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Football Discussion

I'm glad Spain have lost both games to be honest. Hope Australia stuff them. Also been saying for a while that Chile are my dark houses for the cup, honestly think that even if they lose to Holland and face Brazil that they can beat Brazil, hope to see Chile go far.
 
Spain were utter rotten. With all that talent at their disposal, Spain surely have been the worse team I've seen in this world cup, probably deserved what they got though. Never thought Spain would go out of the world cup before England.:p
 
Australia have the same points as Spain after 2 games... Shocker!

Serves them right anyway... "we need at least two goals..." "...get Torres on!"
 
Well, I maybe a Scotsman who always likes to make fun of England crashing out the World Cup, but I do give my congratulations to Rooney for scoring his first goal in the finals. :p
 
I think Italy will beat Costa Rica, but I think they'll draw against Uruguay.

I'm disappointed that we seemed to go back to the old boring English way of playing; no pace, lack of ideas and just dull. Simply enough there aren't enough good English players to pick from but tonight Baines, Jagielka, Gerrard and Johnson in particular were poor. The defending was shocking.

Ah well. I'd like Holland and Germany to do well, but I still think it'll be a South American side, Chile are dark horses.
 
England are not a good team, total embarissment as per usual. How about paying them according to their performance - they might play a bit better then.
 
GaryH said:
England are not a good team, total embarissment as per usual. How about paying them according to their performance - they might play a bit better then.
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Internationals don't get paid for duty in the same way as for clubs...

Whilst last night wasn't helped by a poor ref (Godin should have been sent off and a few weird decisions), that should not mask the overall poor performance (once again) from England... Defensive errors were once again the cause for the defeat, letting Suarez have so much space was asking for trouble, and when he gambled on that ball forward for the second he had time to go make a cuppa before anyone realised the situation...

The likes of Johnson, Gerrard and Rooney should go now... Johnson has always been an awful defender, Rooney is not the talisman the media make him out to be and Gerrard's time is over... We lack a midfield destroyer as well, meaning that the midfield is often quite weak as neither Gerrard or Henderson are that good defensively, so as a result when the fullbacks bomb forward the defense is often isolated...

Attacking wise we were pretty toothless, though mostly due to a lack of decent delivery from the sides and not as many people in the box...

The issue now moves to who comes into the squad for the future... In the right back slot we have 5 choices, so should experiment with all 5 (Flanagan, Clyne, Chambers, Ward and Walker) to see who fits the squad best... But in central defence, midfield destroyer and lone striker roles we lack a strength in depth... Jones and Smalling are not great defenders at club level, and beyond Sturridge and Lambert who do we have up front who would cause some modicum of fear into the opposition?

Again, you have to look towards the youth setup in the league, and that we have pools of wasted talent such as Rodwell, Richards, Sinclair and even Zaha after his year at United in amongst most of Chelsea's youth you have to wonder what can be done to ensure that these types of players get games... Look at Germany enforcing rules about home grown players in match-day squads, and look how good they are now... That's where the difference has to made, rather than bigger teams scooping up all and sundry and not playing them...
 
GaryH said:
England are not a good team, total embarissment as per usual. How about paying them according to their performance - they might play a bit better then.
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Total embarrassment? That is very harsh I feel. Yes we weren't great last night and we paid for defensive errors and not being able to convert our chances but after we got the equaliser I could only see one side winning and that was England. Uruguay's winner did come a bit out of the blue. Also it would have been a different game had Uruguay been down to 10 men in the first half as they should have been, they tried to stop us playing (which worked) and this would have been harder with 10 men.

Benzin said:
The likes of Johnson, Gerrard and Rooney should go now... Johnson has always been an awful defender, Rooney is not the talisman the media make him out to be and Gerrard's time is over... We lack a midfield destroyer as well, meaning that the midfield is often quite weak as neither Gerrard or Henderson are that good defensively, so as a result when the fullbacks bomb forward the defense is often isolated...
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Gerrard will retire from international football after the World Cup, I think he decided that beforehand. Rooney however played quite well last night, especially in the second half. And who's fault is it that he's not the talisman that the media make him out to be? Well that would be the media for making him out to be like that. The British Media love to fixate on Rooney and he is England's scapegoat right now. He is not a Messi or Ronaldo, he just needs to be left alone and allowed to play his own game.

:)
 
So it was Suarez 2-1 England... They had two shots in target and both were scored by him. It just goes to show how one player can make such a difference.

We have a young squad and a tough group. They've performed better than I expected them to and that makes it harder to see us fall this time... We've been undone by two world class players - Balotelli and Suarez - and if and when we get our talismanic man in the future then this up and coming squad could do amazing things.

As for the Rooney debate I thought he was fantastic last night - he fought for the whole 90 minutes. Played his heart out.
 
I like how quiet this has gone since we've been eliminated. :D

I still think it'll be a South American team who wins it, although Uruguay I don't now think will progress! I'm still saying Brazil or Argentina but now Chile being the dark horses, they look very strong. I'd like either Netherlands or Germany but I just think the climate will catch up with them, the former I want more to succeed for club reasons as it could influence United's targets a bit more, I hope.
 
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I have to say that it has been an absulutely fantastic World Cup so far, we have been totally spoilt with all the brilliant games. Even Algeria vs South Korea last night was a cracker! It's certainly been the best World Cup I have ever watched, I just hope it continues.

I would like a European team to win it but you would have to say either Brazil or Argentina are still favourite. Iran deserved something from their game against Argentina but Messi popped up right at the death to show what a good player he is. I'm looking forward to seeing how Chile get on against the Netherlands later on.

Also, I have been really impressed by France so far. I'm not convinced that they're great at the back but going forward they seem as good as anyone. Pace, power and ability. They demolished Switzerland on Friday.

:)
 
On England:

Agree with Sven's comments, if Roy was not English he'd have been sacked.

I think he lacked any kind of intensity (it was TOO calm for a world cup, there is such a thing as TOO relaxed in fierce competition it takes your edge away and you can make costly errors....). No one here can tell me Suarez did not want it more - that last goal his legs were gone, he was ploughing through treacle but he wanted it MORE - and he got it.

Hodgson, tactically naive, watch the way other teams change their shape - especially the dutch, everyone shouted first match PLAY THE YOUNGSTERS. So they did. What did Costa Rica do? They made sure their midfield closed down Pirlo, and what happened? Creativity nullified, Balotelli starts losing his rag, frustration sets in, and THAT is how you beat the Italians - everyone freaking knows that SURELY? Frustrate them, stifle their main creative outlet, get them wound up, and they throw the game away all by themselves. You nullify an enemies strengths and target their weaknesses - Roy set the team up exciting admittedly, but naively. It was dare I say it, too gung ho an approach.

However, that can be forgiven, it was a great game and we lost by small margins (which is how hard games are won, see Argentina Iran etc...) - in the absolute elite level, those tiny margins must be sought after and Roy simply didn't do that. He didn't have an answer to Uruguay either, the tactics didn't really change except for reading the newspapers and switching Rooney inside, you know what, I far enjoyed Sterling in that role he was lost on the wings. Rooney played quite well, is a hard worker, but he's just NOT world class. That's not his fault, he's just below that level of say.... Pirlo, Ronaldo, Van Persie, Suarez, Messi, Robben etc. Who would choose Rooney over any of those?

This world cup is about outstanding TEAMS, never say die mentality, working for each other - the Dutch against Chile today were absolutely outstanding! The antithesis to their game against Spain, they paid respect to their opponents, changed formation and personnel to nullify their threats, and patiently waited their moment to strike - total football made way for total tactics. Van Gaal is brilliant. Man U have got themselves a great manager for however long until he blows the dressing room up (though after Fergie, it may be his home for a while yet!).

I like Roy, he's giving the youngsters a change as well, but is he really the man with the sharp decisive mind, adaptable, elite thinking, win at all costs leader that England need to imbue that sense of pride and focus into England?

No, no way.

Van Gaal took the Dutch from 3 losses in their Euros to 3 straight wins, great football, tactically strong etc in 2 years - in Roy's 2 years, I am better impressed with the way we play but less confident in our strength as a unit!

Roy is not the man for England, not as boss anyway, development of youth squads, and more back seat roles I think yes definitely - but the pointy head of a nations hopes and aspirations on the world stage?
 
I might come across as a bit biased, but if Barkley had played both games we'd have atleast scored more than twice so far, and at most I think we could've got four points from the games. Imo Sterling-Barkley-Rooney as the three AM's would've worked much better, Barkley in the middle could've tore Uruguay apart with those two either side. Guarantee he'll score tomorrow.
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The team for tomorrow is as follows: Ben Foster, Phil Jones, Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, James Milner, Frank Lampard (C), Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge.

You'd say it's a banker England win but we shall have to see. Hopefully we can restore a small amount of pride.

:)
 
It was always going to be a struggle to get out of this group. I'm just glad we ended up with a point from today's game against Costa Rica, even if we were pretty poor.

And Suárez? Seriously, was the guy a cannibal in a former life or something?
 
Suarez is a disgrace to football. You cannot just bite opposition players. He clearly will never learn.

:)
 
Even worse is how the Liverpool fans defend him. He's just a scumbag that happens to be good at football at the end of the day.
 
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