Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

1 minute ago, kirku said:

Watched his illness and injury ravaged 1.5 XI get dominated for 80mins and dragged them into ET from 2 goals down. Then scored the most pressurised penalty you can think of in ET and scores in the shootout. 

Phenomenal.

If he'd been born in Preston instead of Paris, things might've been quite different..

Yeah, Southgate would’ve benched him 😜

and tbf he didn’t play for 80 minutes he was in the pitch! 

Edited December 19, 2022 by SwearyCanary

[kirku 1,334]

3 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Think Kane is to be fair.

If England had the 2006 central defenders, so Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Sol Campbell instead of the current crop, then I'd think it's a genuinely top-tier side. Until then England are gatekeepers for me.

EDIT: By gatekeeper I'm using boxing parlance - a gatekeeper is a fighter that's close to winning world titles but not quite there, but will reliably beat those who won't make it at all. England's sub-standard spine is what makes them so, IMO. It's also why that attacking talent can't be fully unleashed.

Good analogy - I agree.

I don't think Kane is quite at the level to directly change games against other top teams in the way the truly special players do, though.

[kirku 1,334]

1 minute ago, SwearyCanary said:

Yeah, Southgate would’ve benched him 😜

and tbf he didn’t play for 80 minutes he was in the pitch! 

Don't worry, we've got Olise waiting in the wings. Surely he's not French as well...

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

Just now, kirku said:

Good analogy - I agree.

I don't think Kane is quite at the level to directly change games against other top teams in the way the truly special players do, though.

He is if he gets the ball in places where he can strike. I'm not going to readily praise Giroud as being almost the same standard as the man he replaced in Benzema (who is undoubtedly elite as this year's Ballon d'Or winner) without recognising that Kane, a not dissimilar striker who's also top (or joint) top scorer for his country, is clearly at a similar level, not to mention younger.

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

1 minute ago, kirku said:

Don't worry, we've got Olise waiting in the wings. Surely he's not French as well...

Did he pick France or just avoid Southgate’s England? 

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

6 minutes ago, SwearyCanary said:

Yeah, Southgate would’ve benched him 😜

and tbf he didn’t play for 80 minutes he was in the pitch! 

F***, I can't add another laugh comment for that edit. 😄😄

[kirku 1,334]

3 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

He is if he gets the ball in places where he can strike. I'm not going to readily praise Giroud as being almost the same standard as the man he replaced in Benzema (who is undoubtedly elite as this year's Ballon d'Or winner) without recognising that Kane, a not dissimilar striker who's also top (or joint) top scorer for his country, is clearly at a similar level, not to mention younger.

Similar but not the same. Kane has yet to impact top tier games in the way Benzema has. And so consistently as well.

His penalty miss might be indicative of that?

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

Just now, kirku said:

Similar but not the same. Kane has yet to impact top tier games in the way Benzema has. And so consistently as well.

His penalty miss might be indicative of that?

Easier at Real Madrid than Spurs though. Easier with France than England too.

[kirku 1,334]

3 minutes ago, SwearyCanary said:

Did he pick France or just avoid Southgate’s England? 

He was scared off by the vast talent pool available to England.

He took one look at Jarrod Bowen and immediately WhatsApped Deschamps saying, "I'll take my chances with Coman!"

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

Just now, TheGunnShow said:

F***, I can't add another laugh comment for that edit. 😄😄

The edit was just an illustration that the super elite are a rare breed, they can change a game in 10 minutes having spent most of it affecting nothing. I’m not refuting he is unbelievably quality, just imagine how it could’ve been if Di Maria stayed on and Argentina continued putting France on the back foot 

[kirku 1,334]

1 minute ago, TheGunnShow said:

Easier at Real Madrid than Spurs though. Easier with France than England too.

RM is make or break. It's broken many.

He's not played anywhere near as much for France as he should've - because he's a massive massive ****

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

2 minutes ago, kirku said:

He was scared off by the vast talent pool available to England.

He took one look at Jarrod Bowen and immediately WhatsApped Deschamps saying, "I'll take my chances with Coman!"

But does Coman take his chances? 

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

1 minute ago, SwearyCanary said:

The edit was just an illustration that the super elite are a rare breed, they can change a game in 10 minutes having spent most of it affecting nothing. I’m not refuting he is unbelievably quality, just imagine how it could’ve been if Di Maria stayed on and Argentina continued putting France on the back foot 

Definitely agree with the first bit, Di Maria was tiring a bit and Deschamps pulled a couple of good double substitutions out of the bag. Dembele had an absolute mare and the ball wasn't sticking with Giroud.

[kirku 1,334]

4 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Definitely agree with the first bit, Di Maria was tiring a bit and Deschamps pulled a couple of good double substitutions out of the bag. Dembele had an absolute mare and the ball wasn't sticking with Giroud.

Dembele was dreadful. Had a really poor tournament.

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

Just thought I'd look at this depth argument in more detail and thought "what was the squad when a reasonable but essentially makeweight Hungary side smashed open England's back door at Wembley like a pornstar with a midfield containing the Barnsley Matty Cash in Bury-born Callum Styles?"

Ramsdale; Walker, Stones, Guehi, James; Gallagher, Phillips, Bellingham; Bowen, Kane, Saka.

And the one that got outdone in Budapest:

Pickford; Maguire, Coady, Walker; Justin, Rice, Bellingham, Alexander-Arnold; Mount, Kane, Bowen.

And the one that threw away a 3-3 against one of the poorest Germany sides in recent history (similar problem to England, not enough defensive ballast and worse still, lacking a proper number nine. Schlotterbeck and Süle must be the weakest CB pairing they have had in ages).

Pope; Stones, Dier, Maguire; James, Bellingham, Rice, Shaw; Foden, Sterling, Kane.

Any side getting pumped by Hungary probably gets beat by the USA, who gave a full-strength England side a very tough test. The depth's not there.




 

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

On 17/12/2022 at 22:51, Robert N. LiM said:

The good news is that Southgate is staying as England manager so at least we're spared the spectacle of people on here complaining that they don't want the best England coach of the last 50 years coming to our club.

Club management and international management is chalk and cheese, completely different skillset.

I saw a compelling post the other day arguing that Brendan Rodgers would be a terrible international manager because he's a "training ground manager", so works by getting out on the training pitches constantly working on tactics and developing players.

International managers get players for a couple of days. 

Farke was a training ground manager also.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

12 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Just thought I'd look at this depth argument in more detail and thought "what was the squad when a reasonable but essentially makeweight Hungary side smashed open England's back door at Wembley like a pornstar with a midfield containing the Barnsley Matty Cash in Bury-born Callum Styles?"

Think you might have crossed wires.

Matty Cash plays for Poland, not Hungary, and just played in this world cup tournament... for Poland.

He has never played for Hungary.

[TheGunnShow 5,985]

4 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Think you might have crossed wires.

Matty Cash plays for Poland, not Hungary, and just played in this world cup tournament... for Poland.

He has never played for Hungary.

Nope. I used that comparison as Matty Cash (born in that famous Polish city of Slough 😉 ) was another who you'd never think would qualify for the country he plays for with Poland, but he does. Styles is one you'd never think would be eligible to play for Hungary (after all, he's born in Bury, so here I am near the Hungarian border, apparently), but he does.

Edited December 20, 2022 by TheGunnShow

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

8 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Nope. I used that comparison as Matty Cash (born in that famous Polish city of Slough 😉 ) was another who you'd never think would qualify for the country he plays for with Poland, but he does. Styles is one you'd never think would be eligible to play for Hungary (after all, he's born in Bury, so here I am near the Hungarian border, apparently), but he does.

Oh I see.

Nothing that this country didn't do with Owen Hargreaves and Lennox Lewis to be fair.

[kirku 1,334]

5 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Oh I see.

Nothing that this country didn't do with Owen Hargreaves and Lennox Lewis to be fair.

Sterling, too

[KernowCanary 214]

If England won, I can only think how unbearable the media would be, with the public pushing for knighthoods.

That conga the women’s team did gate crashing their manager’s press conference after winning the Euros was total utter cringe, and I bet there would have been a repeat performance with Southgate in the press room.

If Germany won that final, you wouldn’t have seen that childish nonsense. I think we are the laughing stock of the world for many reasons and that is one of them. We already have on our shame list leaving the EU, failure from our government to control a virus and the shi*housery show that is our government for all the world to laugh at, while all of a sudden English national football teams serve as a “beautiful distraction” from it all. Oh, and theres idiots supporting strikers by shouting “Solidarity!” over and over again although the service on strike is financially affecting their businesses for example.

Alex Scott once again going on about her bronze medal and it being turned to a gold this summer…. No, two different competitions darling.

England’s women or men won’t ever be world champions in this modern age especially with Yes Men like Southgate in charge of the men and North America being a class ahead of Europe in the women’s game (thus ignoring the 1966 men’s team)……. Still….. England did win the Fair Play Trophy though!🤣🤣🤣🤣.

“WE’RE NICE AND WE KNOW WE ARE!”🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Edited December 20, 2022 by KernowCanary

[Robert N. LiM 4,464]

On 20/12/2022 at 09:01, TeemuVanBasten said:

Club management and international management is chalk and cheese, completely different skillset.

I saw a compelling post the other day arguing that Brendan Rodgers would be a terrible international manager because he's a "training ground manager", so works by getting out on the training pitches constantly working on tactics and developing players.

International managers get players for a couple of days. 

Farke was a training ground manager also.

Yeah, that's a totally fair point. Though there still seems to be a bewildering number of people who are not making this nuanced argument, but seem to just think that Southgate is rubbish.