FIFA World Cup 2014

[xer0s]

Actually I did watch the game. And it wasn't basically a home game, it was a home game...

[seremtan]

germany v ghana is a cracking game

[PhoeniX]

Yeah. That's the pace that all football needs to be. Can't stand the slow paced games that most teams seem to play.

Shame Ghana didn't take it the end, they appeared to play brilliantly.

[seremtan]

That was basically a home game for Argentina

uh, no. that's like saying that Italy playing at Wembley is a 'home game', i.e. not remotely

[Captain]

I think having 100,000 Argentinians taking a bus to their neighbouring country and giving full support to their home team classifies as a "home game atmosphere".

[PhoeniX]

Good luck with this one, America .

[xer0s]

Well, that was a roller coaster. Moving on...

[losCHUNK]

yes but why though? how come a nation of >50m people who love soccerball can't produce 22 tournament-quality players? there's something gone wrong somewhere

i don't buy this "too many foreign players in the premiership" excuse. clubs buy the best players they can afford; clearly the English players on offer can't compete

There's nothing wrong with the players imo, they're not the best group in the WC but they're more than capable of achieving the knockout stages, which if you can achieve then you are good enough to win the tournament - Hart, Sturridge, Sterling, Cahill, Johnson, Gerrard, Rooney, Henderson have all competed at the highest level.... Wellbeck, Baines, Jageilka, Lallana have had good to excellent seasons for their teams and with the exception of Wellbeck were the stand out players in a struggling team in the top flight of the PL and achieving good positions because of them - Everton (Baines and Jageilka) only just missed out on a top 4 place to long term CL qualifying team Arsenal and Lallana is in the middle of a 25mil bid to 2nd place Liverpool because of his influence in getting a team promoted to the top flight last season and achieving a top 10 finish this season.

The problem imo starts with the FA, then onto to the manager who I've slagged off since his time at Liverpool and his shitty tactics, he has a habit of lowering standards / expectations and claim that the squad he has is actually over achieving, much like Moyes with the UTD job, then the training at youth, but the problems all come from the top down.

The English FA are fucking useless and the speed at which they backed Hodgson (Greg Dyke) despite having 2 years to prepare for this tournament and going out on the back of 2 defeats without any kind of reflection is testament to how clueless the monkeys really are. They want a manager like Roy in charge, a politician rather than a manager who won't rock the boat as they sit back and watch the pennies flow into the piggy bank, they want a manager who will bend over backwards if they aren't happy with team selections / tactics and someone who will easily divert the blame when shit doesn't go there way. They even managed to crush Capello, someone who has won everything at club level but was destroyed by the English press and FA because of his hardline approach to the game before eventually quitting as a bitch, his predeccessor Steve McLaren was a disaster, an obvious one at that and was someone who couldn't protect himself from the press like Roy could. It really is a farce and I'm surprised English fans put up with it.

Now onto Roy, with the amount of Liverpool players in the squad I was actually looking forward to see how well England do but watching a group of young players squashed into an archaic 2 banks of 4 was depressing on the eyes. The only 2 teams in the PL that play 4-2-3-1 are Man City and Arsenal, of which no outfield players from these clubs featured in the WC (Milner, Oxlade Chamberlain, Wilshire) but insisted on playing this formation, one goal of this formation is to turn the 4-2-3-1 into a 4-5-2 out of possession and strangling the midfield but his idea was to revert to 4-4-2 and shoe horning players into positions that are even more alien to them. Gerrards best position is to play a deep laying playmaker, having players running off him so that a pass can be made and providing cover for the back 4, Hodgson deployed him in a 2 man midfield as box to box player, a 33 year old that's meant to cover the length of the pitch continuously throughout the game is stupid as fuck, he's never really excelled in a 2 man midfield unless he has the support from someone like Xabi Alonso because of his habit to steam forward / backwards leaving a hole to fill behind him but in any case he hasn't been able to do this since he turned 30 because of the legwork required. Henderson was deployed as a holding player and limiting his ability to get forward, his ideal role is the position Gerrard was occupying in the WC, making late runs off the holding midfielder into the box then tracking back for cover. Rooney was deployed on the left, then in the centre where he just isn't creative enough and his ideal position is a deep lying forward with a partner, Sturridge was played in his ideal position but really needed a partner but he was too busy on the left wing (Rooney) with another on the right (Wellbeck) Sterlings best position is behind the strikers or out wide and told to cut inside and link up play like in his 1st game but for some reason was told to stay wide and run at the defence against Uruguay.

There;s other things, like not playing a split defence, this isn't so bad but when you got 2 midfielders sitting in front of the 2 defenders then doing this just results in those 4 tripping over each others feet.

It astronishes that Hodgson can get away with this with his reputation intact and that the FA can keep beating the same drum and still watch money fall into their pockets.

[xer0s]

That's a lot of text...

[losCHUNK]

There's a shitload more to say but blaming the quality of the players is just a scape goat for the FA, they will never win anything until a overhaul at the top takes place.

[menkent]

how in hell does bradley cough up the fucking ball in midfield with 20sec left and a one goal lead????? JUST BOOT IT DOWN TO THEIR END YOU FUCKWIT!

[seremtan]

suddenly the thread's turned into a pub

any ideas on who would a) be better than Hodgson, and b) want the job (so no Mourinho)

[Eraser]

[losCHUNK]

suddenly the thread's turned into a pub

any ideas on who would a) be better than Hodgson, and b) want the job (so no Mourinho)

As far as English managers go there aren't any, redknapp maybe, Eddie howe at Bournemouth would be good but possibly a little too young to take up the reigns now. You'd have to go foreign IMO, someone like pochettino now at spurs or de boer of Ajax if availiable would be ideal I reckon, young and progressive, id like see martinez of everton but i doubt hed leave now, maybe in 2016 when roys chased off but let's be honest there's tribes in Africa who have never heard of the word football that can point at concussed children and provide a good case to appoint them over Hodgson.

[MKJ]

Weeee. Dat 2nd goal.

[Eraser]

[fKd]

So, did you see that ludicrous display last night?

[seremtan]

i know that's from something but i can't remember what

[fKd]

The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in!

[seremtan]

I.T. Crowd?

[U4EA]

What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early?

[Ryoki]

Regarding Holland - Chile: wasn't much fun to watch but i'm impressed... that was a complete strategic victory by van Gaal. Expertly contained the Chileans for most of the match and when they got increasingly desperate and confused in the last bit of the match wham, bring creative & fast subs to kill them off. Jesus... we might actually go far - the consensus here was we'd probably not even survive the group round. Also; excellent ref, best i've seen so far. Fucking inca's and their diving culture.

Regarding Croatia - Mexico: was rooting for the Mexicans as i felt their fans were some of the best - but then it was explained to me that they shout 'PUTO!' and not 'FOOTBALL!' (as i first thought) everytime there's a goalkick by the keeper. Which means 'FAG!' apparently... which explains that weird hand shakey thing that accompanies it i guess. Not so sure about em now, that's a bit dubious really :/ Still glad to see em beat Croatia though, which is not an attractive playing team at all.

[Eraser]

Regarding Holland - Chile: wasn't much fun to watch but i'm impressed... that was a complete strategic victory by van Gaal.

Many people complain that the Dutch team isn't playing pretty football and that it's not like it was in '74 and '78 et all. But I don't understand these complaints. Do you play to look pretty or do you play to win? Besides, to think that playing in exactly the same way as you did more than 30 years ago will bring you success is just extremely naive.

I wouldn't care if Holland turns into a 100% counter team. If that brings home the big prize, let's go for it.

Also; excellent ref, best i've seen so far.

Definitely. Wasn't provoked easily and just let the match play on when needed. I've seen at least half a dozen moments where most other referees would've blown their whistle and completely wrecked the pace of the game, for nothing.

[MKJ]

I agree on that ref, he was awesome.

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

Italy out of the World Cup makes PuFF very happy.