The Footie Thread

[RichA]

Letissier I'd agree but hoddle? 53 Caps seems on the high end? Or was someone keeping him out the team more

I think that Ian Wright was another who never really got the chance he deserved.
The dozen or so occasions I saw him playing from the stands, I realised what a great player he was. TV coverage and highlights never did his all round game justice.

 

[Tashyboy]

With Scottish tartan on it?? Weird choice.

A common misconception that tartan evolved in Scotland. Similar to the misconception that Scotland won 0-0 ??

 

[Orikoru]

I think that Ian Wright was another who never really got the chance he deserved.
The dozen or so occasions I saw him playing from the stands, I realised what a great player he was. TV coverage and highlights never did his all round game justice.

In fairness he only broke through when he was well in his 20s, and then it was the Shearer & Sheringham era. There were plenty of good strikers in that sort of time and afterwards that didn't get many caps, like Andy Cole and Robbie Fowler. The biggest travesty by far is Le Tissier though. If he was Italian or French he'd have won 70 caps.

 

[RichA]

In fairness he only broke through when he was well in his 20s, and then it was the Shearer & Sheringham era. There were plenty of good strikers in that sort of time and afterwards that didn't get many caps, like Andy Cole and Robbie Fowler. The biggest travesty by far is Le Tissier though. If he was Italian or French he'd have won 70 caps.

True, but in an era of goalhangers who contributed nothing more to the team than 0.5 goals per match, Wrighty was probably covering a similar mileage to Kalvin Phillips.

 

[harpo_72]

In fairness he only broke through when he was well in his 20s, and then it was the Shearer & Sheringham era. There were plenty of good strikers in that sort of time and afterwards that didn't get many caps, like Andy Cole and Robbie Fowler. The biggest travesty by far is Le Tissier though. If he was Italian or French he'd have won 70 caps.

Watching LeTissier play and stuff he did, he was too good to have been overlooked. That is one of the fundamental issues I have with England selection, they don’t pick the greats from small teams. They don’t get that in a big team a player is surrounded by greats who create time and space for other players to shine. So being good in a small team you don’t have that level of support .. so that player must be pretty special.

 

[harpo_72]

Fowler in his prime was too good to ignore, he had speed and always worked the keeper …

 

[clubchamp98]

Fowler in his prime was too good to ignore, he had speed and always worked the keeper …

Yes a proper finisher almost always hit the target.

 

[Slime]

Robin Friday anyone?

 

[Mudball]

Now that is a change... GBN presenter takes the knee.. who would have thought that football would help at least a few see the light of the day..

https://twitter.com/x/status/1414860976642576385

 

[sunshine]

There’s an old saying Lose, Learn, Win.

We lost v Croatia in the World Cup Semi final, we never learned, we lost again.
Watching England v Italy was like watching the world cup semi again.
My grief is that GS has set out his stall in how he now wants to set out his teams. The teams we beat, you would expect us to beat. GS was handed a managerial lesson by Roberto Mancini.

There is a massive flaw in your argument: England does not have Messi, de Bruyne and Ronaldo up front. I've not seen much of Sancho because I don't watch German football, but he hasn't shone for England the way Saka and Sterling have. Do you think Man U would have spent £70m on him if he was Norwegian? Foden looks neat and tidy but he's not Pedri. Don't fall for the media hype - use your eyes to judge how good the players really are.

Southgate has to work with what he's got.

Lose, learn, win.... this is exactly what Southgate has done. Over the last 20 years, the teams that get to the finals of a world cup or euros are typically teams that can grind out a 1-0 win. Giving talented players carte blanche to play exciting attacking football is rarely successful, look at Netherlands and Belgium.

The England team of the 2000s tried to be exciting and always fell over when they came up against a good team in the knock out stage. There's no point scoring 3 or 4 against Croatia and Czech Rep in the group stage if you then lose against Germany. Southgate oversaw a 2-0 win against Germany - the first time we have beaten a proper top tier side in a KO match since 1996. That is major progress.

I thought England have definitely improved since that world cup semi in 2018. Italy were just better. No managerial lesson from Mancini, just better players on a roll. But this is a young England team and they will improve.

 

[sunshine]

I think that Ian Wright was another who never really got the chance he deserved.
The dozen or so occasions I saw him playing from the stands, I realised what a great player he was. TV coverage and highlights never did his all round game justice.

I liked Wrighty, but hard to pick him ahead of Shearer, Sheringham and Fowler. When he was on form, Les Ferdinand was unplayable and hard to overlook him too.

Thinking back to that 90s era, Trevor Sinclair is a player who never played for England as much as I expected. He had pace and skill, but only broke into the England squad towards the end of his career when he was past his best.

 

[Pin-seeker]

One for Slime or any of the UTD fans.
Do you actually rate Rashford as a player?
Obviously he’s a good person,but personally i don’t rate him & think UTD Will keep him no matter what because he’s good for the image.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

There is a massive flaw in your argument: England does not have Messi, de Bruyne and Ronaldo up front. I've not seen much of Sancho because I don't watch German football, but he hasn't shone for England the way Saka and Sterling have. Do you think Man U would have spent £70m on him if he was Norwegian? Foden looks neat and tidy but he's not Pedri. Don't fall for the media hype - use your eyes to judge how good the players really are.

Southgate has to work with what he's got.

Lose, learn, win.... this is exactly what Southgate has done. Over the last 20 years, the teams that get to the finals of a world cup or euros are typically teams that can grind out a 1-0 win. Giving talented players carte blanche to play exciting attacking football is rarely successful, look at Netherlands and Belgium.

The England team of the 2000s tried to be exciting and always fell over when they came up against a good team in the knock out stage. There's no point scoring 3 or 4 against Croatia and Czech Rep in the group stage if you then lose against Germany. Southgate oversaw a 2-0 win against Germany - the first time we have beaten a proper top tier side in a KO match since 1996. That is major progress.

I thought England have definitely improved since that world cup semi in 2018. Italy were just better. No managerial lesson from Mancini, just better players on a roll. But this is a young England team and they will improve.

Sorry I will have to disagree

Italy don’t have the likes of Messi etc up front yet they were able to get the best out of their squad

Sancho can’t shine for England when he is sat on the bench but he has played at the highest level in the CL and shown how good a player he is

Southgate had a squad loaded with attacking talent yet started the final with 8 defensive players - they caught Italy on the break and scored earlier , they then controlled the game for a short period until Mancini made some tactical changes with the front three - Southgate didn’t react to that or couldn’t react.

Many other managers made changes early -England had Kane , Sterling , Mount totally out of the game - they offered nothing from 30 mins onwards - when italy were on top he just sat there and watched them dominate , then he made a change that wasn’t going to get them moving forward- after 60 mins and when Italy lost Chiesa they sat a bit deeper , that was the time for Southgate to look to his bench - not be afraid to replace Kane or Sterling - it doesn’t matter what they have done in previous games but they were out of it but he just seems afraid to take either of them off - and that’s to the team detriment

And then to bring players just for penalties - madness imo

England had a great chance to win the whole thing and in the end you could say they bottled it because the manager was afraid to go outside his comfort zone

It’s an achievement to get to the final and that’s what the record books say but I don’t see them getting another chance again with Southgate in charge , the last two tournaments have been virtually handed to them on a plate and they dropped it.

Mancini is a manager who has his ability at the highest level - Southgate hasnt and imo it shows - the difference between the two teams on Sunday was the tactics employed by the Italians

 

[KenL]

Sorry I will have to disagree

Italy don’t have the likes of Messi etc up front yet they were able to get the best out of their squad

Sancho can’t shine for England when he is sat on the bench but he has played at the highest level in the CL and shown how good a player he is

Southgate had a squad loaded with attacking talent yet started the final with 8 defensive players - they caught Italy on the break and scored earlier , they then controlled the game for a short period until Mancini made some tactical changes with the front three - Southgate didn’t react to that or couldn’t react.

Many other managers made changes early -England had Kane , Sterling , Mount totally out of the game - they offered nothing from 30 mins onwards - when italy were on top he just sat there and watched them dominate , then he made a change that wasn’t going to get them moving forward- after 60 mins and when Italy lost Chiesa they sat a bit deeper , that was the time for Southgate to look to his bench - not be afraid to replace Kane or Sterling - it doesn’t matter what they have done in previous games but they were out of it but he just seems afraid to take either of them off - and that’s to the team detriment

And then to bring players just for penalties - madness imo

England had a great chance to win the whole thing and in the end you could say they bottled it because the manager was afraid to go outside his comfort zone

It’s an achievement to get to the final and that’s what the record books say but I don’t see them getting another chance again with Southgate in charge , the last two tournaments have been virtually handed to them on a plate and they dropped it.

Mancini is a manager who has his ability at the highest level - Southgate hasnt and imo it shows - the difference between the two teams on Sunday was the tactics employed by the Italians

I don't see Southgate as the limiting factor. Fantastic achievement to get to the final but not enough British players playing in the British leagues at the moment.
Having said that, when the likes of Liverpool (Notts Forest) were dominating Europe, England were not great.
So, in summary, I have no idea.?

 

[pokerjoke]

One for Slime or any of the UTD fans.
Do you actually rate Rashford as a player?
Obviously he’s a good person,but personally i don’t rate him & think UTD Will keep him no matter what because he’s good for the image.

Yes we rate him and I would say highly rate him.
He’s obviously still very young and will undoubtedly improve.
Hasn’t really been the same since his bad back last year and I certainly don’t know if that’s the reason.
One thing I would say is I wouldn’t like to see him at any of the other top 5 clubs.
I also think he’s better straight through the middle rather than out left.
Needs to start getting 2 or 3 goals on a regular basis rather than the odd 1 here and there.

 

[PJ87]

I think a couple a changes to the starting line up from Sunday for the world cup would reep serious rewards

Pickford defo

Back 3 of Gomez maigure and stones

Wing backs of TAA and saka

Central midfield of rice and Phillips

Front 3. Grealish, sterling, Kane

Now those changes at wing back suddenly look far more attacking almost wingers who can defend

 

[Slime]

One for Slime or any of the UTD fans.
Do you actually rate Rashford as a player?
Obviously he’s a good person,but personally i don’t rate him & think UTD Will keep him no matter what because he’s good for the image.

Yes, I think he's a terrific player that often lets himself down with a very poor end product.
The more time he has in front of goal, the worse his shot is.
He's an instinctive player with very quick feet ........................... but time and space seems to be his enemy right now.

 

[PJ87]

Yes we rate him and I would say highly rate him.
He’s obviously still very young and will undoubtedly improve.
Hasn’t really been the same since his bad back last year and I certainly don’t know if that’s the reason.
One thing I would say is I wouldn’t like to see him at any of the other top 5 clubs.
I also think he’s better straight through the middle rather than out left.
Needs to start getting 2 or 3 goals on a regular basis rather than the odd 1 here and there.

Very tired from doing MPs jobs for them he couldn't focus on his own job. Carrying the nation stop us imploding into a complete cess pool

 

[Beezerk]

I think a couple a changes to the starting line up from Sunday for the world cup would reep serious rewards

Pickford defo

Back 3 of Gomez maigure and stones

Wing backs of TAA and saka

Central midfield of rice and Phillips

Front 3. Grealish, sterling, Kane

Now those changes at wing back suddenly look far more attacking almost wingers who can defend

Bellingham for Phillips would be my choice. I thought Phillips had a blinding tournament but he's very limited with the ball, Rice is only a smidge better mind.

 

[PJ87]

Bellingham for Phillips would be my choice. I thought Phillips had a blinding tournament but he's very limited with the ball, Rice is only a smidge better mind.

Rice is an outstanding player who will leave us in due course for city, cheslea or utd

I'm enjoying his fantastic play whilst I can

Won so many tackles but doesn't go in dirty like some defensive midfielders reads the game well and runs himself to the ground