica this year.

van Buyten is a dinosaur, no way he will be in the starting lineup at 2014

He's a valuable squad member still. Likeable person, experienced, very motivated and even at 36 he should still be good enough to come on late in the game if an urgent goal is needed.

 

[SSSSSS]

Real good future prospects for Belgium. A golden era perhaps?

Lukakku, Hazard, Alderweireld, Courtois, Witsel and Fellaini. That right there is a very good nucleus to build a team. Further down the track, Thorgan Hazard looks like he has class but whether he makes it is another thing.

If experienced players such as Kompany, Mirralas, Dembele and Vermaelen can still perform on the international level in the next 4 years then Belgium could be deadly indeed.