Comments from England's final group game.
Well, Gary Lineker had good news for the English nation yesterday, telling them the BBC’s sources had reliably informed him Stevie would be playing through the middle against Slovenia, “at the head of the diamond”.
Gary, the two Als, Hansen and Shearer, and Lee Dixon then based their entire pre-match analysis on their source’s disclosure, which was unfortunate because the information was thoroughly incorrect.
Roy Hodgson tried to warn them, insisting Stevie would, most probably, play on the left, but Lee Dixon hoped, trusted and prayed he was wrong.
“If he’s playing on the left today we should all pack up and go home,” he sighed.
Match time. Stevie on the left. Lee dusting down his rucksack. But wait, goal. England. Up and running?
Half-time. Fantasy World Cup Punditry, all of them in the one studio. Ready?
Hansen: “Once England got the goal the confidence levels surged, they were excellent.”
Eamon Dunphy(RTE): “They just didn’t grow in confidence at all after the goal.”
Lineker: “The goal really settled them, didn’t it? They pushed on from there.”
Ronnie Whelan(RTE): “You’d think they’d have kicked on from when they scored, but they actually got worse.”
Roy: “England’s crossing has been absolutely outstanding.”
Giles(RTE): “Some of the crossing was just awful.”
Shearer: “Rooney looks more confident, he’s getting around the pitch a lot better.”
Dunphy: “It’s shocking to see Rooney so subdued, he’s been reduced to a shivering wreck.”
Shearer: “They look much more comfortable on the ball, they’re passing it with a purpose, with pace, they’re closing down – a much better performance, it’s encouraging.”
Giles: “They’re much better than they have been, but they couldn’t have been worse.”
No arguments, then. Second half. England held on. Full-time. Ready?
Lee Dixon: “A great performance.”
Dunphy: “Shocking . . . absolutely incredibly bad . . . pretty awful stuff.”
Hansen: “The commitment was there, the spirit was there, the enterprise was there, the creativity was there, they passed it better – they could have scored five or six quite easily. Capello will obviously be delighted with the performance.”
Giles: “If that’s the shackles off what’ll they be like when the shackles are back on?”
’Arry Redknapp: “We played with pace, we got after them, we pressed them, there wasn’t a weakness in the team.”
Dunphy: “They were astonishingly poor.”
Lineker: “He looked more like the Rooney we know.”
Ronnie: “Rooney is a major worry, his form, his body language, his demeanour, everything.”
Dixon: “Gerrard was outstanding.”
Dunphy: “I can’t believe how bad Gerrard was today.”
’Arry: “Across midfield we were top drawer.”
Giles: “Barry got worse as the game went on, Milner, Gerrard and Lampard the same.”
’Arry: “Bring it on! Whoever we play we’ll be difficult to beat.”
Ronnie: “If they don’t improve they’ll go straight out, it was a very, very inept performance.”
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Comments
quality timing for a good reaction!
Very amusing. Truth of it probably lies somewhere between the two, but I thought 'Arry's last input was hilarious.
It's pathetic that the BBC pundits would be criticised for being too negative. Why do people want a bunch of chumps chirping what they want to hear. At one point (I switched to the 5 live commentary) Chris Waddle said "it's the same every time, it gets built up beyond reason and the team aren't good enough" (I paraphrase slightly) and Alan Green had the cheek to say without irony "Yes, that's the media". This being a man who works for the media who 60 minutes earlier was confidently predicting an England win against a "poor Germany". It beggars belief. I don't know if we have a stupid public and therefore get the media we deserve or a stupid media that makes the public stupid. All I know is that with a few exceptions, there's a lot of stupidity.
Quote of the year so far!
In contrast, the best that the BBC/ITV clowns will ever offer is tripe like "they'll be disappointed with that performance."
Incidentally, the RTE crew are just as savage about the failings of the Irish team, there is certainly no anti-English bias. Dunphy and Giles both said they wanted England to win the World Cup.
The Irish media aren't as dependent on the PR people as the British media. If Rooney refuses to give an interview to RTE, nobody cares (Irish people don't expect one), but if he refuses to give an interview to the BBC it's a big deal. They can also parasite off the British media for information about what's happening in the camp, formation, team etc.
That said, they are just as savage about the Irish team. So it's not so simple.
Maybe Irish people just ask for honesty in the pundits, and English people want positivity, as JollyRobin says. If that is the case, then there's nothing to complain about. It's just a different approach, just like it's a different approach when the French don't bother having any analysis
I don't know whether the BBC/ITV approach is good or not, but I do know that I agree more with what RTE said about the Slovenia match than what BBC said.
I think that an RTE style analysis on English TV would go down a storm but will never happen because...
1] The host broadcaster would put all of the big players [Premier League, PR agencies etc....] offside and, as you say, jeopardise their future access.
2] It would be hard to find "big name" English players willing to actually go on air and say something truthful because they would be shit scared about the press blowback.
Anyone who watches the football coverage to hear the monosyllabic interviews conducted by our "stars" is indeed a very sad individual!!!
as i've boredoff many times b4 "no one likes the truth"
Lets have some post match analysis where a pundit has to sculpt, or do an abstract of the match....or they improvise a conversation between manager and chairman or something, or compose a song about the game and then sing it.
I think they revel in England being over hyped and failing.
The only good thing for me about the RTE match coverage of the WC is that Matty Holland is a co commentator. But he's pants at that as well.