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davieG

England v Kosovo - ST Mary's Stadium Tues @ 7.45pm (ITV)

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Posted

Do some of you remember when we were actually crap?

A World Cup semi final, followed by 5-0, 5-1, 4-0,5-3 wins in qualifying?

It wasn’t that long ago we were drawing with the likes of Montenegro and Macedonia. 

Qualifying campaigns of the 80s 90s and early 00s were never routine.

Now we are brushing aside middle of the road teams and some want Southgate’s head?

Qualifying is never easy or straight forward, but we are attaching sides and scoring goals for fun!

Relax and enjoy 

Posted

I genuinely don't give a flying ****. We all know that as soon as we play a meaningful match against decent opposition we're done. Like in the world cup. 

Posted

At least Maddison will be fresh for the Man U game and Chilwell only played today - I was hoping that we would see the most creative midfielder in the Premier League play his first international match but Southgate’s done us a favour for the weekend 

Posted

That was a good summary of everything good and everything bad about this England side. The attack can't be argued with - Kane, Sterling and Sancho is a front three that promises goals and the way we went through Kosovo time and time again in that first half was brilliant. Raheem Sterling really has turned into a world class player for me now and I think Sancho will go the same way. Kane will always score goals.

 

The defence and midfield however were an absolute shambles. It's a big concern that we can set up with on paper a pretty negative looking side and still ship three to Kosovo. I don't think we look at all organised.

 

Maguire really isn't that big a loss to us. He's an average defender but a good footballer. Eighty million for that? Ching ching.

 

Really don't get the Rice hype.

 

Maddison I'm a bit torn. I think he's extremely unlucky to have still never been capped by England. To never have been given a run out at any point is really quite hard on him even if I do find this "most creative English player" stat a bit misleading (how many of those were corners we picked up against parked buses that went to nobody?). I just don't think Southgate's a big fan of him which is a shame because there's no doubting the talent. It's hard as well to bring on a relatively luxury style midfielder when you're 5-3 up in a game that was 5-1 at one point.

 

I just hope he doesn't feel like it's because he plays for us. It is a bit of a travesty that Mount's beaten him to the call.

 

Southgate I think will be shown up next summer. The front three will bail us out against the dross but that Holland game showed we can't paper over the complete absence of defensive organisation, which comes from both the defence and the midfield.

 

Finally I hope Kosovo qualify. They're a bit mental but they're ballsy, they're enjoyable, they're the kind of team that make tournaments better. Good luck to them.

Posted

Would much rather have the odd wobble (despite winning comfortably) in qualifying. Fair play to Kosovo for actually having a go instead of playing defensively and getting walloped anyway. Kosovo are much more likely to qualify by being able to actually threaten teams rather than trying to squeeze in with binary scores like Bulgaria the boring f ucks

Posted

I hate the qualifiers. We just look like a side that has gone unbeaten in qualifiers for a decade but, come a tournament, will be utter rubbish. Unless we get to play Panama, of course.

 

Mind you, I put myself through a few other qualifiers this weekend. They were pedestrian to say the least. Romania - Spain for example. If two people on the pitch were moving at the same moment in time, you noticed. Nobody wanted to pull a muscle, sprain a leg or break a sweat.

 

I honestly think the format needs looking at. I remember an idea floated years ago that sides finishing in the final 8 of a World or continental cup should automatically qualify for the next, and instead of going through qualifiers play in a competition (league/cup) against one another in the summer of the 'off' year. I suppose the problem would be whether to continue having a one-week break in the major leagues when there are qualifiers.

Posted
7 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Do some of you remember when we were actually crap?

A World Cup semi final, followed by 5-0, 5-1, 4-0,5-3 wins in qualifying?

It wasn’t that long ago we were drawing with the likes of Montenegro and Macedonia. 

Qualifying campaigns of the 80s 90s and early 00s were never routine.

Now we are brushing aside middle of the road teams and some want Southgate’s head?

Qualifying is never easy or straight forward, but we are attaching sides and scoring goals for fun!

Relax and enjoy 

 

We’re a middle of the road team, Kosovo (and most others) aren’t even close to that. 

Posted

Love the positive posts. Kosovo's first ever game was a 2-3 loss to Albania in 2010.

 

They've come a long way in 9 years, now  scoring 3 away to one of the world's elite teams. 

Posted
21 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Do some of you remember when we were actually crap?

A World Cup semi final, followed by 5-0, 5-1, 4-0,5-3 wins in qualifying?

It wasn’t that long ago we were drawing with the likes of Montenegro and Macedonia. 

Qualifying campaigns of the 80s 90s and early 00s were never routine.

Now we are brushing aside middle of the road teams and some want Southgate’s head?

Qualifying is never easy or straight forward, but we are attaching sides and scoring goals for fun!

Relax and enjoy 

Come off it, a chimp should be able to get us through these qualifying stages our group is so weak. Southgate has a great bunch of young talent to pick from but, in my opinion, is just starting to make the same old mistakes of the past.

 

Players should be picked on the strength of their current form and not on what they did 18 months ago out of a misguided sense of loyalty. Selected players should be currently  playing for their club sides and, where possible, played in their corrrect position and not just shoe horned in due to their name or which club they play for.

 

Usually we can get through qualifiers and then later perform poorly at finals. The World Cup, as good as it was, was more down to luck and the extremely advantageous draw.

 

Southgate needs to be looking now to the finals and not when they arrive. He should know from previous experience for example that Barkley always flatters to deceive and just isn't good enough and therefore blood the future now ie the likes of Mount and Maddison. We know from experience and stats that at Man Utd Rashford performs poorly out on the right and needs to be in the centre or on the left, don't just shoehorn him in like against Bulgaria out on the right just so he can play in a 3 with Sterling and Kane. It wreeks of past history when cramming names like Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes together with the latter even on the left wing! Sancho is far more effective there on the right and needs the international exposure. Rashford is a talent but has his place in the correct pisition when appropriate.  Why play two defensive midfielders against Bulgaria, the weakest team in the group? Our defence is poor, play 3 at the back.

 

I like Southgate, he was the best candidate for the poison chalice job at the time, he speaks well and has given youth a chance but, pick them on merit and not on club or the past. When some of our younger players have great club coaches like Guadiola and Klopp,  why are England trusting them to Boothroyd?  What is it in his lack lustre career that got him the job? Southgate, also a failed club manager, needs to make sure he sticks to his youth mantra and ignore any old school biased opinion from the FA as it's never got us anywhere in the past. 

Posted
1 hour ago, FIF said:

Love the positive posts. Kosovo's first ever game was a 2-3 loss to Albania in 2010.

 

They've come a long way in 9 years, now  scoring 3 away to one of the world's elite teams. 

Who was that?

Posted
3 hours ago, Leeds Fox said:

 

We’re a middle of the road team, Kosovo (and most others) aren’t even close to that. 

Do you understand what the word ‘middle’ means?

Posted

Unless playing regularly for their team they should not be picked in the first 11 in my opinion. Get brutal, show some balls and some leadership and the players might just get the message. Otherwise where is the incentive?

Posted

For him not to get even 5 minutes against Bulgaria or Kosovo its obvious Maddison is not in Southgates plans for the foreseeable future. Only a change of manager would change this. 

 

All he can do is keep performing for us and be a key player that gets us a top 6 position and stick 2 fingers up to Southgate.

Posted
4 hours ago, Leeds Fox said:

 

We’re a middle of the road team, Kosovo (and most others) aren’t even close to that. 

Better than middle of the road. A bit like Belgium, but slightly worse.

Posted

One thing is certain, Declan Rice is not anywhere near the level of Hamza Choudhury. I hope our players are continued to be overlooked, it will drive them on domestically like it did in 2015/16

Posted
4 hours ago, Aus Fox said:

Do you understand what the word ‘middle’ means?

 

Just about. We’re miles off of the standard of the top teams despite FIFA rankings and a WC Semi Final, in my opinion. 

Posted
51 minutes ago, filbertway said:

I've not really watched a lot of Rice, what are his outstanding qualities as a player? If he a bit of a more composed Wilf? 

Ndidi bosses Rice in every department except long passing, which isn’t an essential skill as a DM

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