England blast Panama and Group H reveals itself as most intriguing with its diverse participants.
The first two groups complete today. Group A is done apart from who’s first and second.
Group B will probably still finish with the two favourites going through but you never know.
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Morning and thanks Chas
Will that pic be enough to cheer up . Eddie? I hope so..
I’ve got nine blody hours of travel today, so thank goodness we have pointless wc games.
Wasn’t it Germany and Austria who once played out (or rather, didn’t play) a convenient draw in the last group game?
that’s zaza, the ugliest dog on the planet. poor bitch
nothing can fooking cheer me up.
40 milion people, generation built like athletes, all tall, strong, healthy and not one bloody team cannot be assembled out of them. They let the country down and I hope they will be shot dead upon arrival at Chopin Airport later on loday.
Actually, they should be made walk back home, twats
So it’s not just a game then Eddie 🙂
of course not!!! especially in russia! our national pride was at stake ffs
i am going to check the polish press soon, see what they have to say about the fiasco
ok, the press are already ripping polish team apart. Lewandowski admitted that Colombia were too good for them. He said they gave their best but were outplayed fair and square.
both groups tonight have already been decided, matches are simply formalities
Afternoon all. Not been around for much of the general chit chat. I don’t know too much about Poland Eddie aside from a couple more household names. Did the players let you down? Did the manager not get the best out of what he had available? Or are Poland just going through a lack of genuine talent phase in their football?
This WC is an interesting one in that, aside from a couple of countries, the big teams are not getting it all their own way. Who would have thought that we would enter the final group games with Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Portugal all in danger of not progressing with both Argentina and Germany in a very tricky position. There are probably the 4 pre-tournament favourites to win it in that list.
I had a brief look back at the reactions to Jack leaving and feel very similarly to GIE. I never disguised my feeling that I thought Jack was always a bit of a unique talent as an English player. I get the injury side of things but tend to feel that it has been overused as a reason to let him go over the last 12 months. He featured in 38 games last season, not all as a starter, and averaged around 60 minutes a game overall. Not bad stats.
Then we come to the idea he hasn’t proved himself. Personally I thought he was more often than not one of the brighter sparks in a poorly functioning team last year, and I think he is the stand out player in a specific type of CM role, that being the link CM that plays between the ACM’s and holding midfielder.
I feel he is the best player we have (had) in that position and we are making a similar mistake to Southgate with England. It seems to me that when justifying his inclusion or not for both England and Arsenal the wrong comparisons are being made with the wrong players. I still potentially think that Wilshere will be missed for England in that link role when we face better opposition in the knockout phase.
He shouldn’t be compared with Ramsey, Henderson, Sterling, Alli, Lingard. His strength and best position is different from theirs. It seems we mostly compare him with Ramsey. If you want a goal scoring midfielder, fair enough go for Ramsey, but Ramsey often has to play very high to be effective in this role.
That is ok if the set-up is built around that but if Ramsey is down for the BTB role between defence and attack then he will often abandon his post and leave a hole in CM. Also I question the need for him to play so high and be a goal threat when we have the option of playing Miki behind Laca and Auba as we did against Burnley.
Jack is best when can operate in tandem with the holding midfielder and receive the ball in deeper positions, but also be the player that transitions defensive midfield positions into attacking ones by driving forwards and getting us on the front foot. In essence he needs a more disciplined HM alongside him and 3-4 attackers in front of him, then he shines.
In that role he is superior to Ozil, Miki and Ramsey in my estimation, because he seems to have better 360 degree awareness (Ozil aside) in that position to know where the opposition are and whether he can turn and go or make a pass. His awareness is better than Ramsey’s, his defensive covering is better than Ozil’s and Miki is really more suited to number 10 or wing forward.
It is those latter 3 that I feel are more similar to each other and are almost playing for the same position as far as I am concerned. They are all more number 10 types that are best in a slightly more advanced position than Jack. Jack is also better than Xhaka and Elneny in that link position so I feel we are losing our stand out player for that role.
Now I just have to hope that I am talking bolleux and that I have assessed it incorrectly. Maybe Emery has a different set up in mind that doesn’t need that part defensive part attacking link CM player. As always, (Chas 🙂 ), I hope I am wrong
question for you all: polish players are packing their bags and I am undecided which team to support now. England is studded with Mancs and spurs outfits and not one Arsenal player. I am looking for a country that has most arsenal players in – is it France or Spain? Does anyone know?
Only Ozil and Germany really but he is dropped. I would go for Iwobi and Nigeria for a bit Eddie
thanks GB
i thought the nigerian coach benched the african Messi and that is the reason they lost
no way I am supporting Germany
or Russia. or Iran.
Eddie. What about Columbia? They have terrific players, flamboyant supporters and play attacking football.
And they have Ospina.
Or Switzerland with Xhaka and Leichsteiner?
Wilshere’s injury history will always weigh against him. Especially in a high press, high energy strategy that emery apparently favours. For the kind of money he wants, the playing time he wants, and being 4th or 5th choice…..
sure Raddy, I will support country that thrashed poland, great idea.
Switzerland is ok for one or two more games. i need to pick a winner
russia losing to Urugway, joy
Why so vex Eddie
Torreira guy playing for Uruguay right now in case anyone interested
Terreira was first in the queue when they handed out the ugly pills. Still wears dental braces and is smaller than Wilshire – played well though.
vex? vex? no fred i am not vexed. I am bloody furious. i think you would be if Trinidad made it top of the group to Russia and then lost 2 first games for no good reason.
and I would like to have reasons to be proud of my country. Not just because our soldiers were brave during the war.
Does anyone else think that when you view slow motion, things look completely different to when viewed at full speed.
This VAR shit is winding me up.
Still the knobhead missed it, so justice was done.
bollox, it was a pen! Ronaldo doesn’t really dive, he is all right like that. And he was sure it was a pen
From the back you can see clearly the arab shoved Ronaldo with full force
Watching the Spain game – they love to fall over under the slightest pressure.
Nah, in full speed, Ronaldo pushes the ball forward with no intention of catching up with it, then looks for the challenge so he can dive over it.
Blatant cheating and it will only get worse with VAR because any ‘contact’ in slow motion will be deemed a pen.
We have seen that VAR doesn’t work if the refs and officials are complete numpties which, it seems, they are to a man.
Eddie, Poland and Croatia are literally brothers. We always called Pope John Paul II the Croatian pope because of his fluent croatian. It goes without saying that you need to now support Croatia.
…seven or eight tribes of nobles, which he called “Lingones”, arrived from present-day Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila’s leadership.
The results indicate that the nucleus of the early Croat state in Dalmatia was of Slavic ancestry, which arrived from the area somewhere in Poland probably along the direct route Nitra-Zalaszabar-Nin
You are linked through history and heritage to Croatia, Welcome.
Cheating Iberian bastards, the lot of them.
also Eddie, my wife’s maiden name is Koncevski
The links to Poland amongst croatians are vast
you are absolutely right VP! Come on Hrvacka!!
When I was in Croatia I could understand the language, it is very similar to polish, more than russian.
yeah, I have a team now!!
VP. That is very interesting
Excellent history, VP.
Were the ‘Lingones’ Polish aristocracy?
Spain’s defence is similar to AFC!
How can it be a ferkin penalty when his arm was 2 feet away from the header?
Preposterous
joke, bloody joke
Nope, VAR doesnt work, it is up to the ref to decide and in the case of the dickhead tonight it was a farce
France Eddie
NEW POST
Thanks Chas
Like having the decided knockout stage graphic as well, thanks
Russia ’18 is so much better than Brasil or S Africa and it’s such a shame they’ll be adding so many more shite teams to the next one
Lucas Torreira had a great game