What's new

The England World Cup Thread

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
Actually it amazes me that anyone who watches football thinks Sterling is one of our best players. I guess we'll have to disagree on that. I hope I'll be proved wrong.
This is a player Guardiola seriously rates, ahead of Sane, that everyone is crazy about. He scored 18 goals got 11 assists in the PL last season.. He is 23. He was widely considered one of Liverpools best players when still a teenager, he became the most expensive English player ever and has kept on improving.

If he is good enough to start for Man City he is good enough to start for England. If he is good enough for Pep he is good enough for Gareth.

The fact is I think some people have decided he is not very good, and decided a long time ago, probably roughly the same time he left Liverpool and got the media behind his back. For him to change peoples mind they expect him to be playing exceptionally well every game.

Today he was good, maybe only Dele was better, but he wasn't exceptional so people will keep finding reasons to criticise his performance instead of seeing what was good about it as well.

Sterling does have end product, and has got respectable stats every season from 2013 onwards he just not clinical, they are different things. The base line is he creates a lot of chances for others, and scores a few as well, thats end product.
 
Last edited:

WalkerboyUK

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2009
21,658
23,476
This is a player Guardiola seriously rates, ahead of Mane, that everyone is crazy about. He scored 18 goals got 11 assists in the PL last season, before even going to Man City. He is 23. He was widely considered one of Liverpools best players when still a teenager, he became the most expensive English player ever and has kept on improve him.

If he is good enough to start for Man City he is good enough to start for England. If he is good enough for Pep he is good enough for Gareth.

The fact is I think some people have decided he is not very good, and decided a long time ago, probably roughly the same time he left Liverpool and got the media behind his back. For him to change peoples mind they expect him to be playing exceptionally well every game.

Today he was good, maybe only Dele was better, but he wasn't exceptional so people will keep finding reasons to criticise his performance instead of seeing what was good about it as well.

Sterling does have end product, and has got respectable stats every season from 2013 onwards he just not clinical, they are different things. The base line is he creates a lot of chances for others, and scores a few as well, thats end product.

Sterling has better players around him at City compared to England.
They bring out the best in him because the City system suits him.
He definitely attracted defenders today, but when that happens he needs to pass rather than be selfish.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
I've always maintained since he was at Spurs that Carrick should have been getting over 100 England caps. For some reason this country seems to prefer the all action slippy G style.

Maybe Loftus Cheek can be that sort of player to spread the load a bit? I'm talking for the next 2 WCs beyond this one, not just the here and now. A bit like Glenn said, I'm not really sure what RLC is, other than a good player lol.

That's a very good example - I have always said that England would have had more chance of doing something in a tournament with a 'water carrier' cm2 base of Carrick and Hargreaves rather than rocking up time and again trying to shoehorn the 'best'/most famous eleven individuals into a 4-4-2. But that's a bygone discussion.....

I don't know about RLC, but he looks like more of the same type of player that is coming through the English system - talented kids, but ones who like to take lots of touches (often far too many), rather play with the blinkers on, like to take the flair-y option and force play, and so are quite erratic with their decision making and output. I see a lot of these about on the horizon, but very few who just keep it simple, show great game appreciation, get ball and give ball, and put the team in the right areas of the pitch etc etc. It's these we need to develop and get coming through.
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
We Aren't one of the best teams, but we certainly aren't shit. Isn't it just two defeats in two years despite playing Brazil, Spain, Germany (twice) and France? I'd be happy with the quarter finals, but this is football so we could go further or we could go out earlier if things go against us. Personally I'm just going to try and enjoy the matches with a few beers and see where the tournament takes us.
 

scat1620

L'espion mal fait
May 11, 2008
16,280
52,487
That's a very good example - I have always said that England would have had more chance of doing something in a tournament with a 'water carrier' cm2 base of Carrick and Hargreaves rather than rocking up time and again trying to shoehorn the 'best'/most famous eleven individuals into a 4-4-2. But that's a bygone discussion.....

I don't know about RLC, but he looks like more of the same type of player that is coming through the English system - talented kids, but ones who like to take lots of touches (often far too many), rather play with the blinkers on, like to take the flair-y option and force play, and so are quite erratic with their decision making and output. I see a lot of these about on the horizon, but very few who just keep it simple, show great game appreciation, get ball and give ball, and put the team in the right areas of the pitch etc etc. It's these we need to develop and get coming through.
You're basically saying we need more Stephen Clemences, aren't you? :p
 

kitchen

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2006
2,275
3,587
Sterling has better players around him at City compared to England.
They bring out the best in him because the City system suits him.
He definitely attracted defenders today, but when that happens he needs to pass rather than be selfish.

He divides opinion so much because he's such an ultimately frustrating player. His positive attributes: movement, acceleration, pace, dribbling and ability to get into dangerous positions are second to none.

The problem is his negative attributes : finishing is frankly terrible and his final ball isn't great either.

So he ends up getting or creating a lot of chances because of positive attributes. But then wastes a lot because of negative attributes.

If he were a top finisher and had a better final ball he'd be genuine world class and up there with the likes of Salah.

I'd still play him because he either gets a lot of chances or creates a lot of chances and that's down to him as a player. Imo, it's better to do that and fail to score than not have the chance in the first place.
 

Gbspurs

Gatekeeper for debates, King of the plonkers
Jan 27, 2011
26,945
61,823
Really?

I've quite enjoyed this match to be honest.

Each to their own.

I thought first half we played pretty well. 2nd half they came at us but I think we calmed the game down well and ultimately managed it as the players lowered their intensity. Decent result and a reasonable performance for me.

I remember watching the warm up match for the euros against Portugal and all hope left me after a drab nil nil where we abandoned all tactics we had used previously and looked a mess. This performance showed that we are working on a playing style and have something to build on.
 

SugarRay

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2011
7,984
11,110
Didn’t Nigeria beat Argentina in Argentina fairly recently?

They turned up today full of confidence and talk of how they were going to win. Thought we dealt with them comfortably. Should have been 3/4-0 at half time.

Decent performance.

Henderson and Loftus-Cheek will surely be considered to play alongside Dier though against certain teams.
It’s got to be one of Dele and Lingard for me, with Loftus-Cheek in for whoever is left out ( Lingard )
 

thinktank

Hmmm...
Sep 28, 2004
45,893
68,893
I normally agree with you on...well pretty much everything, but cant on this. We look much better than the team that went out to Iceland.

I think we'll get out of the group, probably with Belgium winning it. From that point on anything can happen but we have quite a few potential match winners in the squad. Players who will pull something out of nothing. Whether they do it remains to be seen, but I'm fairly positive about our chances.
Could be. Just not feeling it, though.

Soon see, I suppose.
 

slartibartfast

Grunge baby forever
Oct 21, 2012
18,320
33,955
Anyone hear that stat on TS a few days ago about in 1996 when we got to semis the players in pl were 75% British. Thats now down to 25%.
Cant help matters can it :(



If thats true that is.
 

cwy21

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2009
9,447
7,930
Anyone hear that stat on TS a few days ago about in 1996 when we got to semis the players in pl were 75% British. Thats now down to 25%.
Cant help matters can it :(



If thats true that is.

On the other hand the Premier League is now the best and richest league in the world. Is the trade off of fewer Brits playing worth it? Probably.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
You're basically saying we need more Stephen Clemences, aren't you? :p

I don't really remember him (probably for the best!), but to keep it Spurs-related - for me the English game needs a few more of the Harry Winks/Tom Carroll types coming through, that would be a step in the right direction for a start, before we even start hopefully producing some Luka Modric's......
 

Spurs 1961

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
6,665
8,739
Warm up games can't be taken too seriously. I see Austria beat Germany and most other games were draws. A chance to try a few things out, keep match fit but no one is going to go flat out with the tournament so close
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,214
These fuckers are obsessed

Untitled_1.jpg
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
Didn’t Nigeria beat Argentina in Argentina fairly recently?

They turned up today full of confidence and talk of how they were going to win. Thought we dealt with them comfortably. Should have been 3/4-0 at half time.

Decent performance.

Henderson and Loftus-Cheek will surely be considered to play alongside Dier though against certain teams.
It’s got to be one of Dele and Lingard for me, with Loftus-Cheek in for whoever is left out ( Lingard )
They did but performances have been pretty poor since.

I think they are a difficult team to predict personally, they can really expose teams on the counter, but they don't seem to be that sound defensively. In the world cup I could easily see them get something from argentina but lose to Iceland.
 

glospur

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2015
2,608
9,806
I'm not English and I only watched the first half, but from what I saw, you lot have a lot to be optimistic about imo.

Genuine quality and pace up front with Kane and Sterling, which looked a cracking partnership. It obviously would have been much better if Sterling had have taken his opportunities.

On paper a Lingard-Dier-Dele midfield 3 doesn't look like it should work at all, but I thought it was fluid and dynamic with lots of energy and class. Lingard and Dele were everywhere in the first half and both were excellent imo, while Dier was as solid as always. If I was you, after that I would be hoping that Henderson ends up nowhere near this team, or at least not alongside Dier, because that Dele and Lingard combo had a lot to like about it.

I think you'll have a lot of joy with Kane coming deep, dragging CBs out of position, and then pinging his trademark balls to either the fullbacks, or the runners in Sterling, and Dele or Lingard. That particular move happened a few times, and you lot looked dangerous every single time it happened. Dele and Lingard in particular looked as though they relished the space that Kane created in behind with his movement.

I think you'll get to the quarters before running into a German team that will just about be too strong, but that would be a decent tournament with this youthful squad. To me, this looks like a squad that will be hitting its prime around time of the 2020 Euros and then Qatar. With the youth coming through on top of the quality already in this squad who will be hitting their peak in those tournaments, I think you all should be pretty excited about what could be building with this team.
 
Top