[Football] The England game tonight

[A1X]

I think we currently have one of the poorest England teams I can remember - and I go back quite a way!

 

[Guinness Boy]

Oh sorry folks. I will probably be banned from this thread for having a non-mod approved opinion.

Still no response from you on my questions [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] ? Probably because you have none.

No, you’ll be banned from it if you derail it with your tiresome agenda and stalking


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[blue-shifted]

You are probably a dieing breed. Club before country. Anyway, who can, with a serious face, stand up and support and be proud of England these days?

The football team yes

 

[dejavuatbtn]

View attachment 117154

Yep, that’s another!

 

[blue-shifted]

Please re-read my post and let me know where I said it is the poorest.
I don’t dispute we have some talent in some positions, but as a team it is not great and whilst they will qualify for international finals I don’t see them being any better than many squads in the past.

Nahh mate, we're way better than we were 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ago

We're still not good enough to win a tournament, as we're a little way short of the top 4 or 5 nations, but we should play some decent football and not embarrass ourselves any more

 

[Icy Gull]

This.
[MENTION=474]Mr Blobby[/MENTION] writes an excellent blog on following England home and away. It’s very clear, from just a cursory read, that tickets for an away game are still hard to come by and go only to those loyal fans who travel everywhere, and do the same with their clubs. You won’t see any top 6 plastics in the photos on his site. Just genuine football fans.

That Sheffield Wednesday bloke who always has his top off is a regular I believe.

In fact the only embarrassment is the band.


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Tango AND the band are Sheffield Wednesday aren’t they?

 

[Easy 10]

Please re-read my post and let me know where I said it is the poorest.
I don’t dispute we have some talent in some positions, but as a team it is not great and whilst they will qualify for international finals I don’t see them being any better than many squads in the past.

Alright, you said that this is ONE OF the poorest you can remember, and mentioned that you go back a long way. I'd say that if you think this is one of the worst England teams in your lifetime, then you are ignoring an awful lot of dreadful cack that we have had to put up with. Just in the last 10 years or so:

2016 - embarrassing
2014 - dismal
2012 - very poor
2010 - truly woeful
2008 - DNQ
2006 - barely average

I'd say this last 3 years we've been better than any of that lot. I'm not claiming they're one of the best yet, but to say they're one of the worst is way off IMO. Its one of the few times I can say we actually LOOK like a team, and not just a dispirate collection of egos thrown together.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Meh. It is hard to have a connection or be proud of a bunch of millionaires you have no affiliation with.

Probably time you stopped supporting Brighton then.


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[Guinness Boy]

There is a connection there

Working hard on those simple questions?

Aren’t you English then? That would certainly explain some of your posts.


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[Thunder Bolt]

I always watch England play on tv. It's better than some of the dross on offer. I have been to the new Wembley as well when we played a friendly against Chile a few years ago.
I like watching our team win, lose or draw.

 

[Eddiespearritt]

One of the problems with the dullness of the qualifying, is the group stage has been devalued by too many teams qualifying, playoffs and the Nations League. A format change would make it more watchable.

Ideally I’d reduce the number of teams in the tournament, but as we know that won’t happen. As we have to work with in that, I think the qualifying format should be ……

For the Euros there are 24 places in the tournament and 55 teams.

I’d have 10 groups of 4 and 3 groups of 5

13 Winners qualify
6 best runners up records
4 more from the Nations league winners
1 host nation qualifies, (clearly we need to go back to having one host)

Each team then gets 6 or 8 qualifying games and could get badly punished for a slip

For world cups, last time Europe had 18 qualifiers. I’d still have 10 groups of 4 and 3 groups of 5

13 group winners
5 best runners up.

Again, bin the play offs to put more pressure on the group games.

I agree that Euro qualifying is nowadays a bit of a nonsense, especially now that countries who did "well" in the Nations League get a play-off spot. Scotland's back door option.
It's silly that of 55 UEFA affiliated nations, 24 qualify. Knock out the seven no-hopers and basically all you need is a two legged knock out between the strong and the not so strong. You'd end up in the same place with probably a couple of tasty surprises.

You could quickly reduce the number of international breaks needed to disrupt the domestic leagues - and of course it will never happen for reasons of broadcast income to UEFA, supposed development of the smaller nations, and the interest of the FAs to remain relevant. But the interminable qualifying system to knock out the rubbish is stultifying.
The Euro Finals with 16 participants was infinitely better quality than the overblown 24 countries, and arguably better than the FIFA (soon to be even more overblown) WC.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

I think we have some really good players right now

It's the tactics,fanny about with it at the back, only to be put under unnecessary pressure, then back to Pickford who hoofs it up the pitch anyway

We're get away with it in the qualifiers, but as soon as we play a decent team,we're be punished

 

[pasty]

The worst thing about watching England, especially at home, is that poxy ****ing band.

 

[BensGrandad]

BBC saying GS will name the youngest ever England team for this game.

 

[Whitechapel]

I agree. I'd also add that it's now possible to go to Albion games and see the likes of Kane, Sterling, Rashford etc. first hand rather than the only chance being on the TV, which I think dents it a little more. more top England players played abroad (which is never going to happen) it might be different.

Weird stance to take when the complete opposite is happening, with more and more English players going abroad

Sancho at Dortmund is the obvious one, but even if we ignore Smalling & Trippier there’s certainly a rise in talented young British players going abroad now. There’s Lookman at Leipzig, two young English lads at Barca, one at Juventus, players at Sampdoria, Fiorentina, Lyon, Monaco, M’gladbach, PSV etc. A lot of these are players who left English clubs because they think they’ll get more chance abroad too, rather than because they weren’t good enough where they were. Reo Griffiths scored 27 in 20 for Spurs U-18’s and then decided to move to Lyon.

That’s without considering the likes of Kenny, Smith-Rowe, Nelson & Ampadu who have either had a loan spell in the Bundesliga or are currently out there.

There probably hasn’t been a time when there’s been more English lads abroad, and it’s only going to grow.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Why? Why would that explain some of my posts? What a bizarre statement.

Because of their appalling spelling and grammar.

So why don’t you feel a connection to our national team if you are English?


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[BensGrandad]

Weird stance to take when the complete opposite is happening, with more and more English players going abroad

Sancho at Dortmund is the obvious one, but even if we ignore Smalling & Trippier there’s certainly a rise in talented young British players going abroad now. There’s Lookman at Leipzig, two young English lads at Barca, one at Juventus, players at Sampdoria, Fiorentina, Lyon, Monaco, M’gladbach, PSV etc. A lot of these are players who left English clubs because they think they’ll get more chance abroad too, rather than because they weren’t good enough where they were. Reo Griffiths scored 27 in 20 for Spurs U-18’s and then decided to move to Lyon.

That’s without considering the likes of Kenny, Smith-Rowe, Nelson & Ampadu who have either had a loan spell in the Bundesliga or are currently out there

There probably hasn’t been a time when there’s been more English lads abroad, and it’s only going to grow.

It seems that the players going abroad are either not yet ready for the Premier League or past it. Trippier is an exception but even Sancho wasnt ready when he went to Germany.but has grown over there. Lookman has shown that he wasnt good enough for Everton on a regular basis.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Because it has always been an old boys exclusive club. If you are outside that how can you feel a part of it?
You would recognise that as you are part of it here as is evidenced by your piss taking above and the banning of people who dare say anything against the little clique and ask simple questions about fairness.

“Old boys”? What of?


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[Guinness Boy]

You know jobs for boys, the in-crowd, the cool gang, the top-6 club, picked regardless of form but because they are in the clique.

To be an “old boy” you have to have belonged to something once and then left.

That still doesn’t explain Jadon Sancho, Tyrone Mings, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Ben Chilwell, Kieran Trippier, Declan Rice (maybe you mean Irish Old Boys though?), James Maddison and Callum Wilson though. And that’s just the current squad.


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[Whitechapel]

It seems that the players going abroad are either not yet ready for the Premier League or past it. Trippier is an exception but even Sancho wasnt ready when he went to Germany.but has grown over there. Lookman has shown that he wasnt good enough for Everton on a regular basis.

Thank you for disagreeing with my post, it means I know I’m right.