I'm not saying whether Martinez did or didn't deserve the job; only that he has done a decent job since he's had it, same as Southgate, who, let's be fair, a large part of him getting the job was the scandal with whatsisface.
Fair enough.
==
Sucks for England right now. They had such a good first half, but when that Croatia goal went in, I felt like their midfield went missing. I might knock Henderson a fair bit, but I don't rate Delli Ali much either, and Lingard, as much as I like him, is not a central midfielder. I don't know if they were trying to play him in the same position he was in at United, but without the same level of service it was never going to work.
And Walker as a centre-half. Jesus.
I feel bad for guys like Pickford and Trippier who, to me, played really well during the entire tournament. Guys like Vardy, Rashford and Dier barely got a look-in, and ffs, Ashley Young shouldn't have played a single minute of that WC. Fair play to Southgate for getting them this far though.
Ashley young and Walker are the 2 of the main reasons we lost. Neither can defend are their positioning is terrible. I think sometimes the inexperience and naivety cost us big time at crucial points of the game. If oxla-chamberlain or lalana has been fit I’d have played them over Ali. Don’t rate him and slows the play down to much.
Not sure I agree on the Wilshere point, he can be such a great player but his injury-proneness is a massive worry, one of the things that people praised Southgate for was him assembling a team without any major fitness/injury issues, which hasn't happened for a long time.
Fair play to England though, not a lot of belief going into the tournament, (which hasn't happened for a long time either) but I think they can be proud of their achievements this time around.
France have to be nailed on to win it now though, Croatia's last 3 games have gone to extra time, that's literally a whole extra football match than France have played, and not just any football match, 90 minutes of intense, can't-give-an-inch type of football, that should give France more of an edge than they have already.
__________________ Then lets head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch
Looking at the guys who didn't get a game, I think you could have easily brought Wilshere and left someone like Fabian Delph at home. You could even only use him as a sub, bringing him on when England are at the point in the match when keeping the ball is a premium.
I also really think they should have brought a physical midfielder. Someone who can break play up and disrupt the opposition momentum. I'm not going to pretend he's World Class, but I honestly think someone like Shelvey could have come on against Croatia and just hassled Modric like Fellaini did with Neymar.
Sorry, as regards what else you were saying, yeah, France are the obvious favourites, but I still can't get over the energy levels of the Croatian players. Even with how tiring this has all been for them, they were still chasing people down in extra time. That is some freakish conditioning, and I wouldn't be surprised if it continued on Sunday.
I'm sure being in the final will be a massive boost for them and at first they won't feel the tiredness but if they wind up chasing the game then France can really pick them off. I like both teams though so not sure who I'd like to see win it yet. Delph's England career is turning into his Man City career, people are going, 'Oh yeah, I forgot he plays for them.' I like Ashley Young but he's past it now and I can't believe he got the nod ahead of Danny Rose.
__________________ Then lets head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch
i really hope croatia will win. they deserve it so much, true warriors and true fighting spirit. hope they will have the energies for this, but deep inside i have the feeling france will win. i am not so confident that croatia can stop this team. but i hope they can.
i think Mbappe is overrated. he is good but not what people are trying to make him. griezman is the real threat.
I'm just happy England didn't get to the final. I would like Croatia to win too but hard to see France not winning. Hope Belgium win 3rd place tomorrow
Or even Luke Shaw. Dude was doing well towards the end of the season but still didn't get brought.
I think Griezmann is a better player in general, but that Mbappe has been France's best player this WC.
==
The England V Belgium match was kinda dour. A really good opening goal for Belgium and then many minutes of meh, until England made some substitutions and really came at them. Dier and Rashford were impressive, though Kane... He looks sluggish to me. I know there was talk about him being injured, but he really didn't look as sharp as usual at all imo.
There is a good group of talent coming through the ranks, Rashford, Alexander-Arnold, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek, Sessegnon, just hope they can get the game time they need at their clubs, Premier League clubs are awful for that, if it was Spain or Italy they'd all be playing regularly. Harry Kane only got his chance at Tottenham because of injuries.
__________________ Then lets head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch
Reading the England comments. they had no plan B. Southgate didn't know what to do to change things and had no passion, Fergusson, Marinio and Wenger would have been shouting from the touchline and would have sent a plan on with a player. He got too matey with the kids imo.
IMO Southgate doesn't have the persona to be one of those managers, nor does he have the experience yet to be one of the 'shrewd silent strategists', forging a close bond and being friendly with his players is really the only route open to him at this stage.
__________________ Then lets head down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch
the finals were not the game that was suppose to be. first of all, that retarded self goal is just .... its literally the first self goal inflicted in the world cup finals ever. then, the ref gave the penalty which was bullshit. yes there was a hand touch but it wasnt on purpose and you could see he whithdrew the hand. in average games its a toss up of 50/50 if to give or not a pentaly in such situation. but in the finals of the freaking world cup? you just dont do that. and the ref gave france a free goal. of course later the ref acted like he is in favor of croatia by "ignoring" all kinds of faults they did in mid field, but that was really to cover his deadly shot at croatia with the penalty. croatia dominated completely the first half and ended up losing 2-1. later on when france finally scored a deserved goal, that 3-1 started to crack croatia already. overall, this is not the game that was suppose to be. but hey, its usually the case in world cups. you always got the teams that are very friendly with the ref. and its usually the western countries.
I don't think it should've been a penalty either, the amount of time the ref took watching the VAR, he couldn't have been 100% certain on it which was one of the rules introduced with it. I wanted Croatia to win cause it'd be their first and they're a smaller nation so it's be a great story. Overall throughout the tournament tho France probably did deserve it.
Would've been bit more exciting of it went to penalties but this was probably the best final in my lifetime that I can remember anyway
Yeah, I won big on the whole self goal thing. I mentioned after it was over how. No one was monitoring, well playing defense on those fans screaming and yelling. After, he kicked it in his own goal france was almost guaranteed a chance to win. World Cup politics are just the politics the international sports scene needs. Especially, with the women's World Cup staged in France Summer 2019.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 11th, 2018 08:53 PM
