We all know that Sander Berge wouldnt get a place in the England squad if he was English.

[Silent Blade]

Looking at Norway's line up against Brazil I am trying to think which of their players would have got a place in the England squad. Definitely Haaland and possibly Odegaard but who else?

Ajer is Ok-ish for Brentford, Moller Woolfe played only 22 games for relegated Wolves, Nyland wasnt a good keeper for Villa and he was the keeper when Norwood "scored" in the first match after the lockdown, he didnt play a game while on loan for Norwich and has just been released by Sevilla. We all know that Berge isnt good enough despite having to play on RM for us instead of his usual position in front of the back 4. I dont know enough about Ryerson, Heggem, Berg, Sorloth and Nusa

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Nusa is good on football manager. That’s my only input

 

[Snowflake]

Looking at Norway's line up against Brazil I am trying to think which of their players would have got a place in the England squad. Definitely Haaland and possibly Odegaard but who else?

Ajer is Ok-ish for Brentford, Moller Woolfe played only 22 games for relegated Wolves, Nyland wasnt a good keeper for Villa and he was the keeper when Norwood "scored" in the first match after the lockdown, he didnt play a game while on loan for Norwich and has just been released by Sevilla. We all know that Berge isnt good enough despite having to play on RM for us instead of his usual position in front of the back 4. I dont know enough about Ryerson, Heggem, Berg, Sorloth and Nusa

View attachment 240037

…so we are in the semi final ?

 

[bibbity bobbity boo]

…so we are in the semi final ?

If Haarland doesn't score we are.

 

[DifferentClass]

He should have just teld the England setup he were Haaland's more attractive twin brother.

 

[Barstoneworth Ottershaw]

All eyes swivel towards Bergen...

 

[Davalon]

Typical arrogant English nonsense. It's very much a 50/50 game imho.

We have a good opportunity to reach the final, especially if we can get through injuries and suspensions, but so do the other 3 in our half of the draw.

My money would still be on a France Argentina final again but with a different outcome this time.

However, stranger things have happened and maybe Spain squeeze through with their defensive record and we get our own back from the last Euros with the irony of a German manager winning our first trophy in 60 years.

I know many of us are desperate to see England win something in our lifetimes but I can't be the only one who gets fed up of the 'It's coming home' and 'of course we can win it' every time we reach a QF. Just enjoy the ride, don't get ahead of yourself, and hope for the best. There's a reason other countries take the piss out of us.

I liked it at the time but I'd happily not hear it again until we finally win something.

 

[Brownieblade]

Who cares frankly, good luck to the lad, he has proved all the haters at the lane that they got it wrong

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

I don't know anything about Berg (not that guy who used to dangle his foot in when tackling when he played for us ), but he looked decent against Brazil.

Could be a false reading though, I've said it many times before, I'm sure there's a highlights "reel" of Bobby Ford looking like a mixture of Zico, Laudrup, and Maradona somewhere!

 

[Brownieblade]

Typical arrogant English nonsense. It's very much a 50/50 game imho.

We have a good opportunity to reach the final, especially if we can get through injuries and suspensions, but so do the other 3 in our half of the draw.

My money would still be on a France Argentina final again but with a different outcome this time.

However, stranger things have happened and maybe Spain squeeze through with their defensive record and we get our own back from the last Euros with the irony of a German manager winning our first trophy in 60 years.

I know many of us are desperate to see England win something in our lifetimes but I can't be the only one who gets fed up of the 'It's coming home' and 'of course we can win it' every time we reach a QF. Just enjoy the ride, don't get ahead of yourself, and hope for the best. There's a reason other countries take the piss out of us.

I liked it at the time but I'd happily not hear it again until we finally win something.

Yeh all the it’s coming home nonsense and other songs I can happily never hear again

Along with the every English player would get into any side because of premier league or English side won one of the secondary European trophies

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Typical arrogant English nonsense. It's very much a 50/50 game imho.

We have a good opportunity to reach the final, especially if we can get through injuries and suspensions, but so do the other 3 in our half of the draw.

My money would still be on a France Argentina final again but with a different outcome this time.

However, stranger things have happened and maybe Spain squeeze through with their defensive record and we get our own back from the last Euros with the irony of a German manager winning our first trophy in 60 years.

I know many of us are desperate to see England win something in our lifetimes but I can't be the only one who gets fed up of the 'It's coming home' and 'of course we can win it' every time we reach a QF. Just enjoy the ride, don't get ahead of yourself, and hope for the best. There's a reason other countries take the piss out of us.

I liked it at the time but I'd happily not hear it again until we finally win something.

I'm with you, that I wouldn't be terribly shocked if Norway beat us.

I think we will win, but wouldn't be that confident.

 

[Lmaobob]

The Sander Berge signing was right player, wrong time and wrong team

We didn't play to his strengths and I think it highlighted his weaknesses more than his strengths

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Typical arrogant English nonsense. It's very much a 50/50 game imho.

We have a good opportunity to reach the final, especially if we can get through injuries and suspensions, but so do the other 3 in our half of the draw.

My money would still be on a France Argentina final again but with a different outcome this time.

However, stranger things have happened and maybe Spain squeeze through with their defensive record and we get our own back from the last Euros with the irony of a German manager winning our first trophy in 60 years.

I know many of us are desperate to see England win something in our lifetimes but I can't be the only one who gets fed up of the 'It's coming home' and 'of course we can win it' every time we reach a QF. Just enjoy the ride, don't get ahead of yourself, and hope for the best. There's a reason other countries take the piss out of us.

I liked it at the time but I'd happily not hear it again until we finally win something.

To be fair 'of course we can win it is true' - its coming home isn't, we certainly are not the home of major trophies .

Back to the 'we could win it': technically, we could. We're pretty deep into the tournament & have some good players. I can't see anyone getting past France, though.

Personally I'm highly doubtful I'll see us win a major tournament in my lifetime. We're just nearly men, the Tottenham of national football. Maybe we'll win the Nations League one day, similar to Tottenham's Europa League win.

 

[KMC-1889]

If you paid any attention to how they play you'd know that they don't need decent midfielders. They need Sorloth to have a good game and neat and tidy midfielders that can pick a pass. It doesn't matter how well Anderson or Rice play because if Norway are successful they will completely bypass them going long to Sorloth.

We're defo favourites but it all depends on 1) keeping Haaland quiet by cutting of supply (and I don't trust our fullbacks to do this and b) been able to work through a tough low block when Berg and Berge drop to the edge of their own box.

 

[Silent Blade]

…so we are in the semi final ?

Not really, depends on how we play them. Norway have an advantage over us when it comes to knowledge about the opposition. They did beat us in 1981 and 1993 when we didnt expect it.

 

[Silent Blade]

The Sander Berge signing was right player, wrong time and wrong team

We didn't play to his strengths and I think it highlighted his weaknesses more than his strengths

Agree but still, he wouldnt be good enough for a place in the England squad.

 

[Silent Blade]

All eyes swivel towards Bergen...

Yes, where are you Bergen Blade ?

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Agree but still, he wouldnt be good enough for a place in the England squad.

On the basis that Tuchel picked the squad who knows?

Low maintenance, agreeable personalities, he'd fit the bill just right!

 

[Silent Blade]

Who cares frankly, good luck to the lad, he has proved all the haters at the lane that they got it wrong

Who hates him? I didnt think he was worth the price we paid for him. His best season was in the 2022/23 promotion season.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I rate Sander.

That aside, Norway are the sum of their parts and a system. Do not underestimate that. And, it just so happens that one of those parts is arguably the best goalscorer on the planet.

 

[Brownieblade]

Who hates him? I didnt think he was worth the price we paid for him. His best season was in the 2022/23 promotion season.

Sorry mate my shot was aimed at some on the entire forum, not you specifically though obviously I get why you assumed that

I personally don’t and never had an issue with what we paid for him, sure for us as fans it was massive but in reality we paid a lowish fee that that you would expect for lower level premier teams

Had it worked for us like it has with what a Sunderland paid , probably not, but if you look at all and every premier league signing in last 10 years or longer I don’t think it’s a big fee

And I do think he was brought here to play a similar role he does at Fulham and currently with Norway but our overall lack of quality bar a few saw us playing somewhere else and in lower league yes it might have worked but in higher level it probably wouldn’t

 

[Willglynning]

Who cares frankly, good luck to the lad, he has proved all the haters at the lane that they got it wrong

There’s a significant portion of our fanbase who are consistently incapable of understanding the role that midfielders play in games.

The eternally tedious ‘my take…’ posts exemplified this- with both Norwood and Berge getting continuous poor ratings just because a certain poster couldn’t get his head around how midfielders contribute to overall play.

 

[Carlton Blade]

Ajer is as good as England's CB's I think. He's possibly not quite as good in possession but he's a superb penalty box defender and an excellent leader
Berg is, and has been excellent. He's only lesser known because he's stayed in Norway for his whole career outside of one 6 month stint in France
Ryerson is a very good RB

So that's Ajer, Berg, Ryerson on top of Odegaard, Berge, Nusa, Sorloth (excellent target man, very versatile and I'd take him over Toney), Haaland as all being good enough to be at the very least in contention for a place in England's squad

 

[Swannyblade]

England win this game 7 times out of the 10. But it's the 3 out of 10 that makes football superior to other sports and gives Norway a decent chance.
In low scoring sports like football, it only takes the favourites to have an "off day", a slice of bad luck, a moment of brilliance, or some dodgy refereeing decisions for the less fancied side to prosper.
They've also got a massive X factor in Haaland.

As for Sander, I really liked him during his time with us but he can be frustrating. He's got the raw attributes to be a midfielder in the mould of Vieira or Yaya Toure, but he seems determined to play more like Makelele. It's all neat sideways and backwards stuff with very few risks taken, but for us he looked far more effective when driving forward from midfield and breaking the lines. Players used to bounce off him like he was the big kid in the playground. Just don't think he's got the heart for it.

 

[Bergen Blade]

England have a strong team and will be favourites.

I reckon some Blades will view Berge's performances as underwhelming, but keep in mind he's playing to very different instructions and he isn't just valued by his individual contribution, but by his team's success. Part of Norway's tactics against Brazil was to wear them out, play long lasting attacks, and eventually punish their vulnerable defence and mediocre press. Berge had a hand in that, making 117 passes I think, and although they may have looked easy, sideways and backwards, that was part of the plan.

Tomorrow will be a different game and I wonder how many times Norway can raise their game. For us it's an amazing occasion after so many years without taking part in a tournament. I'd have liked to add more, but I'm on holiday at my home town and a bit busy!

 

[Badger Blade]

England win this game 7 times out of the 10. But it's the 3 out of 10 that makes football superior to other sports and gives Norway a decent chance.
In low scoring sports like football, it only takes the favourites to have an "off day", a slice of bad luck, a moment of brilliance, or some dodgy refereeing decisions for the less fancied side to prosper.
They've also got a massive X factor in Haaland.

As for Sander, I really liked him during his time with us but he can be frustrating. He's got the raw attributes to be a midfielder in the mould of Vieira or Yaya Toure, but he seems determined to play more like Makelele. It's all neat sideways and backwards stuff with very few risks taken, but for us he looked far more effective when driving forward from midfield and breaking the lines. Players used to bounce off him like he was the big kid in the playground. Just don't think he's got the heart for it.

I just hope that Saturday night isn't the time that Sander Berge turns into the prime Vieira we know he could become!

Norway are largely a team of decent, experienced pros, similar to Switzerland, who aren't going to win it but are capable of fucking it up for someone who thinks that they can - Brazil being the case in point.

The main difference is the Haaland factor. Starve him of service and they might as well have Kieffer Moore up front. Let him run amok and we could be in trouble.

They're very much in the mould of Sweden when Zlatan was about. One superstar backed up by some serviceable pros. Take them lightly and they can punish you but get at them and they'll struggle for an answer.

Bang an early goal in and we're in business. The longer it stays at 0-0, the more their confidence will build and the more we'll start to panic.

 

[Carlton Blade]

England have a strong team and will be favourites.

I reckon some Blades will view Berge's performances as underwhelming, but keep in mind he's playing to very different instructions and he isn't just valued by his individual contribution, but by his team's success. Part of Norway's tactics against Brazil was to wear them out, play long lasting attacks, and eventually punish their vulnerable defence and mediocre press. Berge had a hand in that, making 117 passes I think, and although they may have looked easy, sideways and backwards, that was part of the plan.

Tomorrow will be a different game and I wonder how many times Norway can raise their game. For us it's an amazing occasion after so many years without taking part in a tournament. I'd have liked to add more, but I'm on holiday at my home town and a bit busy!

Excuses BB! Enjoy the holiday and the match on Saturday

 

[Swannyblade]

England have a strong team and will be favourites.

I reckon some Blades will view Berge's performances as underwhelming, but keep in mind he's playing to very different instructions and he isn't just valued by his individual contribution, but by his team's success. Part of Norway's tactics against Brazil was to wear them out, play long lasting attacks, and eventually punish their vulnerable defence and mediocre press. Berge had a hand in that, making 117 passes I think, and although they may have looked easy, sideways and backwards, that was part of the plan.

Tomorrow will be a different game and I wonder how many times Norway can raise their game. For us it's an amazing occasion after so many years without taking part in a tournament. I'd have liked to add more, but I'm on holiday at my home town and a bit busy!

Will Norway be deploying Sorloth as a wide target man like they used to with this fella?...do we need Dan Burn in at left back?

 

[nopigfansintown]

Berge's a very good player. He makes the game look very easy. I do think he's lost something since that terrible hamstring injury. I haven't seen him reach the level he reached in the first part of that season when he looked the best he ever did for us.

I think the tactical set up will be key in this game. The Norwegians will be targeting England's backline. They'll probably get it forward fairly early at times and target our wide areas when they have a period of consistent possession. If I was Tuchel I'd overload the midfield and try and cut off the wide supply. We have a problem if they slide balls through to Haaland (especially if Burn starts) so crowding the midfield might be the right idea.

 

[Danetheblade]

Looking at Norway's line up against Brazil I am trying to think which of their players would have got a place in the England squad. Definitely Haaland and possibly Odegaard but who else?

Ajer is Ok-ish for Brentford, Moller Woolfe played only 22 games for relegated Wolves, Nyland wasnt a good keeper for Villa and he was the keeper when Norwood "scored" in the first match after the lockdown, he didnt play a game while on loan for Norwich and has just been released by Sevilla. We all know that Berge isnt good enough despite having to play on RM for us instead of his usual position in front of the back 4. I dont know enough about Ryerson, Heggem, Berg, Sorloth and Nusa

View attachment 240037

I dunno about knowing Berge wouldn’t get in Englands midfield. I’d have him over Anderson to be honest.