Inside Sport

Who is our CB back up?


https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Topic3070270.aspx

By Pasquali - 19 Apr 2023 12:00 AM

We saw against Ecuador that Deng was not to standard. Who else do we have? Wright (although injured atm), JRB?, Sainsbury(he is only 31 after all), Circati?
By grazorblade - 26 Apr 2023 12:48 AM

Decentric 2 - 26 Apr 2023 12:11 AM
Lurker - 24 Apr 2023 5:38 AM

Rowles, and many other successful CBs  in Qatar, might also struggle in an overly physical, second ball league. 

Rowles is every bit as good as Souttar - at international football level. I'm going away and won't be able to access this site for a week, but if I list a range of CB specific skills and duties, Rowles  has a diverse skill set.

There are no club teams as good as France and Argentina at the last WC.  Have a look at the list of outstanding  players who were  either injured, or not selected for France in Qatar.

The late rounds of the Champ League are very, very good teams - at playing in Europe. Being good in Europe does not always extrapolate   to playing in Africa, South America, Asia, Middle-east.

Think Belgium, Denmark, in the Qatari, Brazilian and South African World Cups. Both Spain and Germany struggled in Qatar too, which was an aberration for both. Some European national teams are  mentally fragile outside Europe and playing in unfamiliar cultures and conditions. 

UEFA, and results gained from it, does not always equate to global football. 

Mostly agree but i think r16 of the uefa is a similar level to the wc.

incidentally they are similar in style too with around 1000 passes per game being the norm

One interesting recent development is that posession is  anti correlated with success at the highest level (wc and r16 uefa) in recent times. However, top teams counteract possession football do so with a high number of passes per minute with the ball mostly on the deck. So the skillset at the highest level is the same even if tactics have changed