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Football World Cup 2018 Discussions


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It will be a complete shit show with loads of crowd trouble and monkey chants each time a black player touches the ball........its basically being staged in 1978

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I know that is what the press in the West has been making it out to be, however i highly doubt this will be the case. The worse world cup for me was the South African one due to that terrible trumpet they were blowing that basically killed any atmosphere, i was watching games in silent mode. The actual quality of football was also crappy there from what i remember, i think Spain was winning all the games 1-0 or something.

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The russians were complete dickheads at Euro 2016 and fought everyone they could find until they were eliminated, they had to worry about foreign police and the locals there but it will be a free for all on home turf.....i will be amazed if there are no deaths or life changing injuries.

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I'm heading over for it from Australia. Really looking forward to it and i'm not worried at all about potential violence. I'm sure the Russian authorities won't want to be embarrassed and will keep everyone in line. The racist chants might unfortunately be a different story.

 

Saying that if I was an England supporter in might be slightly more hesitant after the euros.

 

Agree about South Africa mentor. Before and after games was great fun but those vuvuzelas (shit horns) made the games pretty tedious.

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I don't reckon there'll be much violence. The police/army will be all over it because the world's media will be watching. Should be a great thing to experience!

 

Germany, Spain have top teams. Other countries have a lot of class - France, Italy, Brazil. A lot might depend on who's managing them. From an England point of view I've been pleasantly surprised by Gareth Southgate, picking young hungry players he knows from the age groups. We'll still do shit though.

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I don't reckon there'll be much violence. The police/army will be all over it because the world's media will be watching. Should be a great thing to experience!

 

Germany, Spain have top teams. Other countries have a lot of class - France, Italy, Brazil. A lot might depend on who's managing them. From an England point of view I've been pleasantly surprised by Gareth Southgate, picking young hungry players he knows from the age groups. We'll still do shit though.

I think Italy might be a longshot :)

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I don't reckon there'll be much violence. The police/army will be all over it because the world's media will be watching. Should be a great thing to experience!

 

Germany, Spain have top teams. Other countries have a lot of class - France, Italy, Brazil. A lot might depend on who's managing them. From an England point of view I've been pleasantly surprised by Gareth Southgate, picking young hungry players he knows from the age groups. We'll still do shit though.

I am probably being biased as a newcastle fan but Lascelles and Shelvey should have at least been on the standby list, saying that i am from a scottish family that live in wales so i hope england dont make it past the group stage.

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I am probably being biased as a newcastle fan but Lascelles and Shelvey should have at least been on the standby list, saying that i am from a scottish family that live in wales so i hope england dont make it past the group stage.

Lascelles imo should have definitely been in the squad

 

Shelvey is a consistency question for me, but at the same point, on his day he is exactly the kind of player England need to break down tough defences. Given our tournament history, I wouldn't view it as a risk to take him to Russia as well

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Lascelles imo should have definitely been in the squad

 

Shelvey is a consistency question for me, but at the same point, on his day he is exactly the kind of player England need to break down tough defences. Given our tournament history, I wouldn't view it as a risk to take him to Russia as well

Shelvey probably missed out due to his anger issues but he should have gone in place of Loftus-Cheek, Lascelles has been the driving force behind the promotion and solid first season back in the top flight........he will probably leave for a top 4 club when the transfer window opens

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I know that is what the press in the West has been making it out to be, however i highly doubt this will be the case. The worse world cup for me was the South African one due to that terrible trumpet they were blowing that basically killed any atmosphere, i was watching games in silent mode. The actual quality of football was also crappy there from what i remember, i think Spain was winning all the games 1-0 or something.

 

The 2010 WC had some nice games though. Uruguay's run was epic, Germany and Argentina built great hype and at least there was something new with Spain's tiki-taka; The 2006 WC was the one that was atrocious. the only things I recall are the near brawls in Holland vs. Portugal and Zidane's headbutt.

 

This year I believe Germany will make it to the finals but lose to some surprise team. I would like to see Argentina win just to shut up the people who try to downplay Messi due to him not winning a WC.

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Shelvey probably missed out due to his anger issues but he should have gone in place of Loftus-Cheek, Lascelles has been the driving force behind the promotion and solid first season back in the top flight........he will probably leave for a top 4 club when the transfer window opens

Tbh, I might be missing something, but it seems like we got 1 full back extra than is really needed for the standard 2 players to a position so I would probably have traded that in for the extra spot in Midfield instead for Shelvey.

 

Full Squad just for reference

 

GK - Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope

 

DF - Ashley Young (LB), Danny Rose (LB), Fabian Delph (LB)* Gary Cahill (CB), John Stones (CB), Phil Jones (CB), Harry Maguire (CB), Trent Alexander-Arnold (RB), Kieran Trippier (RB), Kyle Walker (RB)

 

MF and FW (Both mixed really) - Eric Dier (CM), Jordan Henderson (CM), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (CM), Dele Alli (CM), Jesse Lingard (CAM/Winger), Raheem Sterling (W), Danny Welbeck (W/ST), Jamie Vardy (ST), Harry Kane (ST), Marcus Rashford (ST)

 

*Official site has him listed as a Defender and he's played there for Man City this season

 

So overall, we got 10 players for Defence, and 10 for the Midfield and Forward roles. Southgate seems to be hoping he can avoid getting annihilated by teams and nipping something on the counter against the strong teams, while having a team that can somewhat pass and make chances against the weaker teams. Need the GK to perform if we want to have any hopes of doing well since the position has been inconsistent for a huge number of years by this point. Hart did well for a period, but hopefully the 3 younger guys can step up and claim the shirt. Tbh, Alexander-Arnold is one of the more exciting players we have in the squad, and regardless of how we do, hopefully this gives him some good experience to go on and claim the RB spot for his own. Hopeully with a Tottenham linkup of Dier, Alli and Kane in the middle we might get some consistency going, and on their day our 3 pure strikers can score for fun. Again though, comes down to how we set up as a team, and if our players actually click with each other. I'm still saying we get either Round of 16 or Quarter Finals before going out, but hopefully we get some good matches along the way.

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I dunno, but looking at that lineup now i would say that it is "solid". I mean if you take away the Keeper position and maybe the creating playmaker position, we have depth everywhere else. Even on the wings/outside forward roles where we have traditionally sucked balls most the time we have some options with Sterling, Lingard and maybe Vardy (if they decide to play him there).

 

I think our biggest problem this year is that there is a lot more REALLY good teams. Brazil is better for sure and they made it to the finals last time, Germany is Germany, France is sending one of their most talented squads in a while, Argentina seem set for something big, Belgium is the best they have ever been. Portugal are the European champs, so you cannot totally write them off and you also have Spain who are 2010 champs.

 

I see everyone has their money on Brazil, i somehow feel that won't happen, i think Germany will make it to the finals at least. I think maybe "one of the others" could surprise us and win it.

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England's team selection was very questionable. If Southgate plays two holding midfielders of Dier and Henderson, the team is in serious trouble. In general, there is quality lacking in that CM role. Alli cannot play in any role deeper than CAM, nor does he have the playmaking ability to play CAM with Henderson and Dier behind him. Loftus Cheek could bring some balance to the team playing next to Henderson or Dier, but in reality, lacks quality and defensive awareness.

 

Why Southgate would take 6 fullbacks, but 3 true CMs is baffling. You can get away with against the easier teams possibly, but the lack of playmaking ability has me concerned for potential stalemates even against the easier teams, which could spell disaster in my opinion.

 

You're right that England usually lacks quality in the wide areas, this year seems to be better than previous years, which is definitely a big positive. Even though there's only one true winger in Sterling, Rashford and Lingard can do a job, even Welbeck can in specific scenarios.

 

All in all, I think that the lack of balance in the team will cause England serious issues, the furthest I can see them getting is to the quarterfinals, though you never know. Also wouldn't be surprised to see them knocked out in R16 if they come up against Colombia, though that match could go either way. I think England could top their group because, to be frank, I don't think Martinez knows what he's doing with Belgium, and I think they will be the underachievers of the tournament.

 

By the way Brazil didn't make it to the Final in 2014, Argentina did. I would probably have France as favorites if it wasn't for Deschamps, who I lack faith in to get the best of his squad, even though he made it to the finals of the euros. I don't think Portugal has the quality to make it past the quarters, though that's depending on who they are up against. Germany and Spain are the favorites for me, leaning more towards Spain as I think they have the most balanced, quality side.

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I think the problems England has are typical problems England usually has. We almost always have a problem with the Keeper position, i think the last time we had a Keeper who was considered "elite" in his prime at a WC goes back to Banks. England almost always has a problem with left sided players especially wingers. I think the last time we had an Elite left sided winger it was McManaman, i guess Sterling is the closest we had in a while for a player who can play left. England has had good attacking (or scoring) midfielders, but we almost always struggle with creative midfielders.

 

On the other hand, when it comes to DC, DM, Box to Box, scoring midfielders or Strikers, we often have some of the best players, we often do OK in full backs but balance is ALWAYS a problem. I think our woes have to do with the way players are trained in England, we train them to be hard working, gritty players, our Keeper training clearly sucks balls. We rarely have anyone willing to dribble, how we let Zaha play for an African team is beyond me.

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