World Cup 2022

Canada have some seriously exciting players. When they start making more consistent good decisions with final passes etc they will be a force to be reckoned with.

 

Croatia goal number 2 and what's the essence of it? Speed, speed, speed. So why do teams play the slow build up. Spurs do it all the time. Just don't get it.

 

I thought I knew the Canadian coach from somewhere...

 

Putting a firmly mediocre manager in charge of a squad overflowing with talent in almost every position and then leaving him there for 6 years is just madness and a decision that the Belgian FA should be held to account for.

Martinez has delivered par with predecessor Marc Wilmots in the European Cup and went just one step further in the World Cup by reaching the semis last time round. Given the players he had at his disposal, that is frankly abysmal.

It is a misconception that they are past their sell-by date. Iran, Argentina and Brazil have all got older squads on average yet the latter two are seen as stronger shouts for the trophy than Belgium are. Martinez just hasn't got a clue what he is doing.

I just hope we don't wake up in 2024 and say exactly the same thing after 7 years of Waistcoat.

 

I think a lot has to do with scouts looking further afield to find players who suit their league's skillsets

Case in point, the Bundesliga requires pace, stamina and workrate, and scouts have picked up on Japanese players having all of these attributes in abundance and started scouting the J League, and with more Japanese players playing in the Bundesliga the standard of the Japan NT

It's similar to how Scandi players have long done well in the Premier League as they have the combination of strength, speed and stamina the PL requires

 

Canada are just too naive at this level at the moment. Their squad is young though, so they could be a serious contender if they can match their skill with experience.

 

48 teams next time! I guess 8 groups of 6, 5 games in the first stage it'll go on forever.

 

or 12 of 4 and a round of 32 either way its definitely going on longer

 

Southgate has done well in every big tournament though, the style of football is questionable but I wouldn’t say he’s underachieved at all.

That said, this should probably be his last major tournament

 

Croatia with a deserved win, but one question from it for me. Why wasn't the kick by Lovren deemed to be a red card? It was a deliberate kick at an opponent - not a trip, missed tackle, accidental collision or even deliberate foul play.

 

I'm not sure he has done that well. I think he's had 'the luck of the draw' in those tournaments, and we haven't beaten major opposition and lost to the teams we might have expected to lose to, but because of the draw that was at a later stage. I'm not sure Germany counts because they are on the way down and they could easily had an equaliser when *he who shall not be named* passed them the ball but they buggered up the attack. I think he's had a role in knitting the team together as a team though, but it is hard to quantify how much that has helped.

 

Southgate's stats as Manager of England are good compared to much that went before him but that doesn't convince me that he is a good manager. I am totally unconvinced by stats in football because there are just too many variables. Every team and period are different. Every player is different, every game is different and every situation in every game is different. You count all you like but it will not account for all of these variables. I will accept that over a long period certain stats will tell you something. For example, goal tallies can in the end show a strikers ability to find the net, but even then, it doesn't take into account opportunity or lack of it or teammates providing chances, or not.
So all this means that I make my assessments based on simply watching the game and dare I say it, common sense. The England squad right now is rich in attacking talent and our manager is a former defender. That's the root of the problem for me. I think this squad could achieve more with a more adventurous manager. I would love to have seen Harry Redknapp with this lot for example.

 

There’s a bit of magic in the BBC punditry box right now

 

Football stats give you the whats, but not the hows and whys.
You are getting an object lesson on the former from
me regarding Spurs this season, and your own eyes
are telling you the latter.

 

Until he came out with the unnecessary whimpering praise for Qatar. Can't help but think there were some serious $$$ in those words...

 

In our case it has a lot to do with all of our pace is down the flanks and not through the middle

If we had a Defoe-type striker on the pitch, or for that matter if Dele didn't fall apart as the second striker role became obsolete across the entirety of world football, we could keep up the pace going forward knowing it would effectively be a coin flip that somebody would be getting onto any balls we put into the centre

But as H isn't particularly quick, and Dele fell apart while the second striker role became obsolete across world football, we don't really have anyone we can rely on to make up 5-10 yards in the blink of an eye to get onto a ball into the box through the middle - although that seems to work well for Perisic, given Croatian breaks lost half a yard of pace when he picked up the ball this evening in much the same way ours have at regular intervals

 

Croatia watch :

Two assists from Perisic, and I assume Modric was just being Modric.

 

One of these things is not like the other things

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Germany much more like....Germany tonight. Pressing Spain and forcing errors. Spanish keeper looks like he has a bloomer in him.
Having said that, best chances have gone to Spain.

 

Of course it was Antonio Baddiel...