Russia World Cup 18

[Captain Turdseye]

Was Didier Desmond Champs a "humble water carrier" as the commentators were banging on about? It might be Gazetta Football Italia tinted specs but I remember him being a fantastic footballer

Said the same to my boy during the game and he pointed out that I told him weeks ago to ignore anything that comes out of Martin Keown’s mouth.

[Hades]

Comfortable win for Africa FC. Another death knell for nationalism.

 

International football is a fun diversion for the casuals. Now the purists can enjoy the real stuff.

[Jose Jones]

Was Didier Desmond Champs a "humble water carrier" as the commentators were banging on about? It might be Gazetta Football Italia tinted specs but I remember him being a fantastic footballer

Cantona came up with that as an insult, because Deschamps might have kept him out of the French team.

[Raymond Duck]

Hmmmm. A reasonable game of football spoiled by a wank commentary. Surely in this 21st high tech world, Sky can offer a commentary free game? Or the ability to switch off the commentary?

 

Fans don’t shell out big money to go to games to listen to wank commentaries.

 

Disgusted in my lack of consumer choice.

Try the mute button?

[m0e]

VAR wasn't the problem.

 

A lack of common sense was, and always has been where refs are concerned.

 

Proportionally speaking, the more we show them in retrospect, the more opportunities we have for them to show this to be true.

[sir roger]

Cantona came up with that as an insult, because Deschamps might have kept him out of the French team.

 

I am sure Deschamps spent all last night wishing he had jibbed football & was a poundland Depardieu in dodgy French fims.

[VladimirIlyich]

Kane is boss, and of. He is what he is, a world class penalty box predator. He's not a Messi or a Ronaldo, but who cares?

 

Players like him are a dying breed. Fowler, Shearer type strikers and come along once or twice in a generation at best.

 

Genuinely don't think he'd be suited to the way Klopp plays, but he's absolutely world class.

Not world class for me at all. A superb goalscorer but that overused 'world class' moniker belongs to very few in my opinion. I think both Fowler and Shearer were great goalscorers too but not world class.

[cloggypop]

Let him kip on your couch then

Just imagine that cunt snoring

[Jay86]

Kane is boss, and of. He is what he is, a world class penalty box predator. He's not a Messi or a Ronaldo, but who cares?

 

Players like him are a dying breed. Fowler, Shearer type strikers and come along once or twice in a generation at best.

 

Genuinely don't think he'd be suited to the way Klopp plays, but he's absolutely world class.

He is boss at scoring goals, the point I was making however was that unless he starts scoring 50-60 goals a season like Ronaldo and Messi any team he plays for will not win anything. He’s too self obsessed with scoring goals to sacrifice himself for the team so in turn he HAS to be the goal scorer, he didn’t for a second give a flying fuck how him claiming that goal would affect Eriksen and the rest of his team but he kept banging on until he got his way.

 

Look if he scored 60 goals next season I’d be pretty certain Tottenham would win a trophy or two but the way it stands right now, him being Tottenham’s only real player who scores goals scoring 30 a season is not enough to turn them into a winning team, if he scored 20 but freed up space by making unselfish runs or passed instead of shooting from ridiculous angles for Son, Alli, Eriksen etc to all score close to 20 each they’d be in a hell of a lot better position than if they all scored 10 and he got 30 for himself.

 

He’s a world class goal scorer and that’s it. If he played in a team where it wasn’t all centred around his needs then I think he’d become a better around player. You could even argue that Son is way more suited to the way Poch wants Tottenham to play but because Harry Kane is already there and scored he has to play. Similarly to what happened with Coutinho here, he’s that good that he had to play but it always felt like Klopp was shoehorning him in and trying to find a place for him, now our midfield and attack will look a hell of a lot better with him not in it.

[Jay86]

The handball rule is basically fucked at the moment. Nobody knows exactly what is handball and what’s not, I mean how many times is a handball actually deliberate?

 

The rule should be unless the ref deems that the player with the ball deliberately kicks the ball at the opposition’s hand then whenever it hits an arm or hand it should be handball especially if it stops an attack whether it’s accidental or not. Like with a slip for example, if you accidentally slipped and pulled down a striker down it would be given as a fouled even though it’s a complete accident because you’ve prevented an attack from forming. I reckon there’s a deliberate handball once every 2/3 years so there should never be handballs given. Was it Mina who gave that one away for a penalty because he had his hands above his head and it hit his hand? That was a stonewaller but I don’t think he thought I’ll punch this away.

[TheHowieLama]

 I reckon there’s a deliberate handball once every 2/3 years so there should never be handballs given.

 

Luis Suarez liked this

[LFC 6 Times]

Absolutely agree the definition of the rule must change, only deliberate handballs are ones like Suarez, Neville and Nicky butt, literally last chance saloon putting all eggs ok the pen being saved. The ambiguity is ruining the game.

[Ashberry]

The system needs fine tuning, I'd rather keep the match referee out of video replay because many of the decisions are so contentious. I'd say have a jury of three video referees and if all three agree then they overrule the match referee's call. This way the referee has authority unless there is something clear that he has missed, there won't be the breakup of play and there also won't be the teams begging the ref to review VAR

[Guest Alex_K]

Amazing lack of French in Moscow. Had maybe 5, 10k in the stadium. Two or three times as many Croatians. Huge shame - victory for Mourinho esque football. Convinced Subsasic still had a hamstring injury — could barely move for any of the goals & France trying from range all game.

 

All players associated with LFC this decade must feel cursed. UEFA Cup, European Cup, World Cup defeats on the bounce for Lovren? Played well enough in all of them.

 

EDIT: when the dust settles and people realise England were pretty terrible opposition considering, maybe they’ll think the France set up would have been better for that team. Sit deep, play long and often to the quick forwards. Instead of trying to play possession based football with jokers like Dier, Lingard and a half fit Ali dictating play.

[Moo]

Bloody hell imagine the state of the game if every handball, deliberate or not, was given. Players would have to keep their arms at their sides or behind their backs at nearly all times. Imagine trying to jump with your arms at your side, or defend a corner with them behind your back. I dread to think but am imagining a giant game of pogo jumping.

[Arnaud]

France did not play like Chelsea or United. They played like the Juve deschamps captained in the the late 90’ : strong defensive unite, good spirit, skills in midfield, excellence in attack , and a constant search for pace.

[ATXRED]

I would have thought the complete opposite. There was some contact on Griezmann was there not? If that had been in the box and VAR had been called, I'd say there's a very high chance the ref gives a penalty. It seems to me that VAR has increased the chances of any contact equalling a foul.

My problem with this is he's already falling before the contact happens. That makes it a dive for me. I don't think contact happens if he keeps running.

[Jay86]

Bloody hell imagine the state of the game if every handball, deliberate or not, was given. Players would have to keep their arms at their sides or behind their backs at nearly all times. Imagine trying to jump with your arms at your side, or defend a corner with them behind your back. I dread to think but am imagining a giant game of pogo jumping.

How often does it actually hit and arm during a game though? It doesn’t even happen in every match so I don’t think it would make that much of a difference and tbh it would be a hell of a lot better than it is now because I watch tons of football and literally have no idea what the actual rule is! I’ve seen one given then exactly the same thing happen again and it not given.

[Jairzinho]

France did not play like Chelsea or United. They played like the Juve deschamps captained in the the late 90’ : strong defensive unite, good spirit, skills in midfield, excellence in attack , and a constant search for pace.

 

Catenacciocalciopoli.

[Section_31]

Erm, Kane got the golden boot. Rooney did fuck all in an England shirt his entire career. Saying Kane isn't world class because he can't dribble and score is mental.

[Lee909]

Kane is a world class scorer. But as much as the English mrdia and spurs fan want to push it he isnt in the same class of Salah,Messi,Suarez or even Bale.

 

They do so much more than score.

[Guest]

 

[aRdja]

Kane is a world class scorer. But as much as the English mrdia and spurs fan want to push it he isnt in the same class of Salah,Messi,Suarez or even Bale.

 

They do so much more than score.

Kane is in the same class as Salah IMO, as he’s proven it over a few seasons. Mo still has it all to prove whether he could do it year in year out.

[Section_31]

The definition of what's world class shouldn't be that narrow, Hyppia was a world class centre back but didn't bring the ball out like Lilian Thuram, he was just a different player. Shearer was world class but didn't dribble past people like OG Ronaldo, 

[A_S]

I'm still amazed fuck all has been said about the lack of an offside call on Pogba. If people thought the handball rule is struggling, then the offside rule is utterly fucked.