[Football] England being overrated again

piersa said:

We are absolutely bang average. If we get past the last 16 it will be a big achievement

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Easy 10 said:

Not really. This year, I'd say that would be par.

The group games have fallen in a nice order for us. We *should* be able to chisel out at least 4 points from the Tunisia and Panama games. It certainly wont' be pretty as they'll both park the bus, and we don't have much craft or guile to break down a massed defence, so anyone expecting us to look impressive in those games or put them to the sword will be disappointed. But I'm confident of the Belgium game being a dead rubber.

Then its likely to be Poland or Columbia, or (less likely) Japan / Senegal if there's been a shock in group H. Not easy, but hardly daunting. So IMO, the Quarter Finals would not be a big achievement at all. I'd say with that run it should be a minimum expectation.

We do of course have an infinite capacity to nause it up, and I wouldn't bet the ranch that we won't. But I am confident of QF's this time, where it will end against Germany or Brazil.

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piersa;8460683 said:

Not a chance. He has taken a squad for 3 at the back, not only in his defenders but also his midfield choices.

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piersa said:

We rarely meet expectation in major competition. We generally fly through qualification with the odd exception. While Southgate has done better than I thought he would, I can see him reverting to a flat back four. Time will tell and I am forever hopeful of a decent run, if not expecting one.

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Perkino said:

10-12 years ago we had an unbelievable squad of players with only the left of midfield being a weakness with Joe Cole being played out of position. Every other footballer was playing in their favored position for a top side and some potentially in the top 5 for that position. We didn't even make the semi-finals and lost everytime we played a decent side.

Now we are a shadow of the side who between them had several premier league winners medals as well as a few champions league winners. Now we have no real stand out talents but expect to win against lesser, better organised and disciplined opposition. We have no chance of winning and will probably be knocked out in the group stages as there are no world-class players in our side and they don't have the capacity to battle against the best

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Easy 10 said:

I disagree. I'm finding myself dangerously optimistic this year. Last time in Brazil, with us starting off against Italy and then Uruguay, I was not confident of getting out of that group at all, particularly with all the usual heat and humidity excuses. This time, I can't help it...I THINK we're actually going to do alright.

(Feel free to quote this and throw it back in my FACE when we stuff it up and end up needing to turn Belgium over to progress).

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Bold Seagull said:

This did make me smile, I thought here we go, someone bigging us up all the way.......to the 1/4s!

I agree, if they suddenly believe in themselves a bit, a 1/4 final place would have to be considered a big success. My big fear is so many of our players lose the ball too much. Rashford, Stirling, Alli, Lingard, Welbeck – all effective in the PL, but ball retention is generally poor. I think we'll play okay, but find it very tough.

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Easy 10 said:

I disagree. I'm finding myself dangerously optimistic this year. Last time in Brazil, with us starting off against Italy and then Uruguay, I was not confident of getting out of that group at all, particularly with all the usual heat and humidity excuses. This time, I can't help it...I THINK we're actually going to do alright.

(Feel free to quote this and throw it back in my FACE when we stuff it up and end up needing to turn Belgium over to progress).

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piersa said:

I would desperately love you to come back to me and mercilessly taunt me about how wrong I was, accompanied by a picture of Harold Kane, with the trophy aloft. I just cannot see us in the last 8. We are experts in failure at big tournaments.

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Easy 10 said:

If we don't make the last 8 this time, we might as well permanently retire the England team from International tournaments.

We've practically got a BYE

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piersa said:

Three words for you:

Rica Iceland Costa.

Add Panama to that and we are in an absolute world of detritus

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Easy 10 said:

Rica Costa doesn't count, that was just a dead rubber.

Iceland was an aberration. We'll have LEARNED from it.

Probably.

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