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World Cup 2018 Quarter Finals

I’m actually starting to believe we will win the World Cup now. The players seem far more relaxed than any other England team I can remember and they all seem to love playing for Southgate.

The only negative for me is Sterling. He’s always been a crap finisher for but fudge me how many chances does he need before he finally sticks one away? And how long should Southgate persist with him? He must have footage of Southgate or someone high up at the FA getting a golden shower. I just can’t see any footballing reasons for Gareth to keep picking him.

Everyone else has been either very good or superb. Trippier has been the best player for me. Henderson has been very good. I’m not a big fan of his in general but he’s more suited to this team than Dier who often gives the ball away in big games. You can’t have both him and Walker starting World Cup games with their tendency for brain farts.

Sterling needs about 5 to get 1 in
You don’t get that at this level even against Panama
 
I’m not defending him. I’m just highlighting that he plays different for city

I don't think he does, the two games against he missed a barrel load of chances as well. Without kdb and Silva laying it on a plate for him I think he would struggle to get double figures.
It's a pity as this is the best England TEAM and least clammy one I can remember. Would be awful if sterling blew it for Southgate who seems like a really good bloke.
 
I don't think he does, the two games against he missed a barrel load of chances as well. Without kdb and Silva laying it on a plate for him I think he would struggle to get double figures.
It's a pity as this is the best England TEAM and least clammy one I can remember. Would be awful if sterling blew it for Southgate who seems like a really good bloke.

He doesn’t play very different as you have highlighted as for England he doesn’t have that creator so has to play different

His pace stretches teams but but we may as well have a sprinter there for all he does with it
 
I think any England manager who has got a very average squad to the semi-finals of the WC is beyond criticism, tbh. He’s won every game he needed to. That’s the bottom line.

You, me and every other twunt on here would have selected a hundred different teams for every game so far. He’s had to do the actual selecting and he’s got it absolutely right every time. Results say that’s true.
Doing well despite carrying the passengers we are is an incredible achievement.

But the team has a very clear lack of creativity and open play goal threat - Henderson and Sterling are the entirety of that problem.
 
Doing well despite carrying the passengers we are is an incredible achievement.

But the team has a very clear lack of creativity and open play goal threat - Henderson and Sterling are the entirety of that problem.

As individuals it's quite a limited squad, but as a team Southgate has harnessed something. The spurs players and Henderson are used to being part of a squad ethos like that and it shows. Same as young, sterling and vardy are more about Charlie big gonads shows.
 
Just had a strange conversation with a Scot and Irish man in the pool (I’m on holiday)

Their words :

England haven’t played anyone and will cruise past Croatia ... then it’s anybody’s game

The premier league players help as they all know each other

The spurs players will let you down and their perennial losers

Be great to see England get to the final and lose as it means they have achieved nothing and they expected nothing

It’s the brick players that have performed

What a contrast in their comments
 
They really not brick players though are they

Only Pickford and Maguire haven’t played CL

Henderson just played the final

The spurs lads played in the best CL team to qualify from the groups

The United lads have been used sparingly all season

The city lads have set record after record in the league

The only people who don’t rate them as highly are the England fans and press IMO
 
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Really disappointing that hosts Russia have went out in the Quarter Finals. Thought they would make it to at least the semi final. Really enjoyed watching them and the home crowd could have lifted the semi finals if they had progressed. But Russia can be really proud of themselves for going down fighting unlike the shameful Uruguay and Sweden who went down tamely without any fight. Unfortunately for Russia, they were affected badly by 2 curses of bad luck : 1.the curse of the World Cup hosts : only 6 hosts have won the World Cup (Uruguay 1930, Italy 1934, England 1966, W.Germany 1974, Argentina 1978 and France 1998) and 2.the curse of the teams taking the penalties first : all the 4 teams(Spain, Colombia, Denmark and Russia) who have taken the penalties first in this World Cup have now lost !

Unfortunately for Russia, they took the penalties second against Spain and won but ended up taking first against Croatia and lost. Russia played well and deserved more to progress. Russia would have won this match if they had a decent defence and a better coach. Cheryshev scored a brilliant long range goal, easily one of the best goals of this World Cup, to put Russia ahead. Cheryshev has been one of the best players in this World Cup as he scored 4 goals and 3 of them were contenders for best goal of this tournament. After the goal by Cheryshev, thought Russia would go on to win but their poor defence conceded 2 soft goals after that. Russia did well to score their second goal though Fernandez 4 minus from end of extra time. But too bad Smolov and Fernandez missed their penalties that they should not have taken. It was really stupid of the coach to take out their best goal scorers Cheryshev, Dzyuba and Golovin earlier despite the match heading to penalties. All 3 of them would have taken the penalties and scored. Instead it was left to unreliable penalty takers who duly missed them. Russia should have appointed more experienced coach like Guus Hiddink who took Russia to Euro 2008 semi finals and South Korea to 2002 World Cup semi finals. I think Hiddink would have improved Russia greatly and taken them to the semi finals at least.

England did well to overcome their poor record against Sweden to progress to their first semi final since 1990. Well done to Alli for scoring the second goal. Only disappointing thing was Kane didn't score any goal. Thought Sweden will make England work hard but instead they played like school boys for most of the match and didn't look like scoring whole match. Find it hard to believe this is the same Sweden team that had beaten Italy in the play-offs and almost beat Germany and thrashed Mexico in the group stages. For all their football tradition, Sweden simply don't have the mentality to win major tournaments. England will be glad they are facing the lazy Croatia in the semi final instead of the hard working hosts Russia. Croatia might have world class players but they are never a good team. They have always been lazy, uninspiring and arrogant for the last 20 years or so. Won't want them anywhere near any Final. Too bad we won't see a England-Russia semi final which would have been "fun" due to politics and all.
 
When people talk about that 1966 side with Moore, Charlton etc. Is it just nostalgia or were they actually an excellent team?

I was just thinking if we were to win the world cup then I will be telling my kids when they are older about the time we won with Lingard, Sterling and Ashley Young... seems weird
 
Just had a strange conversation with a Scot and Irish man in the pool (I’m on holiday)

Their words :

England haven’t played anyone and will cruise past Croatia ... then it’s anybody’s game

The premier league players help as they all know each other

The spurs players will let you down and their perennial losers

Be great to see England get to the final and lose as it means they have achieved nothing and they expected nothing

It’s the brick players that have performed

What a contrast in their comments

Talk to people who understand football not a Scotsman or Irishman, they're not exactly used to tournament football.
 
Even now still plenty defending him.

He is an extremely talented player, has had an excellent season, and has the attributes to really make a difference at this level.

He has genuine pace, the ability to dribble and generally cause havoc - as well as offering goals.

For these reasons I think I can understand why Southgate has given him so much opportunity to find his form.

All that being said, he simply hasnt.

He has worked really hard, done a lot of running off the ball and made space - but he hasnt impacted games at all. Arguably, his complete lack of understanding with Kane (and those around him) has cost us.

For this reason, times up. He should now be a super sub. Get Rashford on, lets see what he has, and use Sterling late on if we need to against tiring legs.



Doing well despite carrying the passengers we are is an incredible achievement.

But the team has a very clear lack of creativity and open play goal threat - Henderson and Sterling are the entirety of that problem.

I point firmly at Young before those if we are looking to why we are numb in attack.

We can only effectively attack down the right side, because Young quite literally kills anything that goes up the left.

Delph came on yesterday, moved into similar areas and within a minute had provided genuine width, and an early ball that found Kane in the box.

Young managed one left footed cross all game, and it went to no one.

Otherwise, without fail, he will get the ball, stop, put foot on ball, feint left, turn right and come inside.... It takes about 5 seconds for him to do the EXACT SAME THING every single fudging time. And it never amounts to anything other than no width and the opposition getting set in their defensive shape.

I really believe if Hendersen had an outlet to the left he would look better (still limited, but better).

I really believe if we have Delph/Rose offering genuine width and a functional left foot out there, Sterling would be a lot better. He would have someone able to play him into the areas he thrives, as well as play off of when he gets marked.

Young is, IMHO, the biggest fudging problem this side has - and for the life of me I cannot understand Southgates thinking.

Young is serviceable in defence, its not like he is Maldini. And in attack he is a black hole, a negative, he offers NOTHING.

With Delph and especially Rose available, what the hell is he thinking?
 
It's probably for the best. I can't help thinking that Kane, Dele, Trippier and Dier being fed Novichok lasagne on Tuesday night might've hampered our pre-season.

The problem won't have been on the field but off the field. England fans, some of them anyway, are always the trouble makers wherever they go, win or lose.
 
When people talk about that 1966 side with Moore, Charlton etc. Is it just nostalgia or were they actually an excellent team?

I was just thinking if we were to win the world cup then I will be telling my kids when they are older about the time we won with Lingard, Sterling and Ashley Young... seems weird

They were an excellent team with several exceptional players in the side. Ramsey came up with functional system which stopped teams playing against them, there were better individuals left out of the team and squad but they did the job and totally changed football forever.
 
Just had a strange conversation with a Scot and Irish man in the pool (I’m on holiday)

Their words :

England haven’t played anyone and will cruise past Croatia ... then it’s anybody’s game

The premier league players help as they all know each other

The spurs players will let you down and their perennial losers

Be great to see England get to the final and lose as it means they have achieved nothing and they expected nothing

It’s the brick players that have performed

What a contrast in their comments

I think you need filter anything there in the same way you with a gooner or hammer talking about spurs.
England have had a fairly easy route, nothing England can about that, its a cup comp and you can only beat what's in front of you.
Don't think Croatia will be easy but would expect England to get through.
Don't get the PL point at all.
Spurs letting England down is obviously a wind up.
Losing in the final is just an opportunity for to haters to gloat.
I haven't seen all England's games, missed yesterday and Belgium matches, but the best players have been trips, Maguire and pickford and I don't see any of them as the worst in their positions for England so anyone calling them brick doesn't watch them very often.
Personally I think England are favourites now and i'm ok with them winning it.
 
They were an excellent team with several exceptional players in the side. Ramsey came up with functional system which stopped teams playing against them, there were better individuals left out of the team and squad but they did the job and totally changed football forever.
Yeah, they were known as Ramsey's wingless wonders. The memory fades but like you say Ramsey generally favoured grafters such as Roger Hunt, Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles over more gifted players like George Eastham which meant they were often boring to watch but knew how to get results. But Gordon Banks, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore would surely have been world class in any era.
 
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