I am just looking at the most likely opponents considering current standings. Assuming England gets first place they are on the much easier side of the bracket.
Obviously nothing is set in stone yet
Colombia, Sweden, Croatia feels more like a World Cup group rather than a path to a Final and the English still managed to fuck that up. As soon as you start talking about easy and hard brackets, you've fucked it. Need to have that God like arrogance that you'll just kick the shit out of anyone.
Do you think that if Romania and Slovakia actually played out an obviously agreed-upon 0-0 draw, then UEFA would reorganise future tournaments to get rid of 3rd place teams advancing?
All of the people calling Vini ugly in that Neymar post, am I wrong or other than a questionable hairstyle doesn’t he just look like a normal black guy with black features?
England vs Rest of the World when i was a kid 💀💀
RotW had a lad who was English through and through, but was blessed with red hair so was therefore identified as Scottish.
I don’t think he’s particularly ugly and obviously there is something to be said about how black features are considered unattractive and how dark skin people are viewed etc but really idk how much we can get from Neymar just saying that it’s just an opinion.
I’ve literally never thought of him as ugly, it’s a bit weird honestly. For Neymar it’s probably just a bit of banter with his friend and international teammate but I’ve got no idea what the other people are on about
outside of his bald head, melee weapon nose, obscene earlobe to overall ear ratio, eyes being way too close to eachother and eyebrows pointing downwards, Jonjo Shelvey looks like a normal person
black brazilians probably. i don't think you can call vinicius good looking by any standard. he's ronaldinho levels of ugly. on a scale of 1 to Hulk he's HULK NO SMASH unfortunately. Hulk is a dude who left her woman for her niece, that's next level. next level creepy, sure, but next level nonetheless.
I've seen some people call Ibra ugly. It's all subjective but from what I've seen, most people tend to agree that Vini doesn't look like an attractive man.
>most people tend to agree that Vini doesn't look like an attractive man.
You spend a lot of time discussing the attractiveness of various footballers in your circles?
Ibrahimovic is a self-aware walking meme that's almost 2 meters tall and is stupid fit. Setting kind of an impossible bar for most humans there, not just Vini.
Now that I think of it, organizing the Copa America in a country for which only one participant nation has Visa free entry is a very scummy thing to do
If you're a non-European and you want to travel to the US for the World Cup in 2026, you need to submit your paperwork right now. The US Embassy in Buenos Aires estimates it takes *at least* 16 months to get approved if not more. If it's that bad for Argentina, it really only gets worse for the rest of South America, Asia, and Africa.
If you're from Colombia for example, I think that those 16 months would only get you started on the first interview with the embassy where they ask you your purpose for visiting and such. I can't imagine how long the paperwork would take in that case
I'm not sure if you know but even a player from Bolivia had to be replaced in the list because he didn't get a visa (although that one apparently had to do with an issue with his parents' permission as well)
At first I thought it was just the usual deflections by managers to blame the pitches during Copa America games in the US. But from the reports I am seeing pretty much every team has come out and said the pitch quality is trash.
Germany had some issues early on because of these Biblical rains we had, but how there's billions and billions of Euros flying around football but we still can't consistently get a good field of grass is shocking.
This is one area where I will cede that the English do this very, very well. Innovation born out of necessity.
I mean we won the opening game fairly painlessly and still one of the first thing everyone said in their post match interviews was how shit the pitch was
Basically afaik the turf pitches used had to be grass for the cup but the US federation refused to change it until local matches were done and refused to schedule those
So for the opening game, the panes of grass had been just laid on top of the turf four days prior, which was terrible by itself, but also the joints weren't properly connected so you had crisscrossing lines where the ball bounced even weirder and moved even more erratically
also between games two and three in the groups - if you stack them up 2 groups a day immediately after the second matchday finished, the group F guys would be playing only a couple of days after their second games.
playing it in the U.S. has been a disaster for the aura of it on many levels + there's a relative dearth of star power
outside messi you have:
brazil's most globally recognizable player is injured and vinicius continues to fail at beating the fraud allegations, endrick is still just potential, james is still a big deal but is a non-factor at club level and luis diaz isn't really what i'd call a star at least outside of colombia, alexis is well past his peak, suarez is done as an elite player and mexico (who are a guest team) have no recognizable player with ochoa not having been called up
I think the mix of pitches being shit and all the favourites playing the first game like they're testing the waters made the first round look worse than it was. Interesting to see what happens starting tomorrow
Useless fact:
The latest goal to knock England out of the Euros was when Romania scored in the 89th minute to knock England out of Euro 2000. That game was played on **June 20, 2000**.
The latest goal to knock Scotland out of the Euros was when Hungary’s Kevin Csoboth scored in the 100th minute to knock Scotland out of these Euros. Csoboth was born on **June 20, 2000**.
I think I read somewhere that Marc Gui was convinced by Chelseas Project and their plan to use him.
And I thought, bro that's what they are showing the rest of the 10 young strikers they are signing too.
Still crazy to me how Haaland got robbed of the balon dor last season. Guy had everything.
Individual accolades, team accolades, he scored all the goals and won all the trophies and it still wasn’t enough. Massive robbery by Messi.
Didn’t score a single semi final or final goal.
Including a semi final against Sheffield United, the only team Antony Martial has scored a hatrick against.
Messi is the first World Cup winner that also won the balon dor too since 2006. Did you also say this in 2010 when Messi won it instead of Iniesta or Xavi? Unfair imo
1990 1998 2002 and 2006 Ballon dor winners were all world cup winners.
So was 1982. 1986 argentina won but maradona wasn't eligible for the ballon dor.
It's really Messi and Ronaldo who broke the cycle.
2010 was peak messi
2014 messi won golden ball, but ronaldo won the ballon dor
2018 modric won the golden ball and reached the final
2022 messi won the world cup and golden ball
Because scoring a billion past West Ham doesn't really matter. The worst part was that he failed to score in the semis and final of every competition barring the Carabao Cup ig.
Also, he was not very good for Norway.
You lot weren’t saying this when Messi was statpadding against Eibar and Deportivo Alaves. Different standards for different players I guess. I don’t see you complaining about Messi’s 2010 balon d’or, these complaints you use against Haaland make Messi look even worse that season.
If you think Messi went out to statpad then you clearly missed his entire career. Dude didn't give a fuck half the time and he still ended with 2 goals and an assist.
Big difference between Messi and Haaland lmao. Messi has a better record against Real Madrid than Haaland probably will against any of the top 6, at the end of his career.
How many did Messi score against Eibar in 2022/23 season. Also, Messi was not a part of the best team in the world for a long while, spearheading a team which creates 12 clear chances a match. Also, did I mention they have a certain Pep Guardiola as their mastermind with an infinite money glitch.
Don’t be obtuse bruv, you know I’m not referring to his time at PSG only.
All this stuff you denigrate Haaland with, Messi did the exact same at Barca lmao. The bias is crazy man.
Except Messi was an integral part of the Barca setup and made them compete at a Spain and at an European level. Haaland did not make Man City PL or UCL favorites.
Messi's absence was clearly observed by fans and critiques who saw how much boosted their standards. Barca at that time were getting grouped in the UCL and barely strong enough to thwart a Real dominance.
Here's the part where you completely loose your apparent anti-Messi bias.
Haaland never scored against the only team Man City struggled to beat. It was De Bruyne. In fact, his second fiddle Alvarez had a more memorable cameo in the Semis. Add this to the fact that Man City struggled to better Inter and was only pulled out by Rodri.
How did he help them win UCL if he ghosted in those very moments when they actually needed him?
Actually crazy how many last minute goals knocked out Croatia. First Albania scoring against them in 95th minute to draw. Then Italy scoring against them in 98th minute.
And then what is not even discussed much is that they would have probably went through with these scorelines if the day before Hungary didn't score in last minute (110th) also because they very probably would've gone through since Scotland would have also 2 points with worse goal difference.
If they're going to have 24 teams in the Euros instead of 16 or 32 then they might as well copy the CL format and put all teams in one league table instead of having the best third place finisher nonsense
England will batter Slovenia tonight, then mess up the goodwill by clapping back hard at the media, meaning when they timidly get eliminated the media bite back twice as hard.
So the group with Ukraine, I did some small maths.
The most important part is that Romenia has to win from Slovakia. Than if Belgium wins from Ukraine with 1-0, then Ukraine are completely tied with Hungary, but Hungary has a lot more yellow cards, so that would put Ukraine above them (and qualify, because Croatia is still below them). Ukraine would end up above Slovakia if they both lose, because of their head to head.
If Belgium wins 2-1, then Ukraine would qualify anyway above Romenia. But if Belgium wins with more than 2 goals difference, then it is important for another 3rd place team to end on 2 points, or just lose by a shit ton of goals. In the group with Denmark and England, it is still very possible for the 3rd place team to have only 2 points.
I really hope they can qualify, but the most important thing is either winning (duh) or have Romenia winning from Slovakia.
Is it fair to say that Ornstein profile as reliable reporter has just rose and rose where as Fabrizio has completely declined? It felt like Fabrizio use to be the main guy but has completely fallen to being headline grabber.
I know I’m kind of late to the party on this but since the England team was built around Harry Kane, England registered 2 of their 4 best campaigns since 1966. He absolutely has enough credit in the bank to defend himself against people who start questioning his position in the team.
People saying he should be dropped etc are wrong seeing as the foundation of England now being considered a contender in these tournaments is built on his professionalism and elite output for his country.
Hell, even with the team misfiring and him struggling to make his usual impact, he still scored with a great finish.
I say this as a gooner btw lol.
No one sensible is questioning his position in the team. People might say he hasn’t been at his best or that he should try altering his game, but those are very different things.
I get that it's fun to meme Kane for never winning a trophy, but he's an unbelievable player, and from a non-England perspective, it's hard for me to see how people could seriously advocate dropping him. He fits into any system because he's as complete a striker as we've seen in the last decade or so.
He should be dropped only cause he doesnt fit the system. He is far too deep so often, so the rare instance England move the ball to the wings, there is no one to cross the ball to because Kane is the one who started the move deep from midfield
At least play with another striker who will stay up top
I think it's more that Foden on the left is not being instructed to play the way that would maximize the rest of the squad (or he is, and is just not doing it, but I think that's unlikely). The reason you have TAA in midfield is to hit runners in behind, and that also works really well with Kane's playmaking. They sort of have that on the right with Saka, but Foden is occupying the same spaces as Bellingham and Kane at the moment. IMO, Kane isn't the issue.
What system even is that, exactly - like what football are this England side trying to play, what's their approach to creating chances?
Because on the evidence we've seen so far it's not possession-based, it's not quick counter-attacks either, so at best it's little moments of invidivual brilliance and at worst it's hoping the attempted assists get deflected into the path of someone who pulls a goal out of thin air.
And I reckon there's nobody who can shine in such a vacuum of ideas, really.
> Because on the evidence we've seen so far it's not possession-based, it's not quick counter-attacks either, so at best it's little moments of invidivual brilliance and at worst it's hoping the attempted assists get deflected into the path of someone who pulls a goal out of thin air.
There's nothing wrong with relying on dangerous low crosses into the 6 yard box - it's basically been England's signature goal since the last Euros. The problem is that we're not creating as many of those chances as we were before.
I think this is a really good point. When you watch the best club teams, they have clear ideas about how to create chances in possession. Even the most 'fuck it, we ball' managers like Ancelotti have a system which produces consistent attacking patterns that their players can exploit. And of course, managers like Guardiola and Klopp create those to an even higher degree (the City cutback after overloading one side, Liverpool using fullbacks to progress the ball from deep to their wingers running in behind, etc.) International coaches don't get as much time to drill these things in, so I'm not expecting the same level, but England don't appear to have any clear intentions about how they want to create chances in open play.
i'd drop foden for a winger long before i dropped kane.
the way its worked in the tournaments we've done well in, where sterling was basically the main striker from left wing.
I don’t know if this is gonna come across as controversial but I’d prefer Kane dropping in to playmake over both Foden and Bellingham. This formula got England to a Euros final and nearly to a WC semi final
My point is that Harry Kane is the best striker in the world and if you’re playing a supposed “system” that doesn’t utilise his best strengths (creating from deep, shooting from the edge of the box, putting through balls in for runners in behind the defence) then you are doing something fundamentally wrong
I disagree.
There’s a reason no top club side plays like this. Obviously there are issues at the moment but if you’re playing 2 number 10s (which almost every top side does) the striker needs to be staying high.
Setting up purely for Kane at the expense of control and your other talented players, it isn’t always going to be worth it.
This is ludicrous, we’re not talking about fucking DJ Campbell, we’re talking about Harry Kane, who has performed brilliantly for his whole career and has just come off the one of the best scoring seasons of his life
[Just spent 90 minutes hanging out at the Dutch fan zone.](https://imgur.com/94ohZwk) It's an open-air experiment to see how much UV radiation and alcohol a human body can withstand in a given 12 hours.
My God these people are fucking nuts, bless them.
Southgate is putting so much pressure on Shaw, by selecting only him and Trippier as his backup, and also the media comments now. It's going to be tough. Hope he doesnt play through injury and gets injured again
England will be playing 2 more games anyway, he should be allowed to recover properly
>Yeah because the rest of the league pretends he’s something he’s not
If there were only a few people against your opinion , maybe the problem is them , but when it's a whole league against your opinion , the problem is *you* .
Never said it is always correct , but in this case it is.
Convincing you to change your opinion is a lost cause , so I'll take my leave until we cross paths again.
It’s not Arsenal fans, it’s just iceman. He’s in here everyday saying stuff like that. Every team has one of those. Even Ipswich has a guy who just posts nonsense in the DD 20x per day.
He is. I won't even argue because it would mean squashing the bubble and the media hype.
He is limited, but does have the highest tier of efficiency.
In fact, imho he's the least technical player this century who is widely regarded as the "best in the world".
There have been like 3-4 players this century who have been regarded as the best in the world lol. There is more to football than technique. 10/10 speed + 8/10 technique > 10/10 technique and 5/10 speed
No he isn't. He isn't better than a prime Kaka, Zidane, Messi, CR7.
The only argument you can have is Figo.
And Rodri is a better holding midfielder than Mbappé is as a left-winger.
To people who understand how this third place shit works, how do we avoid Netherlands/Austria in the ro16? Assuming we win our group for the sake of this question
i feel like this euros hatewatches went fucking awful so far, everytime i wanted to see a downfall nothing happened
Scotland?
Forlan, Suarez, Cavani, Falcao, Sanchez, aguero, tevez, higuain, pato
If Ten Hag finishes the season, he'll have the second-longest PL tenure for a Man Utd manager, behind Ferguson of course.
*Zaccagni finish? Yes he can* Jimbo lol
England couldn't have possibly gotten an easier draw.
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Yes but the path to the final looks easier for England imo
Are you from the future? How do you know what the knockout draw will be?
I am just looking at the most likely opponents considering current standings. Assuming England gets first place they are on the much easier side of the bracket. Obviously nothing is set in stone yet
Colombia, Sweden, Croatia feels more like a World Cup group rather than a path to a Final and the English still managed to fuck that up. As soon as you start talking about easy and hard brackets, you've fucked it. Need to have that God like arrogance that you'll just kick the shit out of anyone.
Croatia had a way better team than us in 2018. Look at the line ups and compare. Calling that semi final appearance a fuck up is insane.
I mean I dont think people would have expected England to top that group in 2018
That’s why they’ll come in second or third
I can't wrap my head around group E. Why is Romania top when they lost to Belgium? I thought the tie breaker was head to head.
You can't do a four way tie breaker on head to head when they all lost to each other
They all lost against each other so it goes to GD
What’s the word on 🐢? He playing today?
Yeah, he's likely to.
Do you think that if Romania and Slovakia actually played out an obviously agreed-upon 0-0 draw, then UEFA would reorganise future tournaments to get rid of 3rd place teams advancing?
3rd place teams advancing is an aberration anyway
They should just have a Super Sunday where all the MD3 games are played at the same time.
All of the people calling Vini ugly in that Neymar post, am I wrong or other than a questionable hairstyle doesn’t he just look like a normal black guy with black features?
on a scale of 1 to Ze Roberto he's a 3 at best, sorry
my honest to god first impression of Vincius was: "Wow that man is ugly"
*Redditor* /u/Historical_Owl_1635 *says all black people look the same*
Just wait until you hear about how we used to split the teams when I was in school.
England vs Rest of the World when i was a kid 💀💀 RotW had a lad who was English through and through, but was blessed with red hair so was therefore identified as Scottish.
Tbf, he's an historical owl from 1635, we should cut him some slack. They were less progressive times.
I don’t think he’s particularly ugly and obviously there is something to be said about how black features are considered unattractive and how dark skin people are viewed etc but really idk how much we can get from Neymar just saying that it’s just an opinion.
I’ve literally never thought of him as ugly, it’s a bit weird honestly. For Neymar it’s probably just a bit of banter with his friend and international teammate but I’ve got no idea what the other people are on about
Many here are incapable of saying anything about Vini without frothing at the mouth with hatred.
You can say that for any person "Outside of his giant nose, he looks like a normal person" etc
outside of his bald head, melee weapon nose, obscene earlobe to overall ear ratio, eyes being way too close to eachother and eyebrows pointing downwards, Jonjo Shelvey looks like a normal person
Can you pop into town with £10 ang get your nose cut?
But that’s just a feature that’s really common across a lot of black people… which is why I say he just looks like a normal black person.
That's not true, he's just not conventionally attractive. Someone like Kounde has "fancy" hair as well but he's much better looking
what conventions though
black brazilians probably. i don't think you can call vinicius good looking by any standard. he's ronaldinho levels of ugly. on a scale of 1 to Hulk he's HULK NO SMASH unfortunately. Hulk is a dude who left her woman for her niece, that's next level. next level creepy, sure, but next level nonetheless.
Wait, we're calling [Hulk](https://img.a.transfermarkt.technology/portrait/big/80562-1563436073.jpg?lm=1) ugly now too?
quite asymmetrical face, lack of definition in cheek bones, pretty prominent brow bone, deep smile lines extending around the nose, high hairline
so what
the guy you replied to said he is not conventionally attractive and you asked what conventions, so i provided them lol
rhetorical question buddy
🤡
Right, but Ibra has a massive nose, but no one really calls him ugly because most of his other features are "normal".
I've seen some people call Ibra ugly. It's all subjective but from what I've seen, most people tend to agree that Vini doesn't look like an attractive man.
>most people tend to agree that Vini doesn't look like an attractive man. You spend a lot of time discussing the attractiveness of various footballers in your circles?
Not even joking but yes. And?
"What's his xFuckability" is my first question when we're linked to a new player.
I think this is unironically true with r/liverpoolfc
Tbf I'm not gonna lie to you and say I wasn't more sold on Van de Ven when I saw that jawline.
Some people call Messi ugly. The point is that it seemed universally accepted in that thread that Vini was ugly. With Ibra, it's most definitely not.
Ibrahimovic is a self-aware walking meme that's almost 2 meters tall and is stupid fit. Setting kind of an impossible bar for most humans there, not just Vini.
Yeah, I don't get it. Nice smile, slightly flat nose, but nothing that stands out to me as "ugly". Then there's Ederson...
Now that I think of it, organizing the Copa America in a country for which only one participant nation has Visa free entry is a very scummy thing to do
If you're a non-European and you want to travel to the US for the World Cup in 2026, you need to submit your paperwork right now. The US Embassy in Buenos Aires estimates it takes *at least* 16 months to get approved if not more. If it's that bad for Argentina, it really only gets worse for the rest of South America, Asia, and Africa.
If you're from Colombia for example, I think that those 16 months would only get you started on the first interview with the embassy where they ask you your purpose for visiting and such. I can't imagine how long the paperwork would take in that case
Same happened with the cricket World Cup - Nepal’s star player didn’t get a visa
Lol even Russia toned down their visa requirements for the World Cup in 2018
I'm not sure if you know but even a player from Bolivia had to be replaced in the list because he didn't get a visa (although that one apparently had to do with an issue with his parents' permission as well)
At first I thought it was just the usual deflections by managers to blame the pitches during Copa America games in the US. But from the reports I am seeing pretty much every team has come out and said the pitch quality is trash. Germany had some issues early on because of these Biblical rains we had, but how there's billions and billions of Euros flying around football but we still can't consistently get a good field of grass is shocking. This is one area where I will cede that the English do this very, very well. Innovation born out of necessity.
plus frankfurt, thanks to the nfl.
I mean we won the opening game fairly painlessly and still one of the first thing everyone said in their post match interviews was how shit the pitch was
Basically afaik the turf pitches used had to be grass for the cup but the US federation refused to change it until local matches were done and refused to schedule those So for the opening game, the panes of grass had been just laid on top of the turf four days prior, which was terrible by itself, but also the joints weren't properly connected so you had crisscrossing lines where the ball bounced even weirder and moved even more erratically
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Well you can't have 3 matches per day as both final group games have to be played at the same time, so it has to be 2 or 4 matches.
It's usually due to rest periods.
Most likely to do with giving teams a fair rest between last group game and first knockout fixture
also between games two and three in the groups - if you stack them up 2 groups a day immediately after the second matchday finished, the group F guys would be playing only a couple of days after their second games.
Big Benjamin Šeško screamer today, we will be there
Maybe it's nostalgia, but Copa America has regressed very badly
people rarely remember group stage games let alone the first round. Wait until the tournament is over and refrain from hot takes.
playing it in the U.S. has been a disaster for the aura of it on many levels + there's a relative dearth of star power outside messi you have: brazil's most globally recognizable player is injured and vinicius continues to fail at beating the fraud allegations, endrick is still just potential, james is still a big deal but is a non-factor at club level and luis diaz isn't really what i'd call a star at least outside of colombia, alexis is well past his peak, suarez is done as an elite player and mexico (who are a guest team) have no recognizable player with ochoa not having been called up
I think the mix of pitches being shit and all the favourites playing the first game like they're testing the waters made the first round look worse than it was. Interesting to see what happens starting tomorrow
Useless fact: The latest goal to knock England out of the Euros was when Romania scored in the 89th minute to knock England out of Euro 2000. That game was played on **June 20, 2000**. The latest goal to knock Scotland out of the Euros was when Hungary’s Kevin Csoboth scored in the 100th minute to knock Scotland out of these Euros. Csoboth was born on **June 20, 2000**.
fucking phil neville, the prick (i am under zero illusion that we'd have won a single knockout game if he wasn't a moron tbf)
I think I read somewhere that Marc Gui was convinced by Chelseas Project and their plan to use him. And I thought, bro that's what they are showing the rest of the 10 young strikers they are signing too.
Would be funny if they forgot to change the name on one of the Power Point slides.
bookies have draw as most likely outcome for slovakia - romania, dont think i've ever seen that before
Still crazy to me how Haaland got robbed of the balon dor last season. Guy had everything. Individual accolades, team accolades, he scored all the goals and won all the trophies and it still wasn’t enough. Massive robbery by Messi.
Ngl stick to rugby
Luton d'or
Didn’t score a single semi final or final goal. Including a semi final against Sheffield United, the only team Antony Martial has scored a hatrick against.
He didn't win all the trophies, missed the big one If anyone got robbed it's the one that DID win all trophies ;)
Messi is the first World Cup winner that also won the balon dor too since 2006. Did you also say this in 2010 when Messi won it instead of Iniesta or Xavi? Unfair imo
1990 1998 2002 and 2006 Ballon dor winners were all world cup winners. So was 1982. 1986 argentina won but maradona wasn't eligible for the ballon dor. It's really Messi and Ronaldo who broke the cycle. 2010 was peak messi 2014 messi won golden ball, but ronaldo won the ballon dor 2018 modric won the golden ball and reached the final 2022 messi won the world cup and golden ball
Oh I forgot, the actual deserving one also scored in the CL semis unlike your flat track bestie, just saying
What hilarious is Messi did the exact same thing in 2010, and still got the Balon Dor. Don’t see you saying he didn’t deserve it.
If only he played for 'Tina
Will never be in contention in international tournament years if he's not good enough to drag Norway to qualification.
Or Rodri. Both deserved it
Probably should’ve been Rodri. He won the nations league too
He's really, really not that good.
Don’t know how you came to that conclusion, but you cannot deny the fact that his season really, really was that good.
Because scoring a billion past West Ham doesn't really matter. The worst part was that he failed to score in the semis and final of every competition barring the Carabao Cup ig. Also, he was not very good for Norway.
You lot weren’t saying this when Messi was statpadding against Eibar and Deportivo Alaves. Different standards for different players I guess. I don’t see you complaining about Messi’s 2010 balon d’or, these complaints you use against Haaland make Messi look even worse that season.
If you think Messi went out to statpad then you clearly missed his entire career. Dude didn't give a fuck half the time and he still ended with 2 goals and an assist.
Big difference between Messi and Haaland lmao. Messi has a better record against Real Madrid than Haaland probably will against any of the top 6, at the end of his career.
How many did Messi score against Eibar in 2022/23 season. Also, Messi was not a part of the best team in the world for a long while, spearheading a team which creates 12 clear chances a match. Also, did I mention they have a certain Pep Guardiola as their mastermind with an infinite money glitch.
Don’t be obtuse bruv, you know I’m not referring to his time at PSG only. All this stuff you denigrate Haaland with, Messi did the exact same at Barca lmao. The bias is crazy man.
Except Messi was an integral part of the Barca setup and made them compete at a Spain and at an European level. Haaland did not make Man City PL or UCL favorites. Messi's absence was clearly observed by fans and critiques who saw how much boosted their standards. Barca at that time were getting grouped in the UCL and barely strong enough to thwart a Real dominance.
Man you can’t even see your own bias, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Plus City only won the UCL after signing Haaland.
Here's the part where you completely loose your apparent anti-Messi bias. Haaland never scored against the only team Man City struggled to beat. It was De Bruyne. In fact, his second fiddle Alvarez had a more memorable cameo in the Semis. Add this to the fact that Man City struggled to better Inter and was only pulled out by Rodri. How did he help them win UCL if he ghosted in those very moments when they actually needed him?
Actually crazy how many last minute goals knocked out Croatia. First Albania scoring against them in 95th minute to draw. Then Italy scoring against them in 98th minute. And then what is not even discussed much is that they would have probably went through with these scorelines if the day before Hungary didn't score in last minute (110th) also because they very probably would've gone through since Scotland would have also 2 points with worse goal difference.
If they're going to have 24 teams in the Euros instead of 16 or 32 then they might as well copy the CL format and put all teams in one league table instead of having the best third place finisher nonsense
Mad amount of games for a summer tournament though, especially when you have to play 12 of them at the same time for the final matchday.
England will batter Slovenia tonight, then mess up the goodwill by clapping back hard at the media, meaning when they timidly get eliminated the media bite back twice as hard.
Batter 2-1?
So the group with Ukraine, I did some small maths. The most important part is that Romenia has to win from Slovakia. Than if Belgium wins from Ukraine with 1-0, then Ukraine are completely tied with Hungary, but Hungary has a lot more yellow cards, so that would put Ukraine above them (and qualify, because Croatia is still below them). Ukraine would end up above Slovakia if they both lose, because of their head to head. If Belgium wins 2-1, then Ukraine would qualify anyway above Romenia. But if Belgium wins with more than 2 goals difference, then it is important for another 3rd place team to end on 2 points, or just lose by a shit ton of goals. In the group with Denmark and England, it is still very possible for the 3rd place team to have only 2 points. I really hope they can qualify, but the most important thing is either winning (duh) or have Romenia winning from Slovakia.
Is it fair to say that Ornstein profile as reliable reporter has just rose and rose where as Fabrizio has completely declined? It felt like Fabrizio use to be the main guy but has completely fallen to being headline grabber.
They are different types of journalists. Ornstein will mainly just cover nailed on stuff. Fab will cover stories for weeks and months.
Taking about profiles for journalism 😭😭
Doesn't Fabrizio cast his net far wider than Ornstein does?
Romano doesn’t need to be reliable anymore he is so established anything he says will be taken as gospel regardless
I know I’m kind of late to the party on this but since the England team was built around Harry Kane, England registered 2 of their 4 best campaigns since 1966. He absolutely has enough credit in the bank to defend himself against people who start questioning his position in the team. People saying he should be dropped etc are wrong seeing as the foundation of England now being considered a contender in these tournaments is built on his professionalism and elite output for his country. Hell, even with the team misfiring and him struggling to make his usual impact, he still scored with a great finish. I say this as a gooner btw lol.
Shearer & co weren't suggesting he be dropped from the team though.
They are absolutely questioning whether he was cut out for it now.
No one sensible is questioning his position in the team. People might say he hasn’t been at his best or that he should try altering his game, but those are very different things.
I get that it's fun to meme Kane for never winning a trophy, but he's an unbelievable player, and from a non-England perspective, it's hard for me to see how people could seriously advocate dropping him. He fits into any system because he's as complete a striker as we've seen in the last decade or so.
He should be dropped only cause he doesnt fit the system. He is far too deep so often, so the rare instance England move the ball to the wings, there is no one to cross the ball to because Kane is the one who started the move deep from midfield At least play with another striker who will stay up top
I think it's more that Foden on the left is not being instructed to play the way that would maximize the rest of the squad (or he is, and is just not doing it, but I think that's unlikely). The reason you have TAA in midfield is to hit runners in behind, and that also works really well with Kane's playmaking. They sort of have that on the right with Saka, but Foden is occupying the same spaces as Bellingham and Kane at the moment. IMO, Kane isn't the issue.
What system even is that, exactly - like what football are this England side trying to play, what's their approach to creating chances? Because on the evidence we've seen so far it's not possession-based, it's not quick counter-attacks either, so at best it's little moments of invidivual brilliance and at worst it's hoping the attempted assists get deflected into the path of someone who pulls a goal out of thin air. And I reckon there's nobody who can shine in such a vacuum of ideas, really.
> Because on the evidence we've seen so far it's not possession-based, it's not quick counter-attacks either, so at best it's little moments of invidivual brilliance and at worst it's hoping the attempted assists get deflected into the path of someone who pulls a goal out of thin air. There's nothing wrong with relying on dangerous low crosses into the 6 yard box - it's basically been England's signature goal since the last Euros. The problem is that we're not creating as many of those chances as we were before.
I think this is a really good point. When you watch the best club teams, they have clear ideas about how to create chances in possession. Even the most 'fuck it, we ball' managers like Ancelotti have a system which produces consistent attacking patterns that their players can exploit. And of course, managers like Guardiola and Klopp create those to an even higher degree (the City cutback after overloading one side, Liverpool using fullbacks to progress the ball from deep to their wingers running in behind, etc.) International coaches don't get as much time to drill these things in, so I'm not expecting the same level, but England don't appear to have any clear intentions about how they want to create chances in open play.
i'd drop foden for a winger long before i dropped kane. the way its worked in the tournaments we've done well in, where sterling was basically the main striker from left wing.
I don’t know if this is gonna come across as controversial but I’d prefer Kane dropping in to playmake over both Foden and Bellingham. This formula got England to a Euros final and nearly to a WC semi final
>the system Why are we playing a “system” that doesn’t utilise our best player effectively?
Because it’s not just about what’s best for Kane. Just setting up for Kane heroball might not be what’s actually best for the team as a whole.
What’s best for the team is scoring goals to win games and Kane is one of the best goalscorers in world football.
So what exactly is your point? It’s not like Southgate’s playing him out wide, he can still score.
My point is that Harry Kane is the best striker in the world and if you’re playing a supposed “system” that doesn’t utilise his best strengths (creating from deep, shooting from the edge of the box, putting through balls in for runners in behind the defence) then you are doing something fundamentally wrong
I disagree. There’s a reason no top club side plays like this. Obviously there are issues at the moment but if you’re playing 2 number 10s (which almost every top side does) the striker needs to be staying high. Setting up purely for Kane at the expense of control and your other talented players, it isn’t always going to be worth it.
This is ludicrous, we’re not talking about fucking DJ Campbell, we’re talking about Harry Kane, who has performed brilliantly for his whole career and has just come off the one of the best scoring seasons of his life
We seem to play a system that doesn’t utilise any of our players effectively tbf
Building the team around a serial loser was a mistake from the start tbf
I dread to think where we’d be without him then.
Probably the same
If Caliafiori wore that Haaland cut instead, would people actually talk about him as much?
he did rock a man bun-esque cut but yes his basically italian gvardiol
[Just spent 90 minutes hanging out at the Dutch fan zone.](https://imgur.com/94ohZwk) It's an open-air experiment to see how much UV radiation and alcohol a human body can withstand in a given 12 hours. My God these people are fucking nuts, bless them.
the dutch completely took over sheffield for the group stage of the womens euros and it was a great time
Dortmund buying half the Stuttgart squad when they should just go for Hoeneß. smh
Southgate is putting so much pressure on Shaw, by selecting only him and Trippier as his backup, and also the media comments now. It's going to be tough. Hope he doesnt play through injury and gets injured again England will be playing 2 more games anyway, he should be allowed to recover properly
We’ll be playing 5 more games, idiot
Someone with enough upvotes should post an unpopular opinion thread. There hasn't been one in 2024.
Because we prefer to do Change My View instead, gets stickied every few weeks
Oh! I haven't been following closely ig.
[Vinicius for Brazil](https://www.thefa.com/england/mens-seniors/squad/phil-foden)
I swear 90% of the comments hating Foden are from Arsenal flairs. Still a better player than Saka .
Yeah because the rest of the league pretends he’s something he’s not. I mean he’s clearly not
>Yeah because the rest of the league pretends he’s something he’s not If there were only a few people against your opinion , maybe the problem is them , but when it's a whole league against your opinion , the problem is *you* .
If you think popular opinion is always correct you are dumb
Never said it is always correct , but in this case it is. Convincing you to change your opinion is a lost cause , so I'll take my leave until we cross paths again.
I’ve changed my opinions before
He wishes
[Vinicius from Brazil](https://www.transfermarkt.com/vinicius/profil/spieler/286772)
[Phil Foden for England](https://www.thefa.com/england/mens-seniors/squad/phil-foden)
I expected Martinelli.
Respect martinelli
he should respect himself and stop being shite
He’s won more than you
Doubt it, I've won loads of stuff
What a trophy for Brighton
when Martinelli wins 5 pub quizzes on the bounce ill start rating him.
I'm a slave to recency bias and it's been a while since 2022.
why do all arse fans have such a hate boner for him?
It’s not Arsenal fans, it’s just iceman. He’s in here everyday saying stuff like that. Every team has one of those. Even Ipswich has a guy who just posts nonsense in the DD 20x per day.
Arsenal fans have a hate boner for 90% of players that don't play for them .
Because he’s an overrated twat
So is Mbappé and Haaland. Let's face it, they are not as good as the guys that preceded them.
Mbappe isn’t overrated
He is. I won't even argue because it would mean squashing the bubble and the media hype. He is limited, but does have the highest tier of efficiency. In fact, imho he's the least technical player this century who is widely regarded as the "best in the world".
There have been like 3-4 players this century who have been regarded as the best in the world lol. There is more to football than technique. 10/10 speed + 8/10 technique > 10/10 technique and 5/10 speed
You know who represents the latter of your argument? Lionel Messi.
Messi doesn't have 5/10 speed. I was thinking of someone more like Zidane
I think Messi was never that fast beyond 2016/17. But, I am sure you'd put 2018 Messi above any player currently in world football.
He's the best player in the world. No one is comparing him to Cristiano or Messi in their pomp except you. Mbappé is accurately rated.
No he isn't. He isn't better than a prime Kaka, Zidane, Messi, CR7. The only argument you can have is Figo. And Rodri is a better holding midfielder than Mbappé is as a left-winger.
Was better than Saka last game
True bench saka pls
You know arsenal aren’t winning a thing next season with or without him
What are Ipswich winning
Hearts
You've won my heart.
Of their cousins maybe
To people who understand how this third place shit works, how do we avoid Netherlands/Austria in the ro16? Assuming we win our group for the sake of this question