[Archived] England World Cup Campaign

[davulsukur]

2 superb bits of play from Pogba. That first touch and first time flick pass and then that ball over the top to Mbappe, took jones completely out of the game.

It's alright though, we've  got Livermore.

[Stuart]

A 10-man France are still better than England.

Far superior in quality, strength, fitness, passion, etc, etc.

[speeeeeeedie]

Just now, Stuart said:

A 10-man France are still better than England.

Far superior in quality, strength, fitness, passion, etc, etc.

I've no disagreements with you there. I posted an article yesterday outlining how strong France are.

England looked laboured. Playing Stones in midfield then Walker at left back, although in a friendly, is a bit odd.

Jones looks past it which is such a shame. He had the world at his feet when he was at Rovers. He moved to the wrong club.

Mbappe is going to be a star.

[Sparks Rover]

Dier is turning out to be Englands Jason Lowe.  

I felt Southgate got his central midfield wrong tonight.

[AllRoverAsia]

Dier an internstional? He can put his boots on. That's it.

Ali? What the hell has happened to him. A star that burnt too fast.

Stones got cleaned out several times and looked uncomfortable throughout.

Jones looks more and more like a Sunday league pub player. What a fall.

So we are strong in the keeper dept. pmsl.

The rest..cannot be bothered.

Some if them were miss directing ir over hitting 5 yard passes ffs.

They do not have the skill sets to play triangles, diamonds or whatever other bullsh-it the coach comes up with.

I will never ever again stay up so late to watch an England match. Ever.

FRANCE were so very much better in all facets of the game. How I dislike saying that but it's the truth.

[blueboy3333]

Kane is 'international' class. The rest are very, very average. It's a poor England team by any standards. We're back to the dark days of the 80's with some of those players. Lots of athletes, little in the way of footballing ability.

[Mattyblue]

Alli just had an excellent season, not sure you can ask 'what the hell has happened to him?' on the back of a friendly in the middle of June.

However, generally England still look an absolute mile off the elite international sides.

[AllRoverAsia]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

Kane is 'international' class. The rest are very, very average. It's a poor England team by any standards. We're back to the dark days of the 80's with some of those players. Lots of athletes, little in the way of footballing ability.

Agree re Kane.

I don't but the long hard season line myth. An often used line to cover lack of talent or application.

It did not adversely affect Pogba etc and all the real athletes were French.

[blueboy3333]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

Agree re Kane.

I don't but the long hard season line myth. An often used line to cover lack of talent or application.

It did not adversely affect Pogba etc and all the real athletes were French.

Pogba has athleticism plus ability. Oxlade-Chamberlain on the other hand is an athlete but lacks ability at that level. The same applies to quite a few in that team. At club level they get away with it because 1) they have better foreign players around them 2) the Prem really isn't all that if you take away the class foreigners.

The Premier League & Sky have a lot to answer for when it comes to the national team.

[JAL]

19 hours ago, Stuart said:

A 10-man France are still better than England.

Far superior in quality, strength, fitness, passion, etc, etc.

Some of the England players where blowing out of their arses second half obviously haven't prepared to take the fixture seriously enough which is fair enough as it was only a friendly.

[AllRoverAsia]

51 minutes ago, JAL said:

Some of the England players where blowing out of their arses second half obviously haven't prepared to take the fixture seriously enough which fair enough it was only a friendly.

If that is the case then the squad were also not fit or prepared to play Scotland in the WC game.

They seemed to treat that like a friendly too. Bunch of seriously serial losers.

[Bigdoggsteel]

The Irish players were the same against Austria. I suspect some of them went on a little holiday after the league season finished. All inclusive.  

[J*B]

End of season International friendlies should be totally scrapped. Absolutely no way any of the England players (other than ones making debuts / early appearances) would have picked playing before putting their feet up on a beach, sad as it is for general football fans. Do you really think Raheem Sterling is happy playing a meaningless friendly in France after a long season at Man City, a week into the only 6 weeks of the year he gets off? No chance.

[arbitro]

Just now, J*B said:

End of season International friendlies should be totally scrapped. Absolutely no way any of the England players (other than ones making debuts / early appearances) would have picked playing before putting their feet up on a beach, sad as it is for general football fans. Do you really think Raheem Sterling is happy playing a meaningless friendly in France after a long season at Man City, a week into the only 6 weeks of the year he gets off? No chance.

Correct but the FA have to pay for the overrated, over budget Wembley somehow. Also the likes of Rotten to the Coar needs their expenses along with all the free loading wasters that the FA employ.

[J*B]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Correct but the FA have to pay for the overrated, over budget Wembley somehow. Also the likes of Rotten to the Coar needs their expenses along with all the free loading wasters that the FA employ.

Not only that, but sponsors expect to see their players playing. 

[roverstdt]

I think the issue isn't just on Southgate I think to expect him to change everything and find the winning formula after 1 year in charge is a massive ask. England need a fundamental change and everyone working together to achieve it. From 2000 to 2016 the French national team was in complete disarray and it took them time and effort to rebuild. For me England are going to need a good 10 years before we see anything happen. I think we do have a good team and I wouldn't just question the passion for me it was clear to see the players are still trying to figure out how they all fit into what Southgate is trying to do. There are plenty of issues that will take time to sort out that I would like to see. 

Most importantly for me we need to build the team around Kane, Alli, Sterling, Walker, Rose, Butland (Which is know will be a controversial call). But the secret to France success was getting rid of all the old experience and get the young ones playing together week in week out in the same system. Like that when the next generation came along everyone knew what the system was and how they could slot into it. England need the same we need to create our system our belief our model. 

For me for the World Cup I would start with youth over experience and give them a tournament to express themselves. There is no pressure on us nobody expects anything. So learn from the tournament enjoy it and take it from there. 

I would like to see a line up of 

--------Butland-------

Walker---Stones----Keane---Rose

------Henderson---Dier------

Sterling----Alli-----Rashford

-----------Kane--------------

 

On top of that I would like to see Roberts, Abraham, Solanke, Cook slowly develop and keep putting in those performance in they have been doing at club level 

[Tony Rover]

As we have learnt the problem is higher up. There has been some obscene amount of money in China for a while now, seems they are going to get a grip on things. 100% TAX on transfers! At least their FA see the bigger picture. Premier league is a beast of its own now. 

[speeeeeeedie]

11 minutes ago, roverstdt said:

I think the issue isn't just on Southgate I think to expect him to change everything and find the winning formula after 1 year in charge is a massive ask. England need a fundamental change and everyone working together to achieve it. From 2000 to 2016 the French national team was in complete disarray and it took them time and effort to rebuild. For me England are going to need a good 10 years before we see anything happen. I think we do have a good team and I wouldn't just question the passion for me it was clear to see the players are still trying to figure out how they all fit into what Southgate is trying to do. There are plenty of issues that will take time to sort out that I would like to see. 

Most importantly for me we need to build the team around Kane, Alli, Sterling, Walker, Rose, Butland (Which is know will be a controversial call). But the secret to France success was getting rid of all the old experience and get the young ones playing together week in week out in the same system. Like that when the next generation came along everyone knew what the system was and how they could slot into it. England need the same we need to create our system our belief our model. 

For me for the World Cup I would start with youth over experience and give them a tournament to express themselves. There is no pressure on us nobody expects anything. So learn from the tournament enjoy it and take it from there. 

I would like to see a line up of 

--------Butland-------

Walker---Stones----Keane---Rose

------Henderson---Dier------

Sterling----Alli-----Rashford

-----------Kane--------------

 

On top of that I would like to see Roberts, Abraham, Solanke, Cook slowly develop and keep putting in those performance in they have been doing at club level 

The Germans did the same in 2010. Ozil, Kroos, Khedira, Neuer, Lahm, Muller, Podolski, Schweinsteiger, and Gomez were all 25 or under. They won it 4 years later.

The current England squad is pretty young. Get rid of Hart and it's even younger. Cahill is over 30, and OK but England has so little at centre half he'll probably has to stay. There is a long way to go before next summer though.

England has players with talent but the set up is all wrong. Not to mention the pressure. It turns good players into cart horses. Kane last summer is a prime example.

[Baz]

17 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Dier is turning out to be Englands Jason Lowe.  

I felt Southgate got his central midfield wrong tonight.

I'd think Dier is pretty decent as a sitting defensive midfielder, the choice of Oxlade-Chamberlain was puzzling though. He's a wide man at Arsenal, and even then a bit of a bench warmer.  Anyway it just didn't work - a bit like Heaton in goal who pushed every shot back into his 6 yard box.

[speeeeeeedie]

On 9/4/2016 at 13:29, matt83 said:

Yawn. Can't recall one shot on target. Not even playing like a big sam team. When you appoint a man with a proven style love it or loath it you should at least play it. But it seems he's trying to copy his predecessors by faffing about with it at the back. This style is a proven failure for England and if he continues with it he too will fail.

I thought under sam we'd at least put crosses (a dirty word in the modern game) and balls into the box. Nothing.

 

On 9/4/2016 at 14:15, matt83 said:

Relieved. Pretty poor fare though. Normal order resumed it seems. We will qualify without losing in the qualifiers take the odd big scalp in friendlies leading up to Russia then do nothing at world cup.

Smashing insight from Matt. Little has changed since September 2016. 

England have qualified and barring a defeat in Lithuania on Sunday they'll go into the World Cup unbeaten, which coupled with England's commercial income is probably good for a top seed in the group. 

I am happy. I love the World Cup. England have a lot of work to do, but I'll always hope for a good run. Yet it's hard to envision at the mo as there is no creativity or invention. 

 

[roverandout]

Need to get rid of southgate. Appoint ancellotti

[chaddyrovers]

15 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Need to get rid of southgate. Appoint ancellotti

Not going to improve the quality of the team. 

Ancelotti would be another expensive mistake just like Capello and Sven. 

Look at why he was sacked at Bayern

[Mattyblue]

Bar something unexpected on Sunday, by the time of the next qualfier we'll have gone almost a decade without losing one, unreal record when you look how generally s**** we've been over that time.

Probably says more about the quality of most European sides than anything else, no surprise when the old USSR is now a dozen smaller nations, half a dozen emerged out of the old Yugoslavia and the plethora of microstates.

[Stuart]

25 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Bar something unexpected on Sunday, by the time of the next qualfier we'll have gone almost a decade without losing one, unreal record when you look how generally s**** we've been over that time.

Probably says more about the quality of most European sides than anything else, no surprise when the old USSR is now a dozen smaller nations, half a dozen emerged out of the old Yugoslavia and the plethora of microstates.

Spot on about the lack of decent European nations - especially with seeding. As far as the USSR, I guess there’s more to people’s lives than having a strong football team.

[Mattyblue]

Indeed!

 

'no bread on the shelves this morning... but anyway we gave Czechoslovakia a right beating last night!'.