Hazzaj
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Posts posted by Hazzaj
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9 minutes ago, Yuko said:
Not sure where to put this, as I see talks of some rivalry fixture.
Who does England National Team consider to be their rivals?
as an England fan:
Scotland, regardless of how good or bad their team is and where both of us are competitively, will always be the big one for me - or at least this rivalry has a unique edge to it that no other teams have, others might have more of a recent competitive history, but no others go quite as deep on both sides.
Also Croatia I think is worth bringing up as a recent competitive rival, matches with them have tended to be important punctuation marks in both our countries' footballing history, both teams have had the upper hands on different days and rarely have the games been without some sort of incident or intrigue.
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22 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:
...I know I'm Southgate's biggest fan on here but I honestly don't know what people want from him.
Absolutely beggars belief that someone wants Chris Wilder phoned on Wednesday morning if we lose.
I suppose what I was on about was more who we should look at if we were to lose badly, as in how we played vs them in 2010, rather than if we played decently in a close game and lost by the odd goal or on penalties.
You're quite right in some sense and I agree that in terms of man-management, Southgate's been a marked improvement over his predecessors, and he's also shown an ability to think creatively and be flexible with his tactics. However, he's not also without his weaknesses. At major tournaments so far, it's been common for England to start games really well, but rarely look good for a whole ninety minutes. Often England will look a lot more vulnerable in the second half of games as they start to cede control of midfield, and Southgate's ability to adapt his team in-game and use substitutes effectively is also somewhat dubious.
I'm far from calling for his head right now, but I think if England put in a performance against Germany that shows the team hasn't really progressed significantly in the last three years, then I think his job has to come under a bit of question, naturally.
...
As for Wilder being merely a 'pashun merchant' as if he'd not transformed a group of League 1 and Championship plodders into a tactically innovative and highly organised outfit that upset a lot of good Premier League teams on what was by far the smallest budget in the division...
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13 minutes ago, ajw10 said:
how many club managers become successful international managers?
there's a few: Scolari for instance won everything with Grêmio before winning the World Cup with Brazil, del Bosque was European Champion with Real Madrid before he managed Spain, similarly Aragonés won the league with Atleti, albeit in the 70s... and let's not forget the job Mancini's doing right now with Italy!
I think both Potter and Chris Wilder would make decent appointments should it all end in tears on the 29th - certainly I don't think it should be too hard to do better than Lampard at least.
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Even as someone who doesn't mind Southgate that much I can scarcely think of a worse time to make such an announcement. Trust the bloody FA...
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Spoiler
-England- Nov '16 | D 2-2 | v Spain (7) Mar '17 | L 0-1 | v Germany (3) Jun '17 | L 2-3 | v France (7) Nov '17 | D 0-0 | v Germany (3) Nov '17 | D 0-0 | v Brazil (1) Jun '18 | L 0-1 | v Belgium (6) Jul '18 | L 1-2 | v Croatia (9) Jul '18 | L 0-2 | v Belgium (3) Sep '18 | L 1-2 | v Spain (4) Oct '18 | D 0-0 | v Croatia (9) Oct '18 | W 3-2 | v Spain (4) Nov '18 | W 2-1 | v Croatia (10) Jun '19 | L 1-3 | v Netherlands (6) Oct '20 | W 2-1 | v Belgium (1) Nov '20 | L 0-2 | v Belgium (2) W3 D4 L8 [W3 D1 L6 excl. friendlies] v Top 10 teams (as rated by Elo) -Germany- Nov '16 | D 0-0 | v Italy (8) Nov '16 | W 1-0 | v England (9) Jun '17 | D 1-1 | v Chile (5) Jun '17 | W 1-0 | v Mexico (10) Jul '17 | W 1-0 | v Chile (8) Nov '17 | D 0-0 | v England (10) Nov '17 | D 2-2 | v France (6) Mar '18 | D 1-1 | v Spain (3) Mar '18 | L 0-1 | v Brazil (1) Sep '18 | D 0-0 | v France (1) Oct '18 | L 0-3 | v Netherlands (10) Oct '18 | L 1-2 | v France (2) Nov '18 | D 2-2 | v Netherlands (5) Mar '19 | W 3-2 | v Netherlands (5) Sep '19 | L 2-4 | v Netherlands (7) Sep '20 | D 1-1 | v Spain (4) Nov '20 | L 0-6 | v Spain (4) Jun '21 | D 1-1 | v Denmark (9) Jun '21 | L 0-1 | v France (3) Jun '21 | W 4-2 | v Portugal (4) W5 D9 L6 [W4 D4 L5 excl. friendlies] v Top 10 teams (as rated by Elo)
Just to give a bit more context to the above, I dug up both England and Germany's record v top ten nations since Southgate's appointment, neither look particularly impressive, though England do at least have 3 wins in their last 5 (after initially going 10 without one!)
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1 hour ago, The Amazing Dale Watkins said:
People leaving out de Bruyne in their lineups
Is that because he only played 135 minutes?
Pretty much, and also due to the fact that to me he seemed to have two really great moments within that time (though the assist and goal v Denmark were both hallmarks of a player of the highest quality) , rather than being a consistent transformative element to his team. Needs to do a little bit more for me to get into the tournament's best XI, otherwise I think you can just as easily include Forsberg or Modrić for their respective contributions.
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1 hour ago, skybluedave said:
If you compare him to his predecessors then is doing quite a good job. But a lot depends on Tuesday. If he knocks out Germany he's probably the best manager we've had since Bobby Robson
He'd be the first manager to ever win a single-legged knockout match in normal time with England at a Euros, let's not forget.
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1 hour ago, Carambau said:
Why was Lainer even mentioned? And not once, twice?!?
(it was just me!)
I thought he'd done enough v Ukraine and N Macedonia to sneak in over Dumfries, who although he's scored a couple had also been able to play most of his games unchallenged on his flank in attack, and showed his defensive frailties a bit in the Ukraine game.
Who do you reckon should get that spot?
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would go for something like this myself:
Olsen;
Lainer, Christensen, Stones, Spinazzola;
Locatelli, Jorginho, Pedri;
Wijnaldum, Pogba;
Lukakudoes feel a bit weird to omit the top scorer in the competition so far, but it does feel a bit like a Harry Kane situation from the last world cup, wherein if you were to ignore the penalties, his contributions haven't actually stood out *that* much. Could include Lewandowski instead but I think in general we've seen midfielders stand out more than strikers so far.
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Round of 16
Saturday 26 June
Wales vs Denmark (17:00, Amsterdam) 0-2 *
Italy vs Austria (20:00, London) 2-0Sunday 27 June
Netherlands vs Czech Republic (17:00, Budapest) 2-1
Belgium vs Portugal (20:00, Seville) 1-1, 5-4 PKsMonday 28 June
Croatia vs Spain (17:00, Copenhagen) 1-1, 4-3 PKs
France vs Switzerland (20:00, Bucharest) 3-0Tuesday 29 June
England vs Germany (17:00, London) 2-1
Sweden vs Ukraine (20:00, Glasgow) 1-0How many penalties will be scored in total: 19
How many matches will go to extra time: 3
How many matches will go to penalties: 2
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Just now, Norfair said:
You really think Den-Wal is more one sided than Ita-Aus?
Yeah, genuinely, though Italy v Austria is probs the next one down from that, I guess purely because Austria have the tools in midfield to test Italy in the way none of their group stage opponents have managed to so far. I could totally see Austria on their very best day cause all kinds of problems in the middle of the park, especially as Bonucci isn't the best at defending in a CB pair.
Whereas with Denmark - they just look like a very cohesive team with multiple players capable of creating chances, both through the fullbacks and through the midfielders, even shorn of their best creative midfielder. Rodon aside, Wales don't look that convincing in defence and I just think it'll be too easy for Denmark to grab control of the game in midfield and leave Wales relying on Dan James as the outlet for periodic ounterattacks. Sure, Wales have the individual quality in Ramsey and Bale to maybe steal the game, but if you replay this fixture 10 times, in 8 of them Denmark should win comfortably, if that makes sense.
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4 hours ago, skybluedave said:
I'm not sure on Denmark as much as everyone here. Wales have looked good for me so far. And there is something about Wales where I just can't write them off. I think this is pretty close coin flip type deal
to me Denmark over Wales and France v Switzerland seem the two most one-sided ties in the Ro16. Can't forget Denmark were a little unlucky not to beat Belgium in the groups, were not for the star quality of de Bruyne and Lukaku to dig their opponents out. Wales have only really looked good against a Turkish side who've been the worst in the tournament so far.
Happy to be proven wrong though.
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2 minutes ago, EnterUsernameHere said:
I know his role in the team. I'm just not convinced you need both him and Phillips in the team together.
To be honest I wasn't a big fan of him for West Ham either, the price tag on his head is ludicrous from what I've watched of him.
Perhaps not, but it's got England the results they need so far, and it's not as if any of their opponents were mugs either - all three of them had put 2 goals past England in a competitive match over the past few years. When getting points is the order of the day I think you can understand playing it safe and grinding out the results.
Will agree that the £60m+ figures that get brought up when Rice gets talked about are pretty bananas though, but hey that's the Premier League for you.
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3 minutes ago, Haguey said:
When we dropped Beckham when Shteve "Stevie G" McClaren came in and played Shaun Wright-Phillips instead
That worked out well...
I've still not got my head around why McClaren did that. Got to be up there with one of the worst decisions a manager's made in international football this century so far.
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Rice has been a big part of the reason why none of England group opponents have created any significant chances against us from open play. He might not be as energetic as say Kanté but he's almost as important as he is in making sure it's tough to play against him through the middle.
You could say that his role is too overly cautious, but something that's often overlooked when it comes to discussing how strong England's squad supposedly is, is the fact that we don't have a player of the class of Jorginho, Kimmich or Rodri to sit at the base of midfield and not only do that defensive screening job, but progress the ball as well. Southgate's use of Rice in a more basic role is a reaction to that.
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11 minutes ago, Lucas said:
You would hope Sweden can win tomorrow, only way to put Spain on the other side of the draw.
Spain draw Slovakia and Poland beating Sweden would surely be the funniest outcome.
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feels odd to say but if anything England miss Mings a bit when it comes to defending the penalty area - just need that man in there to 'head the f***er back' to really feel safe
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So many people questioning Sterling's place in the England team and yet there he is scoring his 14th goal in 19 internationals - Southgate loves him for a good reason.
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3 minutes ago, Lucas said:
Well our defensive midfield definitely isn't. Henderson our best CM and he's not even starting.
Is Phillips really *that* much of a downgrade on him?
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think the biggest change that needs to be made though isn't so much personnel, but getting the fullbacks higher up the pitch, it worked fine against Croatia as it nullified their threat, but against a Czech team in a situation where they only need a draw to top the group, we'll want to see Walker and Shaw get up the pitch more to join the attack - especially in Shaw's case as the whole reason he's been able to resurrect his international career is due to his contributions to Man United's attacking play.
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1 minute ago, Lucas said:
is it a rule both GKs need to be named on the bench?
yes
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seems to be the rumoured lineup was indeed correct
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1 minute ago, skybluedave said:
Hearing rumours. (well bloke at work showed me a tweet) that Saka is going to start
If it's the same one I saw then it'll be : Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Rice, Phillips; Saka, Sterling, Grealish; Kane.
bit harsh to drop Mings as he'd been pretty tidy in his first two games but can see the logic in getting minutes in Maguire's legs. I must be one of the few people not really bothered about Henderson starting either; Saka and Grealith both starting does have me intrigued though.
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11 hours ago, (sic) said:
...I'd actually say I live in one of the least racist places in Europe. It really shouldn't be surprising for you that a lot of people in the Balkans dislike each other though, given the history over the past 100 years. I wouldn't call that racism though...
And really this is the crux of the issue, most people in ex-Yugoslav countries/with ex-Yu backgrounds don't even recognise that their particular brand of racism is actually racism; as much as many countries in the West also have problems with racism, the general consensus is at least that there is still something that needs to be tackled. (well, as long as we're not talking about prejudice towards Romani people...)
As long as it's still common for people to chant 'umrite siptare' or the suchlike at matches in Belgrade without anyone in the country batting an eye, the racism will persist.
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The Jack Grealish (and occasionally England) Thread: It's coming home attempt 5782570
in Euro 2020/21 Forum
Posted
Hmmm, even after the signings made I believe your wage bill was still comfortably the lowest in the league right? Just saying that with the resources put into the club, having such a bad season was always within the realms of possibility, especially when Henderson had left and O'Connell spend most of the season out, Berge missed a fair chunk of the season too if I remember right. Ampadu at CB was quite a bit of a disaster though...
Still don't think that that should tar his record as a manager too much, the PL's such an unforgiving mistress and with the level and depth of the players the club had on its books, they were somewhat fortunate to be up there in the first place.