I'm very disappointed with this group so far. It seems like they are very inconsistent. I still think they can win this group, but I won't be surprised if they lost their remaining games. Pretty much have to win out now.
Compare the careers of our players and the Saudi players in 10 years time and you will wonder how on earth we could lose to them.
We can all agree I think that it hasn't looked very promising for this year group for much of the time. Looking at the squad before the game didn't inspire any confidence. The striking options seem very weak. A number of the defenders seem suspect. Searching for optimism. I would say, it's still early days yet, some likely lads were missing, dead wood will be identified and cut out, and others will emerge and be included in the future. A few months into next season when more experience of u18 standard football kicks in, the dust will settle as to whether this group is up to it or not.
There are still a good amount of talented players that come to mind (my mind anyway): Willock (not playing ATM), Edwards, Wakefield, Dandha, Hinds (not playing ATM).
And I forgot Jay Dasilva. Any word on today's game against S Korea yet? I see they drew 0-0 with Portugal the other day.
As it stands: Portugal 4 pts Saudi Arabia 3 pts South Korea 2 pts England 1 pt We could still possibly top the group, but it would take a miracle. We would need to win 2-0 against Portugal, which is not that improbable for our players, but it is based on their form right now. Plus S.A. and S.K. will have to tie 0-0 for all of that to happen. It will be hard for them to tie because both teams pretty much have to win. In the other group, France shockingly lost to Canada 0-1 and then drew with Ivory Coast, which I would consider a slight pick me up for them. They are in last place as well. Ivory Coast is on top of the group with 4 points. Turkey and Canada both have 3 points, but Turkey in 2nd place because of goal difference. France are in last place, but cannot top the group because if Ivory Coast and Canada draw then I.C. will have 5 points and if they lose then Canada will come out with 6 points. Tough luck to not do well at your tournament. England are very lucky to be in the position they are in. We will see if they can take advantage of it.
We should be comfortably beating Saudi Arabia and South Korea and then battling it out with Portugal in the final game for top spot. This is so poor.
If Canada and Saudi Arabia win then they will be in the final. Great for them, but that game will not be one for the neutral. Pretty pathetic. This tournament this year was almost tailor made for England and France to play in the final.
yeah even though etc they are missing Edwards, Hinds, Willock etc they should have enough talent there to do better
Strangely, Bayern Munich are supposedly interested in Easah Suliman. When I've seen him he looked poor. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...r-old-Aston-Villa-defender-Easah-Suliman.html
South Korea beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 which puts them atop the group and will play Ivory Coast in the championship game. England, despite all of our poor play, finished second, and will play France in the 3rd place game. That will be an interesting one. If we beat them then I think this will be an accomplished tournament. You can't say we played poorly overall if we beat the likes of Portugal and France. However if someone told us that prior to the tournament then you would assume we would have won it. EDIT: Never mind. Portugal still has a +1 goal difference and we have a -1. That means we will play Turkey in the 5th place game. Well unless head to head matters then we would be in the 3rd place game. So England and Turkey rematch from last year in a much lower rated game.