3.Lack of a Central Midfielder hurting Belgium…Nainggolan omission justified?
Formation might show Belgium playing with 3-4-3 but in reality, the Belgium midfield is often stretched by the opponent as evident in the game against Japan and now Brazil. Hazard is comfortable playing on a more wider role while Roberto Martinez uses De Bruyne more as a False Nine. With Radja Naninggolan not in the World Cup squad, the midfield looks like a giant hole.
With Meunier and Carrasco on the wings, combative midfielder Fellaini dropping deep to assist the three-man defence the Belgium midfield leaves vacant spaces for the opponent to operate and control the game. Brazil in the first half had dominated the midfield with Paulinho, Coutinho and Willian exploited the vacant space in the middle.
Belgium’s lack of a Modric like central midfielder is proving detrimental to their attacking talent as Fellaini and Alex Witsel has to cover huge distances to construct attack and link the talented forward line of Lukaku, Hazard and De Bruyne. With the stretched gap in the central pitch added with Fellaini’s poor accuracy of passing the pressure falls right back on the Belgium backline even after the interception or winning the ball.