On the eve of the decisive battle with Croatia, let’s call bread to bread.

Clan division doesn’t always hurt

De Bruyne does not speak to Courtois. Kevin cheated on his ex-girlfriend, who flew to Madrid to take revenge and became friends with the big-nosed goalkeeper of the then Atletico Madrid. In that wild young couple, both sides are so-so. For example, a friend was later bullied by De Bruyne’s parents. As a result, Belgium’s leaders do not communicate with each other. Trossard and Eden Hazard also have a conflict. Somewhere they clashed, although the Brighton boy didn’t often appear in front of the Real Madrid reservist’s nose.

And after the failure against Morocco, Vertonghen, Hazard and De Bruyne cursed in the locker room. The reason for the conflict between Jan and Kevin is easy to guess. The Manchester City midfielder gave an interview, where in his style he listed the problems of Belgium, separately indicating the retirees in the squad. Vertonghen, 35, could take De Bruyne’s comment personally, even if Kevin was speaking rather than trying to offend his teammates. The veterans made a fuss, Lukaku had to intervene.

But after the famous interview with the subsequent apology to Chelsea, we know very well that Romelu himself is not always a wise and kind giant. The attacker does not communicate with Batshuayi, a competitor for the national team. It is clear that there were enough championship teams in which the players could not stand each other. For example, in the French team it was like this, there were enough conflicts. But Aime Jacquet specifically pinned the team to base for an entire home tournament. Walk organized only once in the complex world Cup-1998.

Zidane, Djorkaeff, Thuram, Henry and Lizarazu went together after reaching the playoffs for men’s striptease. Jacquet wanted the players to neigh and drink, but he considered socializing with women bad for the players during the hot summer and important. Jacquet wanted to create an army like Napoleon’s, only with good intentions and a victorious outcome. And the Belgian national team has not become a single army, it’s time to quote the former goalkeeper of the team – Silvio Proto:

Fighting is a typical reaction of those who don’t have the character of great champions. Champions are united when things go wrong. And the little ones shoot each other, considering themselves big players.

Proto obviously does not consider De Bruyne and Hazard “little players”. But they have a grumpy personality, just like Lukaku. Please note that Courtois did not deny the existence of conflicts in the Belgian national team, he only said that if they find a “rat”, they will be expelled. The information is correct, Martinez could not honestly admit that after the flight of Morocco it would be strange not to get angry. But he stop it. Who in each team is responsible for the microclimate?

The coaches are responsible for all defeats

Players are hostages to other people’s ideas. If Martino orders Mexico to strike from a distance, they strike. I ordered not to beat – they didn’t beat. Footballers are young people who don’t see the big picture, and if they are more experienced, they are already self-confident multimillionaires who look everyone in the mouth. Without proper management, Ronaldo will not win the Champions League for you. Tried by Juventus, where by now he has led all the management, but for now he has left Allegri, who has slowed down as a coach in recent years.

Belgium, when it came out first in the charts Fifa and wanted trophies, he made a similar mistake: he put up weak managers. Wilmots was a great player, but Mark was always considered a worthless manager. He was assigned Belgium from 2012 to 2016, and before that he worked at his predecessor’s office. And worst of all, some players also considered Vilmost a weak specialist, so while Argentina, with the help of Mascherano and Di Maria, went to the final in Brazil, Belgium lost to them.

But even then there were forces to reach the semifinals in Holland. In the neighborhood the confrontation could cause a stir. Although the Germans at the time managed to kill the hopes of both Messi and Hazard, Belgium missed their first big chance at the final. Then there was Euro 2016, where they flew out of the Wales team. Wilmots showed his level and left, and instead they took a mentor with Wigan and Everton experience. Roberto Martinez is not a great coach, he is not a legend of the Belgian national team and he is not a sensationalist.

Roberto played the decisive games badly. At the last World Cup they were eliminated by France in the semifinals. Before that, we overtook Brazil itself, but thanks to saves from Courtois. Now you need Thibaut’s saves to beat Canada. Martinez is not progressing. The coach failed in the 2019 Nations League: Belgium did not make it to the final four, losing first place in the group to the Swiss. Roberto flew out of Italy for Euro 2020 and has not yet managed to overtake France in the League of Nations, although he had sufficient experience and strength.

Neighbors won another trophy and Martinez was left with an aging team who could not competently rejuvenate. Against Morocco on the pitch there was senior Hazard almost in the role of attacking midfielder, Batshuayi was useless, Tielemans wasn’t there from the first minutes, but the whole game was played by the slow Witsel. No fresh flanks, no new ideas, no approach measures. Onan was thrown into the fight, but, like de Ketelare, the coach didn’t prepare him. However, Roberto doesn’t have much good taste, not only in substitutions.

Choosing assistants is another issue. Vermaelen, without the slightest coaching experience, ended up in office, and Thierry Henry returned, although the Frenchman, in his role as Monaco head coach, has shown that his damaging character can be hindered, not helped. Especially when the team is in conflict, like the unrealized Belgian team.

“Lost Generation”, like the British

Not the fact that Belgium will reach the playoffs. Canada has closed the fight and can give points to Morocco. If the Croatians don’t lose to the Belgians – the real scenario, because Dalic’s team is ready no worse, then even two world teams will take Modric and Ziyech to the playoffs, and De Bruyne will return to England. In this case, they will go down in history as the “lost generation”, of which there were enough in football. Moreover, if great Austria suffered from the Nazis, if the Communists influenced the great Hungarian team, Belgium itself is to blame.

The players didn’t compensate for the coach’s weaknesses. And the mentors lacked class, because Roberto Martinez is a local favorite of provincial football in England, nothing more. At this level you can find the hero of a big tournament, but when we talk about the six final losses, it should be made clear that Belgium could not be the favorites in any of them. That is, it was the coach who had to make the difference, otherwise Germany, France and England could have beaten De Bruyne and Hazard in decisive matches world Cup or Euros.

Belgium has always had very good intermediate results. For this reason, the Brazilians have only recently overtaken them in the standings. Fifa. But in the decisive moment the Red Devils are like Manchester City in the Champions League. Or like England at the time of Beckham, Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard in the big tournaments. The composition was fabulous, there was enough skill, but the results were not encouraging. Belgium don’t usually get knocked out as ridiculously as the British were, but that doesn’t make things any easier, because 6 out of 7 attempts for the trophy have already been lost.

Of course, the very fact that in a small country – about 11 million people have brought up such masters, makes us stand by applause. Everyone except the first team coaches because the overall conclusion is sad. Belgium has not reached its potential because it has not found its mentor. The last attempt stood, but the grandmasters had a fight and were tired.