England

Great start.  

Most entertaining England game for years so far

Rashford cocked up

Quoted from Fat Cobra

Most entertaining England game for years so far

agree with that...being played at a Premiership pace

Not being a football expert, (I only whatch division 4 football) can someone please explain how Jordan Henderson gets into the England team, or are we just that short of half decent Englishmen.

Germans 3-0 up already against Norway

I switch off when it comes to England games, they're absolutely pathetic.

Too many egos in that squad and no wonder we get battered by a half decent team time and time again.

Loved that Alex OC wild slash over the bar with other options on. Well worth £40m. Oh yes. Hahaha what a farce. The kind of inexperience you expect from a L2 apprentice. Money well spent, for sure.

Quoted from Gaffer58

Not being a football expert, (I only whatch division 4 football) can someone please explain how Jordan Henderson gets into the England team, or are we just that short of half decent Englishmen.

being a Town fan you must appreciate decent English centre midfielders are a rarity....Dier being his partner reinforces the point.

This is flipping awful

Quoted from moosey_club

being a Town fan you must appreciate decent English centre midfielders are a rarity....Dier being his partner reinforces the point.

Yeah - Berrett for England - pity he's Irish!

We've got into some decent attacking positions already and have butchered every one of them. Such a lack of intelligence in the midfield.

That said, great finish from Dier who has lived up to his name until now!

Quoted from moosey_club

being a Town fan you must appreciate decent English centre midfielders are a rarity....Dier being his partner reinforces the point.

                                                                                                                                                            

Don't know about others, but I really don't hurt any more with England. Firstly we expect crap and we get it.
Secondly, who wants to go to drug riddled corrupt Russia to watch anyway
Thirdly why should overpaid multimillionaires get any of my money.
Forthly with Scots Mats, Welsh Nats, and wild Northern Ireland, have lost pride in the UK>

Much better to be grumpy about little old GTFC!

Enjoy

PS at least it avoids Scotland getting to Russia.

PPS England just scored-oh, never mind

We've got into some decent attacking positions already and have butchered every one of them. Such a lack of intelligence in the midfield.

That said, great finish from Dier who has lived up to his name until now!

Was that corner intentional?

Quoted from Davec

This is flipping awful

No it isn't

Quoted from buckstown

Was that corner intentional?

IF it was it was a brilliant goal. If it wasn't it was a brilliant finish!
Other than than that, same old clueless England shite which the wife turned on by mistake!  

The pundits are trying to blame Walker and Hart for their goal despite Rashford losing the ball 10 yards from his own box.  

Am at work. Following on phone. 1st comment from Sky is that Wembley is nothing like full.
About time. I'm sure the FA will say that the fans aren't listening 😉

I'm enjoying it for a change, which doesn't often happen with England games. England's ineptitude and constantly losing possession is actually making it a better game. I am however appalled that we have no-one better than Jordan Henderson for centre mid. The amount of time he loses the ball is laughable. He wouldn't get in most good footballing nations third team.

Don't just pick on Henderson. The same comment would apply to most of these Premier League prima-donnas.

Good save from Hart.

If you are not enjoying this game then you do not like football .

I find I no longer really care about England's performances and results and I just watch them with no emotion. As a younger man I would be as badly affected by their disappointments as I was by Town misfortune. Only really bothered by Town now, whereas I felt it was like supporting 'two Grimsbys' in my teens, 20's and early 30's.
I find the punditry that surrounds their matches to be nauseating and the ludicrous amounts to money paid to these overexposed bunch of average footballers to be farcical.

Completely agree with Chaos33, don't know if that's because as you get older you get either wiser or senile.

Quoted from chaos33

I find I no longer really care about England's performances and results and I just watch them with no emotion. As a younger man I would be as badly affected by their disappointments as I was by Town misfortune. Only really bothered by Town now, whereas I felt it was like supporting 'two Grimsbys' in my 20's and early 30's.
I find the punditry that surrounds their matches to be nauseating and the ludicrous amounts to money paid to these overexposed bunch of average footballers to be farcical.

Still is for me   and I'm in my 50's, especially in major tournaments.

Sterling on, didn't know they allowed players from the England women's team.

It's ridiculous that because transfer fees are so high in the Premier League that the people who only watch that rubbish believe that it represents the quality of the players in it. Everyone is blind to the fact that we are hubristic about our top league and that Barca, Bayern, Real, Athletico, PSG, Monaco, Dortmund, Juve etc are far superior to any of our teams at all aspects of the game. Nothing to do with a lack of a winter break or the intensity of the Premier League but that those clubs always have a core of players who have developed through their own youth system or have at very least 2/3rds of their team are from the nation of the club itself. Players play more and develop faster rather than all our clubs paying extortionate amounts of money for some bloke you've never heard of and just because he cost £30m means we assume he's unbelievably good because of the cost.

Rant over

FT  England  2-1  Slovakia

Good performance after a shaky start.

Quoted from Hagrid

Germans 3-0 up already against Norway

The Germans have only ever lost 2 World Cup qualifiers. Quite staggering.

I'm with you Chaos, don't really give a toss anymore but to be fair that was a pretty professional display second half and another very well taken goal. Not sure how good Slovakia are though. Not very I would suggest.

Quoted from Gaffer58

Not being a football expert, (I only whatch division 4 football) can someone please explain how Jordan Henderson gets into the England team, or are we just that short of half decent Englishmen.

Phil Neville said Henderson was man of the match

It has always confused my mates at school that when asked would I rather see Town promoted this season or England win the world cup I always say I'd rather have Town promoted 100% without hesitation and that I'd rather see us in the lower leagues with proper fans and for all his faults an owner who loves the club rather than be owned by a Russian billionaire to get into the Premier League.

Good performance against a decent team. We are no world beaters obviously but will qualify with ease.

Quoted from ginnywings

The Germans have only ever lost 2 World Cup qualifiers. Quite staggering.

Germany  1-5  England  

We were better second half and pressed much higher. Good goal by Rashford, who is the only England player who doesn't look over coached.

Enjoyed that but we still won't trouble the later stages of the tournament when we get there.

We've played OK in general tonight, but it says a lot that we've basically just sat back and defended for the final 20 minutes. It's all very well saying we were managing the game well, but can you imagine the likes of Germany or Spain not scoring at least one or two goals from the counter-attacking chances we've butchered tonight to make it comfortable?

The style of play seems to be to get it forward to Kane and Alli and then hope that they can do something with it. Full-backs barely involved in their half tonight and too many poor passes in attacking areas.

Midfield still the weakest area. Dier and Henderson are both OK players, but how many teams play with two big, not particularly nippy defensive midfielders at international level? Too cumbersome playing it through that area.

You'd expect us to qualify and perhaps get through the group stage in Russia bit any further than that? Can't see it happening.

Quoted from Mariner_09

It's ridiculous that because transfer fees are so high in the Premier League that the people who only watch that rubbish believe that it represents the quality of the players in it. Everyone is blind to the fact that we are hubristic about our top league and that Barca, Bayern, Real, Athletico, PSG, Monaco, Dortmund, Juve etc are far superior to any of our teams at all aspects of the game. Nothing to do with a lack of a winter break or the intensity of the Premier League but that those clubs always have a core of players who have developed through their own youth system or have at very least 2/3rds of their team are from the nation of the club itself. Players play more and develop faster rather than all our clubs paying extortionate amounts of money for some bloke you've never heard of and just because he cost £30m means we assume he's unbelievably good because of the cost.

Rant over

PSG's pushing it!

I'd say that they've knocked Chelsea out on 2 of the past 3 seasons so they are better than our lot. You get my drift regardless

Quoted from promotion plaice

Germany  1-5  England  

Yeah, even more staggering is we were one of the teams to beat them and in their own back yard. Thrashed them in fact but i don't think they have lost a qualifier since and have won the odd tournament or three.

Says it all, Neville gives man if the match to Henderson, and the commentator quoted Southgate saying Jones is our best defender, how far in technical and quality terms are we behind the Germans, Spain etc.

I'll never ever believe the media hype about our players. Every tournament we go to we say we're going to do better than last time and invariably we fail, it's been getting worse and worse throughout my lifetime. Conversely, we always go to tournaments and the same pundits who big up England tell us the Germany and particularly Italy are not what they used to be and won't do as well as they normally and equally as invariably they get to the last 8 at the very least.

Quoted from Mariner_09

I'll never ever believe the media hype about our players. Every tournament we go to we say we're going to do better than last time and invariably we fail, it's been getting worse and worse throughout my lifetime. Conversely, we always go to tournaments and the same pundits who big up England tell us the Germany and particularly Italy are not what they used to be and won't do as well as they normally and equally as invariably they get to the last 8 at the very least.

Get used to it mate. I've been waiting since 1966 to see an England team look like they can win a tournament again. Ever since we muffed it against the Krauts in 1970, it's been a perpetual disappointment. Muffed it against the Krauts a couple of more times along the way too.

Not sure which is worse tbf, the football or the punditry. All of them just there for the copious amounts of money being thrown about.

Quoted from Mariner_09

I'd say that they've knocked Chelsea out on 2 of the past 3 seasons so they are better than our lot. You get my drift regardless

It was more the youth system bit instead of spending extortionate amounts of money that I was referring to, but yes, I do!

Quoted from Mariner_09

I'll never ever believe the media hype about our players. Every tournament we go to we say we're going to do better than last time and invariably we fail, it's been getting worse and worse throughout my lifetime. Conversely, we always go to tournaments and the same pundits who big up England tell us the Germany and particularly Italy are not what they used to be and won't do as well as they normally and equally as invariably they get to the last 8 at the very least.

Actually I think the expectation has been much lower in both the media and the public since probably the farce of 2010. Since then I don't think the media think we are anymore than quarter final fodder and I don't think many of us do either. Actually it makes a nice change to go into a tournament with low expectations. Makes the disappointment much easier to take 😏

England have usually gone into tournaments with a few World Class players and a strong defence and goalkeeper which means they have a chance on paper.Looking at the current England squad Rashford and Alli might one day be World Class and possibly Kane the rest are average at best and the defence and goalkeeper positions are weaker than I can ever remember?

When the manager is apparently saying Phil Jones is our best defender, you know there's a problem somewhere.

I'm not sure why anyone believes media hype about England. In 67 years we've been close to winning, what, 3 tournaments? And 2 of those were here!

Don't get too excited over the Germany 1 England 5 result.  (Outstanding as it was).  Guess which team did a lot better at the next World Cup?

The main point is that Grimsby Town has gone top of the Championship with a win on Fri night.  Really hard to believe that England stole our thunder from being top of the tree.  Only downhill from there...................

I think that the 5-1 win was within a day of so of the new car number-plates system.  This started with a "51". you could not make it up.  

There's actually a pretty good book about how German football turned itself around after the weak performances of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Pithy title as well, "Das Reboot".

Needless to say, the DFB reorganised the game in Germany with teutonic efficiency for the benefit of all levels of football and the national team, instead of just shovelling more and more of the money up to the biggest clubs as we always do over here.

Quoted from Abdul19

I'm not sure why anyone believes media hype about England. In 67 years we've been close to winning, what, 3 tournaments? And 2 of those were here!

How many tournaments have there been in that time though? About 25? So we are close to winning 1 in 8, and have qualified to almost all of them. It's not that bad a return.

FIFA and EUFA have devalued the World Cup and Euros by allowing so many teams in them now that its getting harder to win (but laughably easy to qualify), especially when the smaller nations adopt a tactic of playing for penalties. I would expect a much bigger range of winners over the next few years if the current format and rules prevail, as it's more of a lottery now.

Quoted from GrimRob

How many tournaments have there been in that time though? About 25? So we are close to winning 1 in 8, and have qualified to almost all of them. It's not that bad a return.

But people compare England to Germany, who have won 7 tournaments and have finished runners up in another 6.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Don't get too excited over the Germany 1 England 5 result.  (Outstanding as it was).  Guess which team did a lot better at the next World Cup?

The main point is that Grimsby Town has gone top of the Championship with a win on Fri night.  Really hard to believe that England stole our thunder from being top of the tree.  Only downhill from there...................

I think that the 5-1 win was within a day of so of the new car number-plates system.  This started with a "51". you could not make it up.  

Pedant alert. It was actually a 1pm kick-off on the Saturday. The England game kicked off about 5pm I think that day.

I don't see why Hart is always first choice pick, in my opinion Jak Butland is a far superior goalkeeper.

Butland and Pickford are already better than Hart and they won't stop improving for another 4 or 5 years so we need to stop persisting with Hart and play either of those 2.

England keepers are always the same. We think we've got one less clumsy and error-prone than the previous one until they get to about 28yo old and become a complete clown. I saw Hart's 'highlights' from his game away at Newcastle for West Ham which actually looked more like a blooper tape of bad deaths by gunshot in films. He was diving any other way than the way the ball was going. Pirlo probably ended his potential as a world class keeper at Euro 2012 with his panenka penalty. There is no coming back from that confidence wise.

Has Hart ever saved a shot down to his left?

I'm watching the England U21s        HT  England  2-0  Latvia

We look to have some good young talent coming through  

Quoted from Maringer

There's actually a pretty good book about how German football turned itself around after the weak performances of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Pithy title as well, "Das Reboot".

Needless to say, the DFB reorganised the game in Germany with teutonic efficiency for the benefit of all levels of football and the national team, instead of just shovelling more and more of the money up to the biggest clubs as we always do over here.

That is pretty much where the DFB came in, back in the 50s in the old West Germany. They structured the whole game with the intention of creating Weltmeisterschiff or whatever the word is. Another way in which they won the Peace.

Hart was good until City said he was not 1st choice,

Then he lost confidence in himself and went down hill,

Butland is the No1 in my eyes and should be given a run in the side.

Could be worse. Look at the argies  

It will be same old England next year struggling to get through the group stage and get knocked out next round