If we end up 4th, it’ll be W3D1L3. Solid mid table & supporting our 12th place ranking. A bit like when we got to the semis under QSF although our win at the Emirates was more notable than any of our WC performances.
Sterling has been absolutely appalling with the ball at his feet again. I just don't see how whatever good work he does without the ball counters the fact he gives it away every single time he does have it.
Lucky for Kane that he got all those penalties and the deflection against Panama, because he was a huge disappointment at this World Cup overall.
None of the main strikers have been that great it seems. Trouble is those Belgium players will probably play more in the Premier league than some of our squad players !
Saw the team sheet - Dier, Jones, Delph - didn't bother watching. England have a decent first 11 plus a sub or two. Beyond that, the team goes from greater than the sum of its parts to much less. Southgate's biggest challenge over the next two years is to integrate some newer/younger/different players (hopefully Chalobah and maybe Hughes among them) in to the squad to give us a decent 15/16 to pick from. A proper plan B is also needed (or more tactical flexibility), as once Croatia worked us out we ended up resorting to the long ball. I'm still very much in camp positive, though - which is a nice surprise given my complete antipathy towards the England set-up over the last few years.
Exactly. GS has to have the cojones to pick on talent rather than club as the young ‘uns come through. I would hope we could upgrade on Jones, Delph, Dier in the near future. If he flies out of the traps in the early season, Chalobah must be in a great position.
It was interesting to hear Roy "I can start a fight in an empty room" Keane's opinion that any player that fails to do what a manager tells him to do should be sacked.
I think he's an excellent striker, arguably the best in the world, but I don't think he had a good tournament. Went completely missing in our final 3 games. Very likely he's still going to win the golden boot though, so he probably won't care all that much!
TBH I totally agree. He looked decidedly average during this tournament acting as a striker. As a pinball bumper he was excellent. And the "hero" label he's receiving is pretty nauseating as he was extremely anonymous during today's match.
Well the Mail said Kane was the perfect footballer (at last) which upset Wilfred "dive" Zaha it seemed so maybe all the praise isn't so bad! I am sure he will be in fine form come September 2nd..
There are a lot of pages here and I admit I have not read them all, so forgive me if it has been covered. But... Do you think VAR being in effect in this tournament allowed more straightforward teams like England and Croatia to get through while other more highly touted teams also known for diving a bit got caught out? If so...I ❤️ VAR
Kane was pretty mediocre in most of the games, and is certainly nowhere near the best forward in the world. He's decent and capable, but that's about as far as it goes for me. Frankly, I was more excited about pre-injury Michael Owen.
Well Neymar got found to have dived but I don't think has had any effect on any teams greatly. Certainly not knocked anyone out unfairly as was feared by the critics.. We seemed to not get decisions in our first game but afterwards teams got punished or pulling down Kane. There has been a lot of requests to use VAR from players and managers which not sure is right.
Aren't the modern rules of football devised from the Cambridge rules? Parkers Piece.. Cambridge, England.
Jesus H Christ, more football. It’s bad enough that the Premiership starts in a month without this boring WC game on.
Sorry, but that is a definite penalty. The movement of the hand to the ball prevents the ball reaching the six yard box. The whole body movement of the player is to get the ball and not solely with his foot. Arm in an unnatural position moves to the ball. Clear as day and the fact that I have France in the office sweepstake is utterly irrelevant.
The first bit is subjective. But if the referee says he didn't see it then I'd say that opens the door to it being a clear and obvious error worthy of him being asked to look at the replay and now decide. Whereas if he says he saw it, but did not deem it to be a penalty, there would be no justificiation for VAR being involved further. It doesn't help we can't hear what's being discussed on the mic. And I'm sure VAR was reviewing the incident before the French moaned.