I think Sterling scored 25 goals this season. Poor player or poorly used?

42 minutes ago, Blue Exile said:

Credit where it's due, to come back from conceding in injury time and looking spent in the first 15 of ET to keeping enough composure to win on Pens is great effort.

Too many players who were either flat out sh*t or offered very little....Sterling is a terrible footballer, just has pace nothing else. Young offers very little and Rose should start, Lingard was quiet and Ali doesn't look fit. I hope Southgate is brave enough to change a team that progressed, I don't think he will though.

Yeah, thought it was curtains in injury time - there only looked like one winner in the first 15 but great to put those cheating f**kers out.

The ones you mention were all average on the night -Ali, Sterling and Lingard. Could well mean both Rashford and RLC have a chance of starting the Sweden game. You DO get carried along with all the hype and who hasn't said "Football's Coming Home"! But when you actually look how we played last night, we weren't that good and decent France, Brazil, Belgium and even Uruguay teams look better than us. But then again, who knows.............!

I'm not Sterling's biggest fan yet he plays a role for Southgate.

He harries the opposition defence, comes deep when our defenders need an outlet and plays decent link up play in the middle of the park with Lingard and Alli.

I don't like it when he tries to shoot from distance and give the ball away yet like I said earlier he is playing a role for Southgate.

Not pretty last night, we did well not to get more than 2 yellows.

30 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think Sterling scored 25 goals this season. Poor player or poorly used?

A bang average player surrounded by Uber talented players at club level. It's a lot easier for teams to contain England than Man City. He benefits at City because the opposition have to deal with the likes of Sane, Aguero, KDB etc at the same time.

He has missed some absolute howlers btw at City if we are just talking about goals.

35 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Yeah, thought it was curtains in injury time - there only looked like one winner in the first 15 but great to put those cheating f**kers out.

The ones you mention were all average on the night -Ali, Sterling and Lingard. Could well mean both Rashford and RLC have a chance of starting the Sweden game. You DO get carried along with all the hype and who hasn't said "Football's Coming Home"! But when you actually look how we played last night, we weren't that good and decent France, Brazil, Belgium and even Uruguay teams look better than us. But then again, who knows.............!

Yeah each game will be different, for instance I can't imagine Brazil, France or Belgium using those sh*thouse Colombian tactics last night, so the game is completely different, that's not to say England win those games, it's just like comparing apples to oranges. I don't see those teams pressing England as much as Colombia did.

Can see a very similar game on Saturday though.

Edited July 4, 20188 yr by Blue Exile

Northern Irish man's assessment: Well done England. It wasn't pretty, but some very good penalties when it came down to it, well done.  (Except Jordan Henderson, you big time Charlie scouse prick  )

But....my God ITV are hilariously biased.  . (obviously)

On Henderson getting brushed on his chin 'Ooooohhhhh he felt that!' 

Next to nothing said about Young crunching the guy on the ankle, if that was Colombia player they'd be screaming blue murder. 

On Maguire clearly diving 'it looked like toe to toe there, very honest from Maguire to wave his finger and save no penalty' .  - No mate, he knows if it went to VAR it would show absolutely zero contact and he dived horribly and immediately regretted it as he knew no contact was made.

Also the post match studio celebrations are so forced looking  3....2...1. "who can be the most over the top celebrating?  Action!"

Well done England, well done Jordan Pickford, star man..... but Colombia were hopeless, I think Sweden will be the end of the road. 

What a world cup, been so enjoyable. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see RLC come on against Sweden, think we will win.

Haven't watched much of them apart from the highlights yet they seem to defend in numbers and counter attack with numbers.

Notice with the goal they scored against Germany that the exceptionally long legs of the striker caught Rudiger out.

Against Switzerland it took a deflection to settle it, the chance was created well on the edge of the box yet hit straight at the keeper.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Zola said:

Northern Irish man's assessment: Well done England. It wasn't pretty, but some very good penalties when it came down to it, well done.  (Except Jordan Henderson, you big time Charlie scouse prick :) )

But....my God ITV are hilariously biased.

On Henderson getting brushed on his chin 'Ooooohhhhh he felt that!' 

Next to noting said about Young crunching the guy, if that was Colombia player they'd be screaming blue murder 

On Maguire clearly diving 'it looked like toe to toe there, very honest from Maguire to wave his finger and save no penalty' .  - No mate, he knows if it went to VAR it would show absolutely zero contact and he dived horribly and immediately regretted it as he knew no contact was made.

Well done England, but Colombia were hopeless, I think Sweden will be the end of the road. 

I thought Young could have walked for that and Lingard and at least one other were diving on occasions.

Back in my day, you wanted to make sure the opposition player didn't know if he hurt you. I wonder what what point that changed to wanting the world to think you#re so weak even the slightest touch has you rolling around in agony.

Refs give free kicks when you go down, and sometimes don't give it when you stay up. Therefore you gain more by going down. 

Not even VAR is helping, because if Henderson didn't stop and drop would the ref have even consulted VAR about it ?

Still a bit pissed about Henderson's penalty. Funny enough, almost every Liverpool player current and their exes have failed to produce in crunch times. Salah, Mané, Aspas, Henderson

2 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think Sterling scored 25 goals this season. Poor player or poorly used?

Any of City's midfield would walk into the England team to be fair, Sterling scores most of his goals as a wide forward for Man City but for England he's playing more centrally.

1 hour ago, Blue Exile said:

A bang average player surrounded by Uber talented players at club level. It's a lot easier for teams to contain England than Man City. He benefits at City because the opposition have to deal with the likes of Sane, Aguero, KDB etc at the same time.

He has missed some absolute howlers btw at City if we are just talking about goals.

He’s got a funny running style, tends to run into trouble, and has got an awful shot.

His good point is his movement and generally makes himself available. Thought he was better than usual last night.

Heres a couple of snippets from the small print.....

John Obi Mikel was told 4 hours before the Argentina game that his old man had been kidnapped and would be shot if he reported it to the authorities.

He was freed by the Nigerian police on Monday. It’s the second time he’s been kidnapped. 

On a lighter note, one of the FIFA legends at last nights game ( they get paid 7 grand an appearance), was Wes Brown!

Ps what a fantastic tournament this is turning out to be.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

 but great to put those cheating f**kers out.

All well and good @Nibs, as long as we are equally critical of Kane diving all over the place,(including the penalty, he was on his way down as soon as he started moving), Henderson dropping like he was shot, Henderson head-butting some f**ker on the sly, Maguire trying for a penalty, Lingard and Alli diving all over the place, Dier heading the ball out for a corner and claiming a goal-kick, Young (say no more).

Not saying that Colombia were anything other than cheating f**kers, either, but then neither were England. 

ITV really pissed me off throughout.  Whatever happened to the unbiased standards of commentary that we used to have?  And don't get me started on Glen f**king Hoddle - so desperate to keep his pundit's contract he was obsequious to a degree that made me want to puke.

6 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

All well and good @Nibs, as long as we are equally critical of Kane diving all over the place,(including the penalty, he was on his way down as soon as he started moving), Henderson dropping like he was shot, Henderson head-butting some f**ker on the sly, Maguire trying for a penalty, Lingard and Alli diving all over the place, Dier heading the ball out for a corner and claiming a goal-kick, Young (say no more).

Not saying that Colombia were anything other than cheating f**kers, either, but then neither were England. 

ITV really pissed me off throughout.  Whatever happened to the unbiased standards of commentary that we used to have?  And don't get me started on Glen f**king Hoddle - so desperate to keep his pundit's contract he was obsequious to a degree that made me want to puke.

To be fair, I think we tend to try and play it straight (bar the odd dive here & there) but once we saw the tactics those bastards were using it was a case of if you can't beat them join them.

And what about that w**ker on the coaching staff who barged into Sterling at half-time and you then saw smirking once the official turned away. Would love to have seen his face when Diers penalty hit the back of the net!!

Edited July 4, 20188 yr by Nibs

Fair enough, I was just pointing out that the shenanigans wasn't all the dirty cheating Colombians and their coke-fuelled dark arts.  I don't know how the referee is able to punish some random bloke on the staff,  other than give the bugger a slap.

6 minutes ago, Nibs said:

To be fair, I think we tend to try and play it straight

However, this is a team with Kane, Alli, Lingard, Vardy and Young in it.  You KNOW there is never a tendency to try to play it straight whenever those bastards are one the pitch for either club or country.   I would bet that Alli and Young both dive when they are having a kickabout in the back garden with their kids

54 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

I would bet that Alli and Young both dive when they are having a kickabout in the back garden with their kids

I can totally imagine that scenario

TBF I haven't see Kane diving in the WC, making the most of poor tackles sure yet he looks like a saint compared to Neymar.

7 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

TBF I haven't see Kane diving in the WC, making the most of poor tackles sure yet he looks like a saint compared to Neymar.

Have you been watching ANY of the England games?  The only one he wasn't going full Tom Daley in was Belgium.  Even the "penalty" last night, watch it again, he stands at the back of what looked like a quite interesting party game at a gay night club, then bent over and down around the defender, and was on the floor before he was touched.

Not saying he didn't get wrestled a bit in the first game or two, but he has been diving more often than not.  Last night there was a front-on replay of a "tackle" on Kane where he was just running with the ball, lost control of it so just dropped onto both knees - "winning" a free kick.

4 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Have you been watching ANY of the England games?  The only one he wasn't going full Tom Daley in was Belgium.  Even the "penalty" last night, watch it again, he stands at the back of what looked like a quite interesting party game at a gay night club, then bent over and down around the defender, and was on the floor before he was touched.

Not saying he didn't get wrestled a bit in the first game or two, but he has been diving more often than not.  Last night there was a front-on replay of a "tackle" on Kane where he was just running with the ball, lost control of it so just dropped onto both knees - "winning" a free kick.

Guessing you would know all about that @yorkleyblue!!

I know what you are saying, we have got some players in our team who don't need too much of an excuse to go down. I could see why the ref gave our penalty last night, but like you, I did think Kane was very clever in winning it. And Ali and Sterling are worse.

BUT I do think we are nowhere near as bad as other countries and I think that Gareth Southgate needs to take a lot of credit for that as I think he is a guy of good moral standing and he just won't want us to win by cheating. Have to admit I really have warmed to him as England Manager.

Don't be coy @Nibs, you know all about the party games - I saw you in position 2 in the line last time I played.

 

You are right that the England players aren't as bad as other players from countries (Alli and Young excepted),  I just don't want us taking the high moral ground when we blatantly cheat, and I get even more offended when the ITV idiots try to excuse such behaviour on our part whilst getting all hormonal and screechy when it is the other side.  Just compare the commentary and Hoddle on the Colombian brushing Henderson's chin making his entire skeleton turn to water with their response when Henderson attempted a piss-poor head-butt on the back of some  Colombian's  head. And don't get me started on Maguire's dive in the penalty area - that was just f**king embarrassing.  I think that we should apply the same critical criteria to England players as we apply to Neymar's antics, and look at the slating he's been getting in this world cup.

^ Wise, impartial words Yorkley! 

For me it was a dirty victory and one Mourinho would have been proud of.

The media have sugar coated it and if Hoddle seems biased well he is still probably resentful of Simone getting Beckham sent off all that time ago.

I hope Young is dropped to the bench after seeing his studs up challenge last night, other refs will now be watching if they get England.

45 minutes ago, Zola said:

^ Wise, impartial words Yorkley! 

Well thank you young man :)

f**k off Cuadrado. 

Glad we got rid of him... Prick.