Players like Salah are great players for a reason.
Same as Mbappe and Kane.
They got their name by being consistently good - so hoping we catch someone of Salah's capability on a bad day and holding him ineffective for 90+ minutes is a bit of a nonsense.
If he plays, we have to score more than Egypt - because they will score.
If he doesn't play I expect them to score still - but not as many true attacking moments for us to defend so 2 goals should be enough for us.
As long as Popa doesn't put Velupillay and someone else up front as chasers in a negative attacking threat role like he has done so many times in the past and he actually selects a forward group with positive attacking intent then I think we can score a couple.
As a side note - I like Velupillay.
I can imagine Popa's head saying "I fucked up against the US but Egypt aren't the US so my idea should work this time".
He is still Popa after all.
Play negative football for a half and hope to win in the second half: Egypt to win.
Play positive football from the start, score then go defensive: Egypt to win.
Play positive football for 90+: We win.
Same as Mbappe and Kane.
They got their name by being consistently good - so hoping we catch someone of Salah's capability on a bad day and holding him ineffective for 90+ minutes is a bit of a nonsense.
If he plays, we have to score more than Egypt - because they will score.
If he doesn't play I expect them to score still - but not as many true attacking moments for us to defend so 2 goals should be enough for us.
As long as Popa doesn't put Velupillay and someone else up front as chasers in a negative attacking threat role like he has done so many times in the past and he actually selects a forward group with positive attacking intent then I think we can score a couple.
As a side note - I like Velupillay.
I can imagine Popa's head saying "I fucked up against the US but Egypt aren't the US so my idea should work this time".
He is still Popa after all.
Play negative football for a half and hope to win in the second half: Egypt to win.
Play positive football from the start, score then go defensive: Egypt to win.
Play positive football for 90+: We win.