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Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition


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Guest Howaythetoon

He was great.  Always fucking crocked, but great.

 

Aye, a very underrated player when fit. Could play wide or through central midfield. Nick Barmby was a talent as well, but didn’t quite fulfil it.

 

England had some real talent post Italia 90 leading to 2002 and then it started to dry up and fade. We don’t have quite that level of talent today, but a nice mix who seem more a team than we’ve been since Euro 96.

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What's the unauthorised bit?

they cut the foot off the actual England socks and wore their own, then put the rest of the England sock back over the top.  Most players do it in club football

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Guest Howaythetoon

This quite amazing WC has reinstated international football at this level as the highest standard in my opinion. Not so much in terms of the quality of football because it lags behind the likes of the CL, but for drama and testing yourself against the best nothing compares.

 

There are so many variables involved in international tournament football that it’s the toughest and most challenging level for any manager, player and team and for me that highlights just what a great job Southgate and his staff and players have done to reach the semis.

 

The World Cup is tougher to win and tougher to compete in than any tournament or competition of any level.

 

The gap is closing too between the smaller nations and the bigger nations which makes it more of a level playing field where all those different variables that come into play during a WC month become more and more significant to the chances of a team winning or losing as we found out last night.

 

Its not about having the best team and best players now unlike past years where having an elite player or a team of them almost guaranteed reaching the quarters, semi or final.

 

A Messi lead Argentina wasn’t enough, nowhere near enough. Despite his brilliance the and quality of other players in that team, all the variables that make up the WC factored for them and is increasingly becoming a factor for all. Var will continue to play a huge part in the future too.

 

Russia 2018 has been the best international tournament of any I’ve follwed and even if the football hasn't always been of the quality we see at other do,estimates competitions, the test and challenge is the neatest and I hope it remains like that.

 

Because winning the WC has never been about being the best team even when the bes teams win it, it’s about putting everything your country’s game has to offer into one package against everything the rest have and going for it and seeing whose ideas, style, players, tactics, managerial decisions and every other conceivable aspect comes out on top.

 

We may come 3rd or 4th which of the 31 other nations and hundreds who took part in qualification, is a huge achievement especially on the back drop of the Euros and last WC and of course the weigh of history that always follows and England team even in a firnwdly.

 

I’ve enjoyed it and will be gutted when it’s over. I’ve fallen in love with football again this last month because ability to spend hasn’t been a deciding factor, having the best players to choose from neither nor all the other bull shit. It’s been a feast of football played in the right spirit with great games, goals, drama and players emerging.

 

And now we turn our attention to the PL and NUFC and I’m not looking forward to that at all, a season of toil and struggle and huge hype and the same old same old dominating. :(

 

 

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Team of the Tournament:

Subasic

 

Trippier - Varane - Ignashevich - Hernandez

 

Hazard - Golovin - Modric - Cheryshev

 

Mbappe - Lukaku

 

Honourable mentions: Lloris, Beiranvand, Vrsajlko, Mina, Lingard, Kante, Coutinho, Inui, Lozano, Cavani, Manzukic

 

Flops of the Tournament:

De Gea

 

Pisczek - Hummels - Otamendi - Marcelo

 

Sigurdsson - Busquets - Khedira - Ozil

 

Lewandowski - Kalinic

 

 

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Kante has to be in that team over Golovin for me, he hasn't put a foot wrong and France wouldn't be in the final without the solidity he brings to that defence imo. Other than that I pretty much agree.

 

Aye, it has him and Trippier I was debating on most. I guess Kante being the absolute business is just par for the course these days.

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Someone said, if Kante played for Belgium or Brazil instead, it would be them in the final - I agree with that.

 

I'd probably have 5 in midfield. I think in the second half against Brazil and the France game, Lukaku was awful. He had Dante 1v1 for 45 minutes and did nothing. Was great in that first half though.

 

Mandzukic had a superb assist in the QF, scored the winner in the semi and his all-round player is always better than Lukaku's.

 

Likewise, I thought Marcelo was brilliant in the second half against Belgium. And when he played, he was a real danger with Neymar down that left.

 

Quietly, Lovren's been the business too.

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Someone said, if Kante played for Belgium or Brazil instead, it would be them in the final - I agree with that.

 

I'd probably have 5 in midfield. I think in the second half against Brazil and the France game, Lukaku was awful. He had Dante 1v1 for 45 minutes and did nothing. Was great in that first half though.

 

Mandzukic had a superb assist in the QF, scored the winner in the semi and his all-round player is always better than Lukaku's.

 

Likewise, I thought Marcelo was brilliant in the second half against Belgium. And when he played, he was a real danger with Neymar down that left.

 

Quietly, Lovren's been the business too.

 

If Casemiro hadn't been suspended we'd probably make the final.

 

My team of the tournament would probably be

 

Subasic

Trippier - Silva - Godin - Hernandez

Modric - Kante

MBappé Griezemann Hazard

Kane

 

Honourable mention to all the finalists + Golovin, Casemiro, Courtois, Pickford, Cavani, Mina, Cheryshev and Lozano. Lukaku was great for 45minutes, otherwise I thought he was pretty much what we're used too. 

 

Someone said, if Kante played for Belgium or Brazil instead, it would be them in the final - I agree with that.

 

I'd probably have 5 in midfield. I think in the second half against Brazil and the France game, Lukaku was awful. He had Dante 1v1 for 45 minutes and did nothing. Was great in that first half though.

 

Mandzukic had a superb assist in the QF, scored the winner in the semi and his all-round player is always better than Lukaku's.

 

Likewise, I thought Marcelo was brilliant in the second half against Belgium. And when he played, he was a real danger with Neymar down that left.

 

Quietly, Lovren's been the business too.

 

Who's Dante?

 

 

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