Jump to content

2018 World Cup


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, RAG said:

When all the legs went in ET, it was obvious Modric, Rakotic and Manzukic were the best fitba players on the park.

England had the youngest team in the tournament but if they can add an attacking number 10 they'd be a right good team.

Least they don't dive and this sort of glorious failure from a limited talent is admirable and something Scotland could learn from.

I also liked Southgate going round at the end, picking up all those greeting lads earning a hundred grand a week off the deck, cos they didn't make the height of their profession.

That's what I want to see from an England manager - these lads were a decent team, but miles off a true genius like Gazza in 1990.

 

I agree, they are sorely missing a creative spark in the middle of the park, they have no Modric, Griezmann or Gazza thankfully.

Their campaign was buit on a very solid defence and carrying a huge threat from set pieces and for that the management team should get the credit. Will be interesting to see how they progress over the next 2 years before the Euros.

Disgaree about the diving, Kane went down far too easily all night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, skygod said:

Don't forget Northern Ireland getting to the Euros.

We certainly don’t have any reason to gloat.

 

 

Gloating is all we have left unfortunately, we currently have an unbelievably poor group of players and we managed to replace a manager who failed to qualify with one who will be even less likely to do so

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, historyman said:

Gloating is all we have left unfortunately, we currently have an unbelievably poor group of players and we managed to replace a manager who failed to qualify with one who will be even less likely to do so

 I would prefer if we contemplated how far behind Engrerland we are rather than gloating. If MacLejsh us the answer then it is most certainly the wrong question.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, historyman said:

Disgaree about the diving, Kane went down far too easily all night.

Big difference between making the most of a tackle, diving and feigning injury.  I didn't see one England player go down all tournament pretending to be injured.  Sterling for example tonight could have played for the pen, but got up off the deck to play the ball in.  Other teams wouldn't do that. But Kane looked well off pace in all the knock out games.  Quality players showed it tonight - is a reason you get picked up by Juve, Madrid or Barcelona, as we saw in ET.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, RAG said:

Big difference between making the most of a tackle, diving and feigning injury.  I didn't see one England player go down all tournament pretending to be injured.  Sterling for example tonight could have played for the pen, but got up off the deck to play the ball in.  Other teams wouldn't do that. But Kane looked well off pace in all the knock out games.  Quality players showed it tonight - is a reason you get picked up by Juve, Madrid or Barcelona, as we saw in ET.

Does Maguire's ridiculous dive in the box in an earlier game not count because he didn't feign injury? They were 'at it' just as much as all the other teams throughout the tournament - with the honourable exception of Colombia who were so extreme that I even ended up wanting England to put them out.

Tonight Kane seemed to spend most of the game remonstrating in front of the referee and his bad miss (es) probably cost them the game. Meanwhile Mandukic scored a great striker's goal, great anticipation and excellent finish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, historyman said:

Does Maguire's ridiculous dive in the box in an earlier game not count because he didn't feign injury? They were 'at it' just as much as all the other teams throughout the tournament - with the honourable exception of Colombia who were so extreme that I even ended up wanting England to put them out.

Tonight Kane seemed to spend most of the game remonstrating in front of the referee and his bad miss (es) probably cost them the game. Meanwhile Mandukic scored a great striker's goal, great anticipation and excellent finish.

It was the raw talent of Rakotic and Modric that opened England right up.  Regarding feigning injury, Manzukic was down like he'd dislocated his knee in extra time, didn't seem to hamper him when running in on goal!  You don't see English or British players doing that in the last 10 mins of games like in Europe of South America.  Is a notable difference in how the teams play or close out the game. I like the latter stage of the WC anyway, is no-one going down like they had an electric shock like Neymar, although the VAR stopped getting used and being a talking point at that moment too - a good tournament all round.

Edited by RAG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's great that we don't have to listen to the English press going on about how great they are but at the same time a country of 4 million-odd people have just reached the World Cup Final with players who are comfortable on the ball and work to win possession back. Luka Modric gave everything tonight, his movement and close control are what our children should be aiming to replicate, not Scott effing Brown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yugoslavia would have been contenders for a few WC and Euros had they not had the Balkan war.  Zlatan, Shaquiri were both refugees of the war and ended up in Sweden and Switzerland.  Croatia may be 4 million folk, but they're arguably punching at their true weight as a Football nation.  These days most folk don't understand their fine football tradition.

Croatia are Europe's Uruguay basically.  Two countries with a smilier population to Scotland funnily enough

Edited by RAG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uruguay and Croatia have players all over the world.

Liam Henderson (ex Celtic) just signed for Bari for $2,5m  - first Scotsman to play in Siere A since Souness in 1986!

If Scotland want to get better, we should look at how Uruguay and Croatia consistently  do it, we're not Dutch or English..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RAG said:

Croatia are Europe's Uruguay basically.  Two countries with a smilier population to Scotland funnily enough

Also funnily enough we've never lost to Croatia.

Tonight the difference in technical abilty once they got into their stride in the 2nd half was astonishing. England were chasing shadows.

We need to focus on producing players who can move the ball around like that. Will the centres of excellence make a difference? Time will tell...

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, RAG said:

Liam Henderson (ex Celtic) just signed for Bari for $2,5m  - first Scotsman to play in Siere A since Souness in 1986!

That's good news. Lets hope he's a success. 

The news this morning giving it 

"England got further than they could ever dream"

Really, with the draw they had? If I was English I'd be disappointed not to make final.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's very difficult to win the world cup without a world class midfielder.

In recent years, only Brazil in 2002 didn't have a midfield playmaker of the calibre of Zidane, Pirlo, Iniesta or Kroos capable of controlling a game.

I was wondering at around 60 minutes if Southgate would bring Dier on and park the bus. In the end, he left it too late.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Wrangodog said:

It's great that we don't have to listen to the English press going on about how great they are but at the same time a country of 4 million-odd people have just reached the World Cup Final with players who are comfortable on the ball and work to win possession back. Luka Modric gave everything tonight, his movement and close control are what our children should be aiming to replicate, not Scott effing Brown.

Scott Brown is an easy target. Can you imagine how bad Scotland would have been in the last ten years without him? There are a lot of problems with Scottish football but Brown isn't one of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, fraz65 said:

Scott Brown is an easy target. Can you imagine how bad Scotland would have been in the last ten years without him? There are a lot of problems with Scottish football but Brown isn't one of them.

I think Wrandog meant holding him up as something to aim for is not helping, and I agree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Isle of Wight Exile said:

"England got further than they could ever dream"

Really, with the draw they had? If I was English I'd be disappointed not to make final.

The got more or less where any decent analyst would have expècted. Lost when they encountered the first team able to compete with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, fraz65 said:

It's very difficult to win the world cup without a world class midfielder.

In recent years, only Brazil in 2002 didn't have a midfield playmaker of the calibre of Zidane, Pirlo, Iniesta or Kroos capable of controlling a game.

I was wondering at around 60 minutes if Southgate would bring Dier on and park the bus. In the end, he left it too late.

That Brazil team was blessed with some of the most potent attacking players of a generation. Ronaldo was on fire in that tournament. Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Carlos, Cafu. They had teams on the back foot from the off. Teams knew they’d have to score a couple at least to be in with a chance of beating them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, piffer said:

Thought that was a bit wild from Pickford. Other end of the park they are screaming penalty and red card imo. 

Any other player on the park makes that challenge and it is a penalty all day. Dangerous and reckless challenge but as a goalie gets away with it for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no real shape or balance in that England team. Seems to be a 5-1-4 formation almost, they're really light in the middle of the park. Is Alli not meant to be the creative no 10? I'm not sure what that lads role is in the team. Southgate was quite predictable too, like for like substitutions all tournament and no tactical changes to try and change a game.

I dunno if the futures as bright as they're making out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...