This is the first World Cup since 1990 that we don't have either of the chav parasites Rooney and Beckham, and that's why we're going to win it.
Same deal for Sweden finally ridding themselves of the overrated egotist Ibrahimovic.
This is the first World Cup since 1990 that we don't have either of the chav parasites Rooney and Beckham, and that's why we're going to win it.
Same deal for Sweden finally ridding themselves of the overrated egotist Ibrahimovic.
Kane's basically doing the role Rooney should've been doing. Go deep to pick it up, hand it off to a midfielder and then move your arse into danger.
It's a very fair statement, unless you're in Guardianista twitter acceptability mode.
Both men worshipped by fans (and therefore the FA) for their nouveau riche appeal and love of the limelight, more so than players from much tougher backgrounds (such as many in the current squad) who have achieved more for England. Both (mainly Beckham) had their moments but the lack of egos in this team is a massive improvement on the last 20 years.
Lol you're actually such a dickhead.
And you're a precious little shit.
I'm precious? Any time someone DARES have a dig at you you get more butthurt than anyone else on the site.
Pretty much everyone has identified the lack of egos in the squad as something working in England's favour this time, it's hardly a big deal to identify the bloke kicking off about not getting a Knighthood as one of the egos to have hindered them in the past.
A similar thing happened when Spain binned Raul. In that case they still had lots of massive egos, they just didn't have one dominant one.
Nah, you love a sweeping generalisation about people from countries based on the most base of stereotypes and I normally let it slide, because frankly who has the time, but you say this team is without egos (it's not, Harry Kane has a massive one, it's part of what makes him good) but that has nothing to do with them being lower on the social totem pole than you.
LEAVE BECKHAM ALONE!!!
David Beckham was consistently very good for England, and he didn't even moan when Steve McClaren dropped him to look the big man.
He was never an ego player either. The haircuts and stuff off the pitch are irrelevant.
On the pitch he was, but the entire culture around him (why do you think Alex Ferguson was so keen to get rid) kicked off the 'WAGS' bollocks which played more than its part in wasting our best generation of players. Worship of individuals, as I keep saying in various contexts this World Cup, is detrimental in a team game.
Rooney was similar but with the added problem of being a fat mess.
Raul was very good for Spain and Zlatan was very good for Sweden, but both nations improved pretty massively and immediately after binning them.
Fond memories of that post-Beckham upturn in fortunes.
Beckham's the wrong target as he actually delivered for England. Gerrard is obviously one I'd chuck straight in, and to a lesser extent Lampard.
Inb4 Neymar's Brazil win the world cup.
Frank Lampard was reasonably consistent for England, so he gets unfairly dragged down by Steven Gerrard in that example.
Gerrard and Lampard were only guilty of mediocre/inconsistent performances though, not poisoning the well.
I don't think any of the players were fawning over Rooney when you had Scholes, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand on the field. Retarded argument. For a period of 2 world cups or so, England had a good enough team to make it to the World Cup semis and didn't, whoops. They've regressed to the mean since and haven't really underachieved given the team just isn't that great and hasn't been for a decade
It was probably covered in here but Vardy didnt take one as he tweaked his groin late in the game and might not be fit for Saturday.
The dawn of the Welbz era draws a step closer.
At some point in the build up to the Colombia game I think I heard Tim Vickery on the radio talking about various things, and he kept making reference to Brazil's left flank and a player I assume was Coutinho but he kept saying it really weirdly. Now, I can fully imagine him as a soft-s Brasil whopper, but this sounded like 'Cawteen' - is that how you say Coutinho in a faux Brasilien style?
You do generally shorten the vowels at the end in Portuguese so it looks like it's right.
Ronaldinho always used to be Honaljeen in Tim Vickery land, which is no doubt correct as he has lived there for long enough that his byline picture features a gold chain.
He does look so swarthy in that picture.
I see Lingard is all over the back pages again being all jolly and relaxed. He's on some sort of Steve Smith style trajectory from 'here for the bantz' to apparent world-beater. Hopefully the fall doesn't come too soon.
They've clearly all been given pronounciation handbooks for matches they're covering. So you end up with some of them knowing the legit native versions of Nicolai Jørgensen and Dawid Kownacki, but others still pronouncing the s in Thomas Lemar.
My favourite one is that Brazil manager Tite is apparently "Cheech".
What odds can I get on Sterling scoring and causing public outrage by doing a machine gun celebration?
Jordan "Hendo" Henderson is on a run of 28 sucessive games unbeaten for England.
Can't you bet on him making a machine gun celebration for someone else's goal?
41 caps, 2 goals.
The performances have mostly been bilge as well. I wonder if there are (m)any other players with 40+ caps who've been worse.
Not many that jump out from this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...al_footballers
Shilton failed to score in 125 appearances, the mug.
Still scored just as many goals as the two Nevilles combined.
Walcott has been shite other than that one game against Croatia.
Glen Johnson on 54, yeesh.
I do like that Jagielka has one less cap but one more goal than Sterling.
21 caps each for King and Upson with both on 2 goals.
Eric Dier on 3 from 29.
I don't think Sterling's been that bad. Sure, he hasn't scored but he gives you pace and someone who's willing to carry the ball with him. There aren't many others in the team who do that.
He's been terrible in this tournament though. He's someone who's been willing to carry the ball with him until he meets a defender that takes it from him.
He's been terrible but then he's never had any end product in his game. He gets away with it in the league because he plays for a team that creates eleventy billion chances.
He'll probably do something against Sweden or score the winner if we get to the semi and then trade off that for another few years.