2018 FIFA World Cup thread

There was an interesting Twitter thread with video clips about this - click through from this one:

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You can't fault him on his athleticism or attitude, and technically I think he's decent, but his major flaw continues to be a chronic lack of vision and awareness.

I've been thinking the same - Liverpool are clearly thinking they can do better, and if they sign well, of course they can. Can't rule him out clinging on with England while he's reduced to a rotation player at Liverpool, but hopefully it would be mean that he'd only go to Euro 2020 as a squad member for specific tasks, and not someone we were relying on to perform a fundamental ball-playing role.

As an aside, anyone have any thoughts about who might be the next generation's Henderson who gets on people nerves by being a moderately talented workhorse who just can't get stop getting selected? There's always at least one. Some Cook non-believers here, I think? Or maybe Davies is the more likely bet?

 

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I love how we've signed Fabinho and I can only imagine that infuriated Henderson when he got the news.

 

Cook and Davies have better awareness and vision than Henderson. It's hard to pick that out for now, but we always seem to find one player that is always like Henderson even though we're branching out of that with our new generation coming soon.

 

Yeah, they definitely have a better and more attack minded vision than Henderson but then again it's not that hard, lol.
I'm not completely sold on Davies though, just not sure what he does, I know he's still young enough to keep developing but just not sure about him just yet. Cook, I don't mind and think he will keep improving and at least against weaker opposition he drives forward from deep lying positions carrying the ball and committing opposing players to create space unlike Henderson who just doesn't have that in his locker imo.

 

Good thread that and the examples are really spot on and shows his basic football ability and lack of awareness which at this level is really very poor. I just wonder what do the Coaches teach him on the training pitch?!? @sharpovic will love that thread

 

Don't think Cook or Davies are great players but I feel they're a lot better technically than Henderson. He litterally cannot run with the ball which is quite unique at this level.

 

Crouch would still cause problems with his height

 

Especially for England, because everyone would start playing hoofball.

 

I find it a bit weird how people think Fabinho is a huge upgrade on Henderson. He's got a very similar skill set but is probably even more cautious in possession.

Henderson is fine. Obviously we always want to strive for better, but I think people are just bored of him rather than him being bad. He was brilliant in Liverpool's CL run but its not exciting to point out.

 

Liverpool have a very specific way of playing though. I don't think we have a squad built to press like maniacs at all, much less in a summer tournament.

 

I don't know enough about Fabinho to say if he's a significant upgrade, but I doubt that Liverpool would be spending close to £50m on a defensive midfielder if they anticipated that Henderson would be first-choice in that position next season.

For what it's worth, I've found Henderson frustrating since the under-21s so I'm not sure there was really time to get "bored". Specifically, I can remember Pearce picking him in central midfield with Mancienne in 2011, and Henderson continually dropping back to take the ball off the centre-backs' toes, seemingly lacking the intelligence to realise that a) Jones and Smalling could manage a 15-yard pass, and b) Mancienne wasn't going to be able to provide the link to attack that Henderson could. He wasn't the only problem with the side, but he absolutely exacerbated Pearce's selection issues, and while he's obviously developed his game a lot since then, I think the same fundamental lack of awareness still holds him and us back.

 

Squad numbers:

We are the #ThreeLions. pic.twitter.com/dHpDVBLNtg

— England (@England) June 4, 2018

 

Same, Henderson had the same issues back then and didn't improve at all since that time. Don't think he was good at all in the CL run btw, did his defensive job but barely saw the ball. His first touch and awful ball retention skills put his team on the back foot.

 

According to Sami Mokbel of The Daily Mail, Arnold is set to play on Thursday:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...sta-Rica-final-friendly-World-Cup-starts.html

 

i dont agree. hes played really well this season, especially in the champions league. its fashionable to not like him - a bit like with milner in the past. i think hes every underrated and id rather have him in the team then say dier.

 

Crouchy is such a lengend.

 

Austria-Germany 2-1

 

There is another thread for this.

 

It's not fashionable, it's just difficult for an england supporter to rate him as he's always struggled in an england shirt. Milner's england career was a struggle too in all honesty - although I don't think he was as bad as Hendo with the ball. And I don't think he's played "very well" in the CL, he did his defensive job but he's not a defender, he's also supposed to be a midfielder. Dier for me.

 

...but more than every other country. 6th most minutes in the CL as well which puts them ahead of Belgium.

 

Those stats are better than I would have predicted tbf, everyone complains ( including myself ) that our players haven't been playing enough but maybe it's not as bad as we thought compared to other Nations. Kind of surprised how low Germany are tbh.