Marc Wilmots is not largely intending to change his basic squad of eleven for the second Group E meeting, on Saturday in Bordeaux, against Ireland. He confirmed this on Tuesday after the training session in Le Haillan, a suburb of Bordeaux. Following their 0-2 defeat against Italy on Monday, Wilmots may however, make one or two adjustments in his team when playing against the Irish.
“We have not worked for four years to suddenly abandon our modus operandi on the pitch and our structure,” Wilmots considers. “Of course we do have different play variants depending on our given opponent. I am not ruling out one or two position changes within my team as the match will, more than likely, play out completely differently than when we played the Italians. We are going to have to simply play the game and be patient as we will be facing a large unknown squad. I am responsible for a young team and it is important that players do not very easily panic.”
When playing the Squadra Azzura, Marc Wilmots opted, with Maroune Fellaini, for a more defensive and powerful midfielder. It is possible that Kevin De Bruyne will have a more strategic position against Ireland, in place of Fellaini and that we will see Dries Mertens or Yannick Carrasco start on the right wing.
(Source: Belga)
