| England v Andorra 16:12 - Sep 5 with 7691 views | TGRRRSSS |
Obviously a general case of how many and how quickly England get ahead, I always find a certain fascination with the games with Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino etc.
Mainly wondering what standard is relative to them in terms of whether any of there players would be able to play League football in England, or National league etc.
6-0 to England wholesale changes seemingly. |  | | |  |
| England v Andorra on 13:39 - Sep 6 with 1259 views | gazza1 |
| England v Andorra on 11:27 - Sep 6 by daveB |
Considering we hadn't won a knockout game in 12 years before that World Cup I thought they did pretty well to make the semi final. Perhaps should have beaten Croatia although for me they were a good side but overall he did very well. |
Done pretty well!!! My expectations are much higher than that.
Look at the results.....
Extra time 90th minute winner against the 'mighty' Tunisia, a 6 goal feast v Panama who even lost to Tunisia, a defeat against Belgium, could not beat Columbia in 90 minutes!!! and it goes on. We only beat poor teams and some with great difficulty.
The thing I would say is that the players that were selected were not as good as the squad we have now but we still should have done so much better. ....Final was minimum. |  | | |
| England v Andorra on 13:47 - Sep 6 with 1245 views | daveB |
| England v Andorra on 13:39 - Sep 6 by gazza1 |
Done pretty well!!! My expectations are much higher than that.
Look at the results.....
Extra time 90th minute winner against the 'mighty' Tunisia, a 6 goal feast v Panama who even lost to Tunisia, a defeat against Belgium, could not beat Columbia in 90 minutes!!! and it goes on. We only beat poor teams and some with great difficulty.
The thing I would say is that the players that were selected were not as good as the squad we have now but we still should have done so much better. ....Final was minimum. |
Of course we got lucky with the draw but we've lost to worse teams than Columbia and Sweden at tournaments before and the draw was partly due to us qualfying with a game to spare (Never normally happens) so we knew the path to the final and basically threw the Belgium game to get that half of the draw.
As I say to get a team with a midfield of Henderson, Lingaard, Ali and Eric Dier to a World Cup Semi final was pretty impressive. Fair play if you expected more, I'm not sure why reaching a final in 2018 would have been anyone's expectation to be honest especially after the debacle of the previous 2 tournaments |  | | |
| England v Andorra on 14:01 - Sep 6 with 1221 views | sprocket |
WC semi finalists then Euro finalists. England need to shi t fairly soon or get off the pot. Looking at International football it would seem to me that it's lost the battle/war with club football and its general interest has waned. How easy has it become for England to qualify for major tournaments?
Would fancy England to go close in Qatar but always likely to come up against another Italy. | | | |
| England v Andorra on 16:40 - Sep 6 with 1143 views | Juzzie |
I've seen many discussions like this on social media and It feels many people across the country won't be happy until we win the World Cup blowing away all & sundry (including against Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Spain, Italy & Germany) with exciting, dazzling, Harlem Globetrotter-esque football in every game from the first qualifier to the final.
Of course, I'd love to see that too but it's not going to happen.
Yes, we do have a superb talent at our disposal, best in decades, but to think they just need to run on the pitch and be allowed to do their own thing is not viable. They'd get slaughtered.
If Southgate isn't the person to do this, who is? Guadiola? Klopp? Thomas Frank?.....
A Euro or World cup is a blend of league and cup football. I'd imagine the group stages are all about topping the group. a 0-0 with Scotland did not stop us from doing that so what's the problem? Every game is a risk with players but I bet if we'd played Grealish etc. from the start and they got injured people would be claiming they should not have been risked in a game we didn't need to win. Had we lost or drawn with Croatia then we'd probably have to have gone for it. However, we didn't so we didn't need to. Conserve.
Easy to be armchair manager, try doing it on an International stage with a top 5 country. The demands, pressures etc are huge. Only one Manager, out of 24, in the summer got it right. Mancini. |  | | |
| England v Andorra on 17:51 - Sep 6 with 1093 views | BlackCrowe |
| England v Andorra on 16:40 - Sep 6 by Juzzie |
I've seen many discussions like this on social media and It feels many people across the country won't be happy until we win the World Cup blowing away all & sundry (including against Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Spain, Italy & Germany) with exciting, dazzling, Harlem Globetrotter-esque football in every game from the first qualifier to the final.
Of course, I'd love to see that too but it's not going to happen.
Yes, we do have a superb talent at our disposal, best in decades, but to think they just need to run on the pitch and be allowed to do their own thing is not viable. They'd get slaughtered.
If Southgate isn't the person to do this, who is? Guadiola? Klopp? Thomas Frank?.....
A Euro or World cup is a blend of league and cup football. I'd imagine the group stages are all about topping the group. a 0-0 with Scotland did not stop us from doing that so what's the problem? Every game is a risk with players but I bet if we'd played Grealish etc. from the start and they got injured people would be claiming they should not have been risked in a game we didn't need to win. Had we lost or drawn with Croatia then we'd probably have to have gone for it. However, we didn't so we didn't need to. Conserve.
Easy to be armchair manager, try doing it on an International stage with a top 5 country. The demands, pressures etc are huge. Only one Manager, out of 24, in the summer got it right. Mancini. |
It is easy to be an armchair manager and i can't think of any alternative to Southgate, which is why i don't really watch England on TV except on the big big occasions. Haven't done for years really...boring football that ultimately disappoints...it pre-dates Southgate. |  |
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| England v Andorra on 20:05 - Sep 6 with 975 views | traininvain |
I do find it a bit strange that many England fans spent years moaning about not going deep enough into tournaments and now we’re doing that (granted without winning one but getting closer) it’s the manager and style of play that’s a problem.
For what it’s worth I don’t think the football we play under Southgate is half as boring as some have suggested. Yes it’s about controlling games with two more defensively minded midfielders and we generally look a lot more attacking in the second half once the other team tires. But we’re not talking Wimbledon 1980/90’s hoof ball here.
I’m happy with the direction we’re heading and some of the moments over the past two tournaments have been the best I can remember following England. Long may it continue! |  | | |
| England v Andorra on 21:18 - Sep 6 with 916 views | KernowRanger |
| England v Andorra on 13:47 - Sep 6 by daveB |
Of course we got lucky with the draw but we've lost to worse teams than Columbia and Sweden at tournaments before and the draw was partly due to us qualfying with a game to spare (Never normally happens) so we knew the path to the final and basically threw the Belgium game to get that half of the draw.
As I say to get a team with a midfield of Henderson, Lingaard, Ali and Eric Dier to a World Cup Semi final was pretty impressive. Fair play if you expected more, I'm not sure why reaching a final in 2018 would have been anyone's expectation to be honest especially after the debacle of the previous 2 tournaments |
Always thought that 'easier side of the draw' argument from the last World Cup was based on historic performances of those teams & didn't end up being the case in reality- were Colombia an easier opponent than Japan? A solid, well drilled Sweden side that much worse than what was a pretty dire, uninspired Brazil side? None of Argentina, Uruguay or Portugal on that side of the draw looked particularly good either - certainly no more so than Spain, Russia, Croatia who we could have ended up with I'd say.
England finished probably about where they should have done in that World Cup - not as good as France or Belgium, probably a little bit below a very talented Croatia team and better than the rest - and have improved again this summer to go beyond those three (as did Italy annoyingly!) to be one of the two best sides in the tournament (with not much
at all between us & Italy) and Southgate deserves far more credit for making that progress IMO than he's given. |  | | |
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