Football 18/19

[kaosmark2]

Personally, I think Young was the 2nd worst England player after Alli. Him and Walker between them were culpable for all but one of England's goals in meaningful matches.

Surely either Lucas Hernandez or Strinic would have been a better shout?

While Paulinho wasn't great, which DM was? Kante had a poor tournament, to the point of getting taken off in the final, Belgium kept changing who they played there because of poor form. Brozovic? Did the job somewhat respectably but there's a reason Croatia kept going behind and it wasn't their centre backs. Henderson? Not going to pick the Russian or Swedish ones. Torreira? Otherwise you're going for a player that didn't make the quarters.

I'd have gone for De Bruyne or Perisic ahead of Neymar. I think that's just a case of picking a big name who played okay.

[The Nal]

12 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

yep. Ridiculous, one of the England turds.

Henderson being the main one. With a decent creative midfielder England could be good going into the Euros. Hendo is a turkey. 

[kaosmark2]

5 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Henderson being the main one. With a decent creative midfielder England could be good going into the Euros. Hendo is a turkey. 

If Henderson is sitting deep as a rhythm player he's fine. But you need someone creative alongside him. I still think it's crazy that Livermore was in the provisional squad ahead of Shelvey. If Jonjo turns out to be being a twat around the team, ditch him after the provisional squad, if he's working well and seems level headed, he goes to the tournament.

Lingard and Sterling running into nothing while Alli hobbles around afraid of the ball was a much bigger problem than Henderson.

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Henderson being the main one. With a decent creative midfielder England could be good going into the Euros. Hendo is a turkey. 

And yet a million times better than Dier who is dire.

I quite like Hendo cos when he's properly on it he makes a team tick like just about no-one - but he does have to be on it, with a team who is also on the front foot (and that's probably never going to be England against a decent team).

As for creativity, I reckon Alli and Lingard are waaaay before Hendo for failing to provide. Hendo was in the workhorse role.

When compared against what the others players did I reckon Hendo scores better than average, myself (tho I think the whole team was a turd).

[The Nal]

Just now, eFestivals said:

As for creativity, I reckon Alli and Lingard are waaaay before Hendo for failing to provide. Hendo was in the workhorse role.

He shouldn't be allowed near the ball. 

Difficult for Lingard, Alli, Sterling etc to be effective when they're supply is like this. 

 

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

If Henderson is sitting deep as a rhythm player he's fine. But you need someone creative alongside him.

to get what he needs alongside him and in front of him I reckon the whole system has to go, to go back to a back four.

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, The Nal said:

He shouldn't be allowed near the ball. 

Difficult for Lingard, Alli, Sterling etc to be effective when they're supply is like this. 

oh, he's definitely a good day/bad day player - which is why I said "when he's on it".

But there's lots of players like that. I reckon you could tell in the first 10 minutes of any match how much or little influence Beckham would have on that game - and there was much more of the 'little' than most would have admitted at the time.

[ThomThomDrum]

Henderson is defo hot and cold. He had a pretty decent game against Sweden if memory serves. Blocked a defo goal for the Swedes at one point.

[kaosmark2]

19 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

to get what he needs alongside him and in front of him I reckon the whole system has to go, to go back to a back four.

I don't get why we'd play a back 3 and fit Walker and Young into unfamiliar defensive roles when neither of them can tackle worth a damn.

I also don't understand why Lingard's been free from criticism. Missed more chances than Sterling all tournament, and unlike Sterling, he didn't create them for himself. He's been irrelevant at best and turgid at worst.

[The Nal]

8 minutes ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Henderson is defo hot and cold. He had a pretty decent game against Sweden if memory serves. Blocked a defo goal for the Swedes at one point.

Anyone can block a ball

[pink_triangle]

I suspect they wanted to put 2 England players, had a gap at left back, then thought kill two birds with one stone.

[dentalplan]

6 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

While Paulinho wasn't great, which DM was? Kante had a poor tournament, to the point of getting taken off in the final

Kante had a poor game on Sunday (apparently he was ill) but an otherwise excellent tournament. France's best player after Varane.

3 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I suspect they wanted to put 2 England players, had a gap at left back, then thought kill two birds with one stone.

I think Trippier was enough of a token gesture. Two England players sees them have more than Belgium. They've strangely gone for Lloris over Courtois and the other way round for the Best Keeper trophy.

[kaosmark2]

2 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Kante had a poor game on Sunday (apparently he was ill) but an otherwise excellent tournament. France's best player after Varane.

I think Trippier was enough of a token gesture. Two England players sees them have more than Belgium. They've strangely gone for Lloris over Courtois and the other way round for the Best Keeper trophy.

I can't see how you can say Kante was excellent vs Argentina when they scored 3 goals despite a very average Argie midfield. And illness isn't the only thing, Pogba's looked more shackled playing alongside him than with Nzonzi! He did okay the rest of the tournament but wasn't his usual imperious self. I still maintain that any DM they'd picked to go alongside Modric would have been a questionable call.

They certainly should have gone for Courtois, Lloris made a lot of great saves to get France to the final, but that fuck up for Mandzukic's goal was hilariously bad. It is weird how they've done it different in best keeper and team of the tournament. I also think Trippier is a legitimate pick, England's best player and it's not like other right backs have starred that highly (maybe Pavard).

[dentalplan]

33 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I can't see how you can say Kante was excellent vs Argentina when they scored 3 goals despite a very average Argie midfield. And illness isn't the only thing, Pogba's looked more shackled playing alongside him than with Nzonzi! He did okay the rest of the tournament but wasn't his usual imperious self. I still maintain that any DM they'd picked to go alongside Modric would have been a questionable call.

They certainly should have gone for Courtois, Lloris made a lot of great saves to get France to the final, but that fuck up for Mandzukic's goal was hilariously bad. It is weird how they've done it different in best keeper and team of the tournament. I also think Trippier is a legitimate pick, England's best player and it's not like other right backs have starred that highly (maybe Pavard).

His role that game was to contain Messi, and he did an excellent job of it by all accounts. Also, Pogba-Kante has been a dream pairing and the focal point of the entire team. Honestly, he's been lauded around the world after every game in this tournament until this weekend and was being talked about as their real star player and in contention against Modric for the Golden Ball, which is remarkable for a player whose job is to retrieve the ball.

edit: Oh and I agree Trippier was our best player and the most deserving to fit into the best XI thing but Pavard and Vrsaljko were better at what Trippier was doing. Spurs are being linked with Pavard right now, as it happens.

Edited July 17, 2018 by dentalplan

[kaosmark2]

46 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

His role that game was to contain Messi, and he did an excellent job of it by all accounts. Also, Pogba-Kante has been a dream pairing and the focal point of the entire team. Honestly, he's been lauded around the world after every game in this tournament until this weekend and was being talked about as their real star player and in contention against Modric for the Golden Ball, which is remarkable for a player whose job is to retrieve the ball.

edit: Oh and I agree Trippier was our best player and the most deserving to fit into the best XI thing but Pavard and Vrsaljko were better at what Trippier was doing. Spurs are being linked with Pavard right now, as it happens.

I completely rate Kante, I still think he's been mediocre this tournament. Not bad, just not that dominant. He looked better than the rest against Aus and Denmark because they were drab games with little creativity. I know that's his job to stifle the opponent's outlet, but he also should have been enabling others to play with freedom and imagination. I probably would have put him in ahead of Paulinho, but I think it's a lot closer decision than you're suggesting.

I agree Pavard was arguably better, I loved Croatia this tournament but I didn't think Vrsaljko was that great going forward until the final. His crossing wasn't as key a part of Croatia's play as Trippier's was for England (partially because Croatia actually had other attacking outlets).

[mjsell]

Did no one see Pavard against Australia? Probably the worst full back performance of the tournament.

[WS_Jack_III]

17 hours ago, The Nal said:

He shouldn't be allowed near the ball. 

Difficult for Lingard, Alli, Sterling etc to be effective when they're supply is like this. 

 

There was a bald feller sat at home that we all know would have been a good option off the bench. Instead we got Dier coming on every game.

[jyoung]

Looks like LFC might be about to find their missing puzzle piece. Signing Alisson would cap a summer of excellent transfers.

Really wish Chelsea would throw in a last minute bid. The Courtois situation will be the death of us.

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, jyoung said:

Looks like LFC might be about to find their missing puzzle piece. Signing Alisson would cap a summer of excellent transfers.

still a lot of stuff floating around that Fakir is still going to happen, too.

[LJS]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

still a lot of stuff floating around that Fakir is still going to happen, too.

 Ah, but that's Fakir news.

 

I'm off now.

[WS_Jack_III]

Can anybody help me understand why Newcastle are having to sell players to fund transfers? I honestly don't understand where the money has gone.

[kaosmark2]

10 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Can anybody help me understand why Newcastle are having to sell players to fund transfers? I honestly don't understand where the money has gone.

Have to pay Ashley for the Sports Direct advertising. Obviously. Cos that's how advertising works at NUFC.

[WS_Jack_III]

1 minute ago, kaosmark2 said:

Have to pay Ashley for the Sports Direct advertising. Obviously. Cos that's how advertising works at NUFC.

Something is definitely not right.

[eFestivals]

15 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Something is definitely not right.

Newc owner on the take from the club? That's never happened before.

[WS_Jack_III]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

Newc owner on the take from the club? That's never happened before.

aye but at least they gave the manager money to spend on players too.