Topic: Russia 2018 World Cup Squads

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Is there a reason Ben Yedder won’t ever take a Tunisia call up?

Rejected his only chance to play at a World Cup.

Probably got better things to do than waste his time with this pointless compeition. Probably wants to play some club football for fans that give a shiny..

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Agree with you, but Deschamps seems to really like both of them. I guess both are quite good team players - Giroud always seems to create loads for the players around him, and Lemar's a really good worker and link player.

I like Giroud but his style of play slows sides down and with the quality that the French have, he shouldn't be starting, and he's been on the bench up until the last two months of the year!

I also think it's lunacy that Rabiot didn't get get a place ahead of Nzonzi.

[vagabond]

I also think it's lunacy that Rabiot didn't get get a place ahead of Nzonzi.

Good stuff, will be there on first day of preseason following Klopp around like a teacher's pet.

[Gerry Attrick]

I think Denmark might be my outsider pick this time around. Pretty decent group for them and their squad has some quality.

[skipper757]

France’s depth is just insane.

Their attack is just crazy.

Now having said this, watch them implode in the round of 16 or something.

[J_Kopite]

Why no Rabiot for France?

The Senegalese look good too, passed me by how many options they have.

[Red-Soldier]

To say they're fucking stacked would be an understatement.

Good squad with a couple of glaring omissions.  The problem with France (like Belgium) is that they have / had a shite coach, that's why I don't think they'll win it.

[CanuckYNWA]

Why no Rabiot for France?

The Senegalese look good too, passed me by how many options they have.

Because Deschamps is in charge lol. Bringing Nzonzi over Rabiot is a joke and while Nzonzi is a good player Rabiot is so much better.

Same reason why as many have stated don't be shocked to see Giroud start..

[Samie]

How come Laporte isn't in the squad? 

[CanuckYNWA]

How come Laporte isn't in the squad? 

He has never been called up before and they have so much depth and talent at CB like at least 10-12 high quality CB's. So many good ones miss out.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

He has never been called up before and they have so much depth and talent at CB like at least 10-12 high quality CB's. So many good ones miss out.

Could have played for Spain as well. He was called up for their qualifiers, but he never played

[Samie]

Any translators?  Saudi Squad

[Gnurglan]

Any translators?  Saudi Squad

Ha ha!
Reminds me of a WC when everyone seemed to have the same surname. A long one too. The commentators hated it.

[Samie]

 

We shall call them all Saeed Al Owairan.

[Crosby Nick]

Are we going to have our lowest total of players going in quite a few major tournaments?

Henderson
Alexander-Arnold
Mignolet?
Lovren?
Mané
Salah
Firmino

Anyone else?

[sms1986]

Are we going to have our lowest total of players going in quite a few major tournaments?

Henderson
Alexander-Arnold
Mignolet?
Lovren?
Mané
Salah
Firmino

Anyone else?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_squads has the seven you've listed.

[Crosby Nick]

Realistically only about 4 nailed on starters too. Hopefully can work in our favour compared to our rivals in terms of getting ready for next season.

[Ray K]

Any translators?  Saudi Squad

I like that Arabic is written right-to-left, so to us it looks like the numbering is oddly 4-3-2-1 then 9-8-7 etc, but it makes perfect sense to native speakers.

[downtown]

Any translators?  Saudi Squad

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hasn't made any public appearances and no news/photos of him been released since the April 21 shooting in royal palace in Riyadh. Wasn't even in any of the photos when Pompeo visited Riyadh end of April.

My acid test to verify numerous rumours about him being wounded (or maybe even killed) is the world cup opener. No way he'll pass up the chance to be in the VIP box in Luzhinsky for the Russia-Saudi game, seieng how much money he's ordered spending for the national team, setting up all those lucrative friendly matches.

If MBS still hasn't been seen by June 14 and doesn't show up in Moscow for the opening match....then fair to assume something very fishy is up.


I still can't believe Saudi (who have so much $$) didn't keep Van Marwijk after he qualified them for the WC after 12 years due to disagreement on new contract, and now he'll be managing Australia instead at the WC.

[Hazell]

Any translators?  Saudi Squad

Number 1 is Yasr Al Masilah
Number 2 is Abdullah Al Mahayfah
Number 3 is Coco Chanel

Can't make out the rest.

[ABZ Rover]

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hasn't made any public appearances and no news/photos of him been released since the April 21 shooting in royal palace in Riyadh.

Don’t think he had any realistic chance of making the squad anyway mate.

[Samie]

Number 1 is Yasr Al Masilah
Number 2 is Abdullah Al Mahayfah
Number 3 is Coco Chanel

Can't make out the rest.

Number 3 is Yves Saint Laurent, you tit. Coco had a broken nail,so misses out on the tournie.   

[Goalposts for Jumpers]

He has never been called up before and they have so much depth and talent at CB like at least 10-12 high quality CB's. So many good ones miss out.

Then how does Adil Rami get a call up? He makes Charlie Adam look fleet-of-foot. Haven't seen anything of Pavard, and i'm in the Umtiti and Varane are vastly over-rated camp, especially Umtiti.

And Thauvin ahead of Martial  - but to be fair, judging quality whilst spending most of your time watching the French league is bloody hard (my biggest concern about Fekir!).

[MattyBoy21]

No Nainggolan in the Belgium squad. Bit mad, that.

[Elzar]

Anyone going to Brazil vs Croatia at Anfield?

Tickets seem to be struggling to sell. Gonna get 4 myself I think and take a few friends that haven't been to Anfield before.

[Gerry Attrick]

[SlowRap]

Anyone going to Brazil vs Croatia at Anfield?

Tickets seem to be struggling to sell. Gonna get 4 myself I think and take a few friends that haven't been to Anfield before.

Think it's a rip off with cheapest ticket being £35, I'd happily go for £10-20

[Jookie]

Are we going to have our lowest total of players going in quite a few major tournaments?

Henderson
Alexander-Arnold
Mignolet?
Lovren?
Mané
Salah
Firmino

Anyone else?

Think that's it. Though a good chance we'll sign 1 or 2 players who'll be playing at the World Cup.

Wonder how it compares to other teams? 7 doesn't seem a lot and you'd hope that is a good thing for us to get a good pre-season under our belts and hit the ground running.

[Elzar]

Think it's a rip off with cheapest ticket being £35, I'd happily go for £10-20

Was thinking that myself originally, but they seemed to want to go and it's harder to get to Anfield for a Liverpool game

[Dim Glas]

urghhhh that black on red is playing havoc with my eyes 

Glad that Michy Batshuayi made it after that nasty injury he picked up. He had such an excellent 2nd half of the season, but it looked like his chances where over when he got injured and stretchered off.

[sinnermichael]

No Nainggolan in the Belgium squad. Bit mad, that.

Just announced his retirement from international football.

[Garlicbread]

Are we going to have our lowest total of players going in quite a few major tournaments?

Henderson
Alexander-Arnold
Mignolet?
Lovren?
Mané
Salah
Firmino

Anyone else?

Grujic might go for Serbia? Maybe Lallana if there's an injury on one of the attacking midfielders.

[sinnermichael]

Spain squad.

[rafathegaffa83]

No Morata I can understand, but Marcos Alonso seems quite an omission in favour of I'd assume Monreal. No Fabregas, Javi Martinez or Pedro either

[SlowRap]

Aspas

[Lush is the best medicine...]

No Nainggolan in the Belgium squad. Bit mad, that.

Bobby has picked elbows, jazzyjizz, chadli and benteke, never mind two guys who play in China, Celtic and lafc players ahead of him too

Then again nainggolan was never shy telling people he didn’t have a great relationship with brown shoes

[BarryCrocker]

Aspas

Imagine if Spain won it and Aspas becomes a World Cup Winner.

[Manic]

Aspas in the squad purely for his corner taking ability alone... 

[bird_lfc]

No Morata I can understand, but Marcos Alonso seems quite an omission in favour of I'd assume Monreal. No Fabregas, Javi Martinez or Pedro either

Not that it means a great deal but my mate has said Monreal has been Arsenal’s player of the season. Strange though as Alonso has been very good too.

No Origi for Belgium is a bit shit.

[rafathegaffa83]

Not that it means a great deal but my mate has said Monreal has been Arsenal’s player of the season. Strange though as Alonso has been very good too.

Yeah Monreal has been very good for them, but I would have thought he would have been the player who likely went ahead of Alonso. Spain have a surplus of quality fullbacks so someone was going to miss out and arguably Monreal offers more experience/positional flexibility.

No Origi for Belgium is a bit shit.

Origi not going doesn't surprise me. Like a fair few players, he took a gamble that going out on loan would enhance his chances and it instead backfired on them. After a good start with Wolfsburg, his season pretty much imploded. Nainggolan not going though is laughable. Belgium have a great starting eleven, but depth has been a problem in the past few tournaments. Apparently, Martinez couldn't offer him a starting role and differed on where he saw his best position. But surely if you are Belgium, when you have one small shot at getting far in a WC you take your best players?