England Forum - FIFA World Cup 2026: Other Teams Thread

I don’t think telling Rover to chill is as good of an idea as telling Snoop Dogg to lay off the weed.

 

I think you may have misinterpreted my earlier post. I never said that England/Brazil/Germany are all trying to play identical football to France or copy their formation etc.

I'm referring to their squad profiles and given their strengths, how they would naturally approach stopping France compared to Spain and Portugal. Who do have very different player profiles and therefore different styles/options if they were to play France (compared to England).

 

Exactly that, Deschamps has gone from his previous 2 transition threats (usually on the wings) to having 4 and sacrificed the no10 and the target man 9.

 

MAGIC MESSI

 

Keeper should have done better.

 

usually Zidanes are up for a world cup .......
yes but he was not expecting him to shoot only Messi would try that

 

Messi still looking decently athletic at 39 is ridiculous. He still looks like an elite player.

 

Argentina move the ball like a club side.

 

Has he ever had a bad injury?

 

There's times I can't decide if he is brilliant at finding space or whether the opposition are standing off him

 

Never an ACL tear or a serious Achilles issue but he's had plenty of injuries. Quite a few muscle problems and a few angle ligament and knee ligament issues.

 

Mbappe brace, Haaland brace, Messi hat-trick... pressure on Kane to deliver now.

 

Just can't see Kane getting a hat-trick but that's just me.

 

It depends. England can still win even if Kane does not score. He needs to score, if he needs to score. But in the end it does not matter who scores the goals. I don't think Kane is here for the golden boot.

 

I don't see it either. Mostly because he don't have to. Any of 0, 1 or 2 goals can be sufficient. It's not like hat tricks gives more points or easier opponents in knock outs.

 

Ronaldo odds on to score today as well

 

Argentina’s individual players may not look like the most talented in the world, but they sure look like the most talented as a team collectively.

 

An obvious yellow card. It wouldn't be overturned if it was given as a red. Any other player...

Based on highlights Algeria and Iraq are crap.

 

I've seen 2 Spurs plays get reds for basically that exact same incident this season, maybe even softer, Xavi Simons on van Dijk and another that escapes my mind. No ref is giving Messi a red card in his last World Cup.

 

We have arguably both France and Germanys most technically impressive players developed by our system, which is some going. A massive shame we didn't keep them but it's not a development issue.

Id argue the wider problem for England is the premier League burns through players a lot more than other leagues. So you produce a Saka, but you don't get peak Saka for very long like you might if he played in another league.

Another issue we have is massive variation in team quality year to year. You play at PSG, Bayern, Real you are guaranteed at minimum champions league football every year. In England you take Palmer for example and Chelsea bounce around top 4 to mid table quality. Kane was regularly missing champions league football at spurs and rarely played on high pressure knock out games. You put Palmer in say the Bayern team and at minimum he's going to have a good league season keeping him in some level of form and confidence.

 

I think it would be red in the Premier League because they never let anyone get away with studs above the ankle. The Premier League has gone too soft and is overzealous on VAR calls. Using slow motion replays and stills to give red cards with no thought to force, intent or loss of control. Fouls like Messi's and Simons' should be yellows. Terrible reffing not to give a yellow though.

 

For a lot of the public Musiala is not a loss as many think it should be birthplace only. Olise and even Haaland are seen as bigger loses because of that