Jimbokav1971 Posted July 6, 2014 Share Posted July 6, 2014 So I was meant to be playing this save on the days when England were playing, but for whatever reason it just didn't work out. So here I am to finish it. I can't really remember what was going on, (other than my lobe for Leon Britton), and actually I remember Huddlestone-gate against someone or other, (Poland?) We have lots of players on yellow cards and a few players who are tired and we only lead Germany by 1 goal, (so we basically have to better their result against Costa Rica). England v Zambia. Formations. England v Zambia. Overview. England v Zambia. Match Stats. England v Zambia. England Stats. To be honest it was a walk in the park. My only issues were that Lennon was wasteful in front of goal, Austin should have had a hat-trick, (at least), the middle 3 seemed to want to play keep-ball rather than score, (isn't that what I'm asking them to do I hear you say), and Bertrand picked up a booking which I think rules him out of the next round. I was able to play a weakened line-up, (well rotate at least), and although the Germans took the lead against Costa Rica, it was 1-1 before HT and the pressure was completely off us after that. World Cup Group B Final Table. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 So the Second Round looks like this. It means that teams such as Brazil, Cameroon, (Group A), Zambia & Costa Rica, (Group B), Ireland and Jamaica, (Group C), N.Ireland and Egypt, (Group D). Uruguay and USA, (Group E), Ukraine and Mexico, (Group F), Algeria and Australia, (Group G), and finally Japan and Senegal, (Group H), have not made it out of the Group stage. We get Switzerland in the Second Round and they have both Behrami and a right back called Widmer suspended. We are without Bertrand, so Gibbs will be playing at left-back. Switzerland lost to Brazil in Group A, (but won their other 2 games). Their starting XI looks knackered though. Should be easy. Shouldn't it? England v Switzerland. Formations. There seems to be a real on-going issue with Michael Carricks fitness. I remember it being an issue before so I kept playing him, bit despite just playing another full 90 minutes he is still struggling for match fitness. He played 45 mins against Germany, and 90 minutes against Zambia and it doesn't seem to have had much of an impact. Just about everyone apart from Ruddy and Britton get rotated in/out, (although Parker keeps his place after I took him off early on against Zambia after scoring). Buggar. I don't often look at this but in the build-up to the match I notice that the ref has given 5 red cards and 38 yellow cards in 5 games this season. He's going to hate us isn't he. Do I stick with it and gamble that we will get a goal before he shows us a red card? Decisons decisions. Meh! He can't KEEP sending players off can he...... It takes him 1 min 44 secs to show his 1st card, (to them not us). I have a feeling this could get messy. Well that's 6 out of 6 for Mr Stark. lol On the plus side, Clyne did injure their player in getting the red so it was 10v10 anyway during injury time. We weren't good at all, but they scored with their 1st attack and that put us up against it. I think what happened was that my aggressive tactics backfired in 2 different ways. Firstly of course we had Clyne sent off, (who was only subbed on to stop Chambers getting sent off), and secondly, because Switzerland were a particularly feisty bunch and I think they took to the aggressive nature of the game better than we did, (despite it being my idea). Anyway, on to the next round as they say. England v Switzerland. Overview. England v Switzerland. Match Stats. England v Switzerland. England Stats. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 I have mentioned our aggressive tactics already and I am of the opinion that the game tries to replicate/mirror what the human manager does in certain circumstances, (it's not as simplistic as that but it's hard to explain). Anyway, there have been 32 games in the World Cup so far. In those 32 games there have been 13 red cards. Now I see this as symmetry because of the way we play, (even if I haven't actually had a player sent off). Germany also had a player sent off, (as they lost to S.Korea). That brings the number of red cards in this tournament to 21 so far, (in 50 games). If anyone has experienced anything at all like this before then I am all ears. It could be a complete coincidence that I just happen to be playing as aggressively as I can, but it does seem to be a hell of a big coincidence. Any thoughts? :confused: [Edit] Paraguay had a player sent off as they lost to Colombia in extra time, (so that's 22 reds in 52 games now). [Edit2] France had a player sent off as they lost to Spain on pens, (so that's 23 reds in 56 games now). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Quarter Final Fixtures. I kept with the Regista tactic against Switzerland rather than the more attacking AP tactic.In knockout football I think it's better to be just a little more reserved and if we have to chase the game, (or even go to pens), then we will. If we are going to pens I have been inspired by Lois van Gaal to make some obscure substitutions late on, (if we have them available). Rather than sub off one GK for another GK though, (Ruddy is going nowhere), I will be taking off an outfield player and replacing them with either/both of Rob Green and Jack Butland for the purposes of taking pens. (You've gotta love a goal-scoring GK. Even more so at the World Cup). Ruddy has got close with some free-kicks so far, be he is the nominated pen taker if we get one during normal time. England v Italy. Formations. Nathaniel Clyne is injured so Callum Chambers has to start at right back. Michael Carrick's Mft is still only at 80% with is puzzling, but the good news is that JWP is now free from suspension. Italy have opted with Pirlo in front of a middle 3 and 2 up front. This could both cause us problem but also leave Pirlo open to getting hoofed off the pitch by us. I'm delighted that he is playing there where we can get at him more easily. Would have hated to seem him playing further back. Half Time comes and we are 1-0 up courtesy of a Caulker header from a corner. It's all pretty boring, negative stuff, (just as we had planned), and their 2 up front just isn't working with Destro hardly getting a kick and Balotelli showing awful ball retention. Craig Noone is still crossing the ball too much. (I thought I had dealt with that before???) They start the 2nd half on fire and seem to have really upped the pace, but the first time we retain the ball, we counter and Lennon rolls a nice easy ball for Carrick to smash home for 2-0. Within 2 mins of HT ending, they already make a change as Bonaventura comes into the Pirlo AMC role and Mr Cool drops back to a deeper role. Ok. This ss more of a problem now. Where as Britton could just sit on him before and Pirlo was hardly getting a kick, now he is on the right of a middle 3 and he is going to be harder to get at. I expect him to cause us problems now. I don't really know anything about Bonaventura. They are really throwing bodies forward and none of their front 3 are making any effort to track back when we are in possession. I would much prefer they were dominating and we were countering them, but that just isn't how it is going. It's more like they are countering us. Defoe and the wrong-sided Rodriguez come on to try and freshen us up going forward and get the 3rd. Immediately Ruddy makes a mental tripple save. Wowza! I haven't seen many of them before. That really was imprressive. Now they are dominating and we are countering and it's more the pattern that I wanted. Hopefully Defoe will kill them off here. With 20 mins to go, Balotelli is replaced by Matri, but it's a straight swap and I don't expect there to be any resulting issues. Verratti is on in the middle though so I really expect them to force the ball now. With 7 mins later, Ruddy takes a poor attacking free-kick on the left flank and as Italy counter us it looks sure to result in a goal for them but Bonaventura fires wide from distance with the goal gaping and Ruddy well out of position. They will never score now if they couldn't convert that. England v Italy. Overview. England v Italy. Match Stats. England v Italy.England Stats. The smart money is on a Spain v Argentina final, but wouldn't it be great for it to be England v South Korea? Will be back when the Semi's are played, (so that's tomorrow I think). Come on South Korea! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted July 7, 2014 Share Posted July 7, 2014 Germany also had a player sent off, (as they lost to S.Korea). That brings the number of red cards in this tournament to 21 so far, (in 50 games). If anyone has experienced anything at all like this before then I am all ears. It could be a complete coincidence that I just happen to be playing as aggressively as I can, but it does seem to be a hell of a big coincidence. Any thoughts? :confused: [Edit] Paraguay had a player sent off as they lost to Colombia in extra time, (so that's 22 reds in 52 games now). [Edit2] France had a player sent off as they lost to Spain on pens, (so that's 23 reds in 56 games now). The Dutch have a man sent off as Argentina beat them 1-0, (so that's 24 red cards in 60 games now). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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