Russia 2018

[Bluedylan]

Great effort from the lads. Should've killed it first half, but fair play Croatia grew into it after that. No shame in losing. Just not enough quality in the end.

[Bluedylan]

Bad luck England, and Pickford in particular who did well. But I'd sooner football-mad nations do better, in whichever part of the world that happens to be.  Either in their newly established country, or their expat enclaves and cultural communities around the world, they are mad for it.
 
 

I mean, it's a nice attempt but it doesn't really work, for obvious reasons. Not sure you've understood the point. But if it makes you feel good and gets something off your chest, good for you.

[Bluedylan]

Not feeling too bad at all, the morning after. Thought we over-achieved (for once) with a good, but not great, group of players. And I do think there's plenty of scope for improvement. Could've killed the game first half, but once we didn't, the better, more seasoned team won. Well played Croatia.

[Bluedylan]

Hard to criticise Southgate but he seemed very reluctant to change things when they weren’t going well.

I actually thought this tournament backed him up and proved that none of our subs were good enough to change/improve things. Can't recall one sub coming on and adding something in pretty much any of the games. Rashford was awful (even though overall I do rate him), Dier was poor, Vardy didn't get too many touches.

Rose was pretty much the only one to add anything, and probably should've been in the first team on balance.

I think if anything, it exposed the lack of a clever creative player in the squad, even though we don't have too many good ones to pick from. I would've taken Lallana myself, but even Wilshere or Shelvey at a push, just to be able to pass the ball in the middle and retain possession in certain games.

[Bluedylan]

Also Modric and Vrsaljko can fuck off with their snarky comments. Will be humming La Marseillaise loudly on Sunday.

[Bluedylan]

Serious question as I cant remember
In 1990 did we play a 3rd place playoff?

I don't remember it either, but a lad in work just said we lost to Italy apparently.

[Bluedylan]

Saw Modric saying about pundits and stuff.

Which I think he’s right about. Under appreciation of the opposition is a classic trait (Rio, Neville both said things along these lines).

Vrsaljko was more specific. Must have been irked by something. From the sounds of it their team had been using media comments about them/ the game as motivation.

Yeah I totally disagreed. People gave Croatia respect, but they just thought England would win, based on form and fitness. Plenty of neutrals agreed with that, and I didn’t think the tone was remotely nationalistic tub-thumping.

[Bluedylan]

Obviously not everyone like that (and actually thought a few of the new snippets were surprisingly accurate in their acknowledgement that Croatia do have top players) but they’re not making this stuff up.

Might have been a bit less this time round but there is always “surprise” on a general level when England go out. But when only been to 4 semis in international tournaments ever it should actually be the other way round.

And those two might have been extreme (but we know enough to be recorded by the other team) but what on earth had they seen to be anything other than 50:50 nudging towards England through hope/ natural support?

This is morphing into a punditry complaint but there should be more cold analysis than that.

The pattern of lose control of the game and get punished by decent opposition happens all the time.

Yeah, just a difference of opinion but I just don't see it. I saw a number of neutral pundits saying they saw England edging this one, based on football reasons and fitness. I think it was an entirely reasonable to think England would win, on balance.

[Bluedylan]

It's also incredibly easy to both pick a few isolated moments of English arrogance from the vast number of English media outlets and to understand it, given the prevalence of English speakers/readers around the world.

This is an interesting counter showing how, just maybe, it's not really an isolated thing for the English: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/12/england-unbelievably-inferior-croatia-press-world-cup-semi-final

The ignorance there is breathtaking. All of that would be true....about 20 years ago.

In fairness, we're not popular abroad generally, are we? If you see most of the comments sections on the Guardian throughout the WC, there's been lots of people from other countries saying how shit we are, saying how much we overrate ourselves, arrogance etc etc

I think pictures of English fans celebrating and throwing lager around have probably been transmitted around the world, and possibly given a slightly false impression.

Obviously, you get a few people getting carried away with the nationalism and all that (as with any country), but I do think it's been different this time. People had low expectations, they like the manager and what he was trying to do, and they respected the effort of a limited group of players, who were a Harry Kane finish away from probably getting to the final.

[Bluedylan]

England the new everton,,,only iran have created less chances from open play

Yeah you're right, we've been garbage in this tournament. Another disaster.

[Bluedylan]

All I need to know is was Pickford at fault with any of the goals?

No. Made a very good save as well.

[Bluedylan]

It is good enough on the face of it. I'm just not sure we saw anything that suggests a brighter future

As for croatia. They aren't really that good. 2 world class midfielders and 1 very good winger. They haven't got much else have they? Player for player our squad is more highly rated than theirs. Maybe that's our problem we are just over rating them. Maybe rather than compare us to dominate teams we need to accept we are always going to be underdogs and a second tier side and enjoy when we battle to relative success

You've got issues

[Bluedylan]

Do you get any joy out of football, out of interest?

Or anything, for that matter. Seriously KoemansNumberTens....what brings you joy in life? Give us a list.

[Bluedylan]

Honestly. I do wonder if I’m depressed. I go to work. I go to the gym. I come home get in bed and watch tv. I’m not massively miserable away from here and football in general but i can’t be arsed with a lot of things these days. Oh and I watch porn. Lots of porn too

I wasn't expecting such a sincere answer. Props to you for that. Yeah, I've felt like that at different times in the past. It kinda does sound like it could be depression, but then what the fuck do I know. Got to find some sources of joy out there mate, whatever it is, otherwise we're just existing and passing time. Hope it's just a temporary thing for you.

[Bluedylan]

It was such a good World Cup that even Mark Lawrensen couldn't justify or sustain his natural misery.

Gary Neville was my biggest loser, because I thought he repeatedly made a tit out of himself as a pundit, trying to appear controversial and trying to live up to the hype of being 'the big name' in punditry.