Quote from: BobK71 on Today at 01:13:07 PM

Quote from: Sithara007 on Today at 03:05:06 AM

Quote from: skarais on December 23, 2022, 06:09:54 PM

Santos has found the best formula for his squad, despite not playing one of the best player for 70 minutes against Switzerland and 50 minutes against Morocco. I don't think Santos underestimates the quality of the opposing team, but Santos doesn't want his game to be centered on Ronaldo, who might be more dangerous for his team.

Many people say Portugal's game is better without Ronaldo, but not a few of them are denied by fans. Small mistakes will become big when the team loses, but if Portugal win against Morocco then surely Santos will be praised. The World Cup is over, and now what else.

Seriously? If Portugal's game was so much better without Ronaldo, then they would have won against a weak team such as Morocco. Game will be centered around Ronaldo when he plays, because the opposition realizes that he is the player who is most likely to score goals. And this gives opportunities to the other Portuguese players to make attempts on their own. What next? Brazil playing without Neymar and Argentina playing without Messi, so that the game doesn't get centered around these players? In international football things doesn't work like that.

When a team has a prominent player, the pressure on the opposing team is greatly high. Especially some of the opposing team's players always have to pay special attention to that particular player. It is the great advantage who have such type of player. I think it would have been a similar situation if Ronaldo was on the field. He was eventually called on but Portugal did not get a chance to score due to lack of time. Most of the supporters are agree with this concern.

You are right, Portugal lost the match against Morocco in the World Cup. A legendary player like Cristiano Ronaldo was not allowed to play full time despite being in Portugal. But I think the coach of the team has not made a very wrong decision because the current performance of Cristiano Ronaldo is very bad. However, everyone is thinking that if Cristiano Ronaldo was kept in the eleven from the beginning of the match, something good could have happened earlier.