The England Thread

[Gbspurs]

?

Tbh I'm not overly sure. I thought it just meant you secured a play off place if you didn't qualify in the normal qualifiers but now I have read something contrary. The Liberal use of the term "play off" in all the rules doesn't help things.

Edit: I'm pretty sure this is the case.

Winning the group means you go into the nation's league finals and guarantees you a play off entry for the 2020 finals if you don't qualify through the usual method.

 

[Shadydan]

Tbh I'm not overly sure. I thought it just meant you secured a play off place if you didn't qualify in the normal qualifiers but now I have read something contrary. The Liberal use of the term "play off" in all the rules doesn't help things.

Edit: I'm pretty sure this is the case.

Winning the group means you go into the nation's league finals and guarantees you a play off entry for the 2020 finals if you don't qualify through the usual method.

Oh yeah shits confusing

 

['O Zio]

Has a player plying their trade in the USA ever played for England before? I think this whole Rooney thing is a publicity stunt laced with sentimentality personally.

Spot on. IMO it's just designed to give people in the US the impression that Rooney is still this great legend of the game in order to raise his profile even more so they can sell more MLS/DC Utd merchandise/image rights etc.

 

[spursfan77]

Tbh I'm not overly sure. I thought it just meant you secured a play off place if you didn't qualify in the normal qualifiers but now I have read something contrary. The Liberal use of the term "play off" in all the rules doesn't help things.

Edit: I'm pretty sure this is the case.

Winning the group means you go into the nation's league finals and guarantees you a play off entry for the 2020 finals if you don't qualify through the usual method.

Glad they’ve simplified things then.

 

[chinaman]

If we win our group it means we automatically qualify for Euro 2020 so we won't need to play any competetive matches for a year, much better in the long run.

Then the greedy FA will want to play a lot of friendlies to bulge their coffers under the guise of giving Southgate the chances to better the team.

 

[Marty]

Then the greedy FA will want to play a lot of friendlies to bulge their coffers under the guise of giving Southgate the chances to better the team.

Shady has been corrected, mate. England have to play a normal Euro qualifying group no matter what happens on Sunday. Winning the group only guarantees them an extra play-off place should they mess up the normal qualifying, plus it puts them in the Final Four semi and final next summer.

The FA can't organise loads of high profile friendlies even if they want to.

 

[fluffybunnyuk]

An England victory over Croatia on Sunday would take them to next June's finals. However, a Croatian win at Wembley would relegate England to League B. A score draw in London would also send the Three Lions down.
That is because if teams are level on points, they are separated by head-to-head record, including the away goals rule if necessary, before goal difference comes into play - and England drew 0-0 in Rijeka.

Thats really GRIM. The only result that avoids relegation is winning, and if we win we get the 4 team mini-tournament for the trophy next year.

However Croatia did for us in the World Cup, so its only fair we return the favour and win.
I would never have put money on england getting out of this group. New England New Rules i guess.

 

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Thats really GRIM. The only result that avoids relegation is winning, and if we win we get the 4 team mini-tournament for the trophy next year.

0-0 leaves us second and safe because of goal difference after the head to head

 

[fluffybunnyuk]

I can see something daft like 1-1 or 2-2 with england having to push for a winner in the last 5 minutes... Thats not going to be a pleasent watch.

 

[nailsy]

I'm looking forward to the next game. That's pretty unusual for England games at this time of the season.
Rakitic will be missing for Croatia on Sunday after picking up a hamstring injury.

 

[buckley]

I must say I have a guilty secret and it is that I am enjoying watching England again and its mainly because Southgate picks displayers on recent form and not past glory or how big their name is .Also age does not put him off no matter how young and I hope he continues in the same vein.Past managers would not have gone near Jason Sancho or winks or Gomez or the Liverpool full back whose name escapes me

 

[DJS]

I’m liking having Winks and Barkley available again for midfield as both give more passing and creativity than the players we had in World Cup squad (Dele and Lingard for me are more your direct goal scoring midfielders who you’d play alongside more playmaker-type midfielders).

Liking look of Sancho too (damn you City ??).

And nice to see Wilson scoring as we need more options up top to allow Kane to actually be rested and a viable alternative if he is unavailable.

Starting to actually get a decent and balanced squad together again, Southgate deserves a lot of credit in how he’s incorporating new options in.

 

[Saoirse]

We don’t really want to win our Nations League group though do we, because it means Kane et al won’t get next summer off either.

With our Spurs hats on we need our players to have next summer off.

It's very likely to make no difference to the number of games. For Euro 2020 qualifying there'll be 5 groups of 5, and 5 groups of 6. The teams which qualify for the Nations League Finals Tournament will be placed in one of the smaller groups of 5, and the groups of 6 will then be playing the extra two qualifying games in the same international slot next June. The only top seeds who won't be playing is the one who doesn't make the NLFT, but is randomly drawn into the final group of 5 (E, rather than F/G/H/I/J). Even then, it's now compulsory for teams to arrange friendlies on the slots where they're not playing to avoid shenanigans manipulating the rankings system, so there'd still be games just non-competitive.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Maybe Sancho didn't want to come to Spurs, ever thought of that?

I'm glad he didn't come. Much prefer our youngsters going abroad.

 

[nailsy]

Just a quick heads up that It's a 2pm kick-off today. I thought it was 4pm for some reason.

 

[spursfan77]

An England victory over Croatia on Sunday would take them to next June's finals. However, a Croatian win at Wembley would relegate England to League B. A score draw in London would also send the Three Lions down.
That is because if teams are level on points, they are separated by head-to-head record, including the away goals rule if necessary, before goal difference comes into play - and England drew 0-0 in Rijeka.

Thats really GRIM. The only result that avoids relegation is winning, and if we win we get the 4 team mini-tournament for the trophy next year.

However Croatia did for us in the World Cup, so its only fair we return the favour and win.
I would never have put money on england getting out of this group. New England New Rules i guess.

I think we will beat them. No rakitic is a massive plus.

I also fancy Harry to get a couple of goals.

 

[Shadydan]

Haven't been this excited for a non tournament England match for a long time.

 

[dickieven]

I think the back four looks strong, as well as the front three. The midfield doesn't excite me though. It was the midfield where we got overrun in the world cup semi. Hopefully enough to win though. Looking forward to the game. I think the Nations Cup has been a success as normally now these would be meaningless friendlies.

 

[bomberH]

I hope not including dele in the starting line up is more due to looking after his injury more than anything else because he absolutely bossed it the other night and should be starting for England.

 

[Zippy1980]

Glad Ali and Winks are getting a rest.