England Discussion | Finish 4th

Getting ahead of myself here, but if England did find their way to the final, why does my brain somehow perceive France and Belgium as tougher than Brazil?
 
It's coming home lads. Lindelof is a great talent but right now he's a poor match for Kane who can bully him, that'll be crucial.
 
I think Sweden are firm favourites what with their style of play and England's struggles to score from open play, I'm sure they know that. So the narrative of them being the underdogs is laughable.

Literally mind boggling statement. Utter nonesensical.

It will be certainly be a tough game and Sweden can obviously win. But how can anyone suggest they would be favourites!?

A combined 11 of the two sides would likely have 11 English players in it.
 
After the debacle of the last two world cups, this has been a breath of fresh air (& I've been disappointed by England since 1973 - the "clown"), long may it continue!

It's coming home.
 
First of all,this will be a very hard game. Probably the most difficult to predict of all 1/4 finals. It is a very even match up. Who are you guys kidding that you think you have a world cup winning squad. I am struggling to recognize the defenders on the England team And I know EPL well

Your best chance of winning is if Lingard is not too wasteful or Rashford has some good runs on the left. The only good player on the English squad is Kane and he may get some lucky bounces to pu away.

Even if somehow you beat Sweden,which you will not, you will have to deal with Croatia in the Semi and France/Belgium in the final. You have been playing some joke teams this wc. C'mon.
 
First of all,this will be a very hard game. Probably the most difficult to predict of all 1/4 finals. It is a very even match up. Who are you guys kidding that you think you have a world cup winning squad. I am struggling to recognize the defenders on the England team And I know EPL well

Your best chance of winning is if Lingard is not too wasteful or Rashford has some good runs on the left. The only good player on the English squad is Kane and he may get some lucky bounces to pu away.

Even if somehow you beat Sweden,which you will not, you will have to deal with Croatia in the Semi and France/Belgium in the final. You have been playing some joke teams this wc. C'mon.
Extremely poor attempt at a wind-up. We eat people like you for breakfast. :boring:
 
Extremely poor attempt at a wind-up. We eat people like you for breakfast. :boring:

Bit of a wind up but still some fair points

I like Kane, for instance but ffs, to be called one of the players of the tournament (he might really be, yet) when he scored 3 penalties and a goal he knew feck all about is being a bit generous. As usual, there’s a tendency to focus on the extremes. Unfashionable as it would seem, pre-WC, Lukaku has been far more impressive in his general play but jeez, he knows how to put a penalty away. Ice cool.
 
Getting ahead of myself here, but if England did find their way to the final, why does my brain somehow perceive France and Belgium as tougher than Brazil?

Because we played played Brazil in a friendly and they created next to nothing. Like the match last night the strong physical PL players handled their small technical player's trying to play through them relatively easily. We also played France in a friendly and they are the team that had the most success against Southgate's system. They beat 3-2 and their roadrunners were tearing us a new backside at times. In Hazard et al, Belgium also have the players to really cause Southgate's system problems, in my opinion.
 
0-0 after 120 minutes and then penalties. 3-2 Sweden, as Henderson again blasts his over the bar.
 
First of all,this will be a very hard game. Probably the most difficult to predict of all 1/4 finals. It is a very even match up. Who are you guys kidding that you think you have a world cup winning squad. I am struggling to recognize the defenders on the England team And I know EPL well

Your best chance of winning is if Lingard is not too wasteful or Rashford has some good runs on the left. The only good player on the English squad is Kane and he may get some lucky bounces to pu away.

Even if somehow you beat Sweden,which you will not, you will have to deal with Croatia in the Semi and France/Belgium in the final. You have been playing some joke teams this wc. C'mon.

:lol: Gotta add some more nuance to be a successful WUM!

I agree that England winning the cup is still a long shot. But they do have a very good chance of reaching a semi final where they will play a team at around their own level. And if you get to a final everything can happen, but the winner of France vs Belgium will obviously go into that match as favourites.
 
:lol: Gotta add some more nuance to be a successful WUM!

I agree that England winning the cup is still a long shot. But they do have a very good chance of reaching a semi final where they will play a team at around their own level. And if you get to a final everything can happen, but the winner of France vs Belgium will obviously go into that match as favourites.


Nft
 
Can't wait to see Forsberg, he's so good. As much as I know 4 players of the first team of Sweden are Manchester United fans, interesting huh?
 
I can see this being a dour affair with Sweden sitting back and playing on the break. England simply don’t have the guile or craft in midfield to break them down.
 
First of all,this will be a very hard game. Probably the most difficult to predict of all 1/4 finals. It is a very even match up. Who are you guys kidding that you think you have a world cup winning squad. I am struggling to recognize the defenders on the England team And I know EPL well

Your best chance of winning is if Lingard is not too wasteful or Rashford has some good runs on the left. The only good player on the English squad is Kane and he may get some lucky bounces to pu away.

Even if somehow you beat Sweden,which you will not, you will have to deal with Croatia in the Semi and France/Belgium in the final. You have been playing some joke teams this wc. C'mon.

Yes, Manchester City's John Stones and Kyle Walker are extremely obscure players. Maguire has never been mentioned as a talented defender, and definitely does not play for a decent Leicester City side.

Nobody in England, I repeat nobody, thinks that we have what you would call a world cup winning squad. Even the most optimistic, drunken fan is only singing 'It's coming home' because it's a catchy tune and he's having a laugh. Speak to most English people seriously about our squad and the best you'll probably get is that it's a young team with decent potential.

You also seem to have confused 'good' for 'world class'. Kane is definitely our only player who can claim to be in that category, but we have a number of clearly good/very good players, playing for the top clubs in their respective leagues and managing to impress. Just because they're English doesn't mean they immediately have to be overrated.
 
I'm hopeful as long as we don't see Henderson and Dier together.

Lucky Allardyce got the chop... apparently he would have been starting Henderson and Dier in midfield from the beginning :nervous:.

We struggle enough with creativity at it is... with those two starting we'd have to get really, really good at penalty shootouts.
 
If Sweden just sit back and allow England to play there is enough pace and moment in the England side to cause them problems. England need to come out the blocks fast before they settle and hopefully get an early lead. If not it could be a long afternoon...
 
Lucky Allardyce got the chop... apparently he would have been starting Henderson and Dier in midfield from the beginning :nervous:.

We struggle enough with creativity at it is... with those two starting we'd have to get really, really good at penalty shootouts.

My worry was that we saw it from Southgate too in most of the qualifiers but glad he ditched it. Feel we have so much more drive when a player like Loftus-Cheek is playing but Lingard and Alli are doing alright too.

Personally would love Loftus-Cheek to start, excellent player.
 
What's the story with BBC having Klinsmann in the studio for all of the quarter finals? He's so bloody annoying to listen to.

Drogba, Lampard and Alex Scott were all much better but seem to have been relegated.