git-intae-thum Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 9 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said: You just make stuff up, don't you? Lol... Fund oot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordopolis Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 51 minutes ago, GordonS said: I vote John Stones, for standing like a spectator while the ball glides past him, and having no idea Mandzukic was standing right behind him until it was too late. St JohnStone ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 3 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said: They were knocked out of the last competition by Iceland. The one prior to that they finished below Costa Rica in their group. Even with a team that wouldn't compare to some of the more celebrated England sides, that's underachieving. As was failure to even qualify in 1994 and 2008. Haven't included more as not sure how long your lifetime is. They certainly weren't unfortunate in either case; their performances through the tournament indicated it was their time to go out. Also a bit dismissive of a Costa Rica side that beat Italy and a decent Uruguay side; if those two couldn't beat a team, I don't see why England should expect to. I don't think many folk would disagree that Croatia had a better team than England in 2008, and that was the Euros of Arshavin - understandable that England couldn't get past either of them, although the manner of the failure must have grated. The 1994 squad was famously honking and would have stunk the tournament out. Before my time, but I doubt the Seventies squads that didn't qualify underachieved, considering they were knocked out by Poland and Italy, who finished third and fourth at the tournaments respectively. It probably seemed a lot worse at the time due to the proximity to 1966. As MT says, if the point is that they should be producing better players, then fair enough, but the players they've had have done about as well as their quality would dictate. It's easy to say, as we often do with Scotland, that the players are good enough that they should do better, but when the decades roll by and the end result doesn't improve...it can't all be down to bad managers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMMjag Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Albeit as a result of my biennial tradition of hooking talksport into my bloodstream, I heard this England team laughably compared to Germany 2010. Unlike that team, I can't think of many (if any) England players with the potential to progress to a higher level than what they're at now. I think England will eventually come to look back on this tournament and rue having such a shit group of players, the one year it opens gaping wide for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
git-intae-thum Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 In the words of the Germany fans: "Small part of Scotland... Your just a small part of Scotland.... Small part of Scotland........." Goodnight Angleterre..Amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordopolis Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 To think we were 1 goal away from a playoff for this tourney... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 At the end of the day, England are talking about these players being “national treasures” because they reached the semi final, and by definition (their definition), that makes them one of the four best teams on the planet. Its the English way to know but ignore the simple fact that they played two sides either above or around them in the world rankings, and were beaten in both of those games. They seek to qualify the Belgium game in two ways.....they made 8 changes, but chose to more or less ignore that Belgium made 9. They then grasp at the straw of “we didn’t want to win the game”. If England had been allowed to simply handpick their group and knockout opponents in some sort of WC fantasy, it would have differed little from what they actually got. At the end of the day, they played 6 games. They won 4 (one on penalties), and lost 2. So out they deservedly go. Again, the English media whipped up a jingoistic frenzy when for the first time ever, it looked as though they were going to keep a lid on it....but no, they couldn’t help themselves. Those who delight in England’s exit do so not because of a hatred of the team or individual players. It’s their horrible horrible media and commentators that everyone loves to say GIRUY (again). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 29 minutes ago, Gordopolis said: To think we were 1 goal away from a playoff for this tourney... Scotland's glorious failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Last I remember the game is eleven a side.England were clear favourites tonight with all major bookmakers but failed.Indeed they have achieved nothing extraordinary in this campaign so why are they being lauded?They are being lauded because they achieved more than even their most optimistic fans thought they would before the tourney started. Anyone who can't grasp that basic fact should maybe find another sport to follow. Yes, a lot of that was down to the route they had through the competition, but they can only beat whoever they come up against. Fact is that a fairly average squad made it to the World Cup Semi Final, and in the past they have had far more talented squads go to tourneys and achieve far less, with SA 2010 probably the peak for that. The jealousy is absolutely pouring out of some posters on here tonight, we would be delighted just to be there for once.Their players also shouldn't cop the blame for their media being absolute arseholes with no sense of reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Steve Macmanaman. Roon ye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjc Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Cerberus said: Steve Macmanaman. Roon ye. Compare and contrast that shite (along with various other commentators and pundits) with the dignity and class shown by Southgate and in fairness, some of the squad when interviewed over the last few weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee Man Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 4 hours ago, Duncan Freemason said: At the end of the day, England are talking about these players being “national treasures” because they reached the semi final, and by definition (their definition), that makes them one of the four best teams on the planet. There was talk before the game of Southgate and Kane being knighted for getting as far as they did. They just can't help themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer (Raconteur) Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 BBC Breakfast this morning chirpy chirpy Sally Nugent comes out with a fucking belter. 'We never expected them to win the tournament ' Really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bairnardo Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Watching them trying to rationalise away all of the hope they gave themselves is deliciois. You are seeing people locked in a battle with their own egos today and its great. Fully expect a "didnt want to win it this time" statement at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Compare and contrast that shite (along with various other commentators and pundits) with the dignity and class shown by Southgate and in fairness, some of the squad when interviewed over the last few weeks. There was talk before the game of Southgate and Kane being knighted for getting as far as they did. They just can't help themselves. And that was the thing for me, Southgate played a blinder as far as the media was concerned, but as usual the media can't help themselves once they win a couple of games. The pundits still haven't figured out that their cheerleading can be counterproductive, as you can see here with Luca Modric dishing out some telts. Check out @itvfootball’s Tweet: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djchapsticks Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 31 minutes ago, peasy23 said: And that was the thing for me, Southgate played a blinder as far as the media was concerned, but as usual the media can't help themselves once they win a couple of games. The pundits still haven't figured out that their cheerleading can be counterproductive, as you can see here with Luca Modric dishing out some telts. Check out @itvfootball’s Tweet: That raging Donald Trump style stongarm handshake at the end there from the journo interviewing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 6 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said: They certainly weren't unfortunate in either case; their performances through the tournament indicated it was their time to go out. Also a bit dismissive of a Costa Rica side that beat Italy and a decent Uruguay side; if those two couldn't beat a team, I don't see why England should expect to. I don't think many folk would disagree that Croatia had a better team than England in 2008, and that was the Euros of Arshavin - understandable that England couldn't get past either of them, although the manner of the failure must have grated. The 1994 squad was famously honking and would have stunk the tournament out. Before my time, but I doubt the Seventies squads that didn't qualify underachieved, considering they were knocked out by Poland and Italy, who finished third and fourth at the tournaments respectively. It probably seemed a lot worse at the time due to the proximity to 1966. As MT says, if the point is that they should be producing better players, then fair enough, but the players they've had have done about as well as their quality would dictate. It's easy to say, as we often do with Scotland, that the players are good enough that they should do better, but when the decades roll by and the end result doesn't improve...it can't all be down to bad managers. Never said they were unlucky. Just that with the resources at hand they should be capable of beating Iceland and Costa Rica. The fact that Italy have also massively underachieved at the last two World Cups (last three?) doesn't diminish that fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanky_ffc Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 6 hours ago, GordonS said: To be fair, a lot of that is the bookies covering themselves. All the money was going on England and they couldn't afford the exposure in the event of England winning. Odds follow the money as much as they follow the probabilities. 7 hours ago, Nightmare said: They were shorter than they should have been. Standard bookie pricing when they know the funds are going to come piling in for one specific outcome. I think they should have been favourites. Narrowly. Betting is so globalised now and there's a huge amount of institutional money floating on exchanges that will far out-weigh the folk having a patriotic bet. England may have been shorter than they should have been, but it will only have been by a few ticks. If the bookie odds were that out of line, some savvy punters in the markets would have shifted them back to the correct territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 7 hours ago, qos_75 said: A lot of folk in the media are saying it has been a great World Cup. I disagree. The two stand out games for me were Spain - Portugal and Argentina- France. The others have been fairly pish. Agreed, it's been pretty boring. No real surprises. Almost none of the "big" teams living up to their reputation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I think it's been a great World Cup. Largely because almost none of the big teams lived up to their reputation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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