PaulHartman71

To be fair if they’re actually doing penalties for any draw in the group stage then that makes the 3 team group thing much more palatable and exciting IMO

To be fair could they theoretically have: 12pm kick off 2.30pm kick off 5pm kick off 7.30 pm kick off 10pm kickoff Lot of games kick off at 10PM in Spain anyway

Covered earlier but this is a crazy situation Guessing he’s been told to not play out like that but just refused then the manager is fair enough for making a big call. Can’t have a player not following tactical instructions.

The best thing about the extra teams is definitely more African sides. They’re the hardest done by IMO. This World Cup alone you’ve got no Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast or Algeria who all have pretty decent sides. The drop off between the sides who qualified isn’t much at all. Same with Europe and South America. It’s the extra Asian sides and North American teams plus New Zealand guaranteed a slot that drop the quality. Obviously fair to have it split evenly and maybe at some point in the next few decades with all the money Asia at least improves to a better quality.

Guess what they’ve gone with is probably fairer and better than 12 groups of 4, with either best four 2nd place sides going though or a 1 match playoff between the eight 2nd place sides as that adds a game and massively helps 1st place sides in giving them a few days rest compared to 2nd place ones. An extra round of knockout games should be good on paper and in theory creates potential for more upsets and pressure on winning it. You do wonder how many dead rubbers there ends up being on the final day of group stages though.

Jeez, that dressing room must be an absolute state.

Interesting to see what they do with Russia. My guess is they end up in Asian qualifying even if the Asian sides don’t want them there. Can’t really see how they stay in UEFA for club or international football. Makes it much easier for them to qualify for future world cups anyway you would think.

@GunmaN1905 That Japan performance…

How have Japan not scored there

Swiss boss just needs to put that picture up on the whiteboard before their game…

He could feasibly match Pele’s 12 goals by the end of this tournament alone

Against the run of play but poses a test and bit of pressure back on France. Can’t see past a 2/3-1 French win though personally.

France have been relentless so far. Hard to see how any team keeps a clean sheet against them when they’re going forward with this much intensity. So much more lively than we were last night.

One of the irritating things when out of touch people in high positions in football talk about kids not liking football anymore. They just can’t ****ing watch it. If you put football on free TV then people will watch it. Champions League and Premier League official viewing figures only going to drop off in the next few years as more and more people have less and less disposable income.

I do wonder if Maddison lied about the extent of his injury to still go. Taking him over a fully fit Bowen for example seems a bit of a weird call given Maddison is hardly a regular.

I didn’t catch the Denmark game so not sure about that, but I did expect more from Tunisia. Just never really got going and were unlucky not to be out of sight by the time they actually did get going.

Seemed very naive. Could’ve squared it or just ran out time at the corner flag. A better team would punish you for that.

Tunisia have actually looked a half decent side in the last 10-15 minutes. Can’t expect to get a point in a World Cup game turning up for 15 minutes though.

I’d be throwing money at Tuchel before looking at Pochettino. I’m not sure he would take it but I think it’s worth asking the question and making him a serious offer.

It might be that he’s being instructed not to do that but just seemed so many times we wasted possession by knocking it long, clearing it or kicking it out when we could’ve progressed it instead. I rate Declan Rice but feel the £100M player tags are a bit rich based on that performance, there were 20 minute spells where you didn’t even notice he was playing. Turner doesn’t even start for us and I don’t think he’s that good really but you could see the Arteta influence as every time he was trying to play out from the back and be positive when he had the ball for them.

Interviews from Southgate, Kane and Maguire were really uninspiring. All making out like it was a good result against a tough side. Nothing against USA but they’re a bang average side who offered virtually nothing going forward. I can’t see how in a scenario where Arteta, Pep or Klopp are manager they’re not coming out and saying the performance wasn’t poor and not good enough. I don’t get even really get what we were trying to do in the game. We weren’t really pressing at all. It’s like Southgate wanted to play out from the back but half the time Pickford is hitting it long or Maguire and Stones are passing it among themselves before passing it to a full back and hoping for something to happen. Kane playing so deep he’s in defensive midfield half the time so when we do knock it long nobody is up there. I don’t get why he’s doing that. He doesn’t do that for Spurs right? So I can’t see why or how Southgate would want him to drop as deep as he does. I know people like Pickford for England but if you want to play out from the back and actually create stuff he has to start Ramsdale. He won’t. And I accept Pickford is a better old school goalkeeper but ultimately Pickford can’t hit it 60 yards and find Saka or Sterling at their feet. Ramsdale can. White should also be involved IMO in some capacity. And what does Foden have to do get a game ffs.

Couldn’t even tell you who they had upfront other than Pulisic. Shocking performance.

Saka weren’t great to be fair sorry Gizzy I retract my reporting

Why are we playing it long when only Kane is a target up there

Wenger In.