CR7Dear Carlos Queiroz,
If you really want to reach the finals of the World Cup of South Africa 2010, this is your best Portuguese eleven at this moment.
This is a 4-1-2-1-2, but can easly chance into a 4-2-3-1. With this eleven, Queiroz can cover, if he wants!, all kind of playing for the Portuguese selection. It can play more possession ball, or counter-attack. It can use a reference forward, or try to penetrate with midfielders. It can attack from the wings or from the middle, etc.
The goalkeeper is Eduardo which is more or less consensual between everyone. Special attention should be made in case Portugal plays with defense very high: Eduardo, needs to be a kind of last defender in terms of using the feet to place the balls.
The back four is made of two ofensive back wings, like Miguel (on the right) and Coentrão (on the left), and of two central defenders such as Bruno Alves (functioning as a stopper) and Ricardo Carvalho (playing as a kind of sweeper). Coentrão and Miguel are good in arial balls. Nevertheless they must play attention to positioning, in case one goes forward, for the necessary defensive equilibrium. Carvalho for is experience should be the one that stays for the covering. Bruno Alves, with is skill and potent shooting should be the one to advance to create the extra-man combination in the midfield. In this situation, the player in the defensive midfield should cover his forward movement.
The midfield is occupied per 3, 4 or even 5 players, depending on the situation. The polivalence of the Portuguese players can be well used for this tactics. For example, Tiago and Veloso, are two well-known "box-to-box" midfielders. Ok, Miguel Veloso as been a defensive midfield for the last few seasons at Sporting. But this year, with the arrival of Pedro Mendes to Lisbon, he started to play more forward, which was the reason for scorring a lot of goals and doing a lot of assistances to his coleagues. A left foot in the midfield is always important for the passes estatiscal directions. Moreover, Tiago is also a player that can do the defensive midfield position without any problem. If we add the right dynamics, to this duo, in some photos to the game, we will see Veloso as number 6 and Tiago as number 8, and on other photos the opposite. Both have an excellent head capability.
Simão and Ronaldo will form the more offensive part of the midfield. Simão, is an intelligent player. Knows when, how and why to make the right pass at the right time for each of is team mates. For me, is the real number 10 of the squad and its captain. Cristiano Ronaldo, playing on the right or on the left side of the diamond geometrics of the midfield can do what he real likes to do: Ronaldo is not that kind of winger that stays the entire game connected to the line, Ronaldo is not that kind of forward player that likes to stay in front all the time. He needs to look the adversary from the front. The best way to do this is in the midfield, in a position where he can not have dificulties with the central back or with the defensive midfield of the opposite team. Of course the rest of his team mates should be aware of creating the necessary equilibrium when he starts to run, drible, combine, and advance to the opposite area.
Danny for me is that kind of flamboyant attacker. In Portugal we call this kind of player, the second attacker. In defensive maneuvers he can come to the midfield and make it a 5 player one. But, in attack, he is one of the players that should appear for Simão and CR7 to combine with him. Hugo Almeida is the "panzer" forward. Should be able to play with his back opposing to the adversary nets, but when necessary should have speed and acceleration to make diagonals. He needs to search for the "second bar" when the attack cames from the wings.
I understand that Duda, Pepe, Deco, Raul Meireles and Liedson, have done the qualification games, but their present form is not good. Even when they were in good form (in the qualifications), they did not perform very well together, because their styles does not combine very well together. Nevertheless, I think they can play some certain games in the group phase games and can be real good substitutes for the eliminatory games.
Best regards,
CR7
FORÇA PORTUGAL!
01.06.2010
