General Football Nonsense

[HCZ_Reborn]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...s/cx27z1l5pdzo

If people are asking if we’ve regressed since Southgate, that performance last night must have been diabolical. I’d have to ask even if it’s possible to regress from the dire depressing football that was on display last year. In the back of my mind I was hoping at times England went out because I just couldn’t take how bad the football was at times.

Things change in a short period of time, 12 months ago I put us as the favourites for the World Cup in 2026 and why it was important to get the coach appointment right. But I think we don’t have a settled back four, we still massively over rely on Kane who clearly goes missing in at least half the games and some of Tuchel’s squad selection has been eccentric to say the least.

I don’t think there’s any particularly great national side out there truth be told, it should be the French as the talent they’ve been churning out over the last five-ten years has been phenomenal but for some reason they’ve stuck with Didier Deschamps who should be considered a national embarrassment (they got to the semi finals off the back of their defensive solidity, and despite scoring through two own goals and a penalty)

I’m prepared to put this down as a free hit, an error in judgement by both the coach in some of his team selection and the FA in having this utterly unnecessary and ridiculous fixture to begin with.

[Mac76]

I didn't watch it but you're not going to convince me the players aren't tired, on the beach and probably asking themselves how long Tuchel will last

TBH I think the Tuchel project has a heavy chance of failure, not necessarily because he couldn't in theory do a good job, but there will be zero goodwill there from the team, crowd or media

The only way he could succeed was by not caring about that and being a radical new broom - playing Hendo and Kane shows he's a coward so the whole thing's pointless

[Letters]

I’m prepared to put this down as a free hit, an error in judgement by both the coach in some of his team selection and the FA in having this utterly unnecessary and ridiculous fixture to begin with.

Yeah.
I don't really care about results outside of the finals in major tournaments.
Even the qualifiers, so long as we blunder through - and we pretty much always do - I don't really care about results or performances.

But spoiler: we aren't going to win the World Cup next year and I never understood why you thought we were. I've seen this shit for decades now, we believe we should be contenders but we never really are. It's why I don't understand the uber-criticism of Southgate. He got us to 2 finals, one of those being the first one on foreign soil in our history. OK, we didn't win them but it's more than anyone else has done in my lifetime. The criticism stems from a (in my view misguided) belief that we have the best squad around, or one of them, and under a different manager we'd... But again, I've been hearing that shit for decades too.

We are the Spurs of International football. We're not terrible, but we're not good enough to go and win the biggest trophies.
(That analogy worked better than it does now of course, but even the Europa League isn't what it was - they hardly swept aside the cream of Europe)

[HCZ_Reborn]

I didn't watch it but you're not going to convince me the players aren't tired, on the beach and probably asking themselves how long Tuchel will last

TBH I think the Tuchel project has a heavy chance of failure, not necessarily because he couldn't in theory do a good job, but there will be zero goodwill there from the team, crowd or media

The only way he could succeed was by not caring about that and being a radical new broom - playing Hendo and Kane shows he's a coward so the whole thing's pointless

Yeah I don’t disagree with most of that. I think a friendly two weeks after the season has ended and there’s no international tournament or anything like that is just pointless.


The problem with ditching Kane is that there really isn’t anyone who is getting the sheer volume of goals he gets at club level who looks like they are a ready made replacement, overlooking the fact that for one reason or another that it’s fair to say you’re not a fan of his. Ollie Watkins ? Inconsistent and inconsistently played. Solanke? Not a top striker. Toney? Well he’d have to come back to Europe for us to even gauge his worth.

The only viable option would be to do an Arteta and try and turn Cole Palmer into a striker. But difference is Havertz can hold up the ball, and Cole Palmer isn’t so great at that, nor is he especially blessed with pace to compensate for that.

[Letters]

The only way he could succeed was by not caring about that and being a radical new broom - playing Hendo and Kane shows he's a coward so the whole thing's pointless

I know you have this weird thing about Kane, I think based purely on the fact he played for Spurs, but you know he's been the Bundasliga's top scorer for the past two seasons, by a fair distance too. Who is better? He's obviously getting to the age where we need to transition away from him but I reckon he's gone one more World Cup in him.

[HCZ_Reborn]

https://x.com/roynemer/status/193261...k_DvSqUkaQFrjw

One should not be convulsing on the floor like that, unless one is having a genuine seizure and unless the guy pissed himself I think this was monumental play acting. Now Fernandez is sent off for a high boot, and whilst he’s going for the ball one can argue it’s dangerous play, but it doesn’t seem like he even catches this guy.

[Letters]

Without wishing to go all NQ, can you imagine a footballer back in the day doing that?
They are a load of fannies these days.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Yeah.
I don't really care about results outside of the finals in major tournaments.
Even the qualifiers, so long as we blunder through - and we pretty much always do - I don't really care about results or performances.

But spoiler: we aren't going to win the World Cup next year and I never understood why you thought we were. I've seen this shit for decades now, we believe we should be contenders but we never really are. It's why I don't understand the uber-criticism of Southgate. He got us to 2 finals, one of those being the first one on foreign soil in our history. OK, we didn't win them but it's more than anyone else has done in my lifetime. The criticism stems from a (in my view misguided) belief that we have the best squad around, or one of them, and under a different manager we'd... But again, I've been hearing that shit for decades too.

We are the Spurs of International football. We're not terrible, but we're not good enough to go and win the biggest trophies.
(That analogy worked better than it does now of course, but even the Europa League isn't what it was - they hardly swept aside the cream of Europe)

No I know you don’t understand.

We got to two finals largely off the back of having favourable draws. And we got there because we have for the last few years been in the top three of national sides by quality in the squad.

Your mentality comes from thinking everyone who claims England can or should win a tournament is just projecting empty jingoism. Euro 2024 I knew we had no chance of winning because of Southgate. I think given the awful job Deschamps was doing with France, that tournament was very winnable and the Spain side was better on the day but in terms of comparison in terms of quality of players in almost every area we were superior to them. So no I’m not going to be pathetically grateful for Southgate doing the bare minimum with the talent he had at his disposal.

Now a year on? So many players have regressed. The defence showed that it needed upgrading in Euro 2024 (and arguably the World Cup before that) and yet Tuchel is still fannying about with Kyle Walker and trying out Nathaniel Chalobah…it’s a joke.

Bellingham has gone backwards, Saka and Rice have come back from major injury and played too much football respectively.

Palmer, Lewis-Skelly and even Eze could be assets to this team if they are played properly

As I said apart from France where they seem to be churning out prodigious talent at an alarming rate, there isn’t any national side that looks especially great. Argentina? Not great defensively, also lack a creative player in the mould of Riquelme. Brazil? No top striker, inconsistent attacking players…still playing fucking Casemiro in midfield

So yes I had every confidence to think that a settled England team playing positive tactics could win the World Cup and even should win the World Cup

Even now I don’t think outright the players are lacking to achieve this, I think the structure and set up of the FA, the fact that it lacked ruthlessness and held onto Southgate far too long and now we are expecting this guy to hit the ground running doesn’t give me the confidence that we will do what’s necessary

[Mac76]

the Spain side was better on the day but in terms of comparison in terms of quality of players in almost every area we were superior to them.

completely disagree

[HCZ_Reborn]

Ok so will break down how I see it


Pickford or Simon - Neither are great, if Spain picked Raya I’d go for him but as they don’t I’m going for Pickford

Cucurella/Shaw - Both equally shite

Guehi/Laporte - Laporte

Stones/Le Normand - As of 2024, Stones

Walker/Carvajal - Both old, Walker is lazy, Carvajal not a full back. Carvajal just edges it

Rodri/Rice - Rodri

Mainoo/Ruiz - Not really fair comparison as different players but probably Ruiz


Olmo/Foden - Foden (had a shit season but is a better player)


Bellingham/Williams - Bellingham


Saka/Yamal - Saka when they played, now not as sure


Kane/Morata - Kane


So maybe not as close as I stated originally but still overall better in my view

Southgate’s failure to get the attacking talent at his disposal working was a monumental failure