Football 18/19

[Gucci Piggy]

Fuck me.

One of Croatia, England or Colombia probably in the final, then.

[dentalplan]

Just now, Gucci Piggy said:

Fuck me.

One of Croatia, England or Colombia probably in the final, then.

Imagine if Denmark won tonight.

[pink_triangle]

People say De Gea is the best keeper in the world based purely on premiership form. I think the best keeper in the world does better in that shootout.

[JSmurphy]

This WC is unbelievable. 

[pink_triangle]

30 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think England have next to no chance of beating Croatia. 

I see that as a 50/50 game, plenty of England players make the Croatia squad.

[pink_triangle]

2 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Fuck me.

One of Croatia, England or Colombia probably in the final, then.

I think it would be dangerous to rule out Russia.

[kaosmark2]

1 minute ago, pink_triangle said:

I see that as a 50/50 game, plenty of England players make the Croatia squad.

I think only Kane makes the Croatia first team. A fair few make the squad.

[The Nal]

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

People say De Gea is the best keeper in the world based purely on premiership form. I think the best keeper in the world does better in that shootout.

Defo. He had an average world cup. 

[zahidf]

one of these teams will be in the world cup final.

russia
denmark
croatia
switzerland
sweden
colombia
england

[zahidf]

1 minute ago, The Nal said:

Defo. He had an average world cup. 

good news for Man utd. Real wont want him now

[dentalplan]

4 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I think it would be dangerous to rule out Russia.

Probably yeah. They could have won in normal time against England here, with England being that influenced by Spain’s style but obviously not as good at it and a bit more susceptible at the back.

[jyoung]

10 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I see that as a 50/50 game, plenty of England players make the Croatia squad.

100%.

8 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think only Kane makes the Croatia first team. A fair few make the squad.

No chance.

[pink_triangle]

5 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Probably yeah. They could have won in normal time against England here, with England being that influenced by Spain’s style but obviously not as good at it and a bit more susceptible at the back.

Also I wouldn’t rule out the effect of officials favouring Russia. I remember what happened in South Korea in 2002.

To me Spain got worse as the tournament progressed. No plan N when Costa wasn’t firing.

[kaosmark2]

1 minute ago, jyoung said:

No chance.

Fair enough, Trippier/Walker is an upgrade at RB, Henderson probably ousts Brozovic.

I still think Croatia are a far better team than England.

[Gucci Piggy]

9 minutes ago, zahidf said:

good news for Man utd. Real wont want him now

Real have signed a 19 year old keeper who's rated as one of the best young keepers out there. Seems like they're planning on keeping Navas for now and and getting someone in who'll be ready to take over in a few years. Don't see why they'd have signed him if they still wanted De Gea/Allison.

They also haven't been in for De Gea since the fax machine incident.

[pink_triangle]

Just now, jyoung said:

100%.

No chance.

England are based  on top 4 premiership player , the dumbing down of expectations has been done fantastically whether intentionally or not. No way would Croatia ignore players at this level.

[dentalplan]

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Also I wouldn’t rule out the effect of officials favouring Russia. I remember what happened in South Korea in 2002.

To me Spain got worse as the tournament progressed. No plan N when Costa wasn’t firing.

It felt similar to how Kane has been taken out of games so far, which has me worried.

The VAR effect is gonna make dodgy decisions harder to come by though. That one at the end of the game earlier that shoulda been a pen seems more of an anomaly than the beginning of a trend.

[Gucci Piggy]

I don't think Vrsaljko, Lovren, Vida, Strinic, Brozovic, Rebic or Mandzukic would start for England. Maybe not Perisic, either. That's 7 or 8 of Croatia's starting XI.

[pink_triangle]

3 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

I don't think Vrsaljko, Lovren, Vida, Strinic, Brozovic, Rebic or Mandzukic would start for England. Maybe not Perisic, either. That's 7 or 8 of Croatia's starting XI.

It’s difficult to say because you are probably trying to shoehorn Mandzukic into England’s current system. I suspect if English a different system would be in play to accommodate him.

[kaosmark2]

42 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

England are based  on top 4 premiership player , the dumbing down of expectations has been done fantastically whether intentionally or not. No way would Croatia ignore players at this level.

Lots of England's players are bit part at the big Prem clubs though. Lingard, Stones, Young, Loftus-Cheek, Rashford weren't starters last season. Walker's playing in a different position to normal to fit both him and Trippier in while also using the midfield options. Alli and Sterling have poor scoring records for England compared to their clubs. I don't see how the sporadic performances for the Manchester clubs of Lingard and Stones differ to that of Delph and Phil Jones in terms of other countries paying serious attention to them.

Kane, Alli, Sterling and Henderson are the only players in the England team that are crucial to a top Prem club's style and system. The 3 right-backs in the squad all do well for their club, and Maguire is a key defender for Leicester, but that's as good as the England team gets. 

32 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

It’s difficult to say because you are probably trying to shoehorn Mandzukic into England’s current system. I suspect if English a different system would be in play to accommodate him.

This ^^

If you're sticking English players into Croatia's system, you end up with a very different result to if you stick Croatian players into England's system.

43 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

I don't think Vrsaljko, Lovren, Vida, Strinic, Brozovic, Rebic or Mandzukic would start for England. Maybe not Perisic, either. That's 7 or 8 of Croatia's starting XI.

I think Lovren is an upgrade at CB, Strinic is a better LB than playing someone like Young or Delph out of position there (although personally I'd be playing Rose anyway). And that's even assuming you stick Croatians into how England play, which as above you wouldn't do. If you have Modric/Rakitic/Perisic, you find a system to get the best out of them.

 

[dentalplan]

The weight of expectation must have got much heavier today, right? Seems to be a lot of Southgate-posting in reaction to the Spain exit. We've stumbled from underdogs playing without the weight of expectation into being joint faves to make the final from our side of the cup. A lot of young lads and Tottenham players in the team as well.

Edited July 1, 2018 by dentalplan

[pink_triangle]

2 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

 A lot of young lads and Tottenham players in the team as well.

Are you saying that’s a good or bad thing?

[pink_triangle]

4 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

The weight of expectation must have got much heavier today, right? Seems to be a lot of Southgate-posting in reaction to the Spain exit. We've stumbled from underdogs playing without the weight of expectation into being joint faves to make the final from our side of the cup. 

As someone who doesn’t particularly want England to win (although won’t jump off a bridge if they do) my main concerns is not down to the quality of the England team, but more down to luck seemingly going your way from the day of the draw to the competition itself. I’m also terrified that one of the posters on the Wrexham board at the start of every tournament posts why England will do will and this time he hasn’t!

[kaosmark2]

13 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Are you saying that’s a good or bad thing?

Well this Spurs team are chokers.

[dentalplan]

11 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Are you saying that’s a good or bad thing?

Just memeing on Spurs.

7 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

As someone who doesn’t particularly want England to win (although won’t jump off a bridge if they do) my main concerns is not down to the quality of the England team, but more down to luck seemingly going your way from the day of the draw to the competition itself. I’m also terrified that one of the posters on the Wrexham board at the start of every tournament posts why England will do will and this time he hasn’t!

Yeah that's it really. Things are just going unreasonably well, more than we deserve. If Denmark win tonight, the nation will be at fever pitch.