England/World Cup

[normal rules]

If England were genuinely serious contenders for this World Cup, they should have breezed past USA. They didn’t. The warning signs were there.

[NickDRFC]

If England were genuinely serious contenders for this World Cup, they should have breezed past USA. They didn’t. The warning signs were there.

.

Are Morocco then the only genuine contender? Given Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia, France lost to  Tunisia and Croatia have needed 2 penalty shoot out wins after 2 group stage nil nils?

[dickos1]

If England were genuinely serious contenders for this World Cup, they should have breezed past USA. They didn’t. The warning signs were there.

Look at all the shock results in the group stage, drawing 0-0 with USA didn’t mean much.
We had the best record in the group stage of everyone in the competition

[Bentley Bullet]

If England were genuinely serious contenders for this World Cup, they should have breezed past USA. They didn’t. The warning signs were there.

In that case, you could also say if France were genuinely serious contenders for this world cup they should have breezed past England, they didn't.

Luck was on their side, along with the referee.

[tyke1962]

It might be worth pointing out one or two things regarding this group of players and what the next four years is in reality .

There's nobody as yet coming up behind Stones and Maguire in central defence .

Kane will be 33 at the next world cup and whilst he may still be around and affective he may not be either or he might retire from international football and try and rinse a few more club years .

I don't see anyone emerging as yet either although that could change .

The next Euros are in Germany which will be difficult to say the least but the next world cup in Canada , US and Mexico is going to be played in sweltering heat which doesn't bode well .

We virtually hosted the last Euros and  we've just played a World Cup in a country as neutral as you can get , a country that didn't really favour anyone .

We may have missed the boat in my opinion .

You made your mind up before the tournament started, now all you’re doing is trying to justify your negativity.
Even if we’d have won it you would’ve been going on about we won it despite of southgate etc etc

Your making out Southgate is some sort of messiah who has saved English football from the graveyard .

He's done some very good work during his tenure and made the England shirt more valuable than it was by many players prior to his arrival .

I still maintain tactically he falls short in my opinion , he's reactive to the events playing out on the park rather than pro active , we aren't talking about a complete numpty here but just shy of the tactical nous required at the very highest level .

If you think I wanted Southgate to fail or even fail further still then you are completely wide of the mark .

I want to leave this earth having seen England win a major tournament , I'm bloody desperate for it like millions of others are .

I think your first post on the World Cup a few weeks ago was feck off southgate, and calling us a joke of a nation.
So yes I reckon your mind was made up, whatever happened in this tournament you were going to find something to moan about.

For all you know he might not even think he's good enough at this level himself as he contemplates his future .

If he thought he could take this group of players to victory in Germany they'd be nowt to
 contemplate .

Winners back themselves .

Maybe you believe in him more than he does himself .

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I don't think it's luck as such, but we have to be more ruthless, both on the pitch from the sidelines.

I've just heard the pundits more or less say the same, except they said it's not down to Gareth to manage that on the pitch! What!!??

If Gareth and his assistants can't recognise key moments in games, like on Saturday when we started to let them off the hook, then who can? Get the messages on, make the subs if necessary. Prepare for those eventualities.

Don't just stand there, dither and hope!

[dickos1]

It might be worth pointing out one or two things regarding this group of players and what the next four years is in reality .

There's nobody as yet coming up behind Stones and Maguire in central defence .

Kane will be 33 at the next world cup and whilst he may still be around and affective he may not be either or he might retire from international football and try and rinse a few more club years .

I don't see anyone emerging as yet either although that could change .

The next Euros are in Germany which will be difficult to say the least but the next world cup in Canada , US and Mexico is going to be played in sweltering heat which doesn't bode well .

We virtually hosted the last Euros and  we've just played a World Cup in a country as neutral as you can get , a country that didn't really favour anyone .

We may have missed the boat in my opinion .

You made your mind up before the tournament started, now all you’re doing is trying to justify your negativity.
Even if we’d have won it you would’ve been going on about we won it despite of southgate etc etc

Your making out Southgate is some sort of messiah who has saved English football from the graveyard .

He's done some very good work during his tenure and made the England shirt more valuable than it was by many players prior to his arrival .

I still maintain tactically he falls short in my opinion , he's reactive to the events playing out on the park rather than pro active , we aren't talking about a complete numpty here but just shy of the tactical nous required at the very highest level .

If you think I wanted Southgate to fail or even fail further still then you are completely wide of the mark .

I want to leave this earth having seen England win a major tournament , I'm bloody desperate for it like millions of others are .

I think your first post on the World Cup a few weeks ago was feck off southgate, and calling us a joke of a nation.
So yes I reckon your mind was made up, whatever happened in this tournament you were going to find something to moan about.

For all you know he might not even think he's good enough at this level himself as he contemplates his future .

If he thought he could take this group of players to victory in Germany they'd be nowt to
 contemplate .

Winners back themselves .

Maybe you believe in him more than he does himself .

I’m sure he knows he’s good enough, the contemplation will be can he be arsed to go through another 2 years of this, just for people to never acknowledge the job he’s done purely because they didn’t fancy him 6 years ago

[tyke1962]

It might be worth pointing out one or two things regarding this group of players and what the next four years is in reality .

There's nobody as yet coming up behind Stones and Maguire in central defence .

Kane will be 33 at the next world cup and whilst he may still be around and affective he may not be either or he might retire from international football and try and rinse a few more club years .

I don't see anyone emerging as yet either although that could change .

The next Euros are in Germany which will be difficult to say the least but the next world cup in Canada , US and Mexico is going to be played in sweltering heat which doesn't bode well .

We virtually hosted the last Euros and  we've just played a World Cup in a country as neutral as you can get , a country that didn't really favour anyone .

We may have missed the boat in my opinion .

You made your mind up before the tournament started, now all you’re doing is trying to justify your negativity.
Even if we’d have won it you would’ve been going on about we won it despite of southgate etc etc

Your making out Southgate is some sort of messiah who has saved English football from the graveyard .

He's done some very good work during his tenure and made the England shirt more valuable than it was by many players prior to his arrival .

I still maintain tactically he falls short in my opinion , he's reactive to the events playing out on the park rather than pro active , we aren't talking about a complete numpty here but just shy of the tactical nous required at the very highest level .

If you think I wanted Southgate to fail or even fail further still then you are completely wide of the mark .

I want to leave this earth having seen England win a major tournament , I'm bloody desperate for it like millions of others are .

I think your first post on the World Cup a few weeks ago was feck off southgate, and calling us a joke of a nation.
So yes I reckon your mind was made up, whatever happened in this tournament you were going to find something to moan about.

For all you know he might not even think he's good enough at this level himself as he contemplates his future .

If he thought he could take this group of players to victory in Germany they'd be nowt to
 contemplate .

Winners back themselves .

Maybe you believe in him more than he does himself .

I’m sure he knows he’s good enough, the contemplation will be can he be arsed to go through another 2 years of this, just for people to never acknowledge the job he’s done purely because they didn’t fancy him 6 years ago

I think you'll find I've acknowledged many times his strengths and the job he's done during his tenure .

The difference between myself and yourself is that I can see the flaws too and I can see them in the players who represent us as well as the good things .

Your unwilling or incapable of accepting any criticism because Southgate and his players don't lose to Iceland anymore and he's a nice guy .

Give me a complete A hole who beats France in the quarter final of the world cup any day of the week .

[Draytonian III]

We do know without question that England's 3rd goal in the 66 final should not have stood. Not even remotely up for discussion.

BST, So far as I am aware there has been no technology produced able to analyse the available footage that says indisputably that it should not have stood.


You are peddling your opinion and dressing it up as if it were fact. 

It’s not the first time that statement has applied, on most things he’s a 99% right

[dickos1]

It might be worth pointing out one or two things regarding this group of players and what the next four years is in reality .

There's nobody as yet coming up behind Stones and Maguire in central defence .

Kane will be 33 at the next world cup and whilst he may still be around and affective he may not be either or he might retire from international football and try and rinse a few more club years .

I don't see anyone emerging as yet either although that could change .

The next Euros are in Germany which will be difficult to say the least but the next world cup in Canada , US and Mexico is going to be played in sweltering heat which doesn't bode well .

We virtually hosted the last Euros and  we've just played a World Cup in a country as neutral as you can get , a country that didn't really favour anyone .

We may have missed the boat in my opinion .

You made your mind up before the tournament started, now all you’re doing is trying to justify your negativity.
Even if we’d have won it you would’ve been going on about we won it despite of southgate etc etc

Your making out Southgate is some sort of messiah who has saved English football from the graveyard .

He's done some very good work during his tenure and made the England shirt more valuable than it was by many players prior to his arrival .

I still maintain tactically he falls short in my opinion , he's reactive to the events playing out on the park rather than pro active , we aren't talking about a complete numpty here but just shy of the tactical nous required at the very highest level .

If you think I wanted Southgate to fail or even fail further still then you are completely wide of the mark .

I want to leave this earth having seen England win a major tournament , I'm bloody desperate for it like millions of others are .

I think your first post on the World Cup a few weeks ago was feck off southgate, and calling us a joke of a nation.
So yes I reckon your mind was made up, whatever happened in this tournament you were going to find something to moan about.

For all you know he might not even think he's good enough at this level himself as he contemplates his future .

If he thought he could take this group of players to victory in Germany they'd be nowt to
 contemplate .

Winners back themselves .

Maybe you believe in him more than he does himself .

I’m sure he knows he’s good enough, the contemplation will be can he be arsed to go through another 2 years of this, just for people to never acknowledge the job he’s done purely because they didn’t fancy him 6 years ago

I think you'll find I've acknowledged many times his strengths and the job he's done during his tenure .

The difference between myself and yourself is that I can see the flaws too and I can see them in the players who represent us as well as the good things .

Your unwilling or incapable of accepting any criticism because Southgate and his players don't lose to Iceland anymore and he's a nice guy .

Give me a complete A hole who beats France in the quarter final of the world cup any day of the week .

I’ve not seen you acknowledge him doing a good job,
The criticism is ridiculous in that game that’s why,
Maguire, Bellingham and rashford were all two inches away from certain goals, Kane missed a pen, should’ve had another pen and saka was fouled for their first.
We absolutely were the better side against the world champions, we lost because we were unlucky not because of the manager

[belton rover]

Anyone who is seriously saying that we are barely any different to any other England team since ‘66 is, in my opinion, just looking to antagonise. Southgate has done something that no other England manager has since I started watching in the late ‘70s: brought a squad together, galvanised the team and produced the best tournament football I’ve ever seen. The only thing that came close to what we have now was France ‘98, where we never even made the quarter finals. In Italia ‘90 we were pretty awful and very lucky to get to the semis. Euro ‘90 we should have lost to Spain. The Erikson to Capello years were the worst of all.
What we have enjoyed at the last three tournaments is incomparable. Southgate has been the right man at the right time and deserves massive praise and respect.

However, there is a reason he is considering his position, and I don’t think it just down to that awful night at Wolves.
I said pre-tournament that I believed it should probably be his finale, and I think it may well be. Having said that, now he has gone on record to say he is considering his mext move, I will be happy with whatever he chooses next. If he genuinely thinks he has another tournament in him to go that one step further, then he has my full support. If he steps down, then boy has he set up something special for the next manager (Eddie Howe for me).
Either way, thank you Gareth Southgate.

[Chris Black come back]

No way Eddie Howe would take the job now. It’s either Potter if Chelsea sack him soon or Rodgers walking out on mid-table Leicester City.

[dickos1]

For me if he does leave it needs to be another Englishman, so that rules out Rodgers.
I think Howe could take it, his job is very precarious a few defeats there and he will be immediately under pressure.

[auckleyflyer]

Rodgers is northern Irish dickos? So good enough for me??

[wilts rover]

Eddie Howe has never played international football. He has never managed or played in European competition nor has he won anything of substance as a top flight manager.

What is it exactly from this CV that people feel qualifies him to manage England?

[phil old leake]

since when has being a great player been a prerequisite for being a great manager
Bobby Charlton No
Bobby Styles No
Gary Neville No
Paul Scholes No
Alan Shearer No
Edgar Davids No

Great Managers who never played or didn’t play top level
Carlos Alberto Parreira
Gerrard Houllier
Roy Hodgson
Avram Grant
Andre V Boas
Brian Kerr
Jose Mourhino
Arsenal Wenger
Rafa Benitez
Brendan Rodger’s

The argument about experience making quality is a non starter

[Chris Black come back]

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

[ravenrover]

Thete is a reason why more  English players don't play abroad

[pib]

If England were genuinely serious contenders for this World Cup, they should have breezed past USA. They didn’t. The warning signs were there.

In that case, you could also say if France were genuinely serious contenders for this world cup they should have breezed past England, they didn't.

Luck was on their side, along with the referee.

Same goes with Argentina. Lost to Saudi Arabia on the opening game, but a few performances that owed more to spirit than being a great team, plus a few refereeing decisions in their favour, they're now in the final.

[dickos1]

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I wouldn’t be so sure that Howe woukdnt take it. Whoever has the job next has an unbelievable chance to make history and win a few major tournaments.
The squad is good enough now for that

[ncRover]

If it won us a major tournament nobody would care where the manager was from.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Howe has an unbelievable chance to play fantasy football in the petro-dollar plaything of Arabian Royal families that the PL has become.

Why would he give that up to take a pay cut for the regular press-led shitting on his head that he'd get as England manager?

[Padge_DRFC]

Howe has an unbelievable chance to play fantasy football in the petro-dollar plaything of Arabian Royal families that the PL has become.

Why would he give that up to take a pay cut for the regular press-led shitting on his head that he'd get as England manager?

Pretty sure the England manager job is higher paid than everyone other than Klopp and Guardiola.

[tyke1962]

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I wouldn’t be so sure that Howe woukdnt take it. Whoever has the job next has an unbelievable chance to make history and win a few major tournaments.
The squad is good enough now for that

Well clearly it isn't is it or we'd be playing Morocco tonight and not the French .

[tyke1962]

Howe has an unbelievable chance to play fantasy football in the petro-dollar plaything of Arabian Royal families that the PL has become.

Why would he give that up to take a pay cut for the regular press-led shitting on his head that he'd get as England manager?

Never known an England manager get an easier ride than Southgate .

Compared to what Robson and Taylor had to put up with the jobs a breeze .

[dickos1]

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I don’t think the manager has to be English, but they probably have to have long experience playing, coaching or managing in the English game. Aside from Bellingham, every one of our squad plays in England. We are a uniquely domestically-orientated squad. One of the strengths of the current squad is a unity around a set of values and expectations, which an overseas manager not used to the English game might not know or appreciate. Rodgers is no different to Howe in this regard, or indeed Potter. He’d never do it and is gone way past best but someone like Wenger would have worked, spending so long in the English game, for instance.

I wouldn’t be so sure that Howe woukdnt take it. Whoever has the job next has an unbelievable chance to make history and win a few major tournaments.
The squad is good enough now for that

Well clearly it isn't is it or we'd be playing Morocco tonight and not the French .

Don’t be ridiculous
If only football was as simplistic as that,

[dickos1]

Howe has an unbelievable chance to play fantasy football in the petro-dollar plaything of Arabian Royal families that the PL has become.

Why would he give that up to take a pay cut for the regular press-led shitting on his head that he'd get as England manager?

Never known an England manager get an easier ride than Southgate .

Compared to what Robson and Taylor had to put up with the jobs a breeze .

That’s because he’s been doing a good job,
Italia 90 was robsons highlight and we crawled through that tournament struggling in every game.
Taylor was atrocious

[mushRTID]

This France side are not a great side.

So frustrating. They were there to be had.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This France side are not a great side.

So frustrating. They were there to be had.

They beat England because they have the best player in the tournament.

[EasyforDennis]

So who gave France the hardest game. England or Morocco?
If Morocco had taken their chances tonight the French would be in the 3rd/4th place game and not the final.