Jon Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 I will do better than agreeing to disagree - I will back down gracefully :P I'd make an awful referee. I'd just say "oh get on with it" and book everyone who falls over. Hah, That's why I tend to prefer Ice Hockey. There's none of this rolling around on the grass (There is no Grass), they just use their fists to settle and argument Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Czech Republic v Spain Euro 2012 qualifier live on ITV4 at 7:30pm tonight Spain have already qualified so could be a chance to see how some of the younger Spain players are doing and whether the country look set to dominate International football for years to come. Worth having it on in the background Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Aboslute rubbish, felt like curling up in a dark corner to think about my life, what a load of tosh, typical England, I just can't get motivated to watch them, I like it more when I see them lose/draw. Looks like Rooney was as frustrated as me at that poor poor show. And he'll miss the first game in the euros and possibly the second, if uefa choose to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayseven Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I was going to lol, but then I remembered I'm english, and this is a tainted event for me whether I want it or not. (didn't watch it, just heard bad things) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 The problem is that everyone can see our frailties. As soon as Montenegro saw them, they knew they could get something. Just looking at that Spain squad, and they can afford to leave players out. The fact that Silva and Fabregas are really only just breaking through into the national team says a lot. We're not in the same category as Spain, and a lot of that is down to the mentality. Everytime Spain walk on the field, they demand the ball, dominate possession and have a certain arrogance - they know they're good and that football is their game. We don't have that. We're not arrogant enough (in the right places) on the field. Everything is a struggle. I can't really remember the last time I saw England play a game where the team, the collective thought to themselves that they owned the field and it was their right to win. You need that desire if you want to win games, and trophies. Wales did pretty well tonight, good to see both Ramsey and Bale getting on the scoresheet. You can definitely see that there are some special players there. Just gotta keep plugging away and winning games, and hopefully get some more younger players through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 The so called big teams are changing apart from England, France after the disastrous world cup campaign went for youth and they have a great team to watch now, Germany have youth and play good football. Even Italy are looking towards youth now. I'm not saying England doesn't have a lot of youthful players but the tactics just don't promote pace and passion, It's still all very long ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramar Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 The so called big teams are changing apart from England, France after the disastrous world cup campaign went for youth and they have a great team to watch now, Germany have youth and play good football. Even Italy are looking towards youth now. I'm not saying England doesn't have a lot of youthful players but the tactics just don't promote pace and passion, It's still all very long ball. The German's are just a machine and for once have a bunch of likeable players. Most of the England set up are a bunch of detestable mongs. I've recently finished reading Eddie Hapgood's autobiography. He was Arsenal and England captain during the 1930s, even had the record for most caps for a bit. Admittedly times change, but every story about England you can feel the pride and honour to represent his country. Our lads can't even be bothered to sing the national anthem, says enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Spot on, these days it seems players don't particularly seem bothered about representing their country. You look at other nations and they have so much passion, they love playing for their country, and it shows on the pitch. Our players are plastic passionless wankers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 The Champions League is probably regarded by many to be the most important competition. I'd say many of the England squad are more focused on winning that and proving themselves at Club Level rather than International. Many see International Duty as something they have to do. They're just not into it. Maybe England need to settle on one manager who can inspire them, in the same way that Sir Alex inspires players at United or Dalglish at Liverpool, or even Wenger at Arsenal. The trouble is, there's not many managers of that calibre. And, the trouble is that it's not necessarily the manager's fault, at all. The players need to step up and prove that they want to win a major International competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 So why do you guys think it is that the English players don't feel emotionally involved with the England team? Perhaps the pressure from the media? I would say in Scotland the vast majority of the players are really up for playing for Scotland. We've actually got the nucleus of a decent wee squad now. 2 top quality goal keepers in Craig Gordon and Allan McGregor. Stephen Crainey / Phil Bardsley for left back. Centre back is a bit dodgy, I think Gary Caldwell is decent, Berra is OK, McManus is poor. Hutton is a good wee right back who's very forward thinking. Midfield is quality throughout with Charlie Adam, Darren Fletcher, James Morrison, Graeme Dorrans, Maloney, Commons. A lot of options there. Forwards are OK, Steven Naismith is on the form of his life at Rangers right now and then we also have Kenny Miller who's come into his own in recent years. Makail-Smith who's doing well for Brighton, Steven Fletcher and Garry O'Connor. I think by the time the next qualifiers role around we'll be in with a shout for getting 2nd place. We just need to work on beating the smaller teams comprehensively at home and then being able to get a win away from home. Saturday night was a good start beating Lichtenstein away. We probably should've had 3 or 4 goals by half time. We need to make sure we take the chances we get at this level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 I'd say you're right with that evaluation. Caldwell is terrible though, imo. On the England question, i'd say it's partly down to the media putting way too much pressure on. It's hard to single out individual things, but the media plays its part. I actually really hope Scotland finish 2nd. I'm half Scottish, but i want Scotland to do well more than England. Scottish fans are just so passionate and get behind their team so much. I watched the home game vs Czech Republic, with my sisters boyfriend who's Scottish and his mate who is also Scottish. The national anthem at the beginning gave me goosebumps, it was just immense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Caldwell isn't a centre half, he's too good for that. He's an unbelievable passer of the ball and sometimes that gets him in trouble because he doesn't just clear the ball. On a few occasions when he played at Celtic, he was played in the holding midfield role and he was brilliant at it. He could stop any incoming attacks and start counter attacks pretty quickly. He's still our best centre half and to be fair he has adapted more to the role as he's gotten more experienced. Charlie Adam is essential to the way we play, you saw that as soon as he came off on Saturday, the ball started going backwards a lot more often. Fletcher was poor but we know about his class and he normally always brings it when it's need most in the big games. I don't rate Morrison at all, he just doesn't seem to do anything but run aimlessly with the ball. I thought Mackail-Smith had an excellent game and he should be kept up front regardless of wether Miller is fit or not. Although Levein is madly in love with Miller, so if there's chance he could lay, he'll no doubt play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 BBC2 will be showing the Spain v Scotland match tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7:30pm. Should be a good watch to see if Scotland pull off an unlikely win to reach the play offs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Emblem Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I hope we can keep Van Persie, the Russian Man City are targeting him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramar Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I hope we can keep Van Persie, the Russian Man City are targeting him. I say this about all our players, then they prove me wrong. But he ain't in it for the money. Before the summer he wasn't even top earner at the club, now he might be by default. Plus he's been at the club 8 years, it's not like he's not shown us enough commitment already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platty Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 (edited) Just watching the Republics game. Keeper for Armenia been sent off. First thoughts were that it was handball. Slow mo reply shows it was chest. Don't think you can blame the ref though. Every man and his dog would have said that was handball watching it in real time. Another talking point for replays to be used? Ball was out of play, by time ref chose to send him off a 4th official could have watched it and communicated through..... hmmmm. Advantage Republic! Deserve a bit of luck after Henry..... Edited October 11, 2011 by Platty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokong Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 (edited) Yeah it was a bit harsh on the Armenian keeper. Much as I hate to say it Armenia even at 10 men have played the better football so far in the first half. And we're only leading now by a fluke of an own goal. I just hope Ireland don't try and sit on the 1 - 0 lead and come out in the 2nd half and start to play a lot better and hopefully get a real goal for a 2 - 0 win Advantage Republic! Deserve a bit of luck after Henry..... Memories of that night still make me cry EDIT Well Ireland did pla a fair bit better in the 2nd half than they did in the first but I still think Armenia were unlucky to not get a better come back. Their keeper made a mess of our 2nd goal I was surprised he didn't just catch or even punch the ball. But they did very well to pull a goal back like 2 mins later. So into the Play Offs we go again, I wish just once (in my lifetime) we could win a qualification group and not have to go through the play offs And with Bosnia currently beating France 1 - 0, it's looking like France will finish 2nd in their group.... my gods if we get them again we'll need to up our game a shit load if we are to avenge what happened last time. EDIT2: What time did the French game kick off at? I thought all games tonight would start at the same time, but every site I check including UEFA says it's still playing? EDIT3: France just equalised... never thought I'd be hoping for France to not lose But if they aren't in the play offs we'll likely be seeded and hopefully have a better chance to get through EDIT4: Well France just drew with Bosnia, full time.... god I feel so dirty actually wanting the French to not lose And while the thought of Play Off Revenge sounded good, since the last play off encounter I think France have improved and we've stagnated a bit. This should hopefully mean we get seeded for the play off draw, so fingers crossed we get Estonia who would likely be the "weakest" team in the play offs... still not an easy game but prolly would be our best chance Edited October 11, 2011 by Mokong Automerged Doublepost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I watched the Scotland game and thought that they put in a brave performance. They certainly grew in confidence as the game went on, it's just too bad that they conceded the first goal really quickly, and that second before half time. Thought they played very well in the second half. Spain are just insane. They could easily fill up two teams and look strong in both. It would have taken something incredible for Scotland to have beaten them, but they put Spain under quite a bit of pressure at times, and they deserved to get a goal. They should be very proud after that performance. Thought Wales did very well to get an away win. These are both two teams on the up, it seems. They both need to just keep exposing their squad to games against tough competitors and they'll gain experience from that, then you never know, they might qualify for the next tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramar Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Was my tv just being shit or was the cameraman for Spain v Scotland really crap? Loads of times the player with the ball would not be on the screen, like a ridiculous amount of times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I watched the Scotland game and thought that they put in a brave performance. They certainly grew in confidence as the game went on, it's just too bad that they conceded the first goal really quickly, and that second before half time. Thought they played very well in the second half. Spain are just insane. They could easily fill up two teams and look strong in both. It would have taken something incredible for Scotland to have beaten them, but they put Spain under quite a bit of pressure at times, and they deserved to get a goal. They should be very proud after that performance. Thought Wales did very well to get an away win. These are both two teams on the up, it seems. They both need to just keep exposing their squad to games against tough competitors and they'll gain experience from that, then you never know, they might qualify for the next tournament. We were shit, all we ever do is put in brave performances. Whilst I never ever expected to win, everyone knows the quality of Spain and we showed them far too much respect, gave them far too much time on the ball and refused to put any kind of a tackle in. The only way to beat these sort of teams is too either be able to pass like them (not many can) or hurry them up and continually press them. Ironically, the few occasions we went forward we troubled them, was just too far and few between. This game was always going to be academic, the damage was done in previous matches and once again we fail miserably to make a major finals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murr Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Away from the Internationals last night, my 3rd Pro-5 season this year has finished, We finished the season off in form with a 12-2 victory last night. 2nd Place finish for the 2nd season running, so promoted again. Will be playing in League 1 next season. Our Rank at our branch is now at the highest it has been at 20th, and nationally we are also at our highest of 375th. The top team PTFC got their only defeat in the league by us, and it was a 9-3 drubbing as-well which is nice. Straight into action next Tuesday in league 1, will be picking up our medals next week too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 You seem to be really good defensively, 22 less conceded than the next best. Could do with scoring a few more though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Emblem Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 You seem to be really good defensively, 22 less conceded than the next best. Could do with scoring a few more though. Actually 12 less, but still a good deal better defensively than the next best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Maths fail. I swear i got a B in Maths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Emblem Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Maths fail. I swear i got a B in Maths. Sure you did mate. :p Better than me though, only got a C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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