Portugal – a team full of stars, but without a system and with a huge criticism of the coach “dinosaur”

Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Diogo Jota. Portugal’s team is riddled with stars and on paper is perhaps one of the strongest national teams in the world. But on the pitch, things are not quite right and the blame is being placed on coach Fernando Santos.

At last year’s Euro, Portugal were among the biggest favourites. The defending champions from 2016 brought a star-studded team. But it turned out to be a fiasco and a huge disappointment.

In a group with France, Germany and Hungary, the Portuguese finished only third and only advanced thanks to the Euro expansion. They faced Belgium in the eighth round and crashed out after losing 0:1. The defending champions beat nobody except Hungary and left a very bitter taste at home.

However, the criticism was more about the game than the results. Many stars do not guarantee success. But that’s what Fernando Santos is complaining about. The Portuguese have no system, they practically don’t know what they want to play, they just rely on the individual brilliance of the world’s stars.

Moreover, Santos is not the coach for such a team. He can’t use all the big names properly, fit it all together, make it work.

He’s a very defensive type of coach, at the Euros he relied on a duo of defensive midfielders, Wiliam Carvalho and Danilo, who were later nicknamed the “walking duo” in Portugal. Both have grown to 2m, are extremely strong in the box and in the air, but are not good in terms of movement. That’s why it often looks like they’re just walking on the field.

Portugal is so often “bored”. The style of play is slow, plodding, the complete opposite of what ball wizards have presented in the past.

And why does Santos have confidence all the time? For winning the 2016 EURO, he has become almost immortal in the eyes of the Portuguese federation, having led a country of 10 million to its first ever trophy.

But he had a very different team there. Apart from Ronaldo, Nani and maybe Quaresma, there was no star in the squad, the team was cohesive and reached the trophy through careful defensive work. And he was also very lucky, after all he only won once in regulation time (Wales 2-0 in the semi-final).

In a group with Iceland, Austria and Hungary, Ronaldo and co. only progressed from third place, then knocked out Poland on penalties, Croatia in extra time and France in extra time.

But since then, the Portuguese national team has moved on tremendously. Stars such as Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Diogo Jota, João Felix, João Cancelo and Nuno Mendes have all flown into elite company, but Santos have been unable to use them at all due to their defensive tactics. This is why he has earned the nickname “dinosaur,” among fans, as his vision of football is, according to many, stuck in the past.

Source: Portugal national football team