International Football General Chat

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, Phil Silvers said:

Its just that it feels like watching paint dry for long periods of play, you can barely fault the players, they do as they're told.

The thing with a lot fans too is that we are staunchly bias towards our own. In addition many feel that the game has gone, trophies are bought at club level, Oligarchs given carte blanche, regimes are allowed to buy our clubs, etc etc, in many ways its a vile toxic fixed business and unless its your own club, many do not give a ****.

I'll add that the commentary makes it hard to watch too, they're so far up the bums of these players it's unreal, the sympathy piece they did about for all his troubles maguire never let's his country down... Southgate doesn't lose games because we don't count the final because it was actually a draw... 

Its sickening and its how its always been

[foreveryoung]

Just now, VillaChris said:

I'd still rate England behind likes of France and Brazil personally. Will certainly be interesting coming up against either in knockouts before final at next world cup, still feels to me like England need that big knock out win and performance to really believe they can win a tournament (Germany was perhaps one in euros but they were very average during last summer) and yeah Southgate probably hasn't got that in him.

Still though results as far as I can see are very consistant and more importantly all the squad are enjoying playing for NT which is complete contrast to 2006-16 period when results were poor and many big name players hated it, at least now there's a coherent structure and you can get reasonably far in international tournaments playing that style as Portugal have shown many times.

Southgate loses the games with his negative tactics, not the players. The players are good enough to beat any team. We can beat the crap all day long, bring on a half decent team and he runs out of ideas, I.e Italy.

Southgate lost us the Euros final allowing a 37 year old Chellini to dictate the game.

He's a bottler, we will win nothing under him, don't kid yourself.

[foreveryoung]

6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Bit of a harsh standard there! 99.5% of the national teams on the planet have 'won f*** all' over the last 4 years. And what we have won is a lot of matches. I mean, I watch most Vietnam games as well, trust me it could be a lot worse.

I doubt they have one of the most expensive squads in world football though yeah?

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Its just that it feels like watching paint dry for long periods of play, you can barely fault the players, they do as they're told.

The thing with a lot fans too is that we are staunchly bias towards our own. In addition many feel that the game has gone, trophies are bought at club level, Oligarchs given carte blanche, regimes are allowed to buy our clubs, etc etc, in many ways its a vile toxic fixed business and unless its your own club, many do not give a ****.

Villa players are getting picked though compared to the era when Barry was routinely ignored for five years under Sven (and then wanted to leave as soon as he strung together 5 games). Milner and Young were also on fringes when playing very well for us around 2009 period.

Mings gets routinely slagged off on here whenever he makes an error yet he's always in the squad, Ollie has been pretty poor this season yet given another chance and probably done enough to make the June friendlies and Southgate already said he likes Ramsey so wouldn't shock me if he got called up end of the season aswell.

In a different era Cash would've likely made a few squads but England are totally stacked at RB so can understand him taking the Polish route. Konsa should've had a call up last season, wouldn't shock me if Portugal take a look after the world cup given how ancient Pepe and Fonte are.

[VillaChris]

9 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

All of them coming up are winnable tournaments because England have the best attacking talent in the world 

Unfortunately we have a manager who uses that talent to get us out of the shit rather than properly go at teams 

Germany vs Holland is their big derby (so I'm surprised they played it if I'm honest, usually trouble at those games) but I've got no real interest in that, same as I'm not really that fussed about the nations league or even champions league, I don't watch much as a neutral anymore 

Yeah I get that. I think Southgate's biggest weakness is he's incredibly slow to tweak the team during a game as we saw in world cup SF and euros final when Italy were getting on top.

Put more progressive coaches in charge though and it would be "Howe once spent 20m + on a Liverpool reserve so is f***ing useless" "Potter once lost 5 prem games in a row at Brighton" "Lampard signed Dele Alli in a relegation battle LOL" etc.

Utlimately as far as I can see pretty much all the players like the setup under Southgate and he always seems to be good at not freezing out players left out of squads so sometimes it's about more than results on the pitch.

Given the way FA work aswell there's no way he's getting sacked anytime soon...bar England crashing out in groups at next WC but even then Hodgson still made it to the next euros.

Edit: I'd add games at Wembley always seem to be very dull, pitch seems to play too slow for exciting games. Add in England constantly playing mediocre opposition now in qualifiers and friendlies who are just happy to sit men behind the ball and family atmosphere and there's very little edge to things. Of course you then get the opposite at euro finals....

Edited March 29, 2022 by VillaChris

[villa4europe]

3 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Yeah I get that. I think Southgate's biggest weakness is he's incredibly slow to tweak the team during a game as we saw in world cup SF and euros final when Italy were getting on top.

Put more progressive coaches in charge though and it would be "Howe once spent 20m + on a Liverpool reserve so is f***ing useless" "Potter once lost 5 prem games in a row at Brighton" "Lampard signed Dele Alli in a relegation battle LOL" etc.

Utlimately as far as I can see pretty much all the players like the setup under Southgate and he always seems to be good at not freezing out players left out of squads so sometimes it's about more than results on the pitch.

Given the way FA work aswell there's no way he's getting sacked anytime soon...bar England crashing out in groups at next WC but even then Hodgson still made it to the next euros.

Yeah I agree about that, he's going absolutely nowhere 

His cup performances and stats means he will go down as one of England's greatest ever managers, maybe already in 2nd or 3rd

Edited March 29, 2022 by villa4europe

[Phil Silvers]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

Villa players are getting picked though compared to the era when Barry was routinely ignored for five years under Sven (and then wanted to leave as soon as he strung together 5 games). Milner and Young were also on fringes when playing very well for us around 2009 period.

Mings gets routinely slagged off on here whenever he makes an error yet he's always in the squad, Ollie has been pretty poor this season yet given another chance and probably done enough to make the June friendlies and Southgate already said he likes Ramsey so wouldn't shock me if he got called up end of the season aswell.

In a different era Cash would've likely made a few squads but England are totally stacked at RB so can understand him taking the Polish route. Konsa should've had a call up last season, wouldn't shock me if Portugal take a look after the world cup given how ancient Pepe and Fonte are.

I would be straight in there if I were Konza. Mings is under-rated IMO. I'm never going to knock GS for the squad picks, whether our lads play or not. With the talent at his disposal we should be walking through games, but the guy is tactically limited and is afraid to entertain, he is a steady pair of hands I guess and his record looks great because of the number of games we play against poor opposition. When we come up against comparable or better countries, the result is inevitable and the games are boring.

[MaVilla]

Interesting evening for Villa.

Watkins & Mings score in their match.

McGinn scored in his match.

Cash qualifies for the World Cup with Poland.

Olsen unfortunately misses out on the world cup, having lost with Sweden to Cashy's Poland.

[VillaChris]

9 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Southgate loses the games with his negative tactics, not the players. The players are good enough to beat any team. We can beat the crap all day long, bring on a half decent team and he runs out of ideas, I.e Italy.

Southgate lost us the Euros final allowing a 37 year old Chellini to dictate the game.

He's a bottler, we will win nothing under him, don't kid yourself.

Italy were at a very good level at the euros, they'd just knocked out Belgium in quarters who many were tipping to win the tournament and then Spain had real momentum and they were dispatched on penalties. (I actually think England would've found a way to beat Spain if that had been the final).

Italy is a pretty poor match up for England historically so good news they won't make the world cup. I still think England will struggle v France and Brazil but with luck Southgate has had in draws so far may not run into either. Argentina would be interesting knockout game aswell but still feels England have more individual quality over the pitch now.

[Zatman]

11 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Southgate loses the games with his negative tactics, not the players. The players are good enough to beat any team. We can beat the crap all day long, bring on a half decent team and he runs out of ideas, I.e Italy.

Southgate lost us the Euros final allowing a 37 year old Chellini to dictate the game.

He's a bottler, we will win nothing under him, don't kid yourself.

The worst thing England done in the final was score so early

Thought Denmark game summed him up. When England were trying to win the game he had Phillips and his dreadful first touch and technique trying to create chances. Then when went up he took Grealish immediately off 

[Phil Silvers]

 

[foreveryoung]

6 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Italy were at a very good level at the euros, they'd just knocked out Belgium in quarters who many were tipping to win the tournament and then Spain had real momentum and they were dispatched on penalties. (I actually think England would've found a way to beat Spain if that had been the final).

Italy is a pretty poor match up for England historically so good news they won't make the world cup. I still think England will struggle v France and Brazil but with luck Southgate has had in draws so far may not run into either. Argentina would be interesting knockout game aswell but still feels England have more individual quality over the pitch now.

So what Premier League team would take Southgate as manager.

Could he be the next Man City manager, he wins so many games?

[HanoiVillan]

36 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

I doubt they have one of the most expensive squads in world football though yeah?

No, of course not, but so what?

Was it all the winning more than 'f*** all' over the previous four decades that spoiled you?

[VillaChris]

16 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

So what Premier League team would take Southgate as manager.

Could he be the next Man City manager, he wins so many games?

Oh yeah no one decent is taking him after his Boro stint but again that's not really a reliable metric. I mean Jorgi Low was more succesful but his stock took a battering in his last three years as germany manager, has he even worked in club football since.

No serious prem team would take the likes of Fernando Santos, Roberto Martinez either.

International football management is a very good gig if you've failed a bit at club level but can organise a team and also have good fortune of good crop of players coming through in your tenure.

[foreveryoung]

22 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Oh yeah no one decent is taking him after his Boro stint but again that's not really a reliable metric. I mean Jorgi Low was more succesful but his stock took a battering in his last three years as germany manager, has he even worked in club football since.

No serious prem team would take the likes of Fernando Santos, Roberto Martinez either.

International football management is a very good gig if you've failed a bit at club level but can organise a team and also have good fortune of good crop of players coming through in your tenure.

Martinez is a bit of a Southgate to be honest. Why they have kept him at Belgium I do not know. That team should be winning alot more too.

[Zatman]

21 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Oh yeah no one decent is taking him after his Boro stint but again that's not really a reliable metric. I mean Jorgi Low was more succesful but his stock took a battering in his last three years as germany manager, has he even worked in club football since.

No serious prem team would take the likes of Fernando Santos, Roberto Martinez either.

International football management is a very good gig if you've failed a bit at club level but can organise a team and also have good fortune of good crop of players coming through in your tenure.

Mancini, Deschamps, Hansi Flick, Luis Enrique would be offered Premier League jobs. 2 of them have been linked to United but all 3 have worked well before with clubs. 

[VillaChris]

18 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Martinez is a bit of a Southgate to be honest. Why they have kept him at Belgium I do not know. That team should be winning alot more too.

Belgian miles past their best now....euros getting delayed by a year really hurt them. Hazard and Lukaku barely playing and Toby and Vertongthen OAPs at the back...they'll need De Bruyne in god mode to get to SF and don't see that happening.

 

[VillaChris]

18 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Mancini, Deschamps, Hansi Flick, Luis Enrique would be offered Premier League jobs. 2 of them have been linked to United but all 3 have worked well before with clubs. 

Yeah Deschamps and Flick are best of bunch from top nations. Think Luis Enrique would flop a bit in the prem, I know he won the treble at Barca but Messi-Suarez-Neymar hit incredible form for six months which wasn't replicated in other seasons and his record at Celta Vigo and Roma was fairly mediocre IIRC.

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

When was the last time 2 Villa players scored in the same game for England? 

I honestly thought it would have been longer ago, or possibly not had ever happened.

 

[TheAuthority]

2 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

He's the best 18 year in world football. He's a future ballon d'or winner potentially.