Off Topic International Match Thread

Do you need to know more about Southgate than he's still picking Hart? Hart shouldn't have been associated with England for years, but nobody has the balls to drop him. Same goes for goodness knows how many players in the past. Also is guaranteed to start Sterling in the WC - a player who I believe has most failed to reproduce his club form at international level than anyone I can think of. Yes there's been crap players for England before, but a lot of them weren't that good anyway. Sterling in the Euros had about the worst competition I have ever seen from an England player, but because of who he plays for he will still get picked regardless. Sure one day he will have a good game and the pundits will say "you see, that's why you should pick him..." but no, one decent game does not make up for the dross performances up to now - and I don't even think he's had that decent game yet. There is no evidence at international level that he should play. But he will.

 

Even at club level I think he is very lucky to be playing in such a good team. I doubt he would stand out in a mediocre team and I certainly wouldn't want him anywhere near our squad.

 

I think I've said before that he's so one-footed he might as well hop.

 

Sterling's the perfect example of a player who only looks good because defenders give him so much space due to marking the actual threats elsewhere on the pitch, be it Suarez at Saltypool or Aguero/De Bruyne/Sane at The Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Team. Yet when he's put into a position where he's expected to deliver on his own he simply doesn't - just like Daniel Sturridge, in other words.

 

Should work out for a full-strength England then, assuming that Kane and Alli are starting.

 

Southgate needs to work out what his available players are good at and build a team identity around it.
Endless international coaches fail by just attempting to cram all of their star names into a random XI and hoping for the best.

Pochettino endlessly bangs on about Tottenham's philosophy. Everyone knows how we play. It's now embedded in the club.
The players all have to adopt an approach and work towards embracing it and living it.
What's England's philosophy? No idea.

 

Sterling runs and falls over like a girl......with respects to the girls (don't smack me,Paula!)

 

In days of yore, a lot of players used to come from
the league champions, so they were used to
each other and their play. Did not mean they were
the best in their position, just familiar with each other.

Some players are not necessarily good in given regimes.

Hoddle in England was a classic example.
Spurs made MF formations that put him as the
focal point and used his strengths but
compensated for his weaknesses.

An England manager needs to understand this for
all those in his squad, and select the pieces
accordingly to make the best whole from those pieces.

 

Is their any clubs in England that don't have foreign players,excluding the Welsh,Scots and Irish.?

 

Doubt it.

Spurs at best have fielded at most 6 UK players
in a starting XI for PL/CL games (4 seems to be
the norm nowadays) .

 

I always found it odd that the Goons' defence was never selected wholesale when they were doing well.
Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Keown, Winterburn and Bould must have had a better understanding then any combination of other players.
They didn't have to be the best individually.

Southgate himself would probably have done better if he played more England matches with Ugo Ehiogu.
They were an outstanding pairing. Why break that up?
If he wants to get the best out of this side, then he might do well to remember that.

He always picks lots of Spurs players, so why not try to play like Spurs? Use the same system.
Kane, Alli, Dier, Walker, Rose, Trippier, Livermore, Winks and others are already familiar with it, to various levels.
Try to make like-for-like replacements for our foreign players and use those from compatible clubs, where possible.
Liverpool have quite a lot of English players and use an attacking, pressing game with a high defensive line, for example.

 

Tranmere Rovers, Wrexham and Hartlepool

Says a lot my first instinct was to look at the Conference...

 

Wales beat China 6-0 in Nanning earlier today. Ben Davies played 70 minutes and was one of six players subbed.
Two ex-Spurs players broke Welsh records. Gareth Bale is now their leading goalscorer, while Chris Gunter has the most caps for an outfield player.
Bale overtakes Ian Rush with 29 goals in 69 matches, which is actually four less than the mustachioed Mouser.
Gunter has made 86 appearances for his country, which puts him ahead of Gary Speed and only six behind Neville Southall.

 

Oh well, that's one less bit of history for Saltypool zealots to bang on about then...

 

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Well **** me gently with a chainsaw, I never saw that coming...

 

Blas Perez receiving a straight red for what Saltypool fans say is only worth a yellow - for the keeper.
**** Saltypool!

:::EDIT:::
Because they just can't help themselves...
Well that proves my point, doesn't it?

 

Goalie was lucky he wasn't playing in the Sunday League.No prisoners there!!!!!

 

Over on r/soccer there's plenty of comment about how, in CONCACAF matches, he'd have likely got a stern talking to and nothing more.

Then it led to Mexico and US fans saying they're the only teams in CONCACAF that aren't agricultural cloggers.

Then the Saltypool fans started banging on about Mane's assault on Ederson and how he wasn't guilty and it's all a conspiracy and the ref is biased and REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

 

Russia getting caned by Brazil.
Paulinho on the scoresheet