[Archived] England World Cup Campaign

[rigger]

It was just like watching the Rovers.

[Norbert Rassragr]

We have the excuse of being in league one, and suffering a gang rape by Indian nobbers and agents. The likes of sterling get paid as much as half our squad and barely showed his face.

[Audax]

Yes, if I get hung up on the salaries, the players are out-of-touch; it's shameful; otherwise, if I'm just talking about England.

This really was a very successful WC qualifications campaign.

Best of luck to Scotland, it'd be nice to see them finish 2nd.  That won't be easy against Slovenia.

 

 

 

 

[matt83]

2 hours ago, Audax said:

Yes, if I get hung up on the salaries, the players are out-of-touch

 

 

 

 

I’m struggling more and more with this. With both England, Rovers and football in general, more and more I’m trying to force myself to take an interest rather than actually being interested.

It’s not so much to do with the guff on the pitch from England and Rovers. It’s stuff like deli Alli flying out his hairdresser to Los Angeles for his twice weekly trim or Rooney losing half a million in one go at the casino. Even the rovers players as bog standard as they are will all be earning more than most top notch doctors and surgeons in the country. There is such a huge disconnect between footballers and joe public and it’s getting worse. 

[AllRoverAsia]

20 minutes ago, matt83 said:

I’m struggling more and more with this. With both England, Rovers and football in general, more and more I’m trying to force myself to take an interest rather than actually being interested.

It’s not so much to do with the guff on the pitch from England and Rovers. It’s stuff like deli Alli flying out his hairdresser to Los Angeles for his twice weekly trim or Rooney losing half a million in one go at the casino. Even the rovers players as bog standard as they are will all be earning more than most top notch doctors and surgeons in the country. There is such a huge disconnect between footballers and joe public and it’s getting worse. 

I am in a similar position about football in general.

I have watched more live England games than Rovers this year and it's hard going. I wonder why the hell I stay up so late to watch games but always do, so far, and end up disappointed with performance.

The England team is full of average footballers. Ali who was supposed to be our new bright star is stalled in his development. I am going to place a bet on him being the first England player sent off in Russia. There are mediocre players and then dregs such as Hart, Henderson and the headless chicken Raheem S.

Without Kane we would have struggled to qualify and only won now because Walker put some extra effort in.

In the 2nd half England took a corner on the left, overhit it and 4/5 England passes later it was back with Hart. The only time, apart from the goal, I shouted at the phone. It was not pleasant.

I see Southgate got a £250K bonus for qualifying for the Finals. I had best not get into the money side or I will lose the feckin plot.

[philipl]

Just looked through highlights of the games to date.

England are woefully inadequate for any hope in Russia but then so too are Italy (if they make it) based on them being somewhat lucky to draw at home against Macedonia

Wales could be a handful again if they make it to Russia. I cannot see the Republic being good enough to get a win in Cardiff. 

Scotland now in a great position to make the play-offs. Best hope for more than one home country getting to Russia will be two of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland drawing each other in the play-offs!

Of the other games, Spain looked vulnerable at the back against Albania. Germany, Poland and Iceland were all awesome. 

Yes Iceland went to a massively hostile stadium deep inside Turkey and totally overwhelmed the Turks; the 3-0 win was a real hammering from start to finish.

Population of 300,000- the same as the local born sons of Blackburn and Burnley coming to the top of a really tough World Cup qualifying group. Sounds fantastical but in my childhood you could put a team of local lads like that together and they would have had a good shot at qualifying for a 24 nation finals... 

 

 

[rigger]

8 hours ago, Audax said:

Yes, if I get hung up on the salaries, the players are out-of-touch; it's shameful; otherwise, if I'm just talking about England.

This really was a very successful WC qualifications campaign.

Best of luck to Scotland, it'd be nice to see them finish 2nd.  That won't be easy against Slovenia.

 

 

 

 

I don't get the love-in with Scotland, having lived there for eight years, I would say at least 90% of the Scots absolutely hate the English. I personally would be glad to see them not qualify

[arbitro]

36 minutes ago, rigger said:

I don't get the love-in with Scotland, having lived there for eight years, I would say at least 90% of the Scots absolutely hate the English. I personally would be glad to see them not qualify

It will be interesting if Scotland make the qualifiers to see how many games Mulgrew might miss. The play off games are scheduled between November 6th and 14th and our fixtures are:

Tuesday 31st Oct - Fleetwood.

Saturday 4th Nov - FA Cup first round.

Tuesday 7th Nov - Rochdale (Checkatrade).

Saturday 11th Nov - Walsall.

I don't think he would play in both cup games but potentially missing two league games could be costly.

 

[Husky]

Christ!!!!! The 'highlights' were dire.

I feel sorry for anyone that sat through the whole thing (I can only recommend that you try and find another hobby or interest once in a while and next time there's an England game, you spend the extra hour doing something else).

[roverandout]

On 10/6/2017 at 07:42, chaddyrovers said:

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

But a good manager can get the best out of average players, ask greece or even portugal

[roverandout]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

Just looked through highlights of the games to date.

England are woefully inadequate for any hope in Russia but then so too are Italy (if they make it) based on them being somewhat lucky to draw at home against Macedonia

Wales could be a handful again if they make it to Russia. I cannot see the Republic being good enough to get a win in Cardiff. 

Scotland now in a great position to make the play-offs. Best hope for more than one home country getting to Russia will be two of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland drawing each other in the play-offs!

Of the other games, Spain looked vulnerable at the back against Albania. Germany, Poland and Iceland were all awesome. 

Yes Iceland went to a massively hostile stadium deep inside Turkey and totally overwhelmed the Turks; the 3-0 win was a real hammering from start to finish.

Population of 300,000- the same as the local born sons of Blackburn and Burnley coming to the top of a really tough World Cup qualifying group. Sounds fantastical but in my childhood you could put a team of local lads like that together and they would have had a good shot at qualifying for a 24 nation finals... 

 

 

Agree with all apart from wales. Very average team without their star player. Hope they dont qualify after what they did to us last summer. Karma is a bitch

[Audax]

A month ago, Poland got defeated by Denmark, 4-0; Spain defeated Italy 3-0 recently. I think Spain is a threat to win the World Cup after Germany and perhaps Brazil. Argentina drew again, at this rate, they won't make the WC. Syria made a goal late to draw Australia, the second leg of that 2 match playoff is in the next few days in Australia.

Spain, like some other teams, wrapped up first place and were not playing for all that much.

 

[philipl]

5 hours ago, arbitro said:

It will be interesting if Scotland make the qualifiers to see how many games Mulgrew might miss. The play off games are scheduled between November 6th and 14th and our fixtures are:

Tuesday 31st Oct - Fleetwood.

Saturday 4th Nov - FA Cup first round.

Tuesday 7th Nov - Rochdale (Checkatrade).

Saturday 11th Nov - Walsall.

I don't think he would play in both cup games but potentially missing two league games could be costly.

 

Just persuaded me how much I like Slovenia!

Big ask to get a win there- cannot see Slovakia slipping up against Malta although Malta could well delay the inevitable goal until quite late in the game. 

[darrenrover]

Southgate has just summed up the problem regarding England, that each week there's only about 70 English players playing in PL that he has to choose from. A staggering statistic really.

 

[USABlue]

26 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

Southgate has just summed up the problem regarding England, that each week there's only about 70 English players playing in PL that he has to choose from. A staggering statistic really.

 

Then pick non premier league players, perhaps we would see a bit of heart at least.  Bit like some of ours as long as.they play in Blue.and White halves they are not good enough but move to Man U or Spurs and all of a sudden they are good enough.  Bit like the Dingle Heaton, was he really a better keeper in the prem than the Championship, yet he'd be nowhere near an England call up had they not gone up.

We look pretty dismal, expecting the usual flop at the Finals.

[philipl]

1 hour ago, darrenrover said:

Southgate has just summed up the problem regarding England, that each week there's only about 70 English players playing in PL that he has to choose from. A staggering statistic really.

 

If English players were any good, they would get picked to play in the Premier League.

The argument that PL clubs pick foreign players because their wages are lower has long since evaporated. They simply sign the best available from anywhere in the world.

 

[Oldgregg86]

3 hours ago, darrenrover said:

Southgate has just summed up the problem regarding England, that each week there's only about 70 English players playing in PL that he has to choose from. A staggering statistic really.

 

You only need 25 to be any good

[Audax]

Yes, look at Iceland.  In fact, teams like that might not have that many players from their domestic league, that certainly is true with Brazil too. Their players are mostly in Europe.

[Audax]

Pretty amazing that Iceland could go into Turkey and beat them there.

That's why, if one gets away from talking about how highly paid the players are, this was a very successful World Cup qualifying campaign for England, if one were to compare it to others, 2010, 1998, etc.

 

[arbitro]

14 hours ago, darrenrover said:

Southgate has just summed up the problem regarding England, that each week there's only about 70 English players playing in PL that he has to choose from. A staggering statistic really.

 

It's all down to the monster that is the Premier League. As the competition with the largest revenue they pay the best wages which attracts top players from all over the world. This restricts the opportunities for home grown players but that trend simply isn't reversed with English players playing abroad. Many players leave PL clubs and join EFL clubs but because they have been on decent money their demands are disproportionate to the standard of football. Quite a few clubs give in to these demands which ultimately will put them into debt. It's a vicious cycle and will get worse with every new tv deal.

[philipl]

Where England fails horribly is the paucity of players in the squads of clubs like Real, Atletico, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern. English players are simply not technically good enough- you can only see Kane and perhaps Walker and Ali playing regularly for any of those five clubs- no other English player would get selected.  

Even Spain had three players starting for them who play outside La Liga. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

On 07/10/2017 at 05:05, matt83 said:

I’m struggling more and more with this. With both England, Rovers and football in general, more and more I’m trying to force myself to take an interest rather than actually being interested.

It’s not so much to do with the guff on the pitch from England and Rovers. It’s stuff like deli Alli flying out his hairdresser to Los Angeles for his twice weekly trim or Rooney losing half a million in one go at the casino. Even the rovers players as bog standard as they are will all be earning more than most top notch doctors and surgeons in the country. There is such a huge disconnect between footballers and joe public and it’s getting worse. 

This is exactly what I mean. That FIFA 18 advert is symbolic of this. Some gobshite plays a game, goes on social media about something he did on a game and then Ronaldo does it for real. Then all the social media gobshites have a turbo @#/?. It's all about the posing and how many likes you and your player gets on Twitter and nothing about the sport.

[roverandout]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

Where England fails horribly is the paucity of players in the squads of clubs like Real, Atletico, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern. English players are simply not technically good enough- you can only see Kane and perhaps Walker and Ali playing regularly for any of those five clubs- no other English player would get selected.  

Even Spain had three players starting for them who play outside La Liga. 

I would say rashford too. Who in my opinion is a far better player than mbappe.

 

If we arent very good think how bad the dutch are

[frosty]

55 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I would say rashford too. Who in my opinion is a far better player than mbappe.

 

If we arent very good think how bad the dutch are

Rashford is very good but Mbappe is on another level. 

Holland are going through a dreadful period which doesn't look like changing any time soon (barely any top players coming through, the Robben, Sneijder, RVP era is coming to an end) but at least they've had some good tournaments recently (runners up WC 2010, 3rd in WC 2014) unlike England who probably last played well at a tournament in 2004.

[Audax]

The rat on England thread is open again, gee, I'm certainly hearing new and original criticisms of them.