German national team fans coming in attempting not to sound condescending? lol Obviously too much of a challenge. They are the most precious on here in my experience.
What a muppet that guy was! Lol He made the effort to come here just to write that! Some sad people about hey.
If England do go all the way . One person I will really feel for is Jack Wilshere . I have always been a big fan of Wilshere . I think he has been very unfortunate throughout his career that he never became the player that it looked he would become when he tore through a great Barcelona side . After seeing him in that match and another match against Brazil who he also destroyed I thought he was going to one of the best if not the best midfield in the world some day.
Harry Maguire has become a bit of a cult meme character at this World Cup - “Can you ask the neighbours to put the bins out on Monday? We’re not going home just yet” 🏴 pic.twitter.com/s1g3P3jj34— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) July 8, 2018 I always liked the bin bag one from before the WC -
You guys (not really me) know the most about football on here by far. Reading the other forums makes me feel like I'm reading teenagers views on football.
That system will work against Sweden and maybe even Croatia as they have nothing up front to hurt you on the break . But against France who have the lightning pace of Mbappe and Belgium who have the passing and finishing of De Bruyne , the pace and dribbling of Hazard and the power, pace and finishing of Lukaku. Those two teams will punish you and punish you badly for such a ham-fisted approach .
I suppose one of the reasons why the onlooking outsiders don't want England to win this world cup is that you have had such as easy route to the final . Also the team you have is very ordinary . Sterling , Ali , Lingard, Hendrson, Walker , Stones etc all play for the top teams in the premier league but none of them have really proven to be key men for their club . When you think of all the great players England have produced in the past such as Beckham , scholes, ferdinand, terry, shilton., gary neville, seamen , adams, dixion , barness , waddle , lineker , gascoigne . platt, hoddle , brooking, gerrard, rooney and lampard etc and compare them to the players above . I mean outside of Harry Kane not one player in the England team now would get near any England team of the past. I mean some of the great players I have mentioned above such as Gascoigne , Hoddle , Le Tizzer and scholes for pure footballing ability were up there with any of the greats of any international team of the past..
We would have met two 'big teams' in the quarters and semis if they had won their games. This is you after the England v Tunisia game. Unfortunately these better teams couldn't do it enough to defeat Russia, South Korea etc. dixion? WTF Kerry Dixon? You've already brought up how 'very ordinary' this team is more than once. How many more times are you going to bring it up? It's getting boring.
How many of those greats won a world cup? Is football not a team sport? Plus you've just defeated your own logic by omitting an elite player on this team!!
What greats are you talking about are you talking are you talking about the England greats I have mentioned or are you talking about the international greats such as Best , Cryuff , etc who never won a world cup . And what elite player have I omitted . I mentioned Harry Kane and said he would get in most of the england teams of the past?
Jesus why do people keep coming her like “Sorry, I hope u don’t find this offensive but I hate england and hope u lose Thanks” Just fcuk them off. And green grass, u talk some shite. Wilshere is never going to be world class
Thank you for making the effort to come on here and letting us know, we can all sleep easy now we know which way you 'fall'. I don't know about the other guys but I have been exceptionally concerned about how our German 'friends' feel about our run to the semi final, and now I am a little upset, after all I fully expected all German posters to LOVE us, what a surprise that you would 'hate' it if we won, I never expected that!!
I always wonder how much of that was down to his attitude. Players these days are very dedicated. He was pictured smoking and IIRC drinking. How many of his numerous injuries are down to not taking fitness seriously enough? I've more hope that someone like Foden comes through to take that creative midfield role than Wilshere fulfils his potential. Perhaps he is more dedicated than it appears - can't trust the press after all - but I've written him off being consistently good. On his day he is still seriously good though.
It is the depth of knowledge of youth teams and development that I find impressive. Really interesting information and opinion. A step beyond what you will find anywhere else that I know of.
But you left out the group stage teams so I don't see the point. The ELO rankings just aren't indicative of the true state of football. The USA are currently ranked 24 in the world. I don't see how Brazil 98, France 98, Spain 2010, Italy 2006, Netherlands 2014, Germany 2014, Croatia 2018 had easier routes to the semi-finals at all; if you look at the actual teams they played and not rely on ELO. England have had a fortunate draw, but they would have had a good chance to beat Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Uruguay etc. when you consider the performances of the respective teams. But I may change my view if Croatia teach them a lesson. I think England will beat Croatia. England have been more dominant in the knockout stages than the Eastern Europeans. Rakitic, Mandzukic, Perisic and Rebic really haven't performed in the last two games. I think Corluka will play centre back and Vida will be moved to right back; that's what happened in the last game when Vrsaljko went off. He isn't good going forward and will dive into tackles; perhaps Young can cause him problems.
So, if we win tomorrow night, I wonder if the haters on bigsoccer forums will be saying England beat Croatia ( without Vrsaljko ) otherwise they would have lost, just like the whole Colombia episode.
Croatia's controversial defender Domagoj Vida faces being banned for #WorldCup semi-final against England as ANOTHER video emerges where he shouts 'glory to Ukraine' https://t.co/nKIxzlWmmJ— Mail Sport (@MailSport) July 10, 2018
Tbh, don't think any system would allow us to beat France or Belgium, gap in talent is too big at the moment. Don't think it will be the case in a few years though.
It's just rotten luck, he's always been very professional and focused. Never recovered from the first big injury on his right ankle. I know from a reliable source that the swedish surgeon said before the surgery that there was a 50/50 probability that he would never play football again. The Arsenal medical team is to blame, didn't see the fracture at first, which made Wilshere play on a broken ankle for months. In the end his bone was destroyed in several pieces. Bulked up too much and lost agility too. Big shame it happened to someone as gifted, in a position where we've always struggled.