Belgium v Canada – Wed 23rd Nov, 19:00 | Group F | World Cup 2022

Match Result Prediction

  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .
Manchester33 said:
Reminds me so much of England under Sven. Our golden generation wasted by a manager who couldn’t figure out how to get Scholes, Lampard and Gerrard into the same team!!
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Overrated generation

Rooney with his one World Cup goal in his career. I’ll take Kane with his 9 goals in major tournaments. He’s going to break Rooney’s record in 7 years of being an international, compared to Rooney’s 15 years and 100+ games.

Players like Lampard and Gerrard shrinking in an England shirt. Playing hot potato with the ball, getting rid of it because they were shit scared of losing it. Making hard work of teams like Costa Rica, Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago etc. They were solid Premier League players, but you never saw the likes of Real Madrid or Barca making any serious attempts to get them in. They were not rated outside of England in the same way.

No real depth to that “golden generation” squad either.

This current squad would beat them. Far better mentality. The type of team the overhyped golden generation used to fold against.
 
Crooked_rain said:
Overrated generation

Rooney with his one World Cup goal in his career. I’ll take Kane with his 9 goals in major tournaments. He’s going to break Rooney’s record in 7 years of being an international, compared to Rooney’s 15 years and 100+ games.

Players like Lampard and Gerrard shrinking in an England shirt. Playing hot potato with the ball, getting rid of it because they were shit scared of losing it. Making hard work of teams like Costa Rica, Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago etc. They were solid Premier League players, but you never saw the likes of Real Madrid or Barca making any serious attempts to get them in. They were not rated outside of England in the same way.

No real depth to that “golden generation” squad either.

This current squad would beat them. Far better mentality. The type of team the overhyped golden generation used to fold against.
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I think I disagree...

If you look at the players we had available:

Terry, Ferdinand, Campbell, Cole, Scholes, Lampard, Beckham, Gerard, Rooney, Owen, and so on, are all brilliant players who won tons of trophies between them - yet failed miserably on the international stage. Yes, there were some other brilliant teams around the same time, but that generation should have been significantly better than they were and if we had a more competent manager, I'm confident they would have been.

The argument is whether those players were good domestically because of the players around them. I don't think that's the case. Especially Gerard, Lampard, and Scholes, were clearly the best players in their respective teams. Owen won a Ballon D'or!

I agree that the current squad has a much stronger mentality. I think the country's expectations are lower now too. The pressure on the England team in the naughties was definitely a hindrance.
 
Manchester33 said:
I think I disagree...

If you look at the players we had available:

Terry, Ferdinand, Campbell, Cole, Scholes, Lampard, Beckham, Gerard, Rooney, Owen, and so on, are all brilliant players who won tons of trophies between them - yet failed miserably on the international stage. Yes, there were some other brilliant teams around the same time, but that generation should have been significantly better than they were and if we had a more competent manager, I'm confident they would have been.

The argument is whether those players were good domestically because of the players around them. I don't think that's the case. Especially Gerard, Lampard, and Scholes, were clearly the best players in their respective teams. Owen won a Ballon D'or!

I agree that the current squad has a much stronger mentality. I think the country's expectations are lower now too. The pressure on the England team in the naughties was definitely a hindrance.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but then you got a balance that out and say the current team player in the age of social media where they can get criticism basically directly at them right in front of them, all day every day, so you could argue there’s much more pressure now

Owen won Ballon D’or, true, and had his injuries, but I don’t think he was ever some superstar striker. He’s never hit more than 19 goals in a Premier League season. Didn’t set the world alight at Madrid did he? Played 36 league games in his first season and scored 13 goals. But people would have you believe he’s one of the most deadly strikers of his generation, the facts state otherwise.

Lampard and Gerard were definitely very good players. I just don’t really think they were elite level footballers that they were marketed to be. And they shrunk in an England shirt on the biggest stage. You can talk about pressure but every big footballing nation has massive pressure on them for the World Cup, but being an elite level sports person has more than just ability, it’s about mentality and they didn’t seem to have it for England when it mattered. They used to look scared playing against the likes of Algeria in group matches in the World Cup.

Rooney was a good player technically but again, 1 World Cup goal in 3 tournaments. Compare that to the forward players he used to be put in same conversation as. He couldn’t lace Kane’s boots if you ask me, it’s just Kane hasn’t been playing for real title challengers at club level. But it’s no surprise to me that he is breaking all of Rooney’s records in half the time.
 
Thing is, any team that thinks that Thibault Courtois at this point is just another keeper to beat hasn't done his homework right. A bunch of half chances like those of Canada pose few of a threat. Belgium can play a fairly tight defense and pray on counters given the strong tall strikers it has and a midfield skilled at countering. Granted if we are going to go "full Catenaccio" then we better don't give away penalty's. We have a rather experienced and strong defense but given that they lack for pace they are not the best for pressing higher up or stepping out of the defense, they can be nasty in a tight block and helpfull with longballs or setting up counters but then you need to let the opponent come to you. So the optics of a beleaguered Belgium might deceive, one really has to consider the quality of the chances created when faced with Courtois, getting half chances trough a tight defense doesn't mean much. A deviation of past though as Belgium used to press a lot more and take control of the ball. But i think we could do rather well using Catenaccio, just aint nessecarily going to be pretty and still need to have realistic expectations Belgium is not a favourite for the win especially in this age when our golden attacking midfield from the past is visibly (and logically) regressing.
 
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