Are they seeded now?
Are they seeded now?
Tremendous effort from Italy. Hopefully that penalty miss haunts Jorginho for the remainder of his days.
Fuck Italy and all who sail in her. Hopefully get dumped out by Wales or something equally embarrassing.
I hope top Ireland are blasting out It's Coming Rome.
Fair comment but then England as whole did bugger all during his time with them. Prime Rooney in this current England team (or at least the England team that shows up at times) would be considered a better player than he was then too, I reckon. There are a few players in this one that actually express themselves and don't shrink unlike the mismanaged Golden Generation.
Just my opinion, bias as you like.
Wayne Rooney went into two tournaments injured and the others playing alongside some absolute shit (2014 must be the worst squad of my lifetime). He should have called it a day after 2014, but nobody was forcing us to pick him in pissing midfield.
I think Rooney often played quite poorly for England when it mattered even just taking into account the stuff he could personally control but then you'd have thought especially the years around 2010 they'd have just done what United did and had him stand in the box and focus on a way to get him the ball.
Also pretty sure Smiff's been hacked given we're talking about a former United player and he's the one defending him.
The font was really bad on the itv score bug and I got in from the cinema thinking we’d just beaten San Marino 0-40.
You couldn't really drop Wayne Rooney though. Well, you could but England have never really seemed to have a strong enough manager to do so. Southgate benching Kane in recent games is a good sign, not that I rate him all that much either but he's done more with your national team than most have. Still a bit too green for my liking.
Smiff's a changed man, he probably has been for the last two years but you may only see it a smidge as I appear to have found myself back amongst you full time instead of lurking every once in a while. Time will tell if that's a good thing or not because let's face it, history sticks. Off topic as it may be, I didn't realise I actually missed this place and what it offers at times.
luv u tim
I'm a twit
Kane is perfect for slotting Albania, Slovakia, the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and so on. It's in the top, top games where you wonder if he's contributing much. If there was even a Plan B it would be something, but it doesn't appear that there is.
Who would be plan b though? Abraham has been a donkey everytime I've seen him. Rashford? Lol. Calvert-Lewin is probably the only player you could potentially replace Kane with, but if he doesn't score then Southgate would get dragged over hot coals for doing it.
Harry Maguire false 9.
His work off the ball is always so good that when he goes on one of these goal scoring runs he looks like one of the best strikers in Europe. Then he doesn't score for 10 matches and you're left pulling your hair out. Hopefully he finds a bit of goal scoring consistency, it's the only thing that let's him down.
Bellingham looking like he's been photoshopped into the photo.
Kane has another year to play himself into domestic form ahead of the world cup. Rightly so he will be our main man again. I think long term it will be Greenwood, all the others Calvert-Lewin, Rashford, Ings, Watkins etc are just such a step down its better to try and force it with Kane.
Who’s that in front of Trent?
I'm a twit
I think Rooney tended to get further into midfield just to get the ball and make something happen. Kane does get deeper but that usually allows Sterling or someone to become a threat. I can't think for the life of me who would've done something similar in Rooney's time.
A whole narrative developed around Rooney, from early in his career, that because he could pass, he would end up in midfield. Absolute horse shit as he didn't have the engine for it, but people believed it anyway.
We should get Kane back on corners. Recapture some of the Euro 2016 magic.
Most of being a midfield player (especially post that Barcelona team) is just running and positioning. Passing is show pony stuff for the most part.
And vision. What good is passing if you can't spot the run?
Is he still complaining about his cell not having an en-suite and a hot tub?
The narrative is a powerful thing, look at Steve Bruce being a good manager who can organise a defence.
He was too late for the 'midfielders don't need to be able to move' era.
Course he was. Rooney was fucking mega.
I'm a twit
I think he's brain damaged.
I’m not the one who thinks a manager is good, but wouldn’t want him anywhere near his club, even on a short term basis.
In any case, the wider point here is that THE NARRATIVE is probably the strongest single force in sport. It kept Bruce in top level management for years, diverted Rooney from the knackers yard and into midfield and was so powerful with Roberto Martinez, he’s still getting linked to top jobs.
My new pilot for 'Yevrah' will involve a premise where he wakes up one morning and everyone else in the world is now Steve Bruce. Next door neighbour is Steve Bruce, the milkman is Steve Bruce, the builders outside are all Steve Bruce; the bus to work is crammed full of 30 odd Steve Bruces, all of them good managers, all of them able to organise a defence, none of them able to get a job in football management. Two Steve Bruces are fucking loudly downstairs while another Steve Bruce watches. Steve Bruce is everywhere, and Steve Bruce is everything.
That would also mean that Steve Bruce would be at the cricket and England would never win anything again.
Netherlands vs Norway is eye-bleedingly bad. Netherlands drop from first to third if Norway score though so soldiering on in the interests of potential banter.
Turkey currently in the play-off spot having conceded 16 goals in 10 games. That's got to be some sort of record for a team that progresses.
Cameroon have done away with the Ivory Coast tonight. Probably for the best as the latter started with 33 year old Max Gradel and Sebastien Haller.
Zambo-powered Cameroon not the worst prospect perhaps.
Hang on, the Dutch both managed to screw that game against Montenegro and are back to behind closed doors? What a stupid, if tall, race of people.