Football 18/19

[zahidf]

France and Brazil are probably favourites.

[ThomThomDrum]

1 hour ago, zahidf said:

France and Brazil are probably favourites.

No probably about it...

[LJS]

Croatia, Croatia, Croatia.

 

Denmark?

[pink_triangle]

11 minutes ago, LJS said:

Croatia, Croatia, Croatia.

 

Denmark?

Denmark playing much better than I expected or possibly Croatia worse.

[Gucci Piggy]

2 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

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.

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.

I wasn't trying to stick Croatia players into our system; I was trying to think what XI I'd choose if I had all the players to choose from. It'd probably be something like:

Subasic

Walker Stones Maguire Rose

Modric Henderson Rakitic

Sterling Kane Rashford/Perisic/Mandzukic

I'd maybe even play 3 at the back and drop one of those forwards to fit Trippier in the same way Southgate does.

Don't really agree on Lovren but he was one I wasn't 100% on. I think Liverpool would happily take Stones or Maguire right now to partner VVD over him if they could.

Strinic I don't know too much about and I can't even recall how he's performed so far in the World Cup but I don't like our options at LB anyway so maybe. Although the only reason I don't rate Rose as an option is because he's not played enough this season. If he'd been at Sampdoria last season and started every game I'd have no qualms over him playing. Fuck playing Ashley Young though I'm sick of him.

Obviously Modric and Rakitic would be in the team; that goes without saying. Not sure about Perisic, though. If we played with wingers our starters would probably be Sterling and Rashford right now. Would Perisic be a definite starter over either? I'm not sure. Like I said, though, it was a maybe on Perisic.

So on the whole I'd probably say 6-8 players in a joint XI would be English.

Having said all that, I'd still favour Croatia if we come up against them as they have looked more impressive than us.

[pink_triangle]

10 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

 

Having said all that, I'd still favour Croatia if we come up against them as they have looked more impressive than us.

Not today. I’m going to call it, Croatia are going out today!

Edited July 1, 2018 by pink_triangle

[WS_Jack_III]

This world cup is pure drama!

[JSmurphy]

Shades of that Suarez / Ghana incident. 

[dentalplan]

1 minute ago, JSmurphy said:

Shades of that Suarez / Ghana incident. 

How isn't it a red?

[JSmurphy]

Just now, dentalplan said:

How isn't it a red?

That new double jeopardy rule I think? 

[ThomThomDrum]

This World Cup is fucked up... maybe England do have a chance  

[pink_triangle]

1 minute ago, dentalplan said:

How isn't it a red?

Rules have changed. I think the Croatia player should have scored before the tackle came in.

On another matter I think they are overhyping the competition calling it a magnificent World Cup.

[WS_Jack_III]

4 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

How isn't it a red?

He attempted to play the ball.

[dentalplan]

Fair enough guys. Seems an odd one but didn't affect much.

[WS_Jack_III]

1 minute ago, dentalplan said:

Fair enough guys. Seems an odd one but didn't affect much.

it has to be more in the style of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to be a red now.

[WS_Jack_III]

Said this for years, penalties should be one smooth motion, none of this stopping mid way bullshit. 

Edited July 1, 2018 by WS_Jack_III

[JSmurphy]

Madness.

[jyoung]

11 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Said this for years, penalties should be one smooth motion, none of this stopping mid way bullshit. 

That's meant to be the rule now. You can't halt / stop mid run up but as we saw today, players (like Ramos) find ways around it to achieve the same effect.

Also, didn't particularly rate Croatia's performance just then. Think the excitement may be premature.

Edited July 1, 2018 by jyoung

[Gucci Piggy]

10 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Said this for years, penalties should be one smooth motion, none of this stopping mid way bullshit. 

Worst ones are people who take a one step run up like one of the Denmark players did. Every time it happens you know they're not gonna score (exaggeration obvs but I swear they're always shite pens). I've played 5 a side matches where pens can only be a one step run up and it's way harder to take a decent pen. Why are these people doing it by choice in World Cup shootouts?

You end up with a similar situation when you stutter but the positive is that you often see where the keeper is going so you can slot it in the other direction.

1 minute ago, jyoung said:

That's meant to be the rule now. You can't halt stop mid run up but as we saw today, players (like Ramos) find ways around it to achieve the same effect.

Also, didn't particularly rate Croatia's performance just then. Think the excitement may be premature.

The rule is that you can't stutter when you've reached the ball. You're certainly still allowed to stutter mid-run up.

[dentalplan]

5 minutes ago, jyoung said:

That's meant to be the rule now. You can't halt / stop mid run up but as we saw today, players (like Ramos) find ways around it to achieve the same effect.

Also, didn't particularly rate Croatia's performance just then. Think the excitement may be premature.

That's always been the rule. Slowing the run on approach is A-OK.

And yeah they went to bits when Denmark switched things up. I dunno if it was a case of getting too excited because they trounced a competitive group and were possibly the best team in the group phase, so what else would we think? They've definitely got some work to do though.

Feel quite rotten for Denmark because they were full of courage and outclassed much bigger names, but I'm happy that Croatia get another chance to deliver rather than one slip-up then gone.

[pink_triangle]

14 minutes ago, jyoung said:

 

Also, didn't particularly rate Croatia's performance just then. Think the excitement may be premature.

Can you name a previous World Cup winner that hasnt had a similar performance on the way to victory?

[jyoung]

12 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

The rule is that you can't stutter when you've reached the ball. You're certainly still allowed to stutter mid-run up.

Oh really? I must have got it wrong then 'cos I just thought you couldn't do that weird stop thing at any point anymore? Oh well.

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

And yeah they went to bits when Denmark switched things up. I dunno if it was a case of getting too excited because they trounced a competitive group and were possibly the best team in the group phase, so what else would we think? They've definitely got some work to do though.

That much is true. Let's see how they get on versus Russia!

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Can you name a previous World Cup winner that hasnt had a similar performance on the way to victory?

Nope but previous World Cups weren't won by Croatia. Anyway, I was just sayin' they didn't exactly do much for the (albeit it fairly small) hype.

[Hugh Jass]

43 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

On another matter I think they are overhyping the competition calling it a magnificent World Cup.

I have to disagree, I’ve absolutely loved this tournament so far. On of the best in my lifetime so far.

[pink_triangle]

6 minutes ago, jyoung said:

Oh really? I must have got it wrong then 'cos I just thought you couldn't do that weird stop thing at any point anymore? Oh well.

That much is true. Let's see how they get on versus Russia!

Nope but previous World Cups weren't won by Croatia. Anyway, I was just sayin' they didn't exactly do much for the (albeit it fairly small) hype.

Not that I think Croatia will win the World Cup, but I think progressing when not playing well isn’t a terrible thing. Teams just don’t live up to hype over 7 games.

[pink_triangle]

1 minute ago, Hugh Jass said:

I have to disagree, I’ve absolutely loved this tournament so far. On of the best in my lifetime so far.

Doesn’t the fact that England have done well (and are in a position to go deep) contribute to that view, in the same way English fans will make out Italia 90 and euro 96 were great. I think if England had limped out in the groups the discussion would be very different.

I think the last World Cup was much better in the groups.