[Football] Keep winning or look for the easier knockout games?

[Iggle Piggle]

Whats the sequence for qualification from the groups if equal on points. Is it

1. Goal Difference
2. Goals scored
3. Head to Head result
4. Disciplinary record


Or a different sequence ?

1. Goal difference
2. Scored
3 fair play.

Sterling needs to get sent off for the team

 

[Mtoto]

1. Goal difference
2. Scored
3 fair play.

Sterling needs to get sent off for the team

We need to put out a team on Thursday filled with players that are unlikely to score at this level but might well pick up a card.

Should have taken Murray ...

 

[Iggle Piggle]

We need to put out a team on Thursday filled with players that are unlikely to score at this level but might well pick up a card.

Should have taken Murray ...

Stuart Pearce and Terry Butcher would have cleaned up if this were 1990 all over again. Lewis Dunk reducing his yellow card count was clearly what cost him in the end.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Brazil off form were held to a draw by Switzerland. They still didn't lose. I'd rather play Switzerland than Brazil. Form is temporary, class is permanent etc.

I don't need to check the odds, Germany and Brazil are expected to have more chance than the others we could face in the quarter final (if we get there).

I still think England should concentrate their energies and focus on trying to win games than waste time worrying about numerous group permutations and the relative merits of each nation.

 

[nicko31]

We need to beat proper teams, lets start with Belguim

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

I guarantee we will get knocked out in the last 16 match if we start to try to engineer the draw for later rounds.

Rest players by all means to guard against fatigue and heal niggles, but the team selected should go 100% for the win.

 

[Napper]

Right, but assuming Brazil have won their group, and Germany haven't won theirs, finishing second in our group would mean avoiding them. That has to be a good thing. It goes without saying that if Brazil finish second in their group instead, we should try and win our group.

Our last 16 game will be against any one of the 4 from group H, and it doesn't matter much which one, they're all of a similar level. We have to hope we can win that, and if we do, we want to do whatever we can to avoid Brazil in the next game.

Brazil look pretty pony to me. They should be more worried about facing us.

Bring on whoever.

 

[Da Man Clay]

1. Goal difference
2. Scored
3 fair play.

Sterling needs to get sent off for the team

Head to head does come before fair play - but will be irrelevant obviously in this case.

 

[essbee1]

If it goes down to the disciplinary record, then we need to start picking up yellow cards to go second?
Here's my idea. Three of the England players should walk on after half-time with a wasps nests hidden under
their shirts and chase the ref and two linos around the pitch with it.

 

[colinz]

If it goes down to the disciplinary record, then we need to start picking up yellow cards to go second?
Here's my idea. Three of the England players should walk on after half-time with a wasps nests hidden under
their shirts and chase the ref and two linos around the pitch with it.

Or how about this idea I posted on the other thread.

That's interesting so if England v Belgium is a draw who ever has the most yellow cards is second.
Given some of the shock results I can see a laughable scenario, where finishing 2nd could potentially mean avoiding a big gun until the semis.
Belgium trying to draw, England wanting to lose. How about Joe Hart playing up front & Lingard in goal.

 

[Triggaaar]

We need to beat proper teams, lets start with Belguim

If they decide to rest their best players, they won't even count as a proper team.

Apart from worrying about the quarter final though, it does seem that it would be worth avoiding Colombia too, and we won't know the outcome of that group until a couple of hours before our game.

 

[Triggaaar]

Or how about this idea I posted on the other thread.

I think we'd get disqualified for playing Joe Hart.

 

[Icy Gull]

A couple of months ago I expected us to struggle to get out of the group stages. I am happy to go along with whatever Southgate chooses to do. He has the team and the country behind him and I have been impressed by him recently, having thought of him as Palace dickhead until recently

 

[SockMonster]

Surely a draw with Belgium is the most likely result in the circumstances? No impetus lost for either team.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Right, but assuming Brazil have won their group, and Germany haven't won theirs, finishing second in our group would mean avoiding them. That has to be a good thing. It goes without saying that if Brazil finish second in their group instead, we should try and win our group.

Our last 16 game will be against any one of the 4 from group H, and it doesn't matter much which one, they're all of a similar level. We have to hope we can win that, and if we do, we want to do whatever we can to avoid Brazil in the next game.

No one wins a world cup trying to lose a game of football. Avoid defeat, keep the momentum going. You have to play one of those teams at some point, could easily be Mexico knocking Brazil out IF we got to the 1/4 finals. You simply don't EVER go into a game of football accepting or even planning defeat - may as well slip poison into their breakfasts and contaminate their minds. Stay undefeated, build momentum and confidence, believe you can beat anyone.

The moment you set in those players minds they can afford to drop off their performance to lose a game of football because they will then be able to win games against 'lessor' teams, you may as well pack their bags for them.

If we did lose against Belgium, sure reflect on the positives ahead, but don't bloody well go out to lose the game.

 

[drew]

By the time we kick off against Belgium, we will know who we play next in the event of a win or loss. Then we can decide whether to beat Belgium or not. It’s that simple.

And what if Belgium have the same plan!

 

[colinz]

And what if Belgium have the same plan!

We get something similar to this.

 

[Triggaaar]

No one wins a world cup trying to lose a game of football.

Trying to lose? No one is suggesting kicking the ball in our own net. But we could rest several players. Don't tell me know one wins a world cup by resting players?

You have to play one of those teams at some point

That's like suggesting there's no such thing as an easy or tough route, which you know is wrong. And if that's not what you mean, what do you mean? I'd rather play a Brazil, Germany or Spain in the final, than play one in the quarter final, and still have the other two to come should we win.

You simply don't EVER go into a game of football accepting or even planning defeat - may as well slip poison into their breakfasts and contaminate their minds. Stay undefeated, build momentum and confidence, believe you can beat anyone.

How about if you're drawing the game, and you get a deliberate yellow to finish second in the group? You don't lose any belief.

The moment you set in those players minds they can afford to drop off their performance to lose a game of football because they will then be able to win games against 'lessor' teams, you may as well pack their bags for them.

When a big game is around the corner, all the top clubs in Premier League football rest players for a crappy game in the League Cup so that they have a stronger team available for the competitions that matter. Hell we even do it. But you're saying they've all got it wrong, they might as well pack their bags and go home.

 

[colinz]

This all reminds me of the 1978 world cup, Austria v W Germany game. And the time when Steve Foster was trying to get booked or sent off so he could play in the Cup Final.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I don't think they should do anything but try and win and try not to get bookings. A few days ago i thought a nice draw with Belgium would see us second and avoiding the potential Brazil/Germany quarter-final. BUT, we've gone and scored six to make that less likely, meanwhile Germany have every chance of winning their group and making that all an irrelevance, and Colombia now look likely to win their group and I'd be more than happy to avoid them and have Japan instead.


Finally - whatever happened to the consensus that we weren't that good and were never going to win the world cup. Its pretty irrelevant what the draw is in that case!!