Coruja;3210009 said:
and again tomorrow the only team with no portugueses on the line-up?
On another note... hum... we have so many injured players... better start buying those brazilians.
Going a bit off topic here but to respond to you Coruja, I understand your concerns about the lack of opportunities Portuguese players have been having, but at least Nélson Oliveira managed to prove himself with the minutes he got and will surely be in the Euro.
While I get where you're coming from, note that we have 5 Brazilian players in the squad and only Artur and Luisão are uncontested starters. Porto for instance, have 8. Sporting have 6 and Braga have 12.
Most of our South American players, which I take it is what you're referring to, are quality players with Emerson being the blatant exception. And Jardel too (which we bought internally [from Olhanense]). Artur, Luisão, Aimar, Garay, Gaitán, Maxi, Cardozo and even Bruno César are very good players and certainly not randomly picked. Javi Garcia, Rodrigo, Nolito and Witsel are so too and have great potential. At least three of them will have a brilliant future football wise. And these aren't Brazilian, they're Spanish and Belgian respectively, and I think discriminating them and ignoring their talent based on nationality wouldn't be smart.
I don't mind having the majority of these players if they're quality. What I do mind is regularly bet on a crap player like Emerson or even buying Jardel when we have Miguel Vitor and Luis Martins from our academy, capable of evolving and grabbing the spots if given the chance.
Regarding the injuries, and if we consider they all refer to the CB position it immediately reminds me of Man Utd in that department, bad luck I guess. Add the fact that JJ didn't rotate the squad as much as he should have during the season, which not only increases the chance of injuries but it also prevents players like David Simão, Roderick, etc. from getting the deserved playing time, but since JJ won't do it anyway, it'd be even worse to have them in the squad rotting on the bench or in the stands..