The Road to Russia 2018

[Nando]

 

[Sniffer]

Poland, Iran and Panama please.

 

[Johnny75]

Poland, Iran and Panama please.

Three 0-0 draws and Gareth telling us how the young lads have done well to not concede a goal in a difficult tournament group whilst there are no easy games at International level.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Three 0-0 draws and Gareth telling us how the young lads have done well to not concede a goal in a difficult tournament group whilst there are no easy games at International level.

oh ffs if only this wasnt true

 

[Johnny75]

Just as a comparison to I looked at the starting11 v Scotland in November last year up againt the starting 11 from Italy 1990 our most successful perfromance in a tournament on foreign soil.
View attachment 1933

What does this show? Of the top 6 or big six clubs Spurs seem to consistently provide England players. 10 of the starting 11 came from the big six. We had Englands best 2 goalscorers in 40 years playing , 1 in each side. So you would think they would be comparable? Yet England 206-17 dont look a bit like world cup semi finalists. In 1990 there was hope and realistic expectation of a quarter final place. I am coming around to the coaching and set up. Seeing how much Nuno has changed players who, quite frankly, I had written off as un-improvable I can only look at the England coaching system and blame it. Sure , our younger talent gets stifled by the big six but I cant argue there is not enough top talent in that team. So my restructure would be to allow a better and more consistent approach to international footballer- central contracts wont happen but something has to change here if we want to win things on the international scale and with the quality coming through now is the time to highlight it.

The quality of our top players is up there with the best in the world (Kane and Alli being named in golden boot conversations is enough for that) and the supporting cast of Walker, Rose, Stones, Sterling and Rashford would walk into the majority of top International teams.

Our coach wouldn't get into the top 50 national set-ups though and that is where the problem lies.

The other issue of bringing through talent is timing. Man Utd brought through their own golden generation but that had no spaces for the next generation for the next 15 years. Ferguson built around that core but no players from the youth set up made it through and in the last 20 years since the golden generations debut only a handful of youth players have come through and made it. Not because the talent was there but because the golden generation were that good why would you change them? There simply wasn't the room in the squad.

Personally I would scrap the transfer window for players U23 and also the loan system. I would then cap the number of u23 and squad players a club can have on their books. It would prevent the stock piling of talent for profit and allow talent to be nurtured at all levels of the game before moving to more successful teams (as football is the ultimate meritocracy).

It would instantly create a bigger talent pool and allow smaller teams to compete for players. Our coaching in England isn't good enough or paid well enough across the board (apologies to YW in advance) and we need to be reducing the cost and barriers to entry to all for this if we want to improve as a nation.

Better teachers, better facilities will produce better pupils.

 

[Jinky]

I have questions.

How are these "pots" worked out? England sail through their qualification group but end up in pot 2 and will end up drawing one of the top sides (or Russia). Even worse for Serbia who won their group and end up in pot 4? Is it all down to FIFA ranking? (I have literally no idea how it's all set up).

 

[Tony Towner]

I have questions.

How are these "pots" worked out? England sail through their qualification group but end up in pot 2 and will end up drawing one of the top sides (or Russia). Even worse for Serbia who won their group and end up in pot 4? Is it all down to FIFA ranking? (I have literally no idea how it's all set up).

Yes, it's FIFA rankings with the exception of Russia.
Can I be the first to say that Serbia are in the Group of Death

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If we ignore the fact that the rankings can currently be gamed to an extent (I'm looking at you, Poland, Switzerland and Wales), this is a better system than the one they've used previously which other than the top pot was based on geography and led to weird imbalances at times.

 

[The Bear]

Brazil
Spain
Iceland
Korea

That would be a tasty group!

 

[Langers]

I don't really want to see England in a piss easy group which would almost certainly mean games as exciting as Wolves v Blackburn last season.

We're not going to get close to winning the thing - I want to see us play teams who might actually give us some sort of challenge and make the games a bit more interesting.

I just hope we avoid Russia.

 

[Jinky]

I just hope we avoid Russia.

Absolutely agree with this. The positives of having an easier fixture on paper will be far outweighed by the negatives off the field. Wouldn't mind avoiding Germany too as we literally never beat them and they always get the job done in the tournaments. I don't think we should fear the likes of Belgium, Poland, Argentina, Portugal etc. They'll all be better than us technically but we should be able to grind a result out against them on our day.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Being in Pot Two is actually no bad thing. Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and Croatia are all teams you'd like to avoid just as much as some of the seeds, then the stronger teams in Pots Three and Four are UEFA nations and there's a high chance we won't be able to draw them (we can only get one if we draw Brazil or Argentina from Pot One).

 

[Johnny75]

Brazil, Senegal and Serbia would be a very tough group.

 

[Langers]

I'm looking forward to the tournament TBH - just not really that enthused by England and won't be unless they replace the head coach. Which they won't.

Still - roll on the 'exclusive reports from the England camp' during half time of the Iceland v Saudi Arabia game, eh?

In other WC news - ITV have snared Gary Neville for their coverage.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Still - roll on the 'exclusive reports from the England camp' during half time of the Iceland v Saudi Arabia game, eh?

I look forward to Clive and the Gang only knowing players who play or have played in the Premier League and wittering on about Ronaldo for 90 minutes during every Portugal game.

Seem to remember G-Nev being on ITV back in 2002 when he was injured and we had to play Danny cunting Mills.

 

[Langers]

I'm going to have to do a proper ITV Bullshit Bingo for the WC next year.

Thank fuck Chiles has been put down but they've still got a long way to go for me. They'll never get rid of Clive, unfortunately.

I wonder if he'll manage to 'top' his "Podolski..... BANG!!!" line from 2006? Fucking cretin.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Its going to be really hard to get a bad draw from those pots.
Portugal and Russia to be avoided from pot one. Portugal are a bogey side for England and have been for 30 years in tournaments. Russia as home nation is always to be avoided.Brazil/ Germany/ Argentina in the group is better than in the knockouts and IF you get through the group you cant meet them again until at least the semis.
Iceland and sweden , again as we have fucked it up against them in tournaments before, so nice to avoid them from Pot three. Australia from pot 4 as convicts often raise their game against the pommes, regardless of sport.

So Portugal, Iceland Australia it is then !

 

[Tredman]

Australia are shite.

 

[Sniffer]

Its going to be really hard to get a bad draw from those pots.
Portugal and Russia to be avoided from pot one. Portugal are a bogey side for England and have been for 30 years in tournaments. Russia as home nation is always to be avoided.Brazil/ Germany/ Argentina in the group is better than in the knockouts and IF you get through the group you cant meet them again until at least the semis.
Iceland and sweden , again as we have fucked it up against them in tournaments before, so nice to avoid them from Pot three. Australia from pot 4 as convicts often raise their game against the pommes, regardless of sport.

So Portugal, Iceland Australia it is then !

We can only play one other UEFA team in the group stages.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Australia are $#@!e.

yet we have never beaten them by more than the odd goal in our history. Ok we only lost once but my point is they do perform their best againt pommes. They do have the biggest margin of victory too. 3-1 back in 03. We havent beaten Portugal in a tournament since 1966- 4 losses. We have beaten Sweden twice in 15 matches , including friendlies , only once in tournament football during those 15. We have a better record against Brazil over 15 games than sweden winning 3 (all matches). Against Germany we have won 4 and lost 5 of the 10 games this century. Unbeaten in 3 matches this century against Argentina. Iceland won 1 in 3.