Football

[maryportfuncity 10,235]

6 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

His ex mistress actually turned up on Thursday. There is suspicion she was paid by the press to do so.

 

 

Yeah, saw that - and why else would she have shown up? His wife and other kids were there too. 

 

Fairly lively private life all round, he faced some criticism from his club for inviting two sex workers over in the pandemic and also - allegedly - flashed himself to a woman in a Manchester bar. 

 

Cracking sprint to set up the goal the other night, mind

 

[The Old Crem 3,310]

8 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

 

 

Yeah, saw that - and why else would she have shown up? His wife and other kids were there too. 

 

Fairly lively private life all round, he faced some criticism from his club for inviting two sex workers over in the pandemic and also - allegedly - flashed himself to a woman in a Manchester bar. 

 

Cracking sprint to set up the goal the other night, mind

 

It’s amazing he still has the energy to run so fast at 34 with all the miles on his body clock.

[time 8,187]

1 hour ago, The Old Crem said:

His ex mistress actually turned up on Thursday with his love child . There is strong suspicion she was paid by the press to do so - she has an interview in the Daily Mail today.

How quaint! I didn't realise people still used that expression.

[Sly Ronnie 749]

3 hours ago, The Old Crem said:

It’s amazing he still has the energy to run so fast at 34 with all the miles on his body clock.

 

Not just on the field of play, mate!

[Master Obit 506]

Woeful. That's all.

[RoverAndOut 4,057]

Frustrating that he ended the game with the team most fans would probably have started with (and looked better).

 

Positives: topped the group, still unbeaten, haven't expended much energy (how can we have?) and same record as France down to the goal (1-0, 1-1, 0-0).

[DCI Frank Burnside 3,407]

 

[En Passant 3,206]

20 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Positives: topped the group

 

Yeah but it only took Denmark to score one against Serbia, and we'd have been facing Germany and that whole half with France and Portugal was it?

Oh, well, I'd rather be lucky than good.

 

And no, I still know nothing much about football, but one gets swept up in this stuff.

[Master Obit 506]

My sister on Jordan Pickford: "Has he got one of those watches that counts how many steps you've done, and he's not hit his daily goal yet?"

 

Seriously, what a shambles. Why are we constantly giving the ball to Pickford to tap to someone else? Why is he constantly demanding the ball, when he is literally the person furthest from the opposing goal? Why are we having 74% of the possession, but having precisely 0 shots that threaten the Slovenian goalkeeper? 

 

You cannot rely on the opponents not scoring as your way to victory. You have to actually score to have a chance of winning, and to do that you need to be aggressive. All it would have taken is one lucky late break from Slovenia and we would have lost and been facing Germany.

 

Being aggressive carries risks, and means you'll lose possession sometimes. Having a really high possession percentage almost always means you were far too passive.

[En Passant 3,206]

Since I know precisely zero more about football than I did 11 minutes ago.....I'll pontificate some more.

 

One has to feel that we'll probably play better against a better side, you know one not playing 4-4-2 (Oh look at him with his formation knowledge!) for a draw with their lacklustre 57th placed team.

Football eh? (mis-quoting some other oft repeated parable)

[wannamaker 1,180]

Was gonna say that I was thankful that I didn't support the England national team, since all the matches have been very dull, but then I remembered that my own country played one of the most boring matches I've seen a few days ago...

[maryportfuncity 10,235]

I'll throw in the observation that two things marking out the Euros for me are major teams looking tired and unimpressive. Italy are defending champions and until 30 secs from the end last night their fans were jeering them and pelting the pitch with empty beer glasses, then Italy strung  few passes together and scored. The only team who look like worthy winners so far are Spain (and our only chance of facing them now is to make the final).  

 

Secondly, nobody in any dugout appears to have a new tactical idea so good it's making a difference, loads of percentage stuff, reliance on major players (of whom very few are on top form), or standard set piece moves. 

 

 

[The Old Crem 3,310]

Sean Dyche will be the next manager. 

[RoverAndOut 4,057]

30 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

I'll throw in the observation that two things marking out the Euros for me are major teams looking tired and unimpressive. Italy are defending champions and until 30 secs from the end last night their fans were jeering them and pelting the pitch with empty beer glasses, then Italy strung  few passes together and scored. The only team who look like worthy winners so far are Spain (and our only chance of facing them now is to make the final).  

 

Secondly, nobody in any dugout appears to have a new tactical idea so good it's making a difference, loads of percentage stuff, reliance on major players (of whom very few are on top form), or standard set piece moves. 

 

I considered making this point too. Even Spain only won 1-0 against Albania last night. Germany looked pale in comparison to the Scotland opener on Sunday. France have flattered to deceive so far (yes, Mbappe got injured but even in the first game, they were poor). Dutch were rubbish tonight, Belgium aren't remotely guaranteed to qualify, Croatia are out, Italy have been poor, Portugal have shown glimpses but nothing more. Maybe there's something to this "too much football" argument after all, eh?

 

Then you look at Austria, who've played most of their squad and were outstanding against the Netherlands this afternoon, look at our star-studded bench and wonder - why did Gareth only make ONE change? 

[En Passant 3,206]

Right, this better be the right thread....

 

Much as I've lately moaned about The Guardian. This gem is gleaned from a commenter BTL with his finger on the pulse.

 

 

Quote

I just hope the “easy” side of the draw is easier than the ostensibly easy group that England didn’t ease through particularly easily.

 

[Bibliogryphon 9,062]

9 hours ago, The Old Crem said:

Sean Dyche will be the next manager. 

I'll take that, then Everton might get relegated 

[maryportfuncity 10,235]

10 hours ago, The Old Crem said:

Sean Dyche will be the next manager. 

 

 

Seriously, we might have a dilemma in a fortnight, having bored our way to a semi-final defeat in a tournament that's - by then - agreed to be dire. In those circumstances, is Southgate a safer bet than changing things? 

 

In other news, the serious football information is now in the public domain, Carlisle open their march to promotion away at Gillingham on 10 August and will obviously be top of the league by 5pm

[YoungWillz 19,863]

Phil Foden.

 

He's coming home, he's coming home...

 

https://news.sky.com/story/phil-foden-leaves-englands-euro-2024-camp-in-germany-13159437

[En Passant 3,206]

You will have to be of a certain age for this I'm afraid, or a fan of old comedy shows.

 

[RoverAndOut 4,057]

Sorry, but while I understand the frustration and agree with a lot of it, the reaction of some fans is laughable. We haven't won a thing on the men's side since 1966, had reached 1 World Cup semi and 1 Euros semi in the 50 years following and hadn't qualified from the group in the last World Cup and been knocked out by Iceland in the last Euros.

 

Since then, we've reached a World Cup semi final, a World Cup quarter final (losing to the finalists, who only lost on penalties) and lost the last Euros Final on penalties. Talent or not, we have no god given right to anything. We've qualified first from the group, are unbeaten, and none of the top teams have looked great in the final round of group games and most of them haven't really hit any great heights so far in the tournament.

 

And yet I've just watched an England fan interviewed in Cologne who said he was one of the ones booing Southgate in the front row at full time last night and he's got to go. And when further asked if that meant they should sack him during the tournament, he paused and said "yeah, I think so." What the actual fuck? We are absolutely delusional sometimes.  Deserve everything we get, the rest of the world must be laughing at us.

[ladyfiona 2,245]

All I will mention is that none of the top tiers have impressed me other than Belgium. It's the teams we don't hear about much like Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia & Romania that I like the look of.

• 7 own goals so far just in group stage
• A lot of teams being 0-0 or 1-1 and being very boring
• Mbappe broke his nose in first game, missed the second and was very nervous in the third. France don't feel top tier.
• Germany feel eh compared to their usual play

Also worth a mention the pitch isn't top quality. I've seen several games where it's been mentioned something not quite right with it.

[RoverAndOut 4,057]

2 minutes ago, ladyfiona said:

All I will mention is that none of the top tiers have impressed me other than Belgium. It's the teams we don't hear about much like Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia & Romania that I like the look of.

 

You sure about that? Beaten by Slovakia, 1-0 v Romania, should have lost in the 0-0 tonight. Of the big hitters, Spain have been the best team so far, Germany probably second best but that's probably because Scotland were so woeful. Agree that Austria were spectacular against the Netherlands.

[Master Obit 506]

I got Georgia in my work sweepstake. I thought they had absolutely no chance of being anything other than last in the group. I am now richly invested in Georgia's progress in the tournament, moreso than England's. 

 

What a performance. 

[En Passant 3,206]

8 minutes ago, Master Obit said:

I got Georgia in my work sweepstake. I thought they had absolutely no chance of being anything other than last in the group. I am now richly invested in Georgia's progress in the tournament, moreso than England's. 

 

What a performance. 

 

That's how to play. Well from an entertainment point of view anyway. CR7 looking disgruntled just the icing on the cake .

 

Romania - Slovakia was also the one of the two that took place earlier to watch it seems. A draw was good enough for both of them, but they didn't play for one until maybe the last 5-10 minutes. Fair play.

 

 

 

I really need to stfu about football, I still know 3/5ths fa about it comparative to afficionado's. But well, y'know, it's been interesting enough for a week now for me to spend 180 or 270 mins a day on it.

[ladyfiona 2,245]

I have a close friend who is from Portugal and so I had to tactful about how much I wanted Georgia to win and Ronaldo to go crying to mummy.

 

Man of the match has to be the Georgia goalkeeper as he made some excellent saves.