Who's your tip to win the World Cup in 2018 ?

Brazil streets ahead of every other international team ive seen in the past 12 months, including the German A team.

Russian Police Pension Fund will be a pretty big winner. I'll wait till nearer the time and try to find an outsider for top g/s best player with a strategy of trading trying to take into account the rampant skullduggery in the best player award!

Cameroon

Germany

France

Has to be Scotland surely? Gordons army will have it in their handbags, oops I mean pipe bags.

I've backed Brazil at 8/1 a few months ago (think i put it in a thread at the time but cant remember which one), hopefully Jesus will develop strongly next season to add to the strong team they already have

Germany.

if i took part in a sweep i would like to pull out france

having a bet i would back chile

spyker

Wasn't it you who tipped up james at 100/1 last time for golden boot?

Fifa will fix it for an African nation

Duffy - yep and went to 999, main tip was for the corrupt best player but also took a healthy position on top G/S - he was unlucky not to win both thus hastening my retirement!

germany and italy were a long way clear of the rest at the last euros so it would have to be one of those two for the european team.

Sorry, in what way were they a long way clear of the rest, because I distinctly remember Cristiano Ronaldo dancing round like a gurning gimp after the final.

Jul 4, 2017 -- 10:33AM, spyker wrote:

Duffy - yep and went to 999, main tip was for the corrupt best player but also took a healthy position on top G/S - he was unlucky not to win both thus hastening my retirement!

did JR have the best opta stats for the tournament?
did JR take his team to the final?

JR has been disappointing since that world cup following his move to real madrid, which clearly also shows his performances were enhanced by being a relative unknown player at the time

he hasnt played a lot for real in the past year but whenever he has started he has been very good, with a fair goals/start ratio


https://www.whoscored.com/Players/71182/Fixtures/James-Rodríguez

i'm surprised you link who scored but omit the fact his min/goal is 147.5 in la liga last season, not what they expected when they bought the golden boot winner

without checking up every attacking midfielder in la liga id guess hes second only to messi in terms of goals per minute?

looking at the top goalscorers list, griesmann is the highest non-messi number 10 and his goals per minute in la liga last year was 1/191.7

in the league for madrid last year only ronaldo and morata have a higher goals/minutes ratio

https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/52/Show/Spain-Real-Madrid

not sure how much you expect a midfielder to do?

he also has the highest assists/minute for madrid, 1/196 minutes

luis suarez is credited with the most assists in la liga at 13, thats 1/220 minutes

clach2, he went to real madrid thought of as one of the best, if not the best young player in the world at that time, he has been a disappointment in that context, he has been part of zidanes (goalfest) 2nd xi for a reason and will probably leave as a result this summer

in an absolute sense he's a very good player, the point i was making is in the world cup 2014 he was afforded far more space/time than the top established players, he was outstanding against uruguay in the r16 but did nothing (bar a late pen) in the q/f against brazil when he got the sort of attention messi receives every game he plays

To be fair rider, that game was one of the worst cro oked heats ever witnessed in football.

i think its more the case that real madrid just arent the right team for him or his position/role as the attacking number 10 rather than him being a disapointment.  he was signed with a big fee and a lot of hype as you say but they should never have signed him in the first place.

since bale went there in 2013 theyve played 3 up front, they had ronaldo playing in his position as the floating attacking midfielder/forward and now use benzema in that role, who is also very good.

morata has hardly played for madrid either but it doesnt make him a bad player, multiple champions league goals and finals but barely gets a start.

you said his performances have been poor since joining, yet hes been pretty effective in the games he has played in, its because in the real madrid b team he gets to play in his real position, not because he isnt good enough for the first team.

lots of players just cant fit into an established team, another recent example from spain was sanchez at barca, hes obviously good enough but not for the role they needed.

even zlatan couldnt gel properly at barca and he was at the very peak of his career.

clach2 i said he was 'disappointing' which is a big difference to 'poor', i've explained why he is disappointing already, but think of it like this, if mbappe goes to rm and ends up not being part of the first team in 3 years (very unlikely) i'd also then suggest he's been disappointing

madrid is a tough place to go whether you are a player or a manager, bale went there as a left sided player but has mainly played on the right and done ok, you have to adapt and if you are good enough you will find a way, JR hasnt been able to, he follows a long list of very good/promising players not to succeed there

Or alternatively, he follows a long list of players who looked like world-beaters at the World Cup or the Euros, and turned out to be no such thing when asked to do it week-in week-out in a top League.

did JR have the best opta stats for the tournament?
did JR take his team to the final?

JR has been disappointing since that world cup following his move to real madrid, which clearly also shows his performances were enhanced by being a relative unknown player at the time

Sorry - what is the point of this post the tourny was 3 years ago and is done and dusted and what he has done since is irrelevant? He was at the top or very near the stats that fifa use (not opta) for the whole tourny but obv fell away when Col were eliminated, was top scorer (from midlfield) and scored a couple of v good goals so yes i think he was unlucky not to get the best player. Messi most def wasn't the best player and there was no other obv outstanding candidate - Kroos was top ranked player.  In other word in a less than outstanding world cup with the peformances he put in he should have at least been in the top 3!

so you dont see the relevance of why i mentioned what he's done since?

JR has been disappointing since that world cup following his move to real madrid, which clearly also shows his performances were enhanced by being a relative unknown player at the time

messi wasnt at his freakish best (and isnt likely ever to be at the end of a long season) and that leads some people to think he wasnt the best player, he was imo, he's continually involved with dribbles and key passes (under much closer attention than any other player), not to mention his significant goals/assists, there is no way argentina get so close to winning the wc without him

it might not sell newspapers but with the best player statistics of the tournament and getting his team to the final, its a no brainer he wins the golden ball

not Russia

Will hopefully get a trade on these punts...Poland 100/1, Uruguay 50/1, Belgium 16/1

Id agree with those 3 themover. Ive also added croatia @ 66/1 and have been backing France for a while