Paul Watson
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
A hundred percent of that's true, but it kind of says a lot about how few striking options there are on this team and how little excitement there is to be had from Tunisia.
So yeah, I would probably be a lot milder than Wilson, but I do feel like this is not a team you feel particularly excited to watch.
Yeah, I mean, it's nice to sort of see them finally not being called a golden generation, isn't it, Belgium?
This is very much not, but it still has that traces of it.
It's funny, everyone's worried about them going forward.
I'm actually a bit worried about them at the back.
I'm not like massively worried, like I don't go to bed worrying about Belgium generally.
But their 5-2 friendly win against the USA kind of showed that they were a bit of a mess, really, defensively.
And I know it's just a friendly, but...
I just feel like there was this period where they had the so-called golden generation and you had people like Vincent Kompany and, you know, Vertonghen at the back.
This new back line doesn't impress me as much.
You've got a lot of potentially good young defenders.
I like Arte Tiat.
I like Brandon Michele.
Zena de Bas is a good player, but...
It doesn't feel like defensively they've got the same authority.
That said, it is great that Thibaut Courtois has come back in.
He had that feud with the previous boss, Domenico Tedesco, and they were basically not playing one of the best goalkeepers in world football for a while, which is brilliantly self-sabotaging, which I think in a way is perfectly Belgium to self-sabotage in that way.
But yeah, my worry is actually that they could concede a few soft goals at this tournament, and I think that will let them down.
What about New Zealand's chances, Paul?