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WORLD CUP 2018 - Matchday Thread


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Some excellent well thought out posts.

We simply ran out of steam. Couldn't believe how knackered we looked after half time. Croatia looked good to be fair, especially after the break.

Henderson

Trippier

Maguire

Stones

Pickford

Those were the pick of the bunch for me. Even though Kane will win the golden boot, I thought he was bang average, Ali was invisible and sterling.... Well, just what we expected.

All in all,  not bad at all and it's been a fantastic 3 weeks.

 

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54 minutes ago, RUMBELOWS91 said:

There's no waythe FA can demand the PL must pay money from transfers and wages into grass roots football. I agree with The sentiment- in fact a few weeks ago I said exactly the same should happen and showed how much difference just 1% of wages filtered down would make- but it would have to be a goodwill gesture.

 

The FA are the governing body of football in this country, they could choose to implement whatever they wanted on the Premier League. The Prem might not like it, but the FA could do it if they really wanted. Failing that, the Government could do something like impose a transfer tax on clubs. It could be done if the will was there. 

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58 minutes ago, swfc-dan said:

 

I watched it in Sheff on the big screen, had a distant view mind! Wasn't Kanes missed chance which hit the post offside? Either way we clearly didn't deserve to win. Knew our midfield would be our weakness and it finally showed, no players comfortable receiving ball in tight area and keeping possession, and no one to play creative passes to hurt the opposition. Whereas Croatia are full of them, and I'm not even sure we saw Kovacic all night, another very talent midfielder.

  

Most of the team did well over the tournament and can hold their heads up high. Thought Dele Alli was garbage though, aside from one header he's been a ghost the whole tournament- what does he ever offer? Never should have kept his place, Loftus Cheek would've been a better option with more power and pace or even Dier to shore things up. Alli doesn't put tackles in, doesnt show for the ball and gives it a way a lot, he's a hugely overrated footballer coming off a poor year for Spurs.

 

Pickford, Maguire and Trippier were the pick of our lot I thought and should be very pleased with how they did. At least it was a world cup campaign not ending in utter humiliation for once. We did as well as good have been expected with this crop of players, over achieved in terms of a semi-final but that was purely down to the draw.

 

No. Think the linesman flagged for a goalkick (incorrectly) when the ball looped over the bar. But he was onside, so would've been overturned by VAR even if he had flagged for offside. 

 

To be fair to England's midfield last night, when they had the support of Trippier and Young in the 1st half, they could press and stifle Croatia. Their pressing in the 1st half was textbook. 

 

Unfortunately, collectively, they ran out of legs (and mind) alarmingly quickly. As soon as Trippier and Young in particular, dropped back and because a static back five, Alli and Lingard simply could not live with Croatia's fantastic three man midfield, as well as the overloads created by the rampaging full backs. Our left side with an ageing Young and an immobile Maguire was a concern of mine at the outset, but up until last night, we've had no team come out and have a real go at us. Versaijko ran Young ragged and Rebic dragged Henderson and Maguire to places their didn't want to go. 

 

I said it at the time last night, and my opinion hasn't changed, Rose should've been brought on earlier to ensure we had legs down that left hand side. And once it was clear Croatia were dominating and overloading down both flanks time and time again, a switch to a 4-1-4-1/4-2-3-1 was a necessity. That could've been done without substituting our best player, Sterling, instead taking off Trippier (who was running on empty) and bringing on a Delph or Dier. Southgate has received a lot of plaudits, and rightly so. But last night, I didn't think he reacted to what was happening on the field. The substitution to bring on Rashford for Sterling was baffling. 

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1 hour ago, swfc-dan said:

Wasn't Kanes missed chance which hit the post offside?

 

20 minutes ago, frastheowl said:

No. Think the linesman flagged for a goalkick (incorrectly) when the ball looped over the bar. But he was onside, so would've been overturned by VAR even if he had flagged for offside. 

 

Pretty sure the flag was up for offside - incorrectly

Linesmen are keeping their flags down in the event of a goal being scored, and had Kane scored VAR would surely have allowed the goal to stand

But the ball went out for a corner so the linesman flagged for offside instead ... smuck!

 

BBC stats show two efforts on target for England - Trippier's goal and (presumably) Stone's header in extra time

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17 minutes ago, Ethel The Tree said:

 

 

Pretty sure the flag was up for offside - incorrectly

Linesmen are keeping their flags down in the event of a goal being scored, and had Kane scored VAR would surely have allowed the goal to stand

 But the ball went out for a corner so the linesman flagged for offside instead ... smuck!

  

BBC stats show two efforts on target for England - Trippier's goal and (presumably) Stone's header in extra time

 

Maybe. 

 

Pretty irrelevant either way.

 

He should have squared it...or score it. And we'd be looking forward to a World Cup Final now! 

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biggest opportunity in 52 years to get to a world cup final and we royally blow it 

massively disappointed today and cant see England winning a world cup again in my life time.

 

 

over reaction maybe but lets face it ,weve not exactly played anyone brilliant to get to the semis ,so for me weve underachieved not getting to the final 

 

 

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1 hour ago, welsOwl74 said:

biggest opportunity in 52 years to get to a world cup final and we royally blow it 

massively disappointed today and cant see England winning a world cup again in my life time.

 

 

over reaction maybe but lets face it ,weve not exactly played anyone brilliant to get to the semis ,so for me weve underachieved not getting to the final 

 

 

 

We have absolutely no chance of winning it in your lifetime given you sound like you'll be chucking yoursen under a bus before the final on Sunday.

 

Man up and cheer up ffs. They're only young and we weren't far off.

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2 hours ago, welsOwl74 said:

cant see England winning a world cup again in my life time.



I'm disappointed too but literally nobody can realistically make that statement as nobody knows what is going to happen


*disclaimer if you're over 90 years old and/or in terminal ill health obviously your statement probably applies*

 

lol

 

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, welsOwl74 said:

........biggest opportunity in 52 years to get to a world cup final and we royally blow it .....

........over reaction maybe but lets face it, we've not exactly played anyone brilliant to get to the semis, so for me we've underachieved not getting to the final 

 

 

 

....this....- also we . hardly had anyone to beat in the qualifying.

 

Thought that Keane (talking to Ian Wright and the other pundits) got it exactly right when he said that everyone ought to get over themselves by the way that they were eulogising the team and manager. He said they'd done ok, but that's about it.... and the inference that they were a young team and would catch up/get better, had to be balanced against improvements in other teams - none of those teams will be standing still either.

 

Some of the stuff from the commentators was toe curling.....Hoddle (on a Trippier cross that came to nothing) "that was the best cross of the tournament" - totally ignoring crosses that actually led to goals - you couldn't make it up.....

 

 

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12 hours ago, 83owl said:

Completely agree. Bang average team that’s strong at set pieces. Midfield is especially poor with nobody capable of controlling a game. Gifted a route to the semis so I don’t think they have overachieved as the first decent team we have played have knocked us out. This Wednesday team would have qualified from that group.

 

No they wouldn’t 

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5 hours ago, welsOwl74 said:

biggest opportunity in 52 years to get to a world cup final and we royally blow it 

massively disappointed today and cant see England winning a world cup again in my life time.

 

 

over reaction maybe but lets face it ,weve not exactly played anyone brilliant to get to the semis ,so for me weve underachieved not getting to the final 

 

 

Underachieved not getting to the final...... really?  You can only play who you are scheduled to play. Made no difference in the other groups. Germany, spain, brazil, argentina didnt make it to the semis either yet England underachieved!

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Still annoyed a day later, all the talk of doing us proud a work in progress the simple truth is we threw away the best choice we’ve had of reaching a final and potentially winning it 

The game should have been over by half time but even at one up we shouldn’t have collapsed the way we did. Tactical naivelty inability to change the flow of the game the lack of managerial nouse when we needed to be proactive 

Dont get me wrong we’ve improved but we’re still miles off winning anything Southgate hopefully will learn so will the players but we need some leadership on the pitch and the FA need to realise the work isn’t done it’s just started 

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