Belgium has an ambiguous status before the World Cup in Russia. Roberto Martinez's individualities are impressive, but questions persist collectively. What can the Red Devils aspire to?
INDIVIDUALLY, BELGIUM IS STILL AS IMPRESSIVE AS EVER
On Monday, the Football Observatory (CIES) published its assessment of the best players from the five major leagues, post by post, taking into account the performances since 26 December 2017. Brilliant with Tottenham and excellent against Juventus Turin in the Champions League, Moussa Dembélé is second behind Toni Kroos in the defensive midfield, while Kevin De Bruyne, who walks on the water with Manchester City (14 decisive passes in the Premier League), is ranked sixth in the box-to-box midfield. Higher up on the pitch, Eden Hazard and Dries Mertens were put forward on the attacking side. The former has 15 goals and 11 assists with Chelsea in all competitions, while the latter is the third highest scorer in Serie A with 17 goals. If the CIES ranking will certainly be discussed by many fans, it reflects a trend: individually, Belgium is armed as it has certainly never been. At each line, the Red Devils have players who play in some of the best European clubs, with a top European goalkeeper (Courtois), solid defenders (Kompany, Alderweireld...), extremely influential midfielders (De Bruyne, Nainggolan, Witsel, Dembélé...) and effective strikers (Lukaku, Batshuayi...). Either the favourite's panoply. With the exception that collectively, many questions still arise...
COLLECTIVELY, QUESTIONS REMAIN OUTSTANDING
Roberto Martinez's real tactical contribution since his arrival has been the transition to a three-man defence. This idea was established after a first friendly match lost to Spain (0-2), and welcomed by the Belgian press in general. The results of the Red Devils in the qualification phase for the World Cup can only encourage optimism, with a record of nine wins and a draw, 43 goals scored and only six conceded. All this while the pool of players who can play in the axis (Kompany, Vermaelen, Boyata, Vertonghen, Alderweireld...) is impressive. The only problem is that this organisation has no reference at the highest level - Group H in the Europe zone was largely affordable - and defensive difficulties were noted, particularly in certain friendly matches (3-3 against Mexico). Kevin De Bruyne had not hesitated to publicly give up what he had thought of Martinez's tactics during the match against the South American team: "The match against Mexico confirmed what I had said after Bosnia: we have to find a tactical plan for the team. We played Mexico with a system that wasn't good at beating this team. We created chances, but I think on the defensive side there were too many spaces, because we were too far behind, we didn't have the courage to place the team higher. This allowed Mexico to have possession," he said.
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