2022 World Cup Discussion

Crooked_rain said:
I’ve got either Brazil or Argentina reaching the final. So I’m certainly not writing them off, they have a great chance, I was just pointing out my friends in those countries serious doubt, like a lot of England fans do about England.

I guess once you get to the final, it’s anyones game, anything can happen at that point. We are a better side than Chelsea but not on the night we played them in the CL final. That’s football

So I can never predict who I think will win the whole thing, but I do feel we’ll see either Brazil or Argentina go as far as the final

But part of me still thinks we’ll get an unexpected winner.
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France are the team I'm most unsure about. Kante and Pogba are a huge miss for them, but their squad is still very strong. You just never know if you're going to get a harmonious French team that just nail it, or one that falls apart and has some sort of drama. I've written them off based on recent form but you never know. Denmark are very strong and could do well, but they're a team most of the traditional top teams would expect to beat still.

How much the heat plays it's part is yet to be seen. Spain are talented but defensively weak and lacking a striker. The same goes for Germany, but they'll both probably do well. The Dutch have put a good run together recently and have a solid defence and a strong identity that could see them go far. They score a lot of goals despite the lack of obvious quality up front. Belgium are past it now in my opinion.

Jury is out on England still. The biggest issue we have is that Southgate is well aware that we're weak defensively and will naturally look to bolster the defence to stop us conceding. Personally I think that's the wrong way to do things. We're going to concede against good opposition. Face into it and look to outscore the opponent rather than stop them. If we play a more direct game and don't look to pass it out from the back (which we can't do well enough) we'll cause so many issues with the players we have. Having said that he's got us to the latter stages before playing his way, so who am I to comment!
 
England will do well to get to the semis, but they are capable of winning it, also capable of not qualifying for the round of 16. Whatever, I will support them and Wales if they get through and we don’t. But, to be honest, I have not been more apathetic about a World Cup since I knew there was such a thing, even when England didn’t qualify I always loved the build up and the mad moments. But I cannot condone the choice of QATAR and the havoc a winter World Cup has on the domestic game, to deprive fans of top class football at this time of year is disgusting, although it might help some with the cost of living crisis for a few weeks.
 
supercity88 said:
France are the team I'm most unsure about. Kante and Pogba are a huge miss for them, but their squad is still very strong. You just never know if you're going to get a harmonious French team that just nail it, or one that falls apart and has some sort of drama. I've written them off based on recent form but you never know. Denmark are very strong and could do well, but they're a team most of the traditional top teams would expect to beat still.

How much the heat plays it's part is yet to be seen. Spain are talented but defensively weak and lacking a striker. The same goes for Germany, but they'll both probably do well. The Dutch have put a good run together recently and have a solid defence and a strong identity that could see them go far. They score a lot of goals despite the lack of obvious quality up front. Belgium are past it now in my opinion.

Jury is out on England still. The biggest issue we have is that Southgate is well aware that we're weak defensively and will naturally look to bolster the defence to stop us conceding. Personally I think that's the wrong way to do things. We're going to concede against good opposition. Face into it and look to outscore the opponent rather than stop them. If we play a more direct game and don't look to pass it out from the back (which we can't do well enough) we'll cause so many issues with the players we have. Having said that he's got us to the latter stages before playing his way, so who am I to comment!
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It's the usual England dilemma - weak at the back and bolster it by reducing attacking options. But if we have St. Hendo there, covering Maguire's arse, then 'Arry'll knock in every pen we get.
 
supercity88 said:
France are the team I'm most unsure about. Kante and Pogba are a huge miss for them, but their squad is still very strong. You just never know if you're going to get a harmonious French team that just nail it, or one that falls apart and has some sort of drama. I've written them off based on recent form but you never know. Denmark are very strong and could do well, but they're a team most of the traditional top teams would expect to beat still.

How much the heat plays it's part is yet to be seen. Spain are talented but defensively weak and lacking a striker. The same goes for Germany, but they'll both probably do well. The Dutch have put a good run together recently and have a solid defence and a strong identity that could see them go far. They score a lot of goals despite the lack of obvious quality up front. Belgium are past it now in my opinion.

Jury is out on England still. The biggest issue we have is that Southgate is well aware that we're weak defensively and will naturally look to bolster the defence to stop us conceding. Personally I think that's the wrong way to do things. We're going to concede against good opposition. Face into it and look to outscore the opponent rather than stop them. If we play a more direct game and don't look to pass it out from the back (which we can't do well enough) we'll cause so many issues with the players we have. Having said that he's got us to the latter stages before playing his way, so who am I to comment!
Click to expand...

Yeah

The reality is we have done well in the past two tournaments. And while I do find Southgate frustrating at times, his record in tournaments has been good, although yet to win anything.

And the people who are most against Southgate as manager always say that we got to late stages in the tournaments in-spite of Southgate and not because of him, so I guess if that’s true, then they shouldn’t be worried too much about this tournament either, if he has little to do with how far we got previously.

I do think he has made mistakes with game management when it most mattered, the Croatia and Italy games. The Croatia game might be lack of experience. You would hope by the Italy game he might have learned more, But then when you’re in the second half and 1-0 up in a final, I think you’re almost damned if you do and damned if you don’t. He got panned for being negative and sitting back on a lead, But imagine he instructed the team to take it to Italy and we got done anyway then he would’ve been panned for not protecting the lead. But the best managers get paid to take those calculated risks and manage the game and he didn’t seem to know how to. I still think we should’ve taken it to an ageing Italy defence. But I guess I’m not the one who’s making the decisions whether to stick or twist when you’re 40 minutes away from winning a major tournament.

If we are in a big game this time and in a lead, I truly hope he has learned his lessons from those two games, because I can almost forgive him for the decisions or lack of decisions he made in those games, given the circumstances at the time, but the next time there will be no excuses because now he’s been there before.

Looking at our squad and the other squads, I see no reason why we can’t compete with anyone. I do think our defence is a weak point, but no country in it is exactly old school AC Milan in defence either.

I don’t see any squad that stands out above the rest. England’s is up there with anyone else’s, overall.
 
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Maguire looks like he's won a Jim l fix it completion to go to Qatar and Coady looks like he just put 10K on Everton to be relegated.
 
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