Archive for the ‘The World Cup’ Category

Southgate Persists With Management Style Which Can Only Be Described As Solskjær-esque!

Posted: September 29, 2022 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The Nations League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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As England manager, the choice of decent centre backs is extensive. The England manager also has a wide variety of left backs at his disposal.

Manchester United’s manager, realistically, has to choose from four centre backs to fill two positions and two left backs for that one position. Given his limited options why would Erik ten Hag choose to start with Varane and Martinez whilst benching Maguire and Lindelof? Also, why would he choose to start Malacia over Shaw?

Having comfortably lost their first two games of the season, the above players became the manager’s preferred choice and, apart from a European hiccup when he reverted to the prior selection, United have not lost a game since.

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Maradona And Swearing, What An Unlikely Combination!

Posted: November 29, 2020 in European Football, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The Nations League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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It has been a relatively quiet period in the football world just lately. We have taken advantage of this lull by doing…….absolutely nothing! We haven’t had reports from every international game just to perpetuate the boredom always brought on during an international break. We haven’t invented a few thousand transfer rumours linking every top club with every single player available, or otherwise.

We have just sat back and relaxed whilst not watching England fail to advance in a European competition, (nothing new or exciting about that)!

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More On That Nomination, José’s Woes And Chelsea’s Dodgy Dealings

Posted: July 26, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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sandk

So Gareth Southgate is up for a gong. Having taken his mediocre team, which would struggle in the Premier League, to a World Cup semi-final he is now being tipped to be given the FIFA Coach of the Year award.

So what are the qualifications for this nomination? Well, apparently, not very many. He only beat teams who are ranked below his team except one. It was, unfortunately for Gawpy Gareth, the important one which prevented England undeservedly reaching their first World Cup final for 52 years. He didn’t beat a nation ranked above his team even after having been given two bites at the cherry, one of which was against their reserves.

So naturally, he should be given an award for his achievement. (more…)

More From England’s World Cup Viewpoint And Corruption At Stamford Bridge Is Alive And Well (Allegedly)

Posted: July 16, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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EF

(England supporters strike a pose which has become all-too familiar over the last 50-odd years)

Now that the dust has settled on England’s World Cup success/failure, do we really have a team capable of winning a future tournament?

On the evidence of this one the answer has to be a pretty emphatic NO.

Even the “experts” are finally starting to come round to our way of thinking which, all along, has been that this was an average England team and they put in some very poor performances on their way to fourth place. (more…)

More On England’s “Successful” World Cup, A Couple Of Transfers + Chelsea Have Found Another Mug To Manage Their Team

Posted: July 15, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Transfers
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After tomorrow there will probably be very few articles on the subject of the World Cup. The winner will have been decided and, hopefully, Croatia will have collected the trophy for the first time ever. The alternative is another four years of French strutting and preening which, while not unusual, would definitely be more annoying.

Today, England met Belgium in the meaningless third placed play-off game. A game into which the England manager was trying to inject some life. He was doing so by trying to convince a very dubious public and an even more dubious WSA, that the game was not meaningless. (more…)

More On England’s Next, (And Last), World Cup Game And Manchester United Should Forget About Willian

Posted: July 14, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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evb

It doesn’t really matter whether England finish third or fourth. For them, the World Cup is over. FIFA prolonging their stay in Russia is more like a punishment rather than any prestigious ending to the competition.

On the positive side, the game on Saturday gives England’s reserves a chance for some revenge on Belgium’s reserves for the 1-0 beating they handed out in the group stage. On the negative side, nobody cares.

The result of that game, which decided who won the group and who finished second, was the biggest mistake made by the two teams. Had they contrived to let England win the group then the team would probably have lost in the quarter-final to Brazil. (more…)

More From England’s Loss And An Unexpected Twist In The Transfer Window

Posted: July 13, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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elc

England finally reverted to type. Having beaten the team four places below them in the world rankings to reach the semi-final they then went out, quite tamely, to the team eight places below them.

In fairness, they have made massive strides forward by getting this far in a World Cup but, also in fairness, they came a cropper as soon as they met a decent team.

Forget Belgium in the group stage. That wasn’t a competitive game. It was a game between two reserve teams who had seen their senior players already qualify for the next stage. So the first real test was against Sweden and they passed with flying colours. They passed mainly because Sweden failed to work out the English system. (more…)

More World Cup Woe For Belgium And A Couple Of Big Deals

Posted: July 12, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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su

Well that was quite a day! Belgium can now look forward to trying to be the third best team at this World Cup when, in actual fact, they were probably the best albeit with a manager who didn’t know it.

They created very little in their semi-final defeat to France and, apart from a couple of shots from distance, the French defence coped very well and relatively easily with anything the Belgians threw at them, which wasn’t very much. (more…)

More From THAT Semi-Final, Manchester And Some Transfer Activity At Last!

Posted: July 11, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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pj

It’s not a bad time to be Mancunian at the moment. The city itself is far and away the best in Britain and would do well, if it were possible, to sever all ties with those idiots in Westminster who think that life begins and ends in London.

The weather is hot and sunny, the two Manchester Premier League clubs are the best two teams in Britain, Lancashire have just beaten Northants in a T20 double header at Old Trafford and England are in the World Cup semi-final.

Now, some of our more discerning readers may be wondering what the last bit about England being in the World Cup semi-final has to do with Manchester but there are tenuous links. (more…)

More On England’s Immediate Future And Less On The Transfer Window With Nothing Much Happening!

Posted: July 10, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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wc

Win one more game and England are there! They will be participating in their first World Cup final since 1966.

Why is that? Do they suddenly have a team better than the one which included Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne? Are they a notch up from the Alan Shearer generation which included the likes of Paul Scholes and David Beckham? How about the team of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard? (more…)

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