Brand new modern fitba 2018-19 thread!! SEE YOU!!

Michael Owen being an exception perhaps. Grew up in Flintshire.

 

I will wait for Feebles to resurface. He knows the score.

 

I thought I explained the reasons for the predictable fade quite well

 

It's worse than just disdain for footballing technique and nous.............it's that they don't have any and prefer to make up for it with a hard charging style.

It's like a sort of windmilling, button mashing in boxing. It disguises something fundamentally lacking.

 

England have strengths and a way of playing which suits them. It's basically a high-tempo pressing system at its core. It's not very high-tech but it works. If you have genuine world class players then that helps a lot, England right now only have Kane and some decent players to support him. If you look at club football Klopp plays in that style. In fact, staying on the Liverpool vibe, one of the best examples is when Liverpool beat Inter (I think it was 2008), Inter just could NOT cope with the tempo, they were completely overrun. Fergie's best United sides again were always defined by high-pressing, fast tempo play. I think Southgate has recognised that and is trying to get England to play that way, and to be fair to him, it's kind of working. The problem is, those club sides had world class players in the middle which enabled it to work, and they also had excellent wingers who would be constantly looking to overlap. England at this stage don't have these players, the players right now in these positions are competent at best.

One other thing which is crucial is game management, it's impossible to play at that speed for 90 minutes, back in the day we had Scholes who was comfortable in possession, didn't panic, and would allow us to slow things down a bit when necessary. Opposition players would also be wary because he had the ability to pick somebody out with a mental pass on the break and punish you. There's nobody like that right now in the England set-up so everything is full throttle. It's just not sustainable, you're basically relying on getting a good enough lead in the first half and then clinging on till the end.

 

I agree 100% and what cracks me up is that for every 100 voices in the media, 2 of them will have the same sentiments as you and I.

Klopp went and bought Van Diijk.

England cannot do that.

 

Precisely. The weird thing is that centre backs have always traditionally been England's strong point, even through the lean years. Just as we are starting to pick up again somewhat our defence is our weakest area right now.

 

Part of that might be coincidence but part of it also has to be by design. I suspect that the "need" to "create" attacking players has driven more and more emphasis onto doing just that.

When people talk about "catching up with the others" they rarely say "we need a keeper like them" or "why don't we have wing-backs like them"............it's always the Iniestas and Messi's they are talking about.

 

The problem is the English style relies too much on fast tempo, pressing... eventually you run into opposition who will not give up the ball and unless you get a comfortable lead you will be fucking knackered in the second half and your opponent can turn the tables on you... this is precisely what occurred against Croatia where English players were being outmuscled at the end by Luka Modric because they were half dead. There has to be something besides charging. Manchester United played uptempo but they had players who could change the pace, dictate possession... it wasn't this Graham Taylor run like hell, 80s Watford bullshit.

England had its perfect example of how to combine the traditional English strength and challenge for the ball with a better understanding of technique, tempo and the value of possession... Brian Clough, Forest and Paisley's Liverpool. That was the perfect template. These two sides dominated in Europe by basically playing a style that combined English directness with European skill and possession. The English FA chose to ignore this completely and Charles Hughes demanded that young players be taught how to hoof and charge... and still, despite all the plaudits of the late Clough and of the legacy of Liverpool's reign as European kingpin, their influence remains muted and the same old dogmas are still in place.

 

Clough applied for the England managers job and was explicitly denied it on the global understanding that if he got it he would fucking wreck the cozy haze that the FA was used to operating under.

Basically he'd have won things and become Chairman Clough and fired everybody with the nations backing.

He simply had to be kept out, and was.

So he fucked off and won European Cups instead with the English equivalent of the San Jacinto Koala Bears.

 

Precisely

 

As far as I'm aware Capello is the only England manager who has won the European Cup at club level as a coach.

Four English European Cup-winning coaches (Clough, Paisley, Barton and Fagan) never given the opportunity. Mental.

 

Jings! Irish is hard tae please... Ye could be Elvis Presley leaving the stage aftae yer triumphant 1968 Comeback Special only tae be told ba him that there’s a split in yer leather troosers and a bollock wiz hanging oot fer the last twenty minutes.

 

What is the point in piers Morgan?

 

America didn't want him, we don't want him, I say we make a compromise and drop him in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

Susanna Reid is Milftastic though.

 

Piers Morgan is famous and I still don't understand how that happened

 

Looked her up because I didn't know for sure who she was

 

Aye good plan. See his latest comments today about Daniel craig carrying his own wean? Not smart, not funny, not even deliberately trolling like Katie hopkins....the guy is just complete toilet

 

He's butt buddies with Agent Orange ... birds of a feather

 

Quite looking forward to tomorrow's game, always good vibes playing hibs, the friendliest game of the year and usually good open fitbaw. ONE NEIL LENNON!

 

Huddersfield has a good atmosphere for a modestly sized ground

 

Yeah I read reports of the game from 3 different websites in-game and they were all saying that the "Terriers" fans were up for it and making some noise.

I don't really buy the reports that Huddersfield didn't deserve to lose, they hit the post, off a deflection, had a goal ruled out for offisde {correctly} and had a wild penalty claim too.

Liverpool created the better chances and took their chance.

Glad to see Salah get back into the swing of things.

This was a real banana skin today..........lots of guys either injured or playing with injuries, coming off two tough draws, a defeat in Naples and a fraught internatnational break.

Liverpool got through it. Big 3 points.

 

Liverpool were clearly better... Huddersfield defended well and weren't completely overrun in midfield but they had no second gear and nothing approaching a genuine thrust in the final third

 

Good game yesterday, hibees came to play, Shellik responded, 6 nice goals:

 

Scoattish Prem still looking as tasty as two battered Spam fritters wi’ a side o’ salt n’ vinegar chips and a bottle o’ Dandelion n’ Burdock pop... Six teams wi’ only five points separating ‘em.

SEE YOU!

 

OOTRAGE!

 

Not buying the Arsenal hype yet. They are 2 points off the top but IIRC have played none of the "Others" yet.

 

No shit but I looked at the stats the other day and there's no reason why Celtic cannot do 4 more titles straight.

Rangers are improving but if the Celtic owners give a fuck they will spend £40m or so and make sure of this.

It's a shot at history.