Good luck England!

And you were watching Vanessa because.....?
Working from home....landlady got the morning off & had itv on tv...Feltz slot happened to be on screen when I was having a tea n ciggy break ........ thats my excuse n im sticking to it :cool:
 
not a chance mate. England finally played a decent team and fell apart.

Sweden beat France in one of their qualifying games for the world cup finals, they finished above the netherlands in the same group, they beat Italy in the playoff for qualification and finished above Germany in the WC group. However according to you they are not a decent team. If an England supporter had said that they would be accused of being arrogant!
 
Sweden beat France in one of their qualifying games for the world cup finals, they finished above the netherlands in the same group, they beat Italy in the playoff for qualification and finished above Germany in the WC group. However according to you they are not a decent team. If an England supporter had said that they would be accused of being arrogant!
goes to show how terrible those teams were apart from France. England will never be so close to hop grail again.
 
goes to show how terrible those teams were apart from France. England will never be so close to hop grail again.
So you feel France are good then. Well Sweden beat France and lost the 2nd game in a narrow encounter. Sweden are pretty good then. You also feel Croatia are good too, we only lost by one goal in extra time to them.
 
I think the legacy of this tournament's performance will only be decided when we see if this is the start of a team setup that can continue to challenge, or a one-off.

On the one hand it's hard to make a technical case that this is an excellent team based on narrow victories over Tunisia and Colombia, comfortable beatings of Sweden and Panama, and losses against Belgium and Croatia. The team was competent, well drilled rather than excellent, and in a tournament where the draw favoured England, that was enough to take them to the semi-final.

On the other hand, competent is a big step up from a lot of what we've seen in past tournaments, and ultimately you get trophies for winning games, not playing exciting football. There's no overlooking the fact they've achieved what England's only achieved twice before and what (checks wikipedia) 207 other countries would have loved to have taken off their hands.

I can easily see a situation where England in the semis of this World Cup becomes a "remember when" in the way that Wales getting to the last four of Euro 16 must already be for them. But I can also see it being the start of something bigger, and wiping out the negativity around the England team could be a big part of that. I think tomorrow's game could actually be a bit of an indicator - get pasted by the Belgians and it'll rub in the hard facts of what they've achieved. Get a win and it'll start the firing gun to roar into a strong 2020 Euros campaign.
 
Trouble is that now we have had a good tournament with the squad, the expectation will return among supporters to the extent that the pressure on them will rise and the shirt becomes heavier to wear again.
Their passage through this tournament was easier because there was no real expectation beyond the group stage - they won't get it that easy again.!

As for tomorrow - I would like to see Butland and Pope play some part (as the only players who have not taken part so far), and anyone with the slightest knock or carrying an injury (or just plain knackered) left out (eg Trippier, Walker, henderson, Alli, Kane) so that he doesnt risk peeing off any club managers by bringing back players whose conditions have been made worse by playing a relatively meaningless game.

Butland // TAA Cahill Stones McGuire Rose // Dier, RLC, Sterling // Vardy Rashford - with Pope & Welbeck off the bench at some stage & Kane ready to come on if Lukaku is close to threatening his golden boot.
 
I think the legacy of this tournament's performance will only be decided when we see if this is the start of a team setup that can continue to challenge, or a one-off.

On the one hand it's hard to make a technical case that this is an excellent team based on narrow victories over Tunisia and Colombia, comfortable beatings of Sweden and Panama, and losses against Belgium and Croatia. The team was competent, well drilled rather than excellent, and in a tournament where the draw favoured England, that was enough to take them to the semi-final.

On the other hand, competent is a big step up from a lot of what we've seen in past tournaments, and ultimately you get trophies for winning games, not playing exciting football. There's no overlooking the fact they've achieved what England's only achieved twice before and what (checks wikipedia) 207 other countries would have loved to have taken off their hands.

I can easily see a situation where England in the semis of this World Cup becomes a "remember when" in the way that Wales getting to the last four of Euro 16 must already be for them. But I can also see it being the start of something bigger, and wiping out the negativity around the England team could be a big part of that. I think tomorrow's game could actually be a bit of an indicator - get pasted by the Belgians and it'll rub in the hard facts of what they've achieved. Get a win and it'll start the firing gun to roar into a strong 2020 Euros campaign.

A lot will depend on how the younger players in the squad kick on and if those from the younger age groups push on at their clubs and push their way into the squad imo.
 
The frustration for me is that there's a lot of things that have to come together to have a good World Cup campaign. You've got to have a balanced, talented squad and an able manager, sure, but those players have also got to be fit, in form, confident and poised. And probably you need the occasional bounce of the ball to go your way as well.

I know there's a real feeling of 'this is just a start' with this young England squad - but there's no guarantees that the stars will align in the same way again in 4 or 8 years from now. Germany, Brazil & Spain all had talented, well coached squads on paper in 2018 but for one reason or another they didn't step up this year. Same thing could happen in 2022 and beyond to England, as it has at so many tournaments in the last 20 years.

Which is why I'm still a little sad and frustrated that we didn't take the opportunity that presented itself on Wednesday. At halftime, we had the lead and we had been the better team. But for whatever reason (nerves, conditioning, tactical missteps) we lost that momentum and were well beaten by the end.
Not saying we would have beaten France - they're the most complete team in the tournament for me - but in a one-off game, who knows?

Everything lined up in our favour in 2018, and we did well. But I want to see England in a World Cup final in my lifetime and who knows when a chance as big as this will present itself again.......
 
if England were not/are not very good or as poor as other teams what difference did the draw make
just a thought
as i've said elsewhere the only difference with us and Croatia was they had a poacher who reacted quickest to a mis placed header but one of his teammates whilst our best striker missed a 1 on 1 with their keeper and hit the post with the follow up.
we could have been 2 or 3 up and where they failed to keep the ball first half we did the same 2nd half
 
Proud of England and their young players. I believe the draw and lack of world class sides favoured England but we were not as fit as #CRO. The semi-finals is a proud achievement but we have missed a massive chance in Russia.

Now for some proper Football @ Marsh Lane tomorrow @ 1230.
 
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