ponsaelius

Expanding it by a full 50% is honestly a worse decision than giving this one to Qatar, in terms of what it will do to the quality of the competition.

Hernandez injury interesting one. His brother will give them far more going forward but sloppier at the back.

Think 4 matches a day might actually be too much.

Two different nil nils. Tunisia game was really good, that was frustrating to watch.

Switzerland being crap at tournaments has been a myth since about 2014 onwards. Generally have some entertaining high scoring games and at least one Shaqiri wonder goal in them.

Not been impressed by Alvarez at all when I've seen him for Ajax or Mexico. Ridiculously negative and limited passer of the ball.

Bit crap this. Poland are always a bit miserable at tournaments but don't fancy Mexico have the creativity to open them up.

It's been pretty good actually. Tunisia been good and got great support in the ground.

Scenes. It's interesting the high line mind. With VAR you are always going to get those marginal offsides in favour of defenders. So it makes far more sense to play it in the age of VAR.

Souness so close to dropping the F bomb there

Herve Renard sides are nearly always good value one way or another

No. Was at the last one.

Yeah but this is the fundamental problem with VAR. I don't think 100% accuracy on offsides is ever possible. So a mysterious automated system that works quickly and creates an accepted margin of error is superior and returns the momentum to the game (basically like goal line tech).

Tbf I much prefer this to drawing lines on a pitch. Whether it's accurate or not at least it is quick.

Most of them are. All except the one that existed before are being halved in capacity, with the shipping container one dismantled completely. Then they're being converted into more mixed use facilities.

Atmosphere is making this like. Great to see.

Neymar I'll give you but Messi would have 150 goals if he got play in UEFA. He scored 5 in one game against Estonia the other month ffs.

One of the big issues with Saudi Arabia developing decent players is that they get paid good money at home and there is never any real incentive to try and move abroad. If they did want to focus on making football more central to their modernisation plan then that would be something they'd need to focus on. Work permits would probably be a big barrier to getting young players abroad though - without any government level intervention.

Messi having 92 goals for Argentina now seems to have gone massively under the radar. Considering the confederation he's in and the fact he's spent a lot of football not as a striker - it's an insane record.

Was soft I felt like, much less of a pen than the foul on Maguire that was missed

The worst thing about the World Cup is seeing takes on social media from Americans who only watch football once every four years. At least the equivalent people in the UK end up talking about soldier's wages when we lose, rather than that the US would win if they picked a load of NFL running backs.

Moore is shit but pretty effective at what he does. He's kind of what I expected Chris Wood to be for us.

Dest is basically Yedlin except he thinks he's Dani Alves. Irritating individual to watch.

Fine line between a 5-3-2 and a 3-5-2. Seen lots of teams play pretty good stuff with the latter and the right personnel out wide. But 5-3-2 with the wrong personnel is stodge ball of the highest order.

Bale and Ramsey are busted, mind. Feel like Wales should give up with the football and just get Moore on to hit it long.