villa4europe Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 shame this rain didnt come at half time and make it interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Would've actually given best player to Varane. Defensive masterclass in the knock outs. Nice to see it from a young CB aswell. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AXD Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said: Has to go to Pickford. Courtois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 22 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Would've actually given best player to Varane. Defensive masterclass in the knock outs. Nice to see it from a young CB aswell. Good call. I think Vrsaljko (sp?) has been awesome for Croatia as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HongKongVillan Posted July 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 15, 2018 2 minutes ago, bobzy said: Good call. I think Vrsaljko (sp?) has been awesome for Croatia as well. Agree on this, unsung hero for Croatia. Thought vida had a good tournament too. Oh and lovern is not a world class defender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 16 minutes ago, bobzy said: Good call. I think Vrsaljko (sp?) has been awesome for Croatia as well. When you think about it been loads of good defensive performances in this WC. Lucas Hernandez was excellent for France and I also liked Mario Fernandes of Russia, a player I hadn't seen much of. Just keep him off penalties. Can understand why they give best player to an attacker though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 11 minutes ago, VillaChris said: When you think about it been loads of good defensive performances in this WC. Lucas Hernandez was excellent for France and I also liked Mario Fernandes of Russia, a player I hadn't seen much of. Just keep him off penalties. Can understand why they give best player to an attacker though. Hernandez too much of a diving, horrible piece of work. I think Pavard, playing out of position, has been better. Neither a patch on Vrsaljko (sp?) though. Arguably Trippier too who I think had a great World Cup. I thought Inui had a good competition, Coutinho too, and also Cheryshev (particularly given he basically got a run through injury). They didn’t get far enough to win it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 15, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 15, 2018 Still think Nachos goal was the best of the tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Entertaining world cup with 2 deserved finalists. France didnt go past extra time once so hard say not deserved winner but croatia were brilliant Best final since 98 at least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 3 hours ago, VillaChris said: Would've actually given best player to Varane. Defensive masterclass in the knock outs. Nice to see it from a young CB aswell. Its bit Laughable but lovren had good tournament but varane was good so was umtiti, vida, godin, alderweirald and miranda Hard think of many bad defensive performances from them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 (edited) and godin, and tbf to him apart from the mistake that knocked us out stones was good, maguire was good, walker's pace at CB at times (especially when we pushed right up vs croatia) was incredible strange how theres been lots of set piece goals when some of the defending from open play has been excellent, how many open play headed goals were there? Edited July 15, 2018 by villa4europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 19 minutes ago, villa4europe said: and godin, and tbf to him apart from the mistake that knocked us out stones was good, maguire was good, walker's pace at CB at times (especially when we pushed right up vs croatia) was incredible strange how theres been lots of set piece goals when some of the defending from open play has been excellent, how many open play headed goals were there? I can never rate Stones he is garbage defender but Maguire i love. He has like Laursen like ability to attract the ball on both boxes and is bloody good on the ball 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 18 minutes ago, Zatman said: I can never rate Stones he is garbage defender but Maguire i love. He has like Laursen like ability to attract the ball on both boxes and is bloody good on the ball Maguire was incredibly solid this World Cup but also made so many terrible passes. Think it was down to nerves more than anything else, but so lucky they didn’t cost us more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 3 hours ago, Stevo985 said: Still think Nachos goal was the best of the tournament. Yeah, probably. That or Pavard against Argentina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Dont rate him as manager but Deschamps a rare manager to win World Cup as player and Manager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted July 16, 2018 6 hours ago, bobzy said: Yeah, probably. That or Pavard against Argentina. Yeah they're both very similar. For me Nacho's was more controlled. The technique is unreal and the post and in helps. But yeah Pavard's was very similar, and possibly the top corner element elevates it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I am still not sure of what to make of England's WC run. I think it feels a bit like those odd FA years where Cardiff got to the final or Chesterfield got to the semi's. Doesn't necessarily make them in the top 4 in the country. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BOF Posted July 17, 2018 Author Moderator Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2018 On 16/07/2018 at 09:22, Genie said: I am still not sure of what to make of England's WC run. I think it feels a bit like those odd FA years where Cardiff got to the final or Chesterfield got to the semi's. Doesn't necessarily make them in the top 4 in the country. It's hard to try and give an objective analysis without sounding like you're trying to piss on a nation's chips, even though you're not. What I would say is that, quite rightly, no-one would have given a damn if they'd made the final due to an easy run. If you make a final you make a final, end of. But as it is, they did get an easy run to the semi, played 2 decent sides and lost to both of them, 3 times. Kane, despite getting the golden boot, scored mainly penalties and a goal he knew nothing about. Creatively, England struggled beyond the group stage. Hopefully Southgate can capitalise on the feelgood factor that the run generated. There's an enthusiasm for this team now that I haven't witnessed since Euro 96. If he can supplement the old guard with some of the new blood (Sessegnon etc) then that'll be even more interesting. Conversely, this run may have made a bit of a rod for England's back now. The stupider more reactionary element of the fanbase will now see semi-final as England's natural habitat, and anything less will be perceived and twisted to be a failure. That side would need to be very lucky to get to another semi without a similarly fortuitous set of fixtures. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AXD Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 23 hours ago, BOF said: It's hard to try and give an objective analysis without sounding like you're trying to piss on a nation's chips, even though you're not. What I would say is that, quite rightly, no-one would have given a damn if they'd made the final due to an easy run. If you make a final you make a final, end of. But as it is, they did get an easy run to the semi, played 2 decent sides and lost to both of them, 3 times. Kane, despite getting the golden boot, scored mainly penalties and a goal he knew nothing about. Creatively, England struggled beyond the group stage. Hopefully Southgate can capitalise on the feelgood factor that the run generated. There's an enthusiasm for this team now that I haven't witnessed since Euro 96. If he can supplement the old guard with some of the new blood (Sessegnon etc) then that'll be even more interesting. Conversely, this run may have made a bit of a rod for England's back now. The stupider more reactionary element of the fanbase will now see semi-final as England's natural habitat, and anything less will be perceived and twisted to be a failure. That side would need to be very lucky to get to another semi without a similarly fortuitous set of fixtures. I’m curious to see how England will perform in 2 years. As you said, they struggled with every decent opposition. At the european cup, the group stage is harder imo, as there are no panama’s or tunesia’s. The mediocre european sides are often better (organised) than african, asian or north american teams. the creative players in the current side like Sterling or Dele haven’t done anything noteworthy throughout the entire world cup. Maybe the likes of sessegnon and grealish can add something if they can take the next step in their career. Organisation wise, southgate has something in place, but to compete with better teams like France and Belgium, that was not enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Actually looking forward to the nations league thing now which is not a opinion I had three months ago! England are in with Spain and Croatia so two good teams to try to continue the momentum against. Will be four interesting games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts