Off Topic International Break Thread

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KingHotspur said:
Carsley is Southgate 2.0

A safe option for the FA who will be a Yes man
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I won't dispute that, but that not withstanding Carsley picked the team that 90% of the public wanted Southgate to pick in the summer and it was an unmitigated disaster. To be fair they have had only had 2 days training and had never played together before but it was still one of the most shambolic England performances since the Wally with the Brolley or Woys defeat to Iceland.

And as for Palmer the so called 'best player in the league' I hadn't realised just how 1 footed he is, keep him on the outside on his right and he really offers very little, I get a feeling that he will get found out.
 
Spurf said:
There would be less interest if the money had not grown since those early days. How is it better? There were just complaints from English managers that they did not have enough time with their team. If Southgate's mind-numbing football is the result, then I much prefer the days when Venables never had enough time. The World Cup and the European Cup is more than enough for most, I think. It's the classic. Oh! the world cup is popular, let's have one every year, yes, too much of a good thing. In nearly 70 years of watching International football I can count the enjoyable England games on one hand. Funnily enough, the Scotland games are often more fun because expectation is not high, so games like the Scotland v Brazil world cup 1974 goaless draw stay stronger in the memory. Most of the fun games with England came with Mercer, Venables and Robson and that's a long time ago.
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It's better because under the old system Romero would have to catch a plane to Buenos Aires straight after a match and only get back a day before the next one and that would happen about 8 times a season. Now he has more flexibility in travelling and it's only four times.

What fans' personal preference is for international games is irrelevant...it's better for the players to have two week windows.
 
The Changing Man said:
And as for Palmer the so called 'best player in the league' I hadn't realised just how 1 footed he is, keep him on the outside on his right and he really offers very little, I get a feeling that he will get found out.
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When your left is that good. You don’t need a good right foot.

Palmer is special.
 
The Changing Man said:
I won't dispute that, but that not withstanding Carsley picked the team that 90% of the public wanted Southgate to pick in the summer and it was an unmitigated disaster. To be fair they have had only had 2 days training and had never played together before but it was still one of the most shambolic England performances since the Wally with the Brolley or Woys defeat to Iceland.

And as for Palmer the so called 'best player in the league' I hadn't realised just how 1 footed he is, keep him on the outside on his right and he really offers very little, I get a feeling that he will get found out.
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You can’t just pick the best technical/gifted players. It’s the old Lampard, Gerrard, Scholes issue again.
England still play like England and part of that is crossing the ball into the box from wide for a centre forward. Playing without one meant we tried to pass the ball through the eye of a needle to whichever of the 3 or 4 number 10s was making a run into an advanced position. That formation and those tactics has never been our game.
And Greece play quite an English style game. They get the ball forward and are quite physical. They ran through England’s midfield because there was only Rice playing any kind of defensive or holding role. One of the roving advanced midfielders, who wasn’t a centre forward, should have been sacrificed for a central midfielder.
Play the game and the opposition. Don’t try to shoehorn individually talented players who play similar roles into the team and hope it will work somehow.
 
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KingHotspur said:
Football is nothing without the fans. Ignore their preference at your peril
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Wembley gets sold out for most international matches. That suggests quite a few fans like International football.

But what I was trying to say is that if there are International matches, playing them in windows rather than the old way midweek between league fixtures is better for the players.
 
PowerSpurs said:
Wembley gets sold out for most international matches. That suggests quite a few fans like International football.

But what I was trying to say is that if there are International matches, playing them in windows rather than the old way midweek between league fixtures is better for the players.
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Yeah as long as fans are happy then it’s fine.

But increasing the amount of international games isn’t sustainable. I posted something the other day and there will have been 8 international games when the PL sides have only played 11. That’s a huge amount considering the euros were only a few months ago.
 
KingHotspur said:
Yeah as long as fans are happy then it’s fine.

But increasing the amount of international games isn’t sustainable. I posted something the other day and there will have been 8 international games when the PL sides have only played 11. That’s a huge amount considering the euros were only a few months ago.
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The number of international windows has been the same for years though.
There are exactly three in the first few months of the PL so how can there be 8 international matches?
 
PowerSpurs said:
The number of international windows has been the same for years though.
There are exactly three in the first few months of the PL so how can there be 8 international matches?
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Sorry I meant 6, my mistake.

6 internationals by end of November after a major international tournament is too many for me.
 
Spurf said:
The irony is that my daughter lives within sight of Hampden Park so I have a sticker on my car that allows me to park on match days. I'll ignore your outrageous slur on the oldest football nation in the world.:emoticon-0142-happy
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The oldest football nation in the world must've been playing with themselves, I guess. <whistle>

Scotland have been completely dropped from the TV schedules, which is both amusing and quite outrageous.
The Croatia match should be livestreamed on Youtube later, but even that's not 100% at the moment.
 
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KingHotspur said:
Sorry I meant 6, my mistake.

6 internationals by end of November after a major international tournament is too many for me.
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The major issue that nobody seems to mention is how it had a knock-on effect vor the lower leagues

Case in point, there's six League One and two League Two games postponed today, all because the various youngsters loaned from Premier League and/or Championship clubs on U21 duty during the break
 
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