I know what this team is missing; it's England flags on cars. There are usually loads, but I haven't seen any this tournament. What's going on? Was it just a fad that's run it's course? Are people worried that they'd be misidentified as Farridge Fans? Or, is there just not the level of excitement about this team?
I think I have the answer to this. Our flag of St George is also the Crusaders flag used in the 12th Century onwards, perhaps we are worried about upsetting our Palestinian and Muslin friends in this Woke and Political age!
IT is also basically the flag of Georgia who share a saint with us.
I am gonna give Saka the same advice I gave Rommedahl. He may choose to ignore as well.
You are a winger, do some fucking winging.
Kick it past the full back and run.
Whilst I agree with you, I think its not his choice how to play. As a winger for Arsenal he plays as you describe but I think our genius coaching staff is telling the team to keep possession. So he being asked, with others, to play a tactic that doesn't play to his or anyone else's strengths.
That's bang on the money. I've been saying it from the start. He's a follower not a leader. But everything was going through him. Corners , free kicks. He was tasked with being the main attacking fulcrum. And it's just not his game
I've no doubt of his ability but he's a complimentary player. A bit of a luxury. But in this barran spell we need a shape and players that can command their areas of the pitch.
When De Bruyne was injured for the first half of last season, Foden was the focal point of City's attack for 5 months so i don't think we can say that isn't his game. For me the issue isn't Foden, it's where we are playing him, same as when we decided it would be a good idea to stick Scholes out there.
Gah! This myth needs to die. Scholes regularly played out left for Man Utd and was quite happy with his placement within the England team. In the 36 appearances Scholes made under Eriksson he played left midfield 7 times. He'd already been shifted to that spot to accommodate Juan Sebastian Veron or allow Giggs to play further forward under Ferguson. Here's Scholes on it: “Playing on the left was never a problem. I played on the left for United I don’t know how many times. I probably had my most successful time scoring goals in that position so it was never a problem. I just got fed up (with England)."
As Scholes went on in his career he changed his style and is now remembered as this deep-lying central pass master but that's not just what he was his whole career. People have also forgotten how flat English football used to be in a 442 and I think some would be shocked to look back on the amount of times Claus Jensen, Scott Parker and Kishishev played as a right or left midfielder to give us shape and balance.
That's bang on the money. I've been saying it from the start. He's a follower not a leader. But everything was going through him. Corners , free kicks. He was tasked with being the main attacking fulcrum. And it's just not his game
I've no doubt of his ability but he's a complimentary player. A bit of a luxury. But in this barran spell we need a shape and players that can command their areas of the pitch.
When De Bruyne was injured for the first half of last season, Foden was the focal point of City's attack for 5 months so i don't think we can say that isn't his game. For me the issue isn't Foden, it's where we are playing him, same as when we decided it would be a good idea to stick Scholes out there.
Gah! This myth needs to die. Scholes regularly played out left for Man Utd and was quite happy with his placement within the England team. In the 36 appearances Scholes made under Eriksson he played left midfield 7 times. He'd already been shifted to that spot to accommodate Juan Sebastian Veron or allow Giggs to play further forward under Ferguson. Here's Scholes on it: “Playing on the left was never a problem. I played on the left for United I don’t know how many times. I probably had my most successful time scoring goals in that position so it was never a problem. I just got fed up (with England)."
As Scholes went on in his career he changed his style and is now remembered as this deep-lying central pass master but that's not just what he was his whole career. People have also forgotten how flat English football used to be in a 442 and I think some would be shocked to look back on the amount of times Claus Jensen, Scott Parker and Kishishev played as a right or left midfielder to give us shape and balance.
I didn't say he couldn't play there, as he obviously could and did. Doesn't mean it worked though. Same as it doesn't work with Foden there.
I am gonna give Saka the same advice I gave Rommedahl. He may choose to ignore as well.
You are a winger, do some fucking winging.
Kick it past the full back and run.
He can't do that on the right - stick him out left and maybe he would beat a player and cross the ball.
In the 1st half against Serbia, Saka on the right went past his full back on the inside and outside, so much so the Serb was torn a new one and went off injured. In the 2nd half the big defender was on him quicker and Saka had no joy.
That's bang on the money. I've been saying it from the start. He's a follower not a leader. But everything was going through him. Corners , free kicks. He was tasked with being the main attacking fulcrum. And it's just not his game
I've no doubt of his ability but he's a complimentary player. A bit of a luxury. But in this barran spell we need a shape and players that can command their areas of the pitch.
When De Bruyne was injured for the first half of last season, Foden was the focal point of City's attack for 5 months so i don't think we can say that isn't his game. For me the issue isn't Foden, it's where we are playing him, same as when we decided it would be a good idea to stick Scholes out there.
Gah! This myth needs to die. Scholes regularly played out left for Man Utd and was quite happy with his placement within the England team. In the 36 appearances Scholes made under Eriksson he played left midfield 7 times. He'd already been shifted to that spot to accommodate Juan Sebastian Veron or allow Giggs to play further forward under Ferguson. Here's Scholes on it: “Playing on the left was never a problem. I played on the left for United I don’t know how many times. I probably had my most successful time scoring goals in that position so it was never a problem. I just got fed up (with England)."
As Scholes went on in his career he changed his style and is now remembered as this deep-lying central pass master but that's not just what he was his whole career. People have also forgotten how flat English football used to be in a 442 and I think some would be shocked to look back on the amount of times Claus Jensen, Scott Parker and Kishishev played as a right or left midfielder to give us shape and balance.
I didn't say he couldn't play there, as he obviously could and did. Doesn't mean it worked though. Same as it doesn't work with Foden there.
While we didn't win anything I don't think playing one of our best players in the position he regularly played for his team was the reason we didn't do well. To be honest, the tournament where Scholes consistently played on the left (4 of his 7 games there) was probably the most likely we looked to achieve something until the Southgate era. Scholes got a goal and an assist in the Croatia game at Euro 2004 Wayne Rooney had broken through so brilliantly that tournament he had Portugal's entire team on strings for half an hour. Then he got injured and we had to replace him with Darius Vassell. I do think if he hadn't got injured we would have seen them off, probably overcome a pretty poor Netherlands team and then lost to Greece in the final like heroes. Wasn't to be though.
Foden is a completely different situation. I agree that it doesn't work, mostly because he, Bellingham and Kane are all trying to occupy the same space and not one of them fancies making the unselfish run. Doesn't bear comparison to the Scholes situation though, if the comparison is just that it didn't work then you can compare it to literally every other player in every other position since 1966.
The one position we struggled in, back in the Home Euros of 96 was on the attacking left, when Jamie Redknapp even had a go in that position. The crying shame was Ryan Wilson would've been a natural but he went AWOL to Wales.
Luke Shaw is such a miss not only for balance but he can and does cross the ball from the left from advanced positions so Players can run on to the ball and not getting the cross from behind.
We have really struggled to beat 2 countries with populations of 6 million. Next we are playing a country with a population of 8 million and have to beat them. Is there anything that suggests we can improve enough to contest a big country if we ever get to play them, Germany, Spain or France? Because I have seen nothing to suggest we will.
Are you being serious lol!... thinking the overall population has an impact on the game?
We should have a bigger pool of better players to pick from. There are exceptions but the countries with large population do win more. Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Spain Argentina.
Yeah but you still only need 26-players...
I mean going by the World Population; Spain - Argentina are 33rd and 34th respectively. Sorry I cant think of a more terrible take, its genuinely laughable
What about the difference between males / females in those figures? - Age brackets?
Am actually hoping I'm being whooshed!!
I think that population does have a bearing on things alongside GNP and the number of club members / football culture.
There are countries of a large population with a football culture, for example Indonesia, who suffer because they can’t afford good training of youth, stadiums, infrastructure etc.
There are smaller countries like Switzerland 🇨🇭 who would do better with a larger pool of players to choose from.
Argentina do well because the football culture factor is off the scale and this gives success despite a bad economy and lower population.
However, my argument does falter with consideration to some countries particularly England. In our case we have all three but imo falter due to media pressure and a bad mentality.
I was a little bit disappointed with Saka when he was on the left. At one point he had a chance to get to the byline, but instead cut inside.
Alfie Doughty is nothing special, but did stand out in the PL as a left footer who liked running down the touchline and sending decent crosses in with his left foot, a form of attack which seems out of fashion at the top clubs. Imagine how many headed goals Haaland would get for City is they played more like that
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Rommedahl used to frustrate me but you mentioning him reminds me of quite a nice goal he scored, about 8minutes in
As Scholes went on in his career he changed his style and is now remembered as this deep-lying central pass master but that's not just what he was his whole career. People have also forgotten how flat English football used to be in a 442 and I think some would be shocked to look back on the amount of times Claus Jensen, Scott Parker and Kishishev played as a right or left midfielder to give us shape and balance.
He can't do that on the right - stick him out left and maybe he would beat a player and cross the ball.
In the 1st half against Serbia, Saka on the right went past his full back on the inside and outside, so much so the Serb was torn a new one and went off injured.
In the 2nd half the big defender was on him quicker and Saka had no joy.
Foden is a completely different situation. I agree that it doesn't work, mostly because he, Bellingham and Kane are all trying to occupy the same space and not one of them fancies making the unselfish run. Doesn't bear comparison to the Scholes situation though, if the comparison is just that it didn't work then you can compare it to literally every other player in every other position since 1966.
The crying shame was Ryan Wilson would've been a natural but he went AWOL to Wales.
Luke Shaw is such a miss not only for balance but he can and does cross the ball from the left from advanced positions so Players can run on to the ball and not getting the cross from behind.
There are countries of a large population with a football culture, for example Indonesia, who suffer because they can’t afford good training of youth, stadiums, infrastructure etc.
There are smaller countries like Switzerland 🇨🇭 who would do better with a larger pool of players to choose from.
Argentina do well because the football culture factor is off the scale and this gives success despite a bad economy and lower population.
However, my argument does falter with consideration to some countries particularly England. In our case we have all three but imo falter due to media pressure and a bad mentality.
What an absolute knobhead.
He invariably cuts in on to his left foot though.
Alfie Doughty is nothing special, but did stand out in the PL as a left footer who liked running down the touchline and sending decent crosses in with his left foot, a form of attack which seems out of fashion at the top clubs. Imagine how many headed goals Haaland would get for City is they played more like that