Mafro wrote:Nainggolan is a massive party boy and likes his smoking and drinking, they've mentioned it a few times on the Totally Football Serie A podcast and how he's not arsed about a move away from Roma because he loves the nightlife there so much
He's an excellent midfielder thought, should absolutely be in the first XI and
I'm not sure what his performance against Liverpool has to do with his World Cup selection. Martinez is a dickhead so it wouldn't surprise me if Belgium just end up being massively disappointing and don't get past the group stages.
I think it has plenty to do with being selected - players performing or failing to do so in crunch matches is a marker for how they'll fare mentally in knockout stages should Belgium proceed that far. If Nainggolan can't cut it over two legs against a team with the amount of defensive frailties as Liverpool, how will he do against Brazil, Germany or Spain?
With that said I know where you're coming from - for a lot of casual observers in the UK his Liverpool performance will be all they've seen of him and it's difficult to judge a player based on only two matches in a season. I didn't think him fantastic in either match against Barcelona in the previous round, but haven't seen him in Serie A to judge and Roma's midfield must have done something right to make it to the UCL semi-finals.
The other thing to consider is that if he's as big a party animal as you say, perhaps he's been left out for the same reason as Icardi rather than on any performance basis - as a potentially disruptive, divisive and inconvenient addition to the squad. I'd say that for international squads it's important to have as cohesive a unit as possible and if Nainggolan, Icardi or anyone else threatens that unity then perhaps it's a good idea to leave him out.
Again though, you'd think there would be other players in the Belgium squad more likely to incite trouble, they're not a well oiled machine of a team at the best of times - Courtois and his partner-stealing for a start.