What Does Ramsey Do? And Does His British Passport Make Him Immune From Criticism?

No no? So your argument isn't based on FIFA rankings? That flies in the face of what you just said...

 

Ramsey is clearly best used as a sub for now. Gervinho should just be unused though.

 

Every time I see him he's pants

 

Unban me from the Liverpool board.

I am a changed man.

 

I'm willing to use your rankings, tell me why England are not in the top 10 in the world? Which countries in the FIFA rankings apart from England do you disagree with? Spain shouldn't be number 1? Germany shouldn't be #2? What is so outrageous about the FIFA rankings?

 

What rankings? If you're willing to use rankings you haven't even seen, then I can see why you think FIFA's are the bees knees. The FIFA rankings put Brazil 18th and they put England 6th ahead of Holland and Portugal. Is that not enough for you to see they're bullshit?

 

Portugal have drawn with Cyprus and lost to Denmark and Norway in 2012 Euro qualifying. They then lost to Germany in the actual tournament before going on a decent run and losing to Spain on penalties (I don't know if this counts as a draw or a loss in the FIFA Rankings). Since then they have drawn with Northern Ireland and lost to Russia.

In the same time England lost to France, and then Italy on penalties and drawn with Ukraine and Poland.

I don't see why this record would indicate that Engand are so much worse than Portugal that the rankings are complete bull****. Remember that they are only just below us and only fell below us this month.

Holland fell below us this month also as their world cup run lost weight and their terrible Euro 2012 performance where they went out after losing to Denmark, Germany and Belgium hit them. (Why you think a team that lost every single game in their last tournament should be above us baffles me)

Again they are only just below us.

So in general, you agree with the rankings for every other country, It's just England's ranking you have an issue with?

 

England actually drew with France in the Euro's.

 

You forgot about Brazil being 18th. And if you think a few bad games or a few good games makes one team better than another, then you must think Norwich are one of the best teams in the world right now.

 

But we are not debating who are the best team, or what I think, or what you think, we are talking about rankings, which are based purely on results. My original point was that England have rarely dropped out of the top 10, which means that, based on their results, England and their style of play is fairly effective.

I still can't understand why you seem to think that a team that draws with Northern Ireland and Cyprus, or that lost 3/3 in the last tournament are so clearly better than a team that has only lost one game (a friendly) since February. Or why any objective ranking system devised would determine that.

As for Brazil they are now the 4th best team in South America and have been for a year or two.

 

Wow, actually Brazil are 18th because they're not playing any competitive matches at the moment. They automatically qualify for their own World Cup, and the rankings system only awards competitive or difficult matches. Brazil's only options are friendlies, which are automatically worth less; and the only teams who want friendlies during the qualifying period are the minnows, so that's worth even less.

So the FIFA rankings have nothing to do with who is the best team, and nothing to do with who's "style of play is effective" either.

 

Look at the quality of the teams instead of a pathetic ranking based on a few results here and there. England barely have any players of genuine talent apart from Wilshere & Rooney.
The rest are the same generic headless chicken who hug the byline, hoofing random crosses in.

Outrageous for you to claim England are superior to Portugal, France, etc. I'd even have Sweden ahead of England.

 

LOL. When I first looked at your comment, I disagreed with it, but when thinking about the players England have compared to Sweden, my potential argument ground to a halt. It really is Wilshere and Rooney as the stand out talents and nothing much else. Although I have some hope for AOC.

 

Thats right, we have lost one friendly and a penalty shootout all year and we are inferior to a side that cant beat Cyprus or Northern Ireland. How is that rational other than the fact that you are suffering from chronic depression?

 

Double post

 

Portugal took Spain to a penalty shootout in the semi finals of Euro 2012, England were outclassed in the quarters.

Who cares if Portugal couldn't beat Northern Ireland recently, Arsenal lost to Bradford recently!... what does that make us? League 2 quality? It's the most stupid ****ing argument I've ever heard.

On the other hand, Norwich went about 10 games unbeaten in the Premier League, they would probably top the club rankings!

 

You are not making sense. England were not "outclasssed in the quarters" result-wise, whatever your opinion is on the run of play, they lost on penalties. Also Portugal are not ranked down with Northern Ireland they are just below us in 9th. No one is saying that Arsenal are League 2 quality because they lost to Bradford, they are just saying we are not quite as good as Chelsea (right at this minute) that haven't lost to a league 2 team.

Finally, at the time they lost to Spain in the semis they were above England, it was only their recent draw with Northern Ireland that dropped them below us.

You don't seem to understand the concept of a sport where teams are judged on results, as opposed to a sport like ice skating where judges decide how good the performers are. It is this dreadful Internet thing where mob opinion seems to carry more weight than actual results.

You are so used to arguing your point of view (like Ramsey is crap, cant pass cant do anything right) that you can even drown out statistics showing that he can pass, that the team is better defensively when he is on the field. This is why I keep on saying that opinion is worthless, unless you have something to back it up. The human mind can be fooled easily into thinking things due to emotion.

You can easily, after feeling disappointment at supporting England and seeing them lose, want to take out your anger on them and say they are useless, and all the players are useless, but the reality is that even though they haven't been good enough to win, or even win against top 5 teams, they are fairly good (or better than average) at beating lower ranked teams. Your opinion is formed by your disappointment and anger, not by the cold hard facts.

 

This sums you up.
Did you watch the game against Italy. It should've been 4-0. Italy hit the post so many times that I lost count. The possession was even 60% in their favor at one time.
All England were doing was that they camped in the half. A few stats for your ass.

Posting a few stats and few statistics does not really prove anything, nor does it paint a full picture. Few years ago, Ashley Young was second in the assists table behind Cesc. Cesc was splitting defences on a regular basis, while Young was just running down the byline and crossing it in. Obviously one would not know that if he did not watch any games that season, and would assume Young's was/is a creative player when that couldn't be further from the truth.

You're in such denial. We all watch these teams and players in action week in, week out. England are dire.

At the end of the day, you're just posting your opinion too (which is drivel). Stop acting like it's a fact.

 

Once again you don't know the difference between opinion and fact. You THINK we should have lost 4-0. You THINK England are dire. You THINK that the FIFA rankings are rubbish. All I have told you is why England are high up the FIFA rankings which is fact. The way they calculate the rankings is a factual results based system. YOu are entitled to your own opinion of course, but stop passing it off as fact, and when I publish facts stop saying it is opinion, because it isn't.

 

We've both given you enough reason to question the usefulness of statistics for judging the quality of football teams. Yet, the justification for your opinion about rankings just gets more and more ridiculous. I think this argument has become an emotional one for you actually. Saying things like Brazil are 18th because they're not as good as the teams in front of them, or "England were not outclassed" by Italy, is frankly dumb.

What you think those facts mean is your opinion.

Please stop trying to take the highground by claiming your opinion is fact.