Match Day Thread World Cup Watch

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They'll be all over it. Flag-waving and whipping up expectations which are far too high, then ripping into the team when they only manage to achieve what we all expect anyway.

Its the same every 2 years. the same faces

You can watch sunday supplement where they all fancy themselves as media celebs now.. not one of them will dare admit what they really think and will treat into england during qualifiers (especially southgate now) then they will start bigging them up.. especially the red tops til the great unwashed believe this year finally its coming "home" ..... and all they while they have the knife in the back articles on the lap top ready to go.

I say just call a spade a spade at this point. England will do well to get out of their group if they draw any decent South American opponents. then the questions around the minimum shoudl be QF will arise and we will all somehow ignore the fact that england have a poor GK, VERY poor back 4 and a midfield which lacks creativity.

Theres nothing wrong with sterling, kane and rashford.. or alli but none are goal makers.
 
Prediction:

England (men's football) will never win a major tournament in my lifetime.

Women's football harder to predict because a smaller group of people play/compete and so more random who has better teams.
 
just some context:

world cup 2002. second in group to sweden, won one drew 2. lost to brazil in QF 2-0

Euros 2004: lost on pens in to portugal in QF

World cup 2006: Lost on pens in QF to portugal

Euros 2008: did not qualify.

World Cup 2010: 2nd in group to USA. lost 4-1 to germany in first knockout round.

Euro 2012: topped group with france in it. Lost to italy on pens in first knockout phase.

World Cup 2014: lost in group phase. (last with 1 point having lost to Italy and Uruguay)

Euros 2016: 2nd to wales in group, beat wales but drew the other games. Knocked out by Iceland in first knockout game.


The pattern is one where 10-15 years ago we were decent. We slaughtered players who were decent and managers who were experienced foreign managers who were tactically sound. Since that time..

well.

In 2012 Capello intimated he was going to change things as we were weak mentally. The FA stripped John terry of the england captaincy over the Anton ferdinand abuse case. Capello resigned and we got hodgson

For the past 5 years (2012-2017) england have lurched from one disaster to another under hodgson, allardyce and now we have southgate. The team has grown more and more stilted and unable to function tactically.

England were warned once about this johnny foreigner attitude. Steve Mclaren was appointed after the erikkson era and he was a disaster. Capello easily got england back to finals.

Are the players now worse than 2006?

Neville, Ferdinand Terry Cole at the back suggests yes... yet up front? no. Crouch, walcott, rooney. owen.

Today england have decent but not amazing full backs but the CBs are weak. The forwards are good. kane, etc.. My view is england need to sack southgate right now and beg anchelotti to come do the job before the world cup.
 
just some context:

world cup 2002. second in group to sweden, won one drew 2. lost to brazil in QF 2-0

Euros 2004: lost on pens in to portugal in QF

World cup 2006: Lost on pens in QF to portugal

Euros 2008: did not qualify.

World Cup 2010: 2nd in group to USA. lost 4-1 to germany in first knockout round.

Euro 2012: topped group with france in it. Lost to italy on pens in first knockout phase.

World Cup 2014: lost in group phase. (last with 1 point having lost to Italy and Uruguay)

Euros 2016: 2nd to wales in group, beat wales but drew the other games. Knocked out by Iceland in first knockout game.


The pattern is one where 10-15 years ago we were decent. We slaughtered players who were decent and managers who were experienced foreign managers who were tactically sound. Since that time..

well.

In 2012 Capello intimated he was going to change things as we were weak mentally. The FA stripped John terry of the england captaincy over the Anton ferdinand abuse case. Capello resigned and we got hodgson

For the past 5 years (2012-2017) england have lurched from one disaster to another under hodgson, allardyce and now we have southgate. The team has grown more and more stilted and unable to function tactically.

England were warned once about this johnny foreigner attitude. Steve Mclaren was appointed after the erikkson era and he was a disaster. Capello easily got england back to finals.

Are the players now worse than 2006?

Neville, Ferdinand Terry Cole at the back suggests yes... yet up front? no. Crouch, walcott, rooney. owen.

Today england have decent but not amazing full backs but the CBs are weak. The forwards are good. kane, etc.. My view is england need to sack southgate right now and beg anchelotti to come do the job before the world cup.
In some ways I'm quite attached to the idea that all nations (not just ours) should have a manager who - like the players - has some valid connection with that nation. That way their performance would be a truer reflection of that country's status.
If this is the level we're at then so be it as far as I'm concerned.
I might feel differently if I actually cared about our international standing a bit more.
 
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