England vs Costa Rica - 07/06/18

[Rolee]

I brought stats into it because if ever you question his ability you aren’t allowed to because numbers wise for city he’s fantastic and you cannot dare question that apparently. easy plucking them figures, I’d check the minutes difference between them rather than “appearances” but as I say people want to use stats to defend him for city but they don’t like the stats when used for England. Goalposts being shifted. People change their opinion to suit an argument and that’s my problem. They don’t want rashford because he loses the ball when sterling loses it for fun. They want sterling because he “looks dangerous” still don’t get that as a positive. We wouldn’t go far wrong trying to play them both considering Ali hasn’t been up to much.

Look at the goals and assists per minute Tom, as i said earlier, very similar.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Don't think Alli or Henderson have done enough, to be anywhere near the team.
Be better off playing Moeen Ali.

 

[penguins4kompany]

Good point, can't believe he was crow barred into central midfield. Along with Kane on the corners it was one of the most ludicrous decisions I've seen a football manager make

Don't forget Kane on all free kicks too. They were woeful. Shoulda just played Rooney up front, couldn't have done any worse than Kane.

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

Don't forget Kane on all free kicks too. They were woeful. Shoulda just played Rooney up front, couldn't have done any worse than Kane.

I mean there was at least some correlation between striker and scoring free kicks, but him on corners was just the most ridiculous thing I've seen in international football

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

Don't think Alli or Henderson have done enough, to be anywhere near the team.
Be better off playing Moeen Ali.

Henderson is awful, would rather have Delph their and Alli never plays well for England but always seems to escape criticism somehow

 

[Callum Ramsey]

I brought stats into it because if ever you question his ability you aren’t allowed to because numbers wise for city he’s fantastic and you cannot dare question that apparently. easy plucking them figures, I’d check the minutes difference between them rather than “appearances” but as I say people want to use stats to defend him for city but they don’t like the stats when used for England. Goalposts being shifted. People change their opinion to suit an argument and that’s my problem. They don’t want rashford because he loses the ball when sterling loses it for fun. They want sterling because he “looks dangerous” still don’t get that as a positive. We wouldn’t go far wrong trying to play them both considering Ali hasn’t been up to much.

Well your earlier point that he is worse than rashford for england is just wrong on any level you want to look at stats or not. The reason stats are brought into play for city is for those who question his end product and stats are the best measure for making a case for end product. His role for england is totally different from his role for City. At city he plays as a wide forward almost and someone who is tasked with the final actions of an attacking phase whether it be laying, crossing and setting up a chance from the wing or getting at the end of a cross/through-pass to score as he already has two of the best creative players in the world behind him who supply for him. For England he regularly operates from the middle meaning he is often coming deep to get the ball and link up play between the midfield and attack. What tends to happen as a result is that he is often the pass or action before the assist as he tends to drive the play through the middle. Such things won't show on stats but that is what his role is for England and most of the creative burden on the attack is through him.

Rashford is not as creative and intelligent in his play as sterling therefore what happens in his game is someone who has to take pot shots from far, now he has better shooting technique but outside of that he doesn't have the vision/intelligence to link and create chances like sterling does. Most United fans will tell you he does the same for them except 9 times out of 10 the shot gets blocked or flies over when better options were available and it fails to mask the other aspects of his game where he constantly runs into blind alleys and becomes a hit and run player, that's why he ended up on the bench towards the end of the season and mourinho lost favour with him. So no goalposts is being shifted here, rashford is not on sterling's level as a player and no amount of wonder goals will make him as influential to england's attack as sterling even with how wasteful he can become in front of goal and nothing the press and pundits say will change that, I'm certain southgate also knows that. The best example of this I can think of is england's friendly game against france last year where he was rated the best player for england by the french media yet the english media thought he was just average because his name didn't show up in the goals/assists even though he was clearly the most threatening and influential player for the team.

 

[Plays By Sense Of Smell]

Better passer?!?! Fucking hell ive heard it all now. Have a good day.



It wasn’t others fault he gets into key positions and doesn’t find a man, isn’t others fault he balloons his shots over the bar, isn’t others fault he dived like an idiot. I said it before if he can only play well with good players it isn’t a great sign about his talents.

That’s a little bit of an overreaction, isn’t it, Tom?
On two points you make it clearly is his fault and no-one is arguing otherwise. Let’s not conflate those with the point I was making.

 

[Vienna_70]

Think from my probable starting 11 i put last week i may put Cahill in over Stones, still have my front 3 of Rashford, Kane and Sterling

The fact that Big John was the only player to start both of these recent games tells me that Southgate sees him as key to the system the manager wants to employ.

I might be wrong, of course, but that’s my hunch.

 

[Vienna_70]

I certainly don’t rate him for England. No one is quick scrambling for his England stats, wonder why. He was shit v Nigeria, if you don’t think he was then I can only imagine you thought rashford was world class last night? Or can you reasonably assess someone’s game if it isn’t Sterlings? For England he is worse than Rashford, feel free to do the research.

You’re too hung up on statistics; they don’t tell the whole story.