Top scorer in Bundesliga is English

[Mellotron]

Does it? It was a great performance and result for England. But it was just one though, and came after quite a few more fairly dire ones. In the nicest possible way, a bit of perspective for England probably wouldn't go amiss.

Meantime Germany will continue with the "we score then you score" approach seen against Portugal and Finland and just hope to be in the lead at 90mins...

A large part of his point was that we can NEVER be a good team because we don't have good players in a TECHNICAL sense.

The Croatia game proved that we can play good technical football. The one thing we needed was a bit of optimism.

As David St. Hubbins correctly noted in Spinal Tap - "Too much bloody perspective". Everyone has been doom and gloom for far too long. Comments that our players are simply not good enough are ridiculous (and very naive), as was proved in the Croatia game.

 

[NMH]

I'm just saying, he better not be shoving it in our faces next time we lose because the Croatia game proved his argument is entirely baseless.

Lord Haw-Haw must be his guru. Though we know what happened to his 'lord'ship

( from wikipedia; "prosecution successfully argued on the basis of a technicality that having lied about his nationality to obtain a British passport and to vote, Joyce (aka Haw-Haw), owed allegiance to the King.
The decision to hang him was made perhaps because of the fear his alleged omniscience had inspired")

 

[Mellotron]

Lord Haw-Haw must be his guru. Though we know what happened to his 'lord'ship

( from wikipedia; "prosecution successfully argued on the basis of a technicality that having lied about his nationality to obtain a British passport and to vote, Joyce (aka Haw-Haw), owed allegiance to the King.
The decision to hang him was made perhaps because of the fear his alleged omniscience had inspired")

?Que?

 

[NMH]

A large part of his point was that we can NEVER be a good team because we don't have good players in a TECHNICAL sense.

The Croatia game proved that we can play good technical football. The one thing we needed was a bit of optimism.

As David St. Hubbins correctly noted in Spinal Tap - "Too much bloody perspective". Everyone has been doom and gloom for far too long. Comments that our players are simply not good enough are ridiculous (and very naive), as was proved in the Croatia game.

Hoddle commandeered over the best 'technical football' I have ever seen us play. Wonderful, intricate and sometimes convoluted passing moves that required understanding and teamwork, it only actually managed to win us the Tournoi De France in 1997, but we saw a fairly decent 'go' at the World Cup tournament the following year - where a 10-man team was knocked out by the referee in front of a grateful Argentinian squad.

 

[Mellotron]

Hoddle commandeered over the best 'technical football' I have ever seen us play. Wonderful, intricate and sometimes convoluted passing moves that required understanding and teamwork, it only actually managed to win us the Tournoi De France in 1997, but we saw a fairly decent 'go' at the World Cup tournament the following year - where a 10-man team was knocked out by the referee in front of a grateful Argentinian squad.

Correct. People do seem to forget that some really good football was played under Hoddle.

I'd honestly rather be England than Germany at the moment though.

WC2010 I predict us getting to the semis after gloriously beating Italy in the quarters, only to come up short against a fantastic Spain team in the semis and get beaten fairly.

 

[NMH]

?Que?

Lord Haw-Haw was aka James Joyce, who had a connection with England but after deciding on Germany as his preferred home in 1939 he spoke to bring down the British and worked against us in our war effort.

Small and much darker parallels with this HUNT fellow, but in actuality he probably inspired some to fight harder to prove him a wrong-'un.

If Hunt goes on to play for Germany in their senior squad, then he might similarly inspire - especially if he says anything to deride us going in.

 

[Silent Bob]

Makes sense. More chance of playing in finals and stuff.

And less blacks in the team.

 

[NMH]

Correct. People do seem to forget that some really good football was played under Hoddle.

I'd honestly rather be England than Germany at the moment though.

WC2010 I predict us getting to the semis after gloriously beating Italy in the quarters, only to come up short against a fantastic Spain team in the semis and get beaten fairly.

Well, yes - we do see the Hoddle era in similar fashion - though I'm thinking you have a very active imagination about the next World Cup!
There's as much chance of our meeting a resolute Korea or Egypt side and getting giant-killed, but only time (and maybe Uncle Spielberg) can predict such things

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Herr continues his slow shameful crawl back onto the board post-Croatia's TECHNICAL drubbing by England.

What's the betting he suddenly becomes a lot more active and vocal the next time England lose? Hmm...

I am willing to admit things did improve vastly against Croatia. Let's hope it continues.

 

[NMH]

And less blacks in the team.

Buddha forbid that he says anything about an African team... or France .... before playing against them!

Come to that, Brazil too, as there's practically no race that is NOT included in a Brazillian's background!

 

[Mellotron]

I am willing to admit things did improve vastly against Croatia. Let's hope it continues.

I fully accept that this is not IT. And I'm as annoyed as anyone heralding Walcott as the new saviour of English football blah blah blah. Baby steps. But the most important thing is we have a manager to believe in.

I don't think my prediction suggests an over-active imagination. I'm sure Fabio would see anything less than Semis as a complete failure. And how often has he completely failed before?

 

[Man of Harveys]

I'd honestly rather be England than Germany at the moment though.

That's almost touching - incidentally, was this feeling stronger or weaker while Germany were finishing runners-up in a tournament that England couldn't even qualify for?

Anyway: I'm half-German, quarter-English and don't mind seeing either doing well, although I'm definitely far more Germany than England fan these days. But this bed-wetting excitement after just one albeit excellent England result is baffling and quite funny in equal measure. Just my HO.

 

[Mellotron]

That's almost touching - incidentally, was this feeling stronger or weaker while Germany were finishing runners-up in a tournament that England couldn't even qualify for?

Anyway: I'm half-German, quarter-English and don't mind seeing either doing well, although I'm definitely far more Germany than England fan these days. But this bed-wetting excitement after just one albeit excellent England result is baffling and quite funny in equal measure. Just my HO.

I saw the Croatia game coming. I HONESTLY did. I said to my brother on the day that we were going to have a big win. We were going to win comfortably. I said that.

It's not about one result. It's about having one of the top managers in the world and some of the best players in the world, by the World Cup he will have had the time necessary to gel them into a strong force.

And I honestly think England have a more exciting 4 years ahead of them than Germany do. We will see. I will eat humble pie if I am wrong.

I'm all with you in being annoyed at the fickle press who suddenly love England and think we should win the World Cup by divine right. No chance. But I see no reason we can't push into, say, the top 6 teams in the world over the next few years.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

A large part of his point was that we can NEVER be a good team because we don't have good players in a TECHNICAL sense.

The Croatia game proved that we can play good technical football. The one thing we needed was a bit of optimism.

As David St. Hubbins correctly noted in Spinal Tap - "Too much bloody perspective". Everyone has been doom and gloom for far too long. Comments that our players are simply not good enough are ridiculous (and very naive), as was proved in the Croatia game.

Hold on hold on. The main plank of my argument is that we dont have enough players with the right level of technique and artistry to form a squad to succeed in a major tournament. Please note my use of the term squad as opposed to team. If we are wanting to win tournaments then England have to be compared to the likes of Italy, France, Germany in their pomp. I have watched the German team a lot and I really like their style. At Euro 2008 England would have come up very short against them. I still think we still have some way to go but Croatia was a step in the right direction.

England play Germany shortly.....that will be a good test of how far things have come because for me Germany have a very good blend of technique, artistry and sheer power.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Correct. People do seem to forget that some really good football was played under Hoddle.

I'd honestly rather be England than Germany at the moment though.

WC2010 I predict us getting to the semis after gloriously beating Italy in the quarters, only to come up short against a fantastic Spain team in the semis and get beaten fairly.

Euro 2008 taught us two things.....always right of the dutch, never right off the Germans

 

[Mellotron]

Euro 2008 taught us two things.....always right of the dutch, never right off the Germans

Hmm true. Sad as it is.

 

[Mellotron]

Hold on hold on. The main plank of my argument is that we dont have enough players with the right level of technique and artistry to form a squad to succeed in a major tournament. Please note my use of the term squad as opposed to team. If we are wanting to win tournaments then England have to be compared to the likes of Italy, France, Germany in their pomp. I have watched the German team a lot and I really like their style. At Euro 2008 England would have come up very short against them. I still think we still have some way to go but Croatia was a step in the right direction.

England play Germany shortly.....that will be a good test of how far things have come because for me Germany have a very good blend of technique, artistry and sheer power.

Do you not think that we have as good, if not a better squad than at Euro 96 in terms of technique and artistry? And I do believe we were the best team at that tournament, and if we had beaten Germany (and it's a small if, considering the number of inches wide chances we had) we would've gone on to win it.

Don't get me wrong, a number of countries have improved a lot in the last 5-10 years (Portugal, Croatia, even Russia)

I also think England should base their style on Germany. Not a dissimilar level of ability in their squad to ours, (Ballack=Lampard, Rooney=Podolski ish, tenuous I know) but the current difference is they have the best pure WINNING mentality of any country IMO.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Hmm true. Sad as it is.

Out of passing and diminishing interest, why is this sad (unless you're Dutch)? I'd say this (again, entertaining) chippiness from England fans about Germany's three world cups, three European titles, seven world cup finals etc etc is more than a bit sad, IMHO.

I know I keep mentioning it on here but I don't care: a massive poll of football fans in Germany just before the 2006 world cup there voted - wait for it - England as the side that they'd most like to win the tournament apart from their own national team. It is an unreciprocated rivalry.

 

[Mellotron]

Out of passing and diminishing interest, why is this sad (unless you're Dutch)? I'd say this (again, entertaining) chippiness from England fans about Germany's three world cups, three European titles, seven world cup finals etc etc is more than a bit sad, IMHO.

I know I keep mentioning it on here but I don't care: a massive poll of football fans in Germany just before the 2006 world cup there voted - wait for it - England as the side that they'd most like to win the tournament apart from their own national team. It is an unreciprocated rivalry.

Oh no please don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against the Germans. It's sad that we're not able to replicate the same amazing mentality when it comes to football that the Germans are able to time and again. I have the utmost respect for the German team.

 

[est.83]

He's not the top goalscorer though. Only scored once in 3 starts for Wolfsburg this season.

Hunt plays for Werder Bremen not for Wolfsburg... and as I have been to Weserstadion couple of times and seen many Bremen games on TV I can confirm that he isn't any good. Striker used as a wide midfield player... sounds familiar?