The World Cup

[Servigliano]

Social media isn't real. I've stopped basing my opinions and worldviews on the opinions of the dregs of society's social media posts.

Some of it far better than the BBC - the propaganda arm of HMG. At least you're not forced to pay for it - as we soon will be.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Anthony Gordon scoring in the 55th minute lost us the game.

That sounds nonsensical but after that point the entire mentality of both teams shifted in Argentina's favour.

We abandoned everything good we had done that led to us winning 1-0 and they knew they had to go for it with nothing to lose.

We just can't handle the responsibility of being ahead in a game of such magnitude.

We'd have been better off not scoring and taking our chances in extra time or ultimately penalties.

After the match the Argentina manager, Scaloni said, "The opponent hesitates a bit, we smell blood, and we go for it".

That tells you everything you need to know.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

Until we can learn to control possession when we take the lead against these top sides we,ll never win anything.

If Spain go one up against the Argies they will not sit back and defend the 18 yard box, they will simply keep the ball.

 

[Frank the tank]

Anthony Gordon scoring in the 55th minute lost us the game.

That sounds nonsensical but after that point the entire mentality of both teams shifted in Argentina's favour.

We abandoned everything good we had done that led to us winning 1-0 and they knew they had to go for it with nothing to lose.

We just can't handle the responsibility of being ahead in a game of such magnitude.

We'd have been better off not scoring and taking our chances in extra time or ultimately penalties.

After the match the Argentina manager, Scaloni said, "The opponent hesitates a bit, we smell blood, and we go for it".

That tells you everything you need to know.

There was a moment right after we scored where we tried to play around our backline and draw them out
Each pass being worse than the last ,slightly behind the receiver and pushing us further back.unitl it went to Pickford who almost fell over the ball they pounced all over us until eventually kane kicked it out for a throw

That minute or so of play turned the game on it's head ,we were worried and they sensed blood

Why are our players so bad at playing possession football out from the back ?
I've watched nations such as Cape Verde and Curacao and there all better at it than us
Scotland aside we are probably the worst nation in the world at this aspect of play and yet it is such an integral part of modern football

 

[Dodona]

This is probably the first time I have related to an England team. They seem a likeable bunch. Therefore, I was invested in them so I felt this loss by England . A first for me. A simple question. Has ever a player gone from absolute shit to beiing rather good in such a short space of time, as Djed Spence?

 

[Davalon]

 

[Davalon]

This is probably the first time I have related to an England team. They seem a likeable bunch. Therefore, I was invested in them so I felt this loss by England . A first for me. A simple question. Has ever a player gone from absolute shit to beiing rather good in such a short space of time, as Djed Spence?

Yeah I questioned his inclusion in the squad but to his credit he was more than worth his place

 

[SwissBlade]

This is probably the first time I have related to an England team. They seem a likeable bunch. Therefore, I was invested in them so I felt this loss by England . A first for me. A simple question. Has ever a player gone from absolute shit to beiing rather good in such a short space of time, as Djed Spence?

Yeah I questioned his inclusion in the squad but to his credit he was more than worth his place

He certainly improved and was better on the left. But he started from such a low bar that any improvement would be welcomed

I’d like to hope that he can improve in the next two years but his attacking apart, last night, I was worried whenever Argentina attacked him

 

[Mendi]

Gutted about England.

 

[Booker4]

I obviously wanted us to win like everyone else, but I'd say that I've celebrated goals by United in run of the mill championship games more than I have any England goal from this tournament. Am I alone here? I think after years of England failure I've just lost my optimism in England. I know some will say well what about United's failure but we have a much lower expectation than England.

I guess club football just feels much more intimate than supporting England who I've never seen play live neither.

 

[The Fox]

Purely observational, old bean. I didn’t call them losers but they certainly aren’t winners.

Your words
" they don’t have the mentality to be winners. The football team reflects the nation"

Losing a football match it appears is a reflection of the whole nation .

I beg to differ . Thats just my observation old bean .

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Didn't help that the media were constantly banging on about past defeats. Even Tuchel is covering his own incontinence with the DNA argument now.

Different time, different players, get in the present and let it go!

This argument doesn't apply to the Blades in the playoffs of course cos we are cursed.

 

[Pintor75]

The media build us up to do well ,then kick us when we lose, typical British press and tv pundits, on that note before the next euros lets have a few new guys in the pundits chair, get rid of Wright, Dixon, McCoist etc, same with sky and theories Mc Enuff, Goodman, Morrison etc

 

[North Shields Blade]

If Spain go one up against the Argies they will not sit back and defend the 18 yard box, they will simply keep the ball.

This is true and I find it hard to understand why England teams are so incapable of doing the same.

You can absolutely guarantee that every outfield player in the national side will have taken part in literally hundreds of training sessions where there are extensive exercises in simply keeping possession of the ball. A group of four or five will be given no objective other than retaining the ball with another group of three or four charged with getting the ball off them. There are no goal posts, no territorial objectives, it’s just about possession and it will involve short passing, moving into space to receive the ball, forming small triangular groups, short, rapid passing of the ball.

And you do see it carried over into actual matches. One of the best examples was a game on Sky three years ago: Wednesday v Southampton. Che Adams put Saints 2-1 up in the 88th minute. There were nine minutes of added time. Wednesday touched the ball about half a dozen times in that period. My recollection is Southampton had over 90% possession. Ward-Prowse and Stuart Armstrong orchestrated it.

But I don’t think I’ve seen England ever really even attempt it in the big tournaments when leading. This is despite me shouting advice at the TV. I sometimes wonder why I bother.

 

[Dumpty]

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Gutted about England.

Me too. Not the going out part, that happens every time. I just wanted us to go out on our shields.

Our team, man for man, is as good as Argentina's and our world class players are performing. So let them go for a second.ets stay toe to toe and see how far it takes us.

I suspect an equaliser may well have come and we might've gone all the way to pens or lost in ET. But we'll never know because Tuchel bottled it. He reacted too much to the goal and the goal came too early.

I'm just sick of seeing the same thing. United did it at Wembley and England have done it every single time on the big stage. We never win a 50/50 game or one that's stacked against us.

 

[SwissBlade]

Me too. Not the going out part, that happens every time. I just wanted us to go out on our shields.

Our team, man for man, is as good as Argentina's and our world class players are performing. So let them go for a second.ets stay toe to toe and see how far it takes us.

I suspect an equaliser may well have come and we might've gone all the way to pens or lost in ET. But we'll never know because Tuchel bottled it. He reacted too much to the goal and the goal came too early.

I'm just sick of seeing the same thing. United did it at Wembley and England have done it every single time on the big stage. We never win a 50/50 game or one that's stacked against us.

I was speaking with my Spanish padel coach after the game and he said that its like the England coach was afraid to be brave and i think this is so true. Its been the same with so many European teams this tournament. Teams were better than the opposition, but they were afraid to make a mistake and lose by being brave. African and South American teams haven't displayed this characteristic in the same way, even when they haven't been as good on paper, they went out with more pride by going to win the game.

As i've mentioned (along with others), England actually went toe-to-toe with Argentina and got the goal. We showed bravery, we played the right way until we scored. But it was from that point where we decided to close the shop. Bravery left and we brought a huge amount of fear into the side by making decisions to protect rather than go for it.

If we went down 2-1 by going for it, sure some would complain, but i think most would applaud the instinct to go for it

 

[Selly]

Me too. Not the going out part, that happens every time. I just wanted us to go out on our shields.

Our team, man for man, is as good as Argentina's and our world class players are performing. So let them go for a second.ets stay toe to toe and see how far it takes us.

I suspect an equaliser may well have come and we might've gone all the way to pens or lost in ET. But we'll never know because Tuchel bottled it. He reacted too much to the goal and the goal came too early.

I'm just sick of seeing the same thing. United did it at Wembley and England have done it every single time on the big stage. We never win a 50/50 game or one that's stacked against us.

Yeah me too.

I've come to the realisation that I absolutely adore watching England through major tournaments. Certainly not because we win - but because, for 4 short weeks, we are united (ish) as a country with none of the club bollocks that goes with it. Maybe I actually don`t care as much as watching united, so I can be more relaxed about it. Or maybe its just nice to watch a big old event like the WC/Euros.

I'm tired of dealing with conversations with fans of other clubs on club football. England offers an opportunity to part of a bigger whole.

And I'm not talking about the one that exists in the back 6 when Messi crosses

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I was speaking with my Spanish padel coach after the game and he said that its like the England coach was afraid to be brave and i think this is so true. Its been the same with so many European teams this tournament. Teams were better than the opposition, but they were afraid to make a mistake and lose by being brave. African and South American teams haven't displayed this characteristic in the same way, even when they haven't been as good on paper, they went out with more pride by going to win the game.

As i've mentioned (along with others), England actually went toe-to-toe with Argentina and got the goal. We showed bravery, we played the right way until we scored. But it was from that point where we decided to close the shop. Bravery left and we brought a huge amount of fear into the side by making decisions to protect rather than go for it.

If we went down 2-1 by going for it, sure some would complain, but i think most would applaud the instinct to go for it

You needn't look back too far for an example of a team that went for it but fell short.

Southgate's England Vs France in the last World Cup. The best performance I've seen from an England team against one of the big nations, we really should have won on the night but fell agonisingly short (late missed pen from Kane). I had no qualms about going out that night to that French team, we did everything we could... and I just can't say that about Tuchel's team.

 

[SwissBlade]

You needn't look back too far for an example of a team that went for it but fell short.

Southgate's England Vs France in the last World Cup. The best performance I've seen from an England team against one of the big nations, we really should have won on the night but fell agonisingly short (late missed pen from Kane). I had no qualms about going out that night to that French team, we did everything we could... and I just can't say that about Tuchel's team.

Good point! Maybe we should get Southgate back

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Good point! Maybe we should get Southgate back

I rated him more than most, but concede he'd taken us as far as he could.

Tuchel was supposed to take us a step further but in the end, in hindsight, I'm not sure I saw a major upgrade.

Hopefully a lesson learned, but it's a massive opportunity missed.

 

[LBA_Blade]

My son called it I think it happened on 3rd minute ? It was less than 10 mins anyway and he said no way is ref going to send someone off and its way too early for VAR to start looking. Simeone should have gone too in the first half.

Looking at the BBC website this morning when I started work at 7.30am Tuchel claiming he had no regrets about the match and blaming fans its easy to say he was wrong.

1800 comments on the article at the time none that supported him most saying he was wrong to sit back. My take is they scored 3 goals against Egypt and came back to win. The signs were there. The corners/crosses earlier the signs were there. Its rather big headed to think England could hold out for what was it 20 minutes at 1-0. He made the incorrect call. Then when it was too late we were screwed. Its not easy calling it wrong its absolute correct calling it wrong.

Now we have the French to deal with.

For me this isn’t a dig at you but I genuinely believe that the officials are thinking the same thing but shouldn’t matter if it’s minute 1 or 91, the free kick was given, it would be nice in American football style for the referee to explain why he gave it as if he is saying it was for a whack to the back of the head he has missed a trick

 

[Nick Jansky]

I was speaking with my Spanish padel coach after the game and he said that its like the England coach was afraid to be brave and i think this is so true. Its been the same with so many European teams this tournament. Teams were better than the opposition, but they were afraid to make a mistake and lose by being brave. African and South American teams haven't displayed this characteristic in the same way, even when they haven't been as good on paper, they went out with more pride by going to win the game.

As i've mentioned (along with others), England actually went toe-to-toe with Argentina and got the goal. We showed bravery, we played the right way until we scored. But it was from that point where we decided to close the shop. Bravery left and we brought a huge amount of fear into the side by making decisions to protect rather than go for it.

If we went down 2-1 by going for it, sure some would complain, but i think most would applaud the instinct to go for it

Which is pretty much what I said that you disagreed with.

 

[SwissBlade]

Which is pretty much what I said that you disagreed with.

I disagreed that you said the players didn’t have a winning mentality, which they clearly do.

The coach doesn’t have the bravery to let them go for it when it really mattered

 

[10-0 win]

What the hell was this,

Trump praises Balogun decision, repeats 2020 election falsehoods in appearance with Infantino

Trump and Infantino appeared together at Trump Tower for a Fifa Council reception ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final

www.theguardian.com

 

[Nick Jansky]

I disagreed that you said the players didn’t have a winning mentality, which they clearly do.

The coach doesn’t have the bravery to let them go for it when it really mattered

I don’t think it’s the coach, I think it’s the players. As Wilder has alluded to when talking about the way we sit deep once we take the lead. He says that isn’t the instruction, the players just do it. I think it’s definitely a mentality thing. But I understand why people choose to crucify Tuchel because accepting the reality isn’t very pleasant.

 

[Grey Blade]

What the hell was this,

Trump praises Balogun decision, repeats 2020 election falsehoods in appearance with Infantino

Trump and Infantino appeared together at Trump Tower for a Fifa Council reception ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final

www.theguardian.com

Each time that man (Trump) opens his mouth I feel like vomitting - mind you the other one is just as bad. They're made for each other.
Allowing Balogun to play was just cheating and just about anyone other than Trump and Infantino knew it

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Unbelievable that the pointless game tonight is in Miami where heat+ storms are possible

 

[AWetFlannel]

I don’t think it’s the coach, I think it’s the players. As Wilder has alluded to when talking about the way we sit deep once we take the lead. He says that isn’t the instruction, the players just do it. I think it’s definitely a mentality thing. But I understand why people choose to crucify Tuchel because accepting the reality isn’t very pleasant.

The coach's job is to make the players follow instructions, if they don't the coach has failed. Tuchel has continually said the players haven't followed instructions throughout the tournament, even in the wins.

Against the Argies, Tuchel didn't give them instructions to keep attacking and retain possession, he gave up and put defenders on to help them hold the lead. He's admitted this himself, your grasp of reality is obviously lacking.

 

[Davalon]

Just heard Warnock on the radio saying Tuchel should learn to keep his mouth shut

Nearly crashed the car