Match Day Thread Slovakia vs England 8pm 20 June

Am I the some people then. ? I know it's just an expression. It's just a crap one that annoys.

 

Not if you see it as just an expression. Having played as a CF for parts of my career, I like that expression - I'd claim a goal if it went near my arse, let alone actually deflected off it

You are pretty straight though (which is usually a good thing!)

 

And before anyone says it .... yes, anywhere in the box was "near my arse"

 

Probably annoys me more because one did go in off my arse. Mind you, that day whenever we kicked the ball towards the opponents goal it seemed to go in.

 

:l

 

Twice.

 

There is a situation where the group f winner possibly gets a harder game in belgium than the group f runner up would get in facing england.

 

I suspect other countries think better of England than some fans do....probably be a bit pissed off to get us as a supposedly 'easier' opponent.

 

Lol not sure about that. Belgium on there day would ruin us, they'd ruin most teams in the competition.

 

I'd quite fancy us vs. Belgium. Italy tore them apart on the counter, I'm sure Vardy would have a good go at that back line.

 

A similar problem Germany's squad faced in the last World Cup, with Gotze (20), Muller (24), Draxler (20), Schurrle (23), Kroos (24) muddling along with a hotchpotch of 25-year old veterans like Ozil, Hummels, and Boateng, waiting to peak within half a decade.

Sarcasm aside, the point is there's a different excuse every tournament. I have no expectations, but the same pattern does get tiring. Storm through qualifiers, pat themselves on back, struggle through an average tournament group if they're lucky - warn that someone will be in for a whipping at some point, though that might have to wait until three or four games' time, in a friendly or qualifier. Yes, we all realise we're not world beaters, and have acclimatised to that a long while back - but neither were Croatia in WC 1998 (3rd), or South Korea (4th) in WC 2002. Denmark weren't when they won the Euros; nor were Greece in 2004. Turkey were seriously unlucky in 2008, when Germany scored that injury time winner in the semi-finals, and also came 3rd in WC 2002. Something no one can argue about is England have far and away the bigger pool of talent in our group. Wales' players are lesser on average, and have on the whole the same barriers to success, re: knackered players, no winter break etc.

I find it a struggle to get passionate enough to post about England, but let's not cut them yet more slack, promising this squad's time will come. Why don't we do something now for once? Half the players here will have burnt out or not be on form or in the squad by the time they are meant to physically peak. I totally agree with you about the manager - he's doing a solid enough job, and I even like him, but he is extremely old-fashioned and over-cautious. And I'm not sure I see anyone along the line who will break the mould.

 

Completely agree. Don't expect miracles from this young team, but Roy has been a manager for about 3 million years now and we played 270 minutes without a plan to break down a completely predictable defence, he has gone right down in my estimations.

Whoever is next has to look at what Spain and Germany are doing right, I know they are driven a bit by Barcelona/Bayern but we are years behind.

 

So on today's evidence, what aspects of Spain and Germany's game do we need to look at?

 

Spain: How they'll tika-taka for 89 minutes in front of the Italian defence before getting caught once with a counter-attack late in the game. Which means Pelle will be playing the first 45-60 minutes all on his own, trying to wear out the Spanish defence, until subbed by either Zaza or Immobile [<- always find his name amusing as he is quite mobile]

Germany: Err... don't know. The real Germany have yet to turn up. As nearly always they do enough in the end.

 

Cracking post, P.

 

After reading all the posts on how England were crap because they struggled to score against 3 "poor" teams in our group it made me chuckle when Germany only managed one against Northern Ireland and (sorry NI) I would say Wales and Slovakia are probably slightly better than NI.

People need to get over it. We have a team that is playing OK. If we can finally get some to play for the team rather than themselves then we go into the last 16 match unbeaten. The team that topped our group wasn't unbeaten.

 

The difference is Germany didn't need to score anymore, they were never likely to concede so 1 was enough, also helped that the NI goalie played better than SKD against Leeds.

 

Mario Gomez missed at least three sitters. If that had been Rooney or Kane, the hysteria from England fans would have been defeaning.

 

Wow - what a failure coming second has turned out to be as Croatia have topped group D!
Had we won the group we wouldn't have met any of France, Germany, Italy or Spain until the final.

I personally think we have played well (for an England side). I don't think Roy's changes made much difference (with the exception of Rooney perhaps) - and Clyne was excellent.
But at the end of the day we've been pretty much the same old under-achieving England, and it's extra disappointing because of the draw.

By the way, why is everyone in the media sayiong Walker has been excellent? I don't remember him putting in a single cross in the entirity of the second half v Wales. Clyne was miles better...

 

Good point regarding Germany. But you carry on as if we are a million miles away from success. In truth, we've been just one penalty kick away from; 2 finals ('90 & '96), 3 semi-finals ('04, '06 & 12), and one quarter final ('98). Now I know this is just another excuse, but it shows that we are often equal to those teams progressing further than us. If we had won half of those shoot-outs then our recent history would look a lot more impressive. Why can't we win a shoot-out? Well that's just a bloody mystery and I can't even begin to answer that.

Anyway, this tourney's far from over and we may yet spring a surprise.