The Football Thread 2017-18

[Curls]

Well the chat in here is gooseberry fool today.

[<]:^D]

youre contributing a lot there matey!

[DML]

Well the chat in here is gooseberry fool today.

80% of the time its bloody Man United/Liverpool chat - I'm glad for something new!

[Preezy]

Well the chat in here is gooseberry fool today.

80% of the time its bloody Man United/Liverpool chat - I'm glad for something new!

Speaking of something new, who do we all think United and Liverpool should be buying in the summer?

[PES Fan]

The issue with giving Pope or Pickford a go is if they make a mistake at the World Cup then it could possibly damage them.

I don’t think Pickford has looked great for Everton. Yeah, he’s made a few eye catching saves. But like Neville said he’s not really dominating his box. Butland hasn’t been great either. The less said about Hart the better. With Hughes coming in maybe Forster could get his form together.

This is the worst England team I seen going to a tournament in my lifetime, so the expectations are zero. If we get out the group stages then that’s achievement.

Hopefully Harry Kane can get fit because him and Sterling will have huge pressures on their shoulders to perform. You look at our defenders and most of them besides Walker and Maguire aren’t even regulars for their clubs.

Centre midfield wise I really do miss the Gerrard/Lampard debates. Our centre midfield options are not as great as they once were.

[PES Fan]

I just noticed Jake Livermoore is in the squad.

Is that the best we can offer? There must be better centre midfielders in the championship.

[Curls]

youre contributing a lot there matey!

I try my best

[Preezy]

Really are scraping the barrel these days, but in a way that's probably preferable to having a team of quality players that repeatedly fail to emulate their club form, like the good old days

[Blue Eyes]

The issue with giving Pope or Pickford a go is if they make a mistake at the World Cup then it could possibly damage them.

I don’t think Pickford has looked great for Everton. Yeah, he’s made a few eye catching saves. But like Neville said he’s not really dominating his box. Butland hasn’t been great either. The less said about Hart the better. With Hughes coming in maybe Forster could get his form together.

This is the worst England team I seen going to a tournament in my lifetime, so the expectations are zero. If we get out the group stages then that’s achievement.

Hopefully Harry Kane can get fit because him and Sterling will have huge pressures on their shoulders to perform. You look at our defenders and most of them besides Walker and Maguire aren’t even regulars for their clubs.

Centre midfield wise I really do miss the Gerrard/Lampard debates. Our centre midfield options are not as great as they once were.

Qualifying from a group featuring Panama and Tunisia would not be an achievement.

[PES Fan]

The issue with giving Pope or Pickford a go is if they make a mistake at the World Cup then it could possibly damage them.

I don’t think Pickford has looked great for Everton. Yeah, he’s made a few eye catching saves. But like Neville said he’s not really dominating his box. Butland hasn’t been great either. The less said about Hart the better. With Hughes coming in maybe Forster could get his form together.

This is the worst England team I seen going to a tournament in my lifetime, so the expectations are zero. If we get out the group stages then that’s achievement.

Hopefully Harry Kane can get fit because him and Sterling will have huge pressures on their shoulders to perform. You look at our defenders and most of them besides Walker and Maguire aren’t even regulars for their clubs.

Centre midfield wise I really do miss the Gerrard/Lampard debates. Our centre midfield options are not as great as they once were.

Qualifying from a group featuring Panama and Tunisia would not be an achievement.

Listen, I’m lowering expectations.

They should be sides that we should be beating with ease. But we all know that’s not going to happen.

I am still recovering from Iceland. So I am not going to take teams like Panama or Tunisia lightly.

[Christopher]

I just noticed Jake Livermoore is in the squad.

Is that the best we can offer? There must be better centre midfielders in the championship.

There’s that Marcus MCGuane at Barca.

[Herdanos]

The squad maybe doesn't look that inspiring, but I am actually optimistic about our chances this summer.

Yeah Hart has been poor for his club, but we've literally just had several pages of debate on how Messi is one player for his club (the greatest player of all time) and another for his country (an infuriating forward who despite flashes of brilliance frustrates his nation for his inability to reach his potential). Goalkeepers thrive when someone gives them confidence and they flounder without security. Courtois had a bad game the other night but you can bet he'll start the next game. At Liverpool if the keeper has a bad game they replace him, which means they have two goalkeepers with half a manager worth of self belief. Southgate believes in Hart which is why his performances in a white shirt are better, and without some of his saves - I'm not going to say something daft like we'd not have qualified out of that group - we'd probably have had to navigate the play offs.

Our strength in depth as a national team isn't great and it looks worse with injuries and the fact that Southgate keeps naming these daft overly large squads. But if we get a bit of luck and keep our strongest XI fit there's no reason we can't go far in the tournament. England's best performances historically (since 66 anyway) seem to have come when people have written them off (although in the post-Capello era that itself seems to be an approach that some take... "we had no expectations, how dare you disappoint us by not exceeding them!")

Kane, Alli, Sterling, Rashford are our likely starting forward four. Rather than alternating and keeping the whole squad involved why not give them games together where possible in the fixtures leading up to the tournament? I'll admit we don't have a standout pairing at CB right now but I'm willing to have a little faith.

I reckon we'll make the last eight. Honest!

[Dowbocop]

That looked like a well ropey peno...

[darksideby182]

Never a pen but a good response to a great strike from AC

[Psychic]

Yeah Hart has been poor for his club, but we've literally just had several pages of debate on how Messi is one player for his club (the greatest player of all time) and another for his country (an infuriating forward who despite flashes of brilliance frustrates his nation for his inability to reach his potential). Goalkeepers thrive when someone gives them confidence and they flounder without security. Courtois had a bad game the other night but you can bet he'll start the next game. At Liverpool if the keeper has a bad game they replace him, which means they have two goalkeepers with half a manager worth of self belief. Southgate believes in Hart which is why his performances in a white shirt are better, and without some of his saves - I'm not going to say something daft like we'd not have qualified out of that group - we'd probably have had to navigate the play offs.

This isn't a case like picking Welbeck was a few years ago where he delivered for the national team. Hart's been poor for club and country for years and has done very little to deserve to be in the discussion to be in the squad.

[Joer]

Stonewaller.

[Photek]

The best thing that could happen to England is that they stop becoming top seeds in the qualifying stage, I mean it does nothing to keep beating rubbish teams for 2 years then get destroyed in tournaments. I'm also pretty sure Ireland/Norn Iron/Wales and Scotland would at least come second in the groups England has been in over the years.

[Photek]

Yeah Hart has been poor for his club, but we've literally just had several pages of debate on how Messi is one player for his club (the greatest player of all time) and another for his country (an infuriating forward who despite flashes of brilliance frustrates his nation for his inability to reach his potential). Goalkeepers thrive when someone gives them confidence and they flounder without security. Courtois had a bad game the other night but you can bet he'll start the next game. At Liverpool if the keeper has a bad game they replace him, which means they have two goalkeepers with half a manager worth of self belief. Southgate believes in Hart which is why his performances in a white shirt are better, and without some of his saves - I'm not going to say something daft like we'd not have qualified out of that group - we'd probably have had to navigate the play offs.

This isn't a case like picking Welbeck was a few years ago where he delivered for the national team. Hart's been poor for club and country for years and has done very little to deserve to be in the discussion to be in the squad.

Joe Hart has been terrible for years, he shouldn't get near the England squad, look at Icelands and Wales' goals, I mean, jesus. He's a nice dude and pretty good in interviews so gets a free pass from the media.

[Buffalo]

He’s got PASHUN[/Mafro]

[Monkey Man]

Barce v Roma, Sevilla v Bayern, Juve v Real, Liv v Man C.