Ahead of teams such as Uruguay, yes. But they aren't the only team who deserve that spot. How can a team that needs playoffs be 6th in the world and a top seed?
I don't know, that's a different question. How can England be in the top seeds ahead of the beaten finalists in the last international tournament who knocked them out en route?
Notice how I said "But they aren't the only team who deserve that spot.". I was referring to Italy and Netherlands.
So which 3 of the seeded teams would you remove for those 2 and England? Switzerland, Uruguay and who and how are you justifying this? Why are England better than these 3?
[video=youtube;Zd4efSrSZfY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd4efSrSZfY[/video] (Slowly rolling back into the play-off swamp) How do you guys reckon Sweden will do? We'll meet either Greece, Ukraine, Croatia or Portugal.
I agree that going through the play offs should void any chance of a place in the top pot. What's that all about. It'd be good if there could be rounds of fixtures to determine who goes in which pot similar to qualifying in racing. It would certainly make some groups more interesting and give the lesser teams more of an equal chance.
Ukraine would be a tight one - tough place to go in winter, Kiev. I think Sweden could take Greece, and maybe Portugal too if they can cope with the Winker. Croatia are to be avoided.
I think (from what I've seen recently) I'd back Sweden to progress against the first three you mention. Sweden could definitely beat Portugal, but naturally could go either way.
Apart from Portugal i'd expect you to go through against all of those. Portugal is hard to call, incredibly unpredictable and inconsistent side.
That was the point of the argument. We are saying the ranking system is bollocks and that some of the top seeds shouldn't be top seeds.
But that's a least a system, whereas all the other arguments seem to be based on opinion of number of famous players we see on TV every week. Those saying England should be top seeds don't even have a system for proving this.
Naturally, it's difficult to accurately measure - the deserving top 8. However, in my opinion a berth of 9th-16th is about right for England regardless of the ranking of other teams. There is a definite blindness (or arrogance) when the English evaluate England's position. I've seen nothing to suggest England are top 8 for years. But that's not to say, I've seen a deserving case from Switzerland either.
