Anyone know of a website where you can set up a World Cup fantasy football league against mates and play for money? ie you all pay to enter the league and the winner takes the cash.
Could you not just set up a normal World Cup fantasy League and hold to money yourself and give it to the winner
I know that makes sense, but you haven’t met my friends
If you are going to be optimistic and say "what might be different this time"
Is that i think the England squad we have now in comparison to say, 2006, has more energy/modern day athleticism, and they are maybe a little bit better off the ball and maybe less predictable in a sense.
In 2006 we had a giant bag of "special players"...but they didn't really get on well and egos were through the roof. Plus fans and the media were always calling them out.
You can't get much much lower then losing to Iceland.
The only is up.
That's an interesting shout about athleticism. It's not something I would have picked out, but I think it's quite interesting.
I think that 2004-2008 team was caught between generations in football, and it's part of what made them always look out of time and awkward. By that I mean I think most of them were born ten years too late, namely Gerrard and Neville and Rooney. They grew up with the football of the 90s which wasn't terrible but it was go out and get pissed after training, a YTS system that seemed to rely more on respect than learning the game, and a real kind of Roy of the Rovers approach as opposed to a controlled, tactically and technically astute approach that the game was moving toward. So much of their football was hope Lampard or Gerrard (and Rooney when fit) do something special in midfield, or get it wide to Beckham to cross it in (despite not really having a natural target man), or hope for something from a set piece. And that's not the worst way to play, but to do that you either have to be very careful and cautious with the ball and look after it well, which they didn't, or you need to be comfortable sitting and chasing for long stretches of the game to earn the right to play on the counter, which they also weren't all that comfortable with.
In that era you had teams who could spring a counter with such pace and fluidity, like Russia and Croatia, but who could also look after the ball if needed, you had teams who could keep the ball like Germany and Spain, and you then had someone like Italy and then Holland in 2010 who could absorb pressure and have a sort of one chance one goal approach. And England were kind of none of those things. So much of their tactics until Cappello came in seemed to be to rely on a moment of magic from somewhere. And when you look at what Argentina have won in the modern era with more players capable of more magic, that just doesn't really work anymore.
I think one of the issues with England in the past, is that players like LeTissier and Hoddle were not the first names on the England team sheet. They were special players, but historically there is a mistrust about special players. I'm not saying there wasn't a challenge making the team work around them, but that should be the manager's starting point, not looking for Mr Reliable and building the team around him.
Got no issue with the female pundit, I just dont like Aluko
The woman just shouldnt be given any air time
Why?
For the b/s she came out with against Mark Sampson...
She tried to get him the sack for simply being dropped by England, had the events she said been true then they'd have sacked him for that reason and not the trumped up charge they brought against him
I initially thought it might be sour grapes but I think some stuff has come out that lets him down a bit and vindicates her.
The dodgy bit for me is how she was happy to take settlement money and only kicked off when half got withheld, and only then 'had to stand up for what she believed in' etc.
I initially thought it might be sour grapes but I think some stuff has come out that lets him down a bit and vindicates her.
I've always struggled with the fact that only one (?) team mate has backed her up over everything she claimed
Surely there would be witnesses to her claims based on the industry she's been involved in
He obviously had his qualities and teams can be tight - which is a good thing. But some of the comments he seems to have made and actions he took are not fitting his post.
I initially thought it might be sour grapes but I think some stuff has come out that lets him down a bit and vindicates her.
The dodgy bit for me is how she was happy to take settlement money and only kicked off when half got withheld, and only then 'had to stand up for what she believed in' etc.
So you're claim is dismissed but you're offered hush money (which says "yes, you're right but we care more about him than you" in my book), then they don't give you half the money. What would you do?
I initially thought it might be sour grapes but I think some stuff has come out that lets him down a bit and vindicates her.
The dodgy bit for me is how she was happy to take settlement money and only kicked off when half got withheld, and only then 'had to stand up for what she believed in' etc.
So you're claim is dismissed but you're offered hush money (which says "yes, you're right but we care more about him than you" in my book), then they don't give you half the money. What would you do?
I thought they gave her the money without doing a single bit of investigation... When she then decided to blab anyway they then investigated her claims
I think one of the issues with England in the past, is that players like LeTissier and Hoddle were not the first names on the England team sheet. They were special players, but historically there is a mistrust about special players. I'm not saying there wasn't a challenge making the team work around them, but that should be the manager's starting point, not looking for Mr Reliable and building the team around him.
I think it's still an issue. He's not fit at the moment but Lallana has never been fully trusted by England. Proper footballer.
I think one of the issues with England in the past, is that players like LeTissier and Hoddle were not the first names on the England team sheet. They were special players, but historically there is a mistrust about special players. I'm not saying there wasn't a challenge making the team work around them, but that should be the manager's starting point, not looking for Mr Reliable and building the team around him.
I think it's still an issue. He's not fit at the moment but Lallana has never been fully trusted by England. Proper footballer.
It is a British mentality - we do think about the game differently. What always surprised me was that Hoddle - who really was a special player - was a victim of this, but when he became England manager, he was just as guilty with Le Tissier. Le Tissier always had to prove himself in a certain game which was ridiculous. Hoddle should have put an arm round him and said I am giving you a run of 15 games and will build the side around you. What did we have to lose? Maybe the other part of our problem, is that we actually felt we had a chance and did have something to lose!
Shelvey is slightly different in that he hasn't set the Premiership alight in the same way as Hoddle and Le Tissier did. He did offer something different, why fill what few places you have with players that can do the same thing only not as well! Delph springs to mind! Unless it is all going swimmingly, there often comes a time when you need to change things. I would have Carroll and Shelvey on the bench for such a time.
Comments
I think that 2004-2008 team was caught between generations in football, and it's part of what made them always look out of time and awkward. By that I mean I think most of them were born ten years too late, namely Gerrard and Neville and Rooney. They grew up with the football of the 90s which wasn't terrible but it was go out and get pissed after training, a YTS system that seemed to rely more on respect than learning the game, and a real kind of Roy of the Rovers approach as opposed to a controlled, tactically and technically astute approach that the game was moving toward. So much of their football was hope Lampard or Gerrard (and Rooney when fit) do something special in midfield, or get it wide to Beckham to cross it in (despite not really having a natural target man), or hope for something from a set piece. And that's not the worst way to play, but to do that you either have to be very careful and cautious with the ball and look after it well, which they didn't, or you need to be comfortable sitting and chasing for long stretches of the game to earn the right to play on the counter, which they also weren't all that comfortable with.
In that era you had teams who could spring a counter with such pace and fluidity, like Russia and Croatia, but who could also look after the ball if needed, you had teams who could keep the ball like Germany and Spain, and you then had someone like Italy and then Holland in 2010 who could absorb pressure and have a sort of one chance one goal approach. And England were kind of none of those things. So much of their tactics until Cappello came in seemed to be to rely on a moment of magic from somewhere. And when you look at what Argentina have won in the modern era with more players capable of more magic, that just doesn't really work anymore.
The woman just shouldnt be given any air time
She tried to get him the sack for simply being dropped by England, had the events she said been true then they'd have sacked him for that reason and not the trumped up charge they brought against him
Surely there would be witnesses to her claims based on the industry she's been involved in
How many big players still fail to score in matches like that, Haiti 103rd in the world.
For some reason his style just doesnt fit the classic England approach
Carroll would be an excellent option IF he could stay fit