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Russia World Cup 18


Bjornebye
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Looks to have been about as good a World Cup as we could have hoped for.

 

Lovren and Henderson aside none of our players have really stacked up loads of games/minutes.

 

No injuries.

 

A lot of our rivals best players are stuck out there for the maximum possible time.

 

Ingerlund squad full of Spurs, Mancs and Belgium same with key Chelsea players too....France has a couple of Chelsea as well.

 

Gonna be some real disruption to those teams at start of season assuming they will be looking at 3 weeks holiday then you are talking back at clubs just 1 week before season starts.

 

Could work out very nicely for us that.

I don't get this thought process at all. The season starts in 3 weeks. Liverpool will be having preseason games in that time...
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They say the worst word in sport is 'gallant' as it is almost always followed by the phrase 'in defeat'.

 

England were gallant.

 

When describing Scottish sporting performance, it is mandatory in this country to use the word 'brave'.

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I don't get this thought process at all. The season starts in 3 weeks. Liverpool will be having preseason games in that time...

Of course we will who said we won't.

 

Thr season starts in 4 weeks not 3 but anyway.

 

The point is that all the players stuck out there until the death are then gonna need/take 3 weeks holiday which means they will not return to their clubs until 1 week before season starts.

 

This is far from ideal prep for those players and their teams as after sitting on a beach for 3 weeks after slogging their guts out for a month they are not gonna be match fit/sharp as well as missing the crucial tactical work etc that pre season gives.

 

Hence me calling it good news for us as we don't have lots of players in that situation.

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Personally I do think we have got better players but I can see why people disagree. They’re a level above anything else England had played though and my point is still the same. I can’t remember the last time in a knockout game England beat a team that was as good as them or better than them on paper never mind getting beat by teams that are worse. They never over achieve and it’s always down to the managers doing stupid things. They had good enough players to beat Croatia but didn’t.

 

 

This was a big opportunity missed but a huge improvement for England on the Euro, instead of getting knocked out 2-1 after taking the lead in the last 16 by a nation of 350,000 they got knocked out 2-1 after taking the lead by a nation of 4.1 million in the last 4. 

 

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Of course we will who said we won't.

 

Thr season starts in 4 weeks not 3 but anyway.

 

The point is that all the players stuck out there until the death are then gonna need/take 3 weeks holiday which means they will not return to their clubs until 1 week before season starts.

 

This is far from ideal prep for those players and their teams as after sitting on a beach for 3 weeks after slogging their guts out for a month they are not gonna be match fit/sharp as well as missing the crucial tactical work etc that pre season gives.

 

Hence me calling it good news for us as we don't have lots of players in that situation.

Hooray some opponents will get less than ideal preparation for the season
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Not as gallant as Australia.

 

Nor as gallant as Lovren, who's about to play in a World Cup Final for his pissant country (which only cobbled itself together football-wise barely 25 years ago) - and lose

 

Yet some of us, who support and love the club he plays for (football-wise much older, more successful and gracious than the country he represents) seem to think it is a palatable irony.

 

Best supporters in the world we are.

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The Balkan nations seem to over-achieve at sport. Must be a combination of genetics, climate and coaching.

 

 

The latter is so important in Balkan make-up.  Attention to detail, technique and discipline.

 

And ironic, considering our propensity for white-hot intemperance.

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The latter is so important in Balkan make-up. Attention to detail, technique and discipline.

 

And ironic, considering our propensity for white-hot intemperance.

There has to be a cultural respect for that from the fathers too - something that seems to be missing from Anglo-Saxon countries.

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There has to be a cultural respect for that from the fathers too - something that seems to be missing from Anglo-Saxon countries.

 

 

Indeed.

But being something of an "Anglo-Saxonophile" myself, I quite often would be partial to the perhaps less-claustrophobic, laissez-aller approach of Anglo-Saxons fathers.

 

The psychological grass is always greener....

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I was referring to those slagging Croatia, saying they are shite and someone who hated Modric because his face was gaunt.

 

I've followed England in internationals competitions since 1976, even though I'm Australian.

 

My Dad is Croatian, so whether it's cool or not, I have a connection.

I hope whoever wins that semi final goes on to win the competition.

If anything, I find it curious why it's cool NOT to support England, even though one might actually be English....

 

Just to clarify.

Who said it was 'cool' not to support England? It's nothing to do with being radical and more to do with what and who they represent. I have always been really pissed off that those twats at the FA didn't get anywhere near the amount of culpability as they should have over events in 1989 either. I have little emotional investment in international football and have always considered myself British with an Irish heritage. I think there are a fair amount of Merseysiders who probably feel similar but may have other reasons too. It's not about 'coolness' to me,it's about other and more important reasons, for me at least.

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Who said it was 'cool' not to support England? It's nothing to do with being radical and more to do with what and who they represent. I have always been really pissed off that those twats at the FA didn't get anywhere near the amount of culpability as they should have over events in 1989 either.

The absolute knots people tie themselves in to justify hatred of their national side. Almost none of this squad were even alive in 1989.

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The absolute knots people tie themselves in to justify hatred of their national side. Almost none of this squad were even alive in 1989.

I hate the establishment surrounding it and couldn't give a shite who plays for them as I've no time for it. Unsurprising for you to be contrary to events that happened in 1989 too!

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Got to hold my hands up and admit I got it wrong. Initially, I was very sceptical about the football God's decision to let England beat Colombia; I felt strongly that the sheer amount of cheating by the latter made them the best choice.

 

However, in light of the PM and Prince William posting defiant messages on Twitter I can now see that I was wrong. Having England go out in the semi final means that we get both immediate enjoyment(Kane crying, empty and distraught fan parks, barely audible Tyledsley) and set up future storylines(Euro 20 and Qatar 22) very well.

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