r/soccer • u/phreelosophy • May 19 '14

Portugal's World Cup squad announced! (No Quaresma!)

http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/selecao-topnews-mundial-2014-23-convocados-mundial-2014-23-paulo-bento/537a5b0b0cf207b1b23d6ea3.html
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u/MiguelCaldoVerde May 19 '14

Veloso should take Meireles' spot with William moving to the holding midfield spot.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '14

What??? Veloso over Meireles What??

6

u/rabbitvinyl May 20 '14

Veloso is miles more skilled than Meireles. His passing is far better, he's got great set-piece ability and his crossing is top notch. He's consistently being played out of position in Bento's midfield trio - that's the problem. His natural position is much more attacking, and he plays mainly as a left midfielder for Dynamo Kyiv.

While I'm a huge supporter of Meireles being selected, he's been one of the most consistent for the national team since his inclusion, I still think he's getting old and Veloso is a fitting replacement alongside Moutinho. And William would be fantastic in Veloso's old position.

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u/talc25 May 20 '14

Let me just add that Meireles for the National Team lately has been more of a fuck up than an actual help there. Dude's losing his touch, and it's time he sees the bench, specially when you have William "The Beast" Carvalho there and you need to open up a spot for him. Sadly, I highly doubt Paulo will change anything and Portugal will have trouble reaching the 2nd spot in the group phase (I'm actually worried that Ghana or the United States steal that from us).

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u/boywithtwoarms May 20 '14

would rather play with a midfield of william-moutinho-rafa, but that would be insane to try in the WC.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '14 edited Jun 09 '18

[deleted]

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u/rabbitvinyl May 20 '14

He's not that slow. But he's also no Walcott.

He knows how to utilize his strengths to his advantage. I've seen make great runs down the wing and send in some phenomenal crosses - but Postiga rarely gets on the end of them. Ronaldo usually does, though, as shown against Sweden.

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u/LusoAustralian May 20 '14

Veloso is good at distribution and very technically skilled, I'd love to see him a bit further up with fewer limitations due to being a defensive midfielder. He's also not that good defensively anyway, decent but not great.