Football 2011-2012

[eFestivals]

2008 Friendly

2001 Qualification game

Do friendlies really count though ?

You forgot '96.

For the FIFA rankings they count, yep. Which I think works in England's favour.

[kaosmark2]

We beat Germany occasionally. But draws as well i guess.

But yeah, that's a part of it. But most of our games are against the world's big teams, and predominantly the european ones. We get enough results in those - and play too few of the other weaker teams to lose too many of them - to help sustain the ranking too.

If England played a wider assortment of internationals I'm certain that our ranking would fall a fair way from where it tends to be.

Edited February 6, 2012 by kaosmark2

[Ed209]

And it's a disgrace that friendlies count towards FIFA rankings.

[eFestivals]

Oh, you mean we don't play the likes of Trinidad & Tobago/Singapore/etc, instead play the likes of Croatia/Greece. The lack of true lightweights in Europe (Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino.... anyone else?) means that England still play teams of some respectability.

it's more that - overall - Europe is by far the strongest in world football, so most of our games are against the more decent sides. Any friendlies we play against teams from outside Europe strongly tend to be Brazil and Argentia.

In theory if not the practice, England should beat every team in the federations outside of South America & Europe - and the FIFA rankings reflect that. But if England was to play every team in those federations you can be sure we wouldn't win them all, and that would cause our ranking to fall.

That's what I'm getting at (I'm not explaining it too well).

[kaosmark2]

At least it provides some incentive to win them

[kaosmark2]

it's more that - overall - Europe is by far the strongest in world football, so most of our games are against the more decent sides. Any friendlies we play against teams from outside Europe strongly tend to be Brazil and Argentia.

In theory if not the practice, England should beat every team in the federations outside of South America & Europe - and the FIFA rankings reflect that. But if England was to play every team in those federations you can be sure we wouldn't win them all, and that would cause our ranking to fall.

That's what I'm getting at (I'm not explaining it too well).

[eFestivals]

The incentive to win should be there anyway. The point of friendlies is to get players used to playing with each other and try and slot other players in. You don't see club friendlies influencing UEFA ranking for seeding in the Champs Lge do you?

I reckon a better way of doing things would be to somehow force teams to widen the opposition that they play.

I guess that there's not a lot that can be done with finals qualifiers, but for friendlies England almost always tries to line up one of a small handful of teams, meaning that there's others that they never play. There should be more randomness with the opposition that all countries play.

[kaosmark2]

I reckon a better way of doing things would be to somehow force teams to widen the opposition that they play.

I guess that there's not a lot that can be done with finals qualifiers, but for friendlies England almost always tries to line up one of a small handful of teams, meaning that there's others that they never play. There should be more randomness with the opposition that all countries play.

[kaosmark2]

Weak Spurs bench tonight. And 2 injury-prone talented centre-backs starting.

Suarez kept on the bench initially. Makes sense with the form the other strikers are in, but I'd expect him to come on at some point.

Should be a good game.

[pink_triangle]

I reckon win-stats like that mean little. The simple fact is that Postman Pat did well in the less important games that there were quite a few of (the qualies) and then did shit in the games that matter (the finals - and there's fewer games there, hence Pat's better win stats), while Sven was more the opposite of that.

To me that pretty much indicates that England are playing consistantly at around the best they're able to do, so the reason why England tends to have a high world ranking comes down to their playing style which has them regularly beating the world's better teams that they shouldn't often beat from what their average level says.

So that then says that the FIFA rankings obviously favour the more geographical narrow friendlies and qualies than they would do if international matches were more widely spread around.

[kaosmark2]

I can see your point about friendlies not counting, but if they didnt count how would Brazil be able to earn any points in the next 2 years. I think England take friendlies more serious than some of the bigger european nations and get the ranking points to reflect this. You look at spains results in friendlies since the last world cup and they have pretty much lost every time they have played a half decent side. EIther the world has worked out how to play spain or the world champions dont put the effort in when it doesnt matter, Im guessing the latter. I think its not really in the English mentality to just play out a loss and their media probably woudlnt accept it.

[pink_triangle]

Don't home nations automatically get top seeding anyway? Poland and Ukraine have.

[kaosmark2]

They get top seeding for the tournament. However from memory the fifa world rankings are decided using results from the last 2 years. If you didnt include friendly results, how could Poland and Ukraine accumulate any points for the 2 years prior to the tournament?

[pink_triangle]

Why would they need to?

Apart from seedings, what do the rankings matter?

[kaosmark2]

If Poland and Ukraine were unable to accumulate ranking points it would have effected their seeding for the world cup qualification draw.

As for Capello, the FA only have themselves to blame. They made the decision to throw money at a foreigm mercnary who will probably never set foot in England when his contract expires. Capello is in a situation where he can get away with speaking and acting how he wants. I doubt he cares if he gets sacked, he will be paid at the end of they day and probably doesnt care about his reputation in England. I remember in the last euros Sven was paid more than most of the managers combined, the thought being that in most countries the top job is done for honour and not money. I think England should massively cut the salary next time and invest the money in youth facilities instead. No evidence throwing money at a manager is beneficial.

[The Nal]

Dreadful game. Great kick in the guts from Suarez though.

[Kowalski]

Suarez lucky to still be on the park after less than 5 minutes.

[kaosmark2]

Awful game. Vaguely entertaining after Suarez came on, but neither side looked particularly good.

Spurs look a lot less vibrant going forward when they've got a couple of injuries, as Neil and I have been saying all season, liable to slide?

[kaosmark2]

From AnfieldCat: "In my 3 minute cameo I've ran past more players than Stewart Downing has all season."

[pink_triangle]

Awful game. Vaguely entertaining after Suarez came on, but neither side looked particularly good.

Spurs look a lot less vibrant going forward when they've got a couple of injuries, as Neil and I have been saying all season, liable to slide?

[Ed209]

really wish 5Live would get rid of Alan Green. What a miserable, annoying, useless c**t

[kaosmark2]

I missed the first half, from what I saw of the second half spurs were completely playing for the 0-0. I actually thought liverpool looked pretty good attacking but same old story of no cutting edge in front of goal. Spurs looked very wasteful to me and gave the ball away too much, I think other sides will punish them this season, I particularly find Assou-ekotto dodgy whenever I watch them. Apart from Bale they didnt seem to have anyone who looked like hurting liverpool. However I suppose if your a spurs player its job done, the 11 point gap between them and liverpool remains and as long as their form doesnt dip below average over the final 14 games, its hard to see them missing out on top 4.

[kaosmark2]

Suarez lucky to still be on the park after less than 5 minutes.

[The Nal]

Suarez just apologised for kicking Scott Parker.

"Sorry hombre, I was aiming for Ledley King".

Good for Pool to have him back though.

Edited February 6, 2012 by The Nal

[strummer77]

Edited February 7, 2012 by strummer77