I'm sure we would have all taken a semi-final, so you can't argue with the record books; but we showed how shit we still are against the two decent teams we actually faced, so it's nothing to get excited about in terms of the next tournament[s], and there is nothing new to be learned from any of it.
Yeah but what I mean is, Panama and Colombia he just scored from penalties and a deflection so you can't consider those as "sharpness" on his part really, can you? So you're only left with the Tunisia game were he scored the 2 goals from corners and even there those chances were created from the failed first attempts. I'd argue in the other games those first attempts actually went in.
My point being he didn't really show any sharpness to begin with.
Last edited by Adramelch; 15-07-2018 at 11:39 PM.
I think he did, in that he took the winner against Tunisia adeptly and smashed the fuck out of the net with the penalties.
I'm not trying to discredit his effort for what it's worth, just that I didn't see anything different from him in the first few games compared to the others.
I think there are games between the groups and our eventual exit where he should have had a proper opportunity and an argument could have been made for him replacing any of Alli, Lingard and Sterling.
Alli spent too much time playing and looking unfit, Lingard didn't see much of the ball but got a couple of chances which he fluffed and Sterling just refuses to do anything at all when in possession, which he saw a decent amount of and gave away a lot of it. Though some of his constant lol-j/k-ing it back to the defence after pretending he was going to do something must come down to Southgate because the whole team seemed unwilling to take a chance in favour of being careful. The amount of times we got to the edge of area and then went "Oo-er, not sure about this" and it ended up back with Stones / Maguire was ludicrous.
But back to the point at hand I'd be starting Loftus-Cheek in whatever our next game is.
A lot of people seem to rate Loftus-Cheek alongside players like Lampard and Gerrard. I honestly don’t see where all the hype is coming from.
I'm a twit
He's a lazy piece of shit, but a very good impact sub for his physicality.
RLC is nothing like Lampard or Gerrard.
He should have played a lot more football, shame he got that injury during the season as he was looking great.
His time will come.
I think the difference from other tournaments is that we genuinely looked good enough to beat Croatia, first half we should have had the game out of site.
Southgate needs to manage in game situations better as we were clearly second best for 75 minutes but there's at least hope there compared to the last decade.
We need a Playmaker. Without that we won’t be able to better that anytime soon.
I thought we would beat them on the basis that they looked knackered and couldn't defend set pieces, but for all of our pressing in the first half we didn't actually create anything, and they soon worked us out. It's just a different kind of wasting opportunities to the 'Golden Generation'. They failed to make the most of their talent, and this lot failed to capitalise on their outrageous good fortune. Same shit, different people.
My comment about mixed race drones was aimed at the previous generation of interchangeable wingbots with no end product - Walcott, Oxlade, Lennon, Pennant, etc etc.
Doesn't apply to any current player.
I thought it was based on your insider knowledge of the workings of St. George's Park, with them all walking around with identical haircuts and wash bags.
It appears that misery, identical haircuts and wash bags breed tournament success.
Oxlade-Chamberlain would have been quite useful at this tournament.
I think both Liverpool and England missed him quite a lot.
Is England (and France, actually) unique is somehow churning out wingers with all the physical attributes but absolutely no fucking brain?
I didn’t realise the farcical 48 team format was official. Qatar to be the last decent World Cup then.
The collusion in the last group games is going to be off the scale.
Do we know how a 48 team tournament will work yet?
You can't fit that much football into a month. 16 groups of 3, winners advancing to the knockouts. But more likely John's idea.
England have no chance in that format. We need groups all the way up to the final with a final group of 2 to decide it. FairPlay in the event of a draw. It’s coming home.
The format John posted has been confirmed, at least according to the BBC.
Groups of 3 sounds like total wank. I really wish they could avoid that, even if it meant having 2 group phases.
They should copy the 1982 format (groups of 4 into groups of 3) but with double the teams.
Just up it to 64 and play straight knockout the whole way through. No seeding either.
Just read the stat that Harry Kane had 6 shots on target in the World Cup, and that's if you class the one that went in off his heal as a shot. That's bonkers.
Excluding the penalties I presume.
Groups of 3 with 1 going through is kind of ok, but groups of 3 with 2 going through is the worst conceivable format for anything.
Not worse than what I presumed it would be, 12 groups of 4 with top 2 plus the 8 best 3 going through (following the new Euro format).
He had the shot against Croatia that Subasic saved and then he hit the post so that would be 7 no?
Edit: It seems to have been counted as a shot off target in that graph for god knows what reason.
Last edited by Adramelch; 16-07-2018 at 09:04 PM.
These riots in France are pretty lol, not least for their coming off the back of a load of immigration is an unquestionable good look at these cup winning Africans wankpieces. Stay out of sport you tedious cunts.
What is the xG for a penalty? 0.85? It should really be 1.
0.75-0.8 according to Google.
I thought the 48 team bullshit was starting in Qatar. Good to know it isn't.
Which reminds me, the final of the North American one better be in the Azteca. Lots of history in that place. Unfortunately, I know it will be in the Burger King Dome or whatever.
Just spotted that Mile High is in the running as one of the venues for that World Cup.
Players will be breathing out of their arses within 30 minutes, well not if Bolivia qualify. They'll be complaining about too much oxygen.
Did they? Lol.
It is definitely something to consider, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...t-Bolivia.html
A while ago now.