I’d be quite pissed off if I knew our management team were genuinely worried about facing Colombia. Hodgson started worrying about what the best route was etc when fielding a weak side against Slovakia and look what happened. Play a weakened side to protect bookings etc but still play to win the game.
I hope Columbia win their group - it will make it less of a clear cut advantage!
I think they will beat Senegal and Japan will draw with Poland
Yes, that is what I think. Possibly even Poland beating Japan! I'm not saying England can't beat Columbia - I expect them to if they have to - but they will have a far greater chance against Japan. Although they are well organised!
Uruguay are an ugly team who may pose a bigger risk. They defend well and have two excellent forwards - very very hard to beat even though nobody wants to watch them!
It's pretty clear that the bottom half of the draw looks easier on paper but who knows what will happen.
Let's not forget that Iceland looked 'easy' in the Euro's and also Belgium probably thought they had an easy route to the final.........then got turned over by Wales in the quarters.
Bottom line is, whoever wins it will almost certainly have to beat some very good sides at some point so it's pointless worrying too much about who is next and trying to engineer a certain path - Mexico might beat Brazil and then it's all changed again anyway. Try and win each game and worry about the next one once you know for sure what it is.
I think it could be better for England to be playing sides they're not so expected to beat comfortably. Too much of a minnow will sit back and try to frustrate - and the Tunisia game is a lesson in how that can go, very dangerous in the knock-out phase when teams can play for penalties. Protects a bit against complacency as well.
Not saying we want to play Brazils and Spains etc. more than we have to, but someone like Colombia who will show some ambition may not be the worst thing that could happen. Senegal could be threat - they would likely sit back but are mighty fast on the break.
And to be honest - Argentina has a fear factor to it, but they have been crap. I think we would over-power them. Portugal have a great player and two or three good players, but are not that good. A team I'd like to avoid is a full strength Belgium - so that is good!
England seem to be the most dangerous team on set pieces. The Tunisia game was great for us as it forced FIFA to get hot on fouls in the box from set pieces and that has to be a great help for us!
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.
Maybe Sweden too. They could potentially handle out set pieces pretty well.
Hate to say but this could make it a very one sided and rubbish World Cup Final if Spain struggle to get into gear as they certainly didnt in the Groups
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.
They will be if we win the group
Yeah meant to say we can't play them until at least the semis and it definitely pointless worrying about who we might get in the semis - if we can't beat whoever we play there then we wouldn't deserve to win the world cup anyway.
I think what it comes down to is, yes we can beat anyone on our day, but we will have to be on our mythical "day" four times if we want to win this from the top half of the draw - which is a tough ask in what, 14 days of football?
Japan, Sweden, Spain then Brazil is a gradual step up in quality each time. In plotting potential progress and opponents pre-tournament on my wall chart like I did as a kid I don't think I could have come up with a better scenario if I tried. Can't believe this is even a debate really. We HAVE to get into the bottom half of that draw.
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I would bet more we balls up against the Swiss or a team like that than a team like Brazil or
ur gay
Let’s play the best and up our game rather than play the weaker and they up theirs
They would beat us so avoid them in the round of 16.
Let's not forget that Iceland looked 'easy' in the Euro's and also Belgium probably thought they had an easy route to the final.........then got turned over by Wales in the quarters.
Columbia aren’t even better than us, you can’t say they’d beat us
I think it could be better for England to be playing sides they're not so expected to beat comfortably. Too much of a minnow will sit back and try to frustrate - and the Tunisia game is a lesson in how that can go, very dangerous in the knock-out phase when teams can play for penalties. Protects a bit against complacency as well.
Not saying we want to play Brazils and Spains etc. more than we have to, but someone like Colombia who will show some ambition may not be the worst thing that could happen. Senegal could be threat - they would likely sit back but are mighty fast on the break.
Japan we should have too much for.
If we finish runners up tomorrow, expect every bloke and his dog to have a bet on England to win the whole thing.
England will not beat Brazil if we play them in the quarters.
Belgium will be thinking the same as England about the two halves of the draw. We could see a late own goal or two.
Bottom half of the draw has 1 World Cup and 5 continental titles between them.
Japan, Sweden, Spain then Brazil is a gradual step up in quality each time. In plotting potential progress and opponents pre-tournament on my wall chart like I did as a kid I don't think I could have come up with a better scenario if I tried. Can't believe this is even a debate really. We HAVE to get into the bottom half of that draw.