Man, felt sorry for Sagna today vs Brazil. He is way past his sell by date. Not sure what Deschamps is thinking either to start Sakho or even Varane over Kos. They were transparent. Anyway, Kos got his day off and no injury. good enough.
Not sure that has much to do with Sherwood. I think your English products (other than Kane) are pretty overrated - they're playing a lot because your foreign options aren't really better; you have a huge side of good but not great players. Bentaleb is OK, Mason is Scott Parker 2.0, Rose isn't any better than Ryan Bertrand. It's just that you've give them playing time, and Pochettino does well with young players who can press. Yeah, time to pour one out for his awesome twitter account. P.S. LOL at the complaint of Varane starting over Koscielny.
Thanks for sharing. Wish they'd show that on the cable tv show (don't think they did or at least i missed it). Well done craig.
I always figured that last season was the indian summer of Sagna's career. He looked done two years ago before regaining his form. Never questioned Wenger's decision to let him go.
A country's football culture is probably more important than the % participation. Football cultures that value creativity, e.g. Brazil, generally end up producing more world class players than a culture that is grounded in work rate/ethic. But having said that, I suspect that football cultures that value creativity, have a greater participation percentage than countries that value the worker bees.
So ... his teams finish top in both the group and elite stages of the U-21 Prem, a handful come through to the first team (some blooded by Sherwood, himself), play regularly in sides competing for Champions League qualification, a couple of whom get called up to the England side, and it's nothing to do with Sherwood? The same Sherwood who essentially said, 'I don't care how much you've squandered on the likes of Capoue and Paulinho, I'm playing my kids'? None of whom has lost his place, by the way, despite another manager coming in. That's nothing more than "just get stuck in"? Sorry mate, but I respectfully disagree. In fact, if Tim Sherwood doesn't get a bit of credit for the career development of the likes of Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, etc., then your whole point about Pearce and the England youth set up is moot, because youth coaches must not mean anything, anyway.
Uh, no, that's not what I said at all. What I said is that the English players currently at Spurs are decent, but if the English NT was based on them, it would struggle to qualify for tournaments, so it's not any kind of indication of good management. The players they're replacing were themselves not particularly great, so you've gone with cheaper younger options, but it doesn't mean those cheaper younger options are very good players. For instance, while I think Kane is good, the rest of your English players are pretty mediocre; they're just getting a lot of experience from playing. Given the slightly bizarre interviews Sherwood gave while manager of Spurs, he's not exactly a tactical mind, and yes, he definitely has a lot of the English "use the 4-4-2 that the English boys know and get stuck in!" mentality to him. I think it's good for England that Spurs gave the "yoof" a shot, but the reason that yoof got a shot is that you bought a lot of players who, frankly, were pretty mediocre to begin with. In that case, playing the equally talented yoof over them isn't a sign that you have a massive wave of talent coming through. For instance, while I wouldn't mind Kane as a back-up, I would have no interest in any of Bentaleb, Mason or Rose for Chelsea. We just sold Bertrand, for instance, who's basically a very similar player to Rose, to one of your competitors, which shows what we think of such players. You're obviously welcome to disagree with me, and players who play together for a long time naturally get an advantage as a result of that (see the Utd midfield of the 90s), but they're not great talents. It's just that the options weren't much better DESPITE the spending. I know your younger players coming up are reputed to be quite good (certainly gave us quite a scare in the FA Youth Cup semis), but that's not Sherwood.
Given the styles Brazil and Holland played at the World Cup in the summer, that's a bit of an odd statement. If anything, Brazil's current issue is that due to a lack of a systemic overhaul in youth development* they're having trouble producing world class players. They produce by far the most competent players, but they're currently having trouble finding a striker that's good; that hasn't been true of Brazil for nearly a century! Holland meanwhile used a negative system with a 3 man backline and man-marking in midfield to try and grind out results, a continuation of their less than attractive approach to the last World Cup (De Jong Kung fu kick activate!). There's some promise on the horizon for the Dutch in the form of young players like Depay, but the Dutch NT depends for their creativity almost entirely on a generation that's about to retire - Robben, Sneijder and RvP. I also agree with @antifan - German football culture isn't generally renowned for its freewheeling individuality (which is why they've sometimes diminished the roles of some of their most creative players in service of team cohesion: see Overath playing over Netzer, for instance, where Netzer was clearly the more talented and creative player, or even Schuster), and the current side is really good, but it remains efficient more than brilliant; that's largely why Ozil has had to shift to the flank, since they're not willing to let him play as a creative #10 (and whatever my views of Ozil may be, he's a wonderfully creative player). *I think they've definitely been hurt by the number of younger players that go to Europe too early, though that's likely to get a bit better as most European countries get better at handling youth in general.
Nice, kos is better than Varane imo and is Frances best centre half Alot of old footballing nations are struggling because international football is 451 and negative so the top sides have to break teams down patiently The 'flair' in Brazil has become holding midfielders who pass sideways and a couple of flair players Spain can thank barca for their dominance Germany imo are the ones to follow. Strong, quick, technical with a false 9, quick passing and no show boating. A well oiled football machine where everyone has a specific job not lairy stars who do what they want
Yeah, im not rocking with this Germany arent brilliant. They are efficient, but they are very much a flair team with a lot of flair and creative talents. Like @thebigman said, they play quick and technical football with strong players. Its not a lot of dancing, but this is not the Germany that won everything in the 80s and 90s. They play much more expansive.
I don't think Kos is better than Varane, and given that Varane is almost a decade younger, it makes a lot more sense to start him, especially in friendlies. I'm not sure who you think in Brazil is a midfield player that can pass - that's been their problem for a while, actually. I don't think Germany are at all negative, but they're more efficient than they are expansive.
I don't want any Arsenal player playing in a friendly, so I fully support Varane starting. I think that's the point being made. Brazil have a bunch of holders who can pass sideways, but no one who can actually move play forward by passing. They're both.
But Brazil do actually have some creative players - they just play further up. What they're missing is a functional midfield. We can agree to disagree on that point. Players like Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Muller, etc. are all very good players and good technically, but they're not "flair" players.
Perhaps not, but players like Reus, Gotze, Ozil (and to some extent Schurrle) are. Depends on how you want to define flair - if your definition of flair is Brazil 1970, then no one has flair.
Hey this was a wake up call for all parties involved, now maybe Nicklas Bendtner can score a few more of those for WOLFSBURG against the rest of the Bundesliga instead of against the USMNT!!! From what I hear he has done jackshit for Der Grun-Weisses VfL since he arrived in Wolfsburg, part of that because he's been mostly a sub off the bench as opposed to a seasoned starter in the XI, so c'mon Nicklas, forget beating Bayern, that's almost gonna be impossible, but you've still got to get Die Woelfe into the Champions League for next season!!! IMMER NUR DU VfL!!! My other question is, where was this kind of offense during the time he spent with The Arsenal???
They seem to be grounded in near flawless technique, but they also have some flare and creativity. Ozil being the most obvious, but just off the top of my head Kroos and Rues can create goals too.
Akinfeev hit by a flare in Russia/Montenegro game. Also, the 'not good enough for Arsenal' Alvaro Morata started up front for Spain and scored.