The World Cup Thread (18 Viewers)

[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

Haven’t read the comments tonight but imo job done for England.

Clearly what Southgate wanted.

Colombia will not be easy but this route is better.

Just awaiting the National meltdown Wednesday morning after a 2-1 defeat.....

 

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[Sick Boy]

I agree Columbia are a threat and are the team I'd like to have avoided from that group but past them I'd fancy us against either Sweden or Switzerland.

Colombia will be more of a challenge but both Switzerland and Sweden will be no slouches either and both teams are capable of beating England. Listening to 5Live earlier you'd think England were already in the semi finals.

 

[Sick Boy]

Haven’t read the comments tonight but imo job done for England.

Clearly what Southgate wanted.

Colombia will not be easy but this route is better.

Just awaiting the National meltdown Wednesday morning after a 2-1 defeat.....

I don't have much affection for international football but support Ireland, this year it does seem as though people actually think England have a very strong chance of winning it. I'd say it's the weakest England team for a while?!

 

[Otis]

Colombia will be more of a challenge but both Switzerland and Sweden will be no slouches either and both teams are capable of beating England. Listening to 5Live earlier you'd think England were already in the semi finals.

Yep. Like I said, we already seem to be plotting our path and we haven't even played Colombia yet.

Looking a game at a time, Japan would have been the easier game of the two.

Colombia might prove to be a very tough game.

 

[Otis]

I don't have much affection for international football but support Ireland, this year it does seem as though people actually think England have a very strong chance of winning it. I'd say it's the weakest England team for a while?!

I do think we can win it, but our back four isn't great and we only have average keepers.

There are clear weaknesses in our squad. Southgate has them playing in the right manner however

 

[Westendlad]

I do think we can win it, but our back four isn't great and we only have average keepers.

There are clear weaknesses in our squad. Southgate has them playing in the right manner however

Back four ?

 

[Sick Boy]

I do think we can win it, but our back four isn't great and we only have average keepers.

There are clear weaknesses in our squad. Southgate has them playing in the right manner however

It's been a crazy world cup so far and since Leicester winning the PL, I wouldn't rule it out either. My outside bet is Croatia though.

I think Southgate has done well and comes across pretty decent and likeable. I think the Euros will be more successful for England and this will be great experience for a young team.

 

[Sick Boy]

Back four ?

Yeah I think so, even against Panama it looked very suspect. Good to see them try to play from the back though.

 

[Westendlad]

Heard Southgate on the radio yesterday and he said he has studied and is copying the way the Germans have played over the last few years.

 

[Westendlad]

Yeah I think so, even against Panama it looked very suspect. Good to see them try to play from the back though.

Am i going totally bonkers or are we not playing 3 CB's and 2 WB's ?

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

And Belgium didn't play their second team?

We looked very much second best and a bit clueless tonight.

And this path we are now on means it is likely we will face Spain doesn't it?

Not making too much of it, but I wanted a decent performance from the team tonight and we didn't get it and there were some worrying individual efforts too, which worries me if we get injuries.

I’m not too concerned actually. We created the best chance of the game and Rashford should be kicking himself for that 1v1 miss.

Tonight underlined the importance of Henderson and Lingard (someone I wasn’t sold on if I’m honest) to the system. Dier doesn’t have the range of passing Hendo possesses and Delph doesn’t make the lung busting runs behind defences Lingard does. Dier and Delph aren’t those kind of players. The setup today wasn’t even consistent with the Gareth Southgate ‘revolution’ — we weren’t direct enough and didn’t have the players to find Rashford and Vardy. It does appear that Southgate prioritised giving everyone a game in a game where losing had 0 consequence and because of Germany’s early exit, our route to the semi-final is theoretically ‘easier’. To sum this up, if we were really desperate for an equaliser to take us back up to 1st place, why did we bring Welbeck on instead of Kane?

Our wingbacks played well, bar Roses’ defending for their goal (but let’s be honest, it was a great goal). I’d probably start Rose v Columbia. I was disappointed in Loftus-Cheek’s end product, and Pickford was pretty dodgy in all honesty. All in all, it was pretty drab match from both sides. It’s clear Southgate was resting all his best players and I just hope that gamble pays off. I could handle losing to Brazil in the quarters, but losing to a sub-par Columbia, or Sweden/Switzerland I cannot handle.

 

[Westendlad]

I’m not too concerned actually. We created the best chance of the game and Rashford should be kicking himself for that 1v1 miss.

Tonight underlined the importance of Henderson and Lingard (someone I wasn’t sold on if I’m honest) to the system. Dier doesn’t have the range of passing Hendo possesses and Delph doesn’t make the lung busting runs behind defences Lingard does. Dier and Delph aren’t those kind of players. The setup today wasn’t even consistent with the Gareth Southgate ‘revolution’ — we weren’t direct enough and didn’t have the players to find Rashford and Vardy. It does appear that Southgate prioritised giving everyone a game in a game where losing had 0 consequence and because of Germany’s early exit, our route to the semi-final is theoretically ‘easier’. To sum this up, if we were really desperate for an equaliser to take us back up to 1st place, why did we bring Welbeck on instead of Kane?

Our wingbacks played well, bar Roses’ defending for their goal (but let’s be honest, it was a great goal). I’d probably start Rose v Columbia. I was disappointed in Loftus-Cheek’s end product, and Pickford was pretty dodgy in all honesty. All in all, it was pretty drab match from both sides. It’s clear Southgate was resting all his best players and I just hope that gamble pays off. I could handle losing to Brazil in the quarters, but losing to a sub-par Columbia, or Sweden/Switzerland I cannot handle.

Perfect summary.

 

[Otis]

Back four ?

Yeah, okay, back three. Force of habit.

 

[Otis]

Heard Southgate on the radio yesterday and he said he has studied and is copying the way the Germans have played over the last few years.

Oh, we're totally out next round then.

 

[Otis]

I’m not too concerned actually. We created the best chance of the game and Rashford should be kicking himself for that 1v1 miss.

Tonight underlined the importance of Henderson and Lingard (someone I wasn’t sold on if I’m honest) to the system. Dier doesn’t have the range of passing Hendo possesses and Delph doesn’t make the lung busting runs behind defences Lingard does. Dier and Delph aren’t those kind of players. The setup today wasn’t even consistent with the Gareth Southgate ‘revolution’ — we weren’t direct enough and didn’t have the players to find Rashford and Vardy. It does appear that Southgate prioritised giving everyone a game in a game where losing had 0 consequence and because of Germany’s early exit, our route to the semi-final is theoretically ‘easier’. To sum this up, if we were really desperate for an equaliser to take us back up to 1st place, why did we bring Welbeck on instead of Kane?

Our wingbacks played well, bar Roses’ defending for their goal (but let’s be honest, it was a great goal). I’d probably start Rose v Columbia. I was disappointed in Loftus-Cheek’s end product, and Pickford was pretty dodgy in all honesty. All in all, it was pretty drab match from both sides. It’s clear Southgate was resting all his best players and I just hope that gamble pays off. I could handle losing to Brazil in the quarters, but losing to a sub-par Columbia, or Sweden/Switzerland I cannot handle.

Yep. Well summed up.

Once we went 1 down, Southgate was never going to bust a gut to try and change things in order for us to try and equalise.

Who knows what will happen next and there's no guarantee that Brazil will beat Mexico.

 

[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

I don't have much affection for international football but support Ireland, this year it does seem as though people actually think England have a very strong chance of winning it. I'd say it's the weakest England team for a while?!

From what I’ve seen France, Spain, Brazil and Argentina are yet to ‘click’ surely one (maybe two) of those 4 will hit their straps in the next few rounds?
I think it’ll be a Brazil v Croatia final with Brazil winning.
England losing to Croatia in the semis (should they get past Colombia)

 

[Grendel]

I am too. Think it is going to be tough and I don't like teams that run at us with pace.

Depends how Colombia set out their stall.

Colombia are dross if we don’t beat them we don’t deserve anything

 

[Otis]

Colombia are dross if we don’t beat them we don’t deserve anything

I agree we don't deserve anything if we lose, but we are more likely to lose to Colombia than we are to Japan.

For me it is all about one game at a time and the Japan game would have seemed the 'easier' option and we would have been supremely confident.

We should still be confident about Colombia, but there is more of a worry there and we are now also more likely to encounter some underhand tactics.

So, will we get the Tunisian ref, or the Panama ref? They each treated the pushing and pulling entirely differently.

We get the Panamanian ref and we will win by 5 or 6 clear goals.

 

[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

A stat for England to break-
The last 16 semi finalists (so the last 4 world cups) won their last group game.

 

[ovduk78]

On the plus side it will have cheered the Jocks up. Going to work on monday after the Panama game all I was getting was "England fans are saying they're gonna win the World Cup now" (I know no-one who has said that) and "all you ever go on about is 1966" when as soon as any tournament starts when England have qualified that is the first thing they say. Some of it is just banter but I would love England to win it (we could but I don't think we're good enough) just to shut some of them up

 

[Liquid Gold]

What are we supposed to do today then. They should make two all star XIs from the eliminated teams play so there's something to watch.

 

[covmark]

What are we supposed to do today then. They should make two all star XIs from the eliminated teams play so there's something to watch.

Ha. Yeah I was on the BBC sport website looking for what time the games were on today. Bloody rest day. No football for the first time in two weeks. Suppose I'm gonna have to do some work.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

Yep. Well summed up.

Once we went 1 down, Southgate was never going to bust a gut to try and change things in order for us to try and equalise.

Who knows what will happen next and there's no guarantee that Brazil will beat Mexico.

Yep. Well summed up.

Once we went 1 down, Southgate was never going to bust a gut to try and change things in order for us to try and equalise.

Who knows what will happen next and there's no guarantee that Brazil will beat Mexico.

Last night was a reminder of why we play 5-3-2 too. Fellaini and Dembele controlled the game better than Dier-Cheek-Delph. We played the 5-3-2 because we know we don’t have the caliber of midfielders capable of controlled games v ‘the good teams’.

My biggest gripe with last night was the break in continuity with our style of play. The national psyche really needs us getting to the semi-finals this year.

 

[Mcbean]

mm i think we have a good consensus - struck me Southgate found out the second 11 - the young star Alexander Arnold cant take a corner , Dier as above has no where near the quality required - Loftus Cheek was also disappointing given his good show in the other games as a sub - Rashford still the best as an impact sub for me - however i'm ok with what he did - rested first team , not so far to travel 10 degrees less heat - Columbia or Japan - does'nt matter both tricky - we either are good enough or not

 

[Otis]

Very true.

No-one really claimed a place last night, apart from maybe Rose. He made that one mistake, but played every well apart from that.

Vardy for me should be behind Welbeck. He just doesn't look good enough for international football.

Alexander-Arnold, as has been said, seems to not be very good at crossing and Dier was just pants. He was the most disappointing player for me last night. Well, him and Rashford.

I thought Rashford played okay, but his finishing just was not up to scratch at all.

Still can't get my head round how he didn't even hit the target with that one on one.

 

[Mcbean]

There was a deflection as it was a corner - but was he told to miss generally ? ! - watch our friend the Belgium manager when Janusai scored

 

[Otis]

There was a deflection as it was a corner - but was he told to miss generally ? ! - watch our friend the Belgium manager when Janusai scored

It was the faintest of deflections though and looked like it was going clearly wide anyway.

Not sure anyone would tell a player to deliberately miss.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

Whatever happened to wanting to win games? Shows how little faith some have in our ability that we actively seek to avoid playing half decent teams. If you're good enough you don't care who comes in the next round.

And I thought Newcastle fans were deluded Colombia are a very decent team and England will not beat them 'easily'.

I want to win games, but I want to get further in the tournament more.

Colombia is a challenge, but one we are capable of. I've watched all of their games and I think if we play like we can we will win. We must give 100% though and take nothing for granted.

If we go out in the quarters I would think a lot of people would be disappointed. That would have a strong chance of happening if we drew Brazil.

People are saying we need to be playing big teams, but then all of a sudden we get Colombia and people are acting as if they are the best in the world and we are stupid for taking that route. It is standard hypocrisy because some individuals want to be angry at the fact we didn't particularly try against Belgium.

I don't care to be honest. We have a winnable route to the semis and if we perform like we have shown then we can do it. Have a bit of faith!

 

[Grendel]

Very true.

No-one really claimed a place last night, apart from maybe Rose. He made that one mistake, but played every well apart from that.

Vardy for me should be behind Welbeck. He just doesn't look good enough for international football.

Alexander-Arnold, as has been said, seems to not be very good at crossing and Dier was just pants. He was the most disappointing player for me last night. Well, him and Rashford.

I thought Rashford played okay, but his finishing just was not up to scratch at all.

Still can't get my head round how he didn't even hit the target with that one on one.

No one claimed a place in the Belgium team either - reality is this is similar to 1990 when we played Cameroon and a poor Belgium team to progress to the Semis - its the best option by a mile. You are a master of conundrums. Brazil may lose to Mexico and Japan are a better team to play than Colombia - the same Japan that beat Colombia. Playing Spain (so they clearly are nailed on to win both games) in the semis is better than Brazil in the quarters because its a one off hit to make the final.

Momentum is another annoying buzzword as well. Italy in 1982 won the World Cup without winning any of the first Group Games. England went out unbeaten after five games including beating France and drawing with a German team who had lost to Algeria but made the final

 

[wingy]

I want to win games, but I want to get further in the tournament more.

Colombia is a challenge, but one we are capable of. I've watched all of their games and I think if we play like we can we will win. We must give 100% though and take nothing for granted.

If we go out in the quarters I would think a lot of people would be disappointed. That would have a strong chance of happening if we drew Brazil.

People are saying we need to be playing big teams, but then all of a sudden we get Colombia and people are acting as if they are the best in the world and we are stupid for taking that route. It is standard hypocrisy because some individuals want to be angry at the fact we didn't particularly try against Belgium.

I don't care to be honest. We have a winnable route to the semis and if we perform like we have shown then we can do it. Have a bit of faith!

It's not that so much, If Columbia bring their A game like they did in their second match I think that tempo and intensity will be too much for us.
It's about whether we have the tools to prevent that a I'm not sure we have, or the energy .

 

[LastGarrison]

I don't have much affection for international football but support Ireland, this year it does seem as though people actually think England have a very strong chance of winning it. I'd say it's the weakest England team for a while?!

I think a lot of it is very much tongue in cheek and it does wind all of our closest neighbours up so we play up to it.

Coming into the World Cup I though this was the poorest quality squad I have seen in my life time and I didn’t expect us to get out the group (Thought we’d draw with Tunisia, beat Panama and lose to Belgium), however, what we have done is played to our system and played well as a team.

I still don’t think we’ll win it but there has been no real stand out teams, apart from Croatia, and we now have a favourable route so we have a real good chance to progress and now it really is just one game at a time.

However, it is coming home.

 

[Mcbean]

It was the faintest of deflections though and looked like it was going clearly wide anyway.

Not sure anyone would tell a player to deliberately miss.

Just don't know - Rashford generally pretty reliable on one to ones

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

I’m not too concerned actually. We created the best chance of the game and Rashford should be kicking himself for that 1v1 miss.

Tonight underlined the importance of Henderson and Lingard (someone I wasn’t sold on if I’m honest) to the system. Dier doesn’t have the range of passing Hendo possesses and Delph doesn’t make the lung busting runs behind defences Lingard does. Dier and Delph aren’t those kind of players. The setup today wasn’t even consistent with the Gareth Southgate ‘revolution’ — we weren’t direct enough and didn’t have the players to find Rashford and Vardy. It does appear that Southgate prioritised giving everyone a game in a game where losing had 0 consequence and because of Germany’s early exit, our route to the semi-final is theoretically ‘easier’. To sum this up, if we were really desperate for an equaliser to take us back up to 1st place, why did we bring Welbeck on instead of Kane?

Our wingbacks played well, bar Roses’ defending for their goal (but let’s be honest, it was a great goal). I’d probably start Rose v Columbia. I was disappointed in Loftus-Cheek’s end product, and Pickford was pretty dodgy in all honesty. All in all, it was pretty drab match from both sides. It’s clear Southgate was resting all his best players and I just hope that gamble pays off. I could handle losing to Brazil in the quarters, but losing to a sub-par Columbia, or Sweden/Switzerland I cannot handle.

It's annoying because the players that played this game won't get picked for the next and it will back to the original starting XI.

There are one or two from that original starting XI that have been suspect. I would have been looking to replace them with other players. Not rest them for a game and let the other half of the squad play underwhelmingly so the original set get re-picked for the next round with a few uncertainties within them.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

It's not that so much, If Columbia bring their A game like they did in their second match I think that tempo and intensity will be too much for us.
It's about whether we have the tools to prevent that a I'm not sure we have, or the energy .

In their second game Colombia played Poland who were absolutely shocking. Really shit. Colombia needed to win after having such a dismal start and they got it.

I wouldn't read too much into that, the same way that I wouldn't read into us beating a semi-pro Panamanian team 6-1.

We should go into this game guns blazing with belief we can win.

As Grendel says, losing to Spain in the semis vs losing to Brazil in the quarters is a no brainer. Only the former would be classed as a success.

The whole 'we could have had Japan next' is only an argument we should have if Belgium beat them and we lose to Colombia. I think it is more likely both us and Belgium will win our games. At that point we definitely have a greater chance of getting to the semis.

 

[Otis]

No one claimed a place in the Belgium team either - reality is this is similar to 1990 when we played Cameroon and a poor Belgium team to progress to the Semis - its the best option by a mile. You are a master of conundrums. Brazil may lose to Mexico and Japan are a better team to play than Colombia - the same Japan that beat Colombia. Playing Spain (so they clearly are nailed on to win both games) in the semis is better than Brazil in the quarters because its a one off hit to make the final.

Momentum is another annoying buzzword as well. Italy in 1982 won the World Cup without winning any of the first Group Games. England went out unbeaten after five games including beating France and drawing with a German team who had lost to Algeria but made the final

Hmmm. Twisting the reality yet again I see.

Japan DID beat Colombia. But didn't Colombia play practically the entire game with just 10 men? Pretty much the whole match in its entirety. Conveniently missed that part of the tale out I see.

And on the Belgium thing, a lot of people last night were saying that many of their players HAD enhanced their prospects of getting picked.