Kane is gonna get extremely wet boots when he tries drinking fake bubbly outta that fecker!
The UEFA Nations League trophy looks rather cool, I think.
England vs USA & Croatia | Its coming home
- Thread starter Sean_RedDevil
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
This England team is really entertaing to watch and it's interesting that Rashford looks better in it than he does in United's, but Sterling doesn't look as good in it as he does for City. Huge credit to Southgate for how he has molded this team into the modern day way of playing, and the players showed good resilience to mount a comeback as I felt they looked deflated after Croatia scored goiven we should have been 2 or 3 up by half time.
It is a bit weird. 'Oh I despise England, but god do I love this English club with a strong history of an English core!'
I don't expect them to support England, but the outright dislike of our NT is just weird, to the point where they feel the need to play down anything good it might achieve.
When you go to check what time England is on
well done England! I celebrated that winning goal as though it was the world cup!
Which ones?
A joke I hope?
Wait a minute - that's just 3 Europa League trophies inside each other.
The UEFA Nations League trophy looks rather cool, I think.
The outlier being his performance vs Spain which was really impressive.
Honestly though, like I said in his thread I don't think Sterling is a truly elite player, despite putting up quality numbers. He plays in a world class City side where the system maximises his output.
That said, I think a team with Sterling & Sancho could be interesting.
We have some excellent prospects coming up (we've been winning a lot of the U euros and World cups) plus several of our big players will be hitting their prime in the next 2-4 years. For the first time in a while I'm excited as an England supporter!
Which means we're just setting ourselves up for a massive bottle job over the next decade. But at least there's hope, unlike the past few years.
Great game by England! We should have been out of sight by half time. We need to improve our finishing, but Croatia is a tough team to break down. It was nice because I felt like we we're dominant.
Could have topped the group handily had we capitalized on our good display in Croatia.
Encouraging stuff.
And
at the "United" supporter slating Rashford. He was one of England's best players and as United supporters we should be encouraged by that performance!
I thought Delph was great and I can't begrudge Kane MOTM because he scored the winner (brilliant reflexes) and he got an assist.
Could have topped the group handily had we capitalized on our good display in Croatia.
Encouraging stuff.
And
at the "United" supporter slating Rashford. He was one of England's best players and as United supporters we should be encouraged by that performance! I thought Delph was great and I can't begrudge Kane MOTM because he scored the winner (brilliant reflexes) and he got an assist.
Yep.
The likes of Wan-Bissaka, TAA, Gomez, Chiswell, Cook, Gibbs-White, Foden, Sancho, Sessegnon, Lookman, Rashford and Nelson are already doing well in the senior game. And then there's the potetial of Greenwood, Hudson-Odoi, Gomes, and numerous others.
The next crop of England players is super talented - at least on par with Belgium's current generation in terms of potential, and arguably with a higher ceiling (because of the number of options in defence). We'd just need one Ballon d'Or level player to be a serious threat, and there are several possibilities if they all fulfil their potential. Big 'if', though.
There's a bright future ahead for England. Just keep Southgate
England are making up for watching United - they look like a modern day side - not fully complete just yet but there’s been massive strides forward. Midfield coaching is still shaky and selections haven’t quite been on the ball but I feel we should have more and more brainier players coming through and improving this side even further.
A joke I hope?
It does seem unlikely that such a small country could continue to produce so many quality players. Same with Belgium. Both sides haven't been doing much at youth international level recently.
Well end will surely be at Euros, not now.
As for younguns, today we played Vlašić and Brekalo, very good prospects both, and many more coming through. We never did anything in youth competitions anyway.
Of course in some positions we lack new players, like striker positions and I don't see someone coming in for Luka and Rakitić now but who knows.
Midfield is an problem area for us but I'm confident that Southgate realises this, possibly why he included the likes of Mount and Maddison in the previous squad.
Lewis Cook or Declan Rice could do with a shot as well assuming the latter declares for England.
Well end will surely be at Euros, not now.
As for younguns, today we played Vlašić and Brekalo, very good prospects both, and many more coming through. We never did anything in youth competitions anyway.
Of course in some positions we lack new players, like striker positions and I don't see someone coming in for Luka and Rakitić now but who knows.
I guess Uruguay manage to always be competitive too.
The midfield is a problem but the DLP position really sticks out. There's possibly Rice if he switches and Jimmy Garner but not much else from what I see. We tend to have all these box to box type midfield players.
Pickford doesn't inspire confidence. I think Henderson (he was brilliant against Italy u21 the other day) and Ashby-Hammond are the best GK prospects. It will be interesting to see if Nick Pope can come back and show some good form again.
I think Southgate may leave Lewis Cook with the U21s for now, but after the summer we may see more of him.
I don't get it
Sorry I was quoting a reply back to you but then went off to do something else and forgot about it when I posted something else.
I was going to say it wasn't me saying Germany were a major threat to win next euros but one of the Portugal posters so talk to them.
Rice is more a defensive shield so if he declares for England he could be a potential Dier/henderson replacement.
I do think many of the pundits seem to confuse the DLP position with number 10. To me England have more options for that position than a deep lying playmaker which still isn't a role English football focuses on compared to other nations (Modric, Pirlo, Xavi etc).
Jack Wilshere had potential to be that player but injuries killed that. I've always felt Shelvey could've stepped up for that role if he showed more on field discipline. Foden seems to have some of those characteristics but obviously still far too early and he needs to be playing regularly which won't happen anytime soon.
All three of those players were #10s growing up. They only transitioned into DLP in their twenties. I don't think it's fair to criticise English football for something that Croatian, Spanish and Italian football also got wrong and only corrected by accident. Indeed, it was actually English football that fixed it for Modric.
Was Xavi really a number 10 when he broke through? I thought he was seen as Guardiola's heir. Fair point on Pirlo although he did go deeper when he moved to Milan, think he was still only 23 at that point. Spurs actually played Modric wide left in his first season here.
Guess the comparison for English football would be Paul Scholes although of course he'd retired from England when he started playing CM for Man. United.
Is that Grant Mitchell? Thought he was brown bread.
you thought he was what?
He’s been having a go on Phil’s crack pipe.
Brown bread. Dead.
Don't be offended now, but this is that underestimation for which we from "smaller" countries label English football fans, journos and pundits as cocky.
We have some young(is) players who have more talent than most of English players. But they don't play in PL so you don't rate them much.
It’s not cocky to acknowledge that a country of 5m lacks the fundamental raw ingredient to produce lots of great players i.e. lots of people.
Just seems like another imagined grievance.
Claiming countries with a smaller populations have a smaller talent pool. Really cocky.
To be fair though, Croatia have qualified for the U21 Euros next summer for the first time in a long time so they may have a new generation coming through.
Was at Wembley for the game and must say that was really fun. First half we were playing really well apart from the final phase where we need to fashion better chances (Barkley wasn’t demanding the ball enough IMO).
Interesting that most people in this thread seem to think Sterling had a bad game; in the stadium most people thought he was playing really well.
The Croatia goal was a bit of a sucker punch cos I though England were still playing well. After the goal the game became a lot more 50:50 until the suns for Alli, Lingard and Dancho (?).
Overall: England need someone to demand the ball in midfield and make use of all the possession they’re getting. I thought Barkley might do that today but it didn’t work out for him. Croatia fans were amazing too - singing pretty much the whole game.
Interesting that most people in this thread seem to think Sterling had a bad game; in the stadium most people thought he was playing really well.
The Croatia goal was a bit of a sucker punch cos I though England were still playing well. After the goal the game became a lot more 50:50 until the suns for Alli, Lingard and Dancho (?).
Overall: England need someone to demand the ball in midfield and make use of all the possession they’re getting. I thought Barkley might do that today but it didn’t work out for him. Croatia fans were amazing too - singing pretty much the whole game.
England also have some highly talented youngsters who have proven it at the youth levels, so that's a bold claim to make.
I think the poster was alluding to the impending retirement of Modric and later Rakitic, two class players who would be hard to replace for any national team, even Brazil or Germany. The difference is that Croatia has a smaller population than the traditional football giants so it may take longer to find these gems again than countries with populations of 60M+ (statistically).
Not in my part of the stadium, tbf. Not aggressively (and nowhere near as bad as I’ve heard at England games of yore!) but let’s just say Rashfords substitution instead of him was not a very popular decision.
But then again, it’s hard to talk for an entire stadium. Especially in the heat of a game (which is often as erratic as a Caf match day thread)
That said, it was one of the most positive atmospheres I’ve seen there in a long, long time. The idea of 70k+ staying until the final whistle alone is novel enough at Wembley, let alone staying for a full, plastic flag waving post match rendition of Three Lions.
I’m having a fair bit of trouble processing enjoying England games and suffering through United ones. I’ve been conditioned so heavily for the opposite.
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Not sure how stating a fact can be deemed as cocky but in 2018 everything England fans have said has been deemed as arrogant for some reason.
Croatia are a small nation so it makes sense they have a smaller talent pool to pick from. That's not a slight on you, it makes it all the more remarkable you had such a fantastic World Cup if anything.
Cocky