World Cup punditry and commentator watch

Shane88

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ITV had McCoist and some other fella doing a crap Statler and Waldorf impression.

Lineker is milquetoast as usual. Richards laughs a lot.

RTE can't afford a table and chairs.

Who is annoying you? Who is entertaining? Who provides good insight?
 

Sandikan

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Aluko just suggested Bale could be rested by Wales on Friday.

After having scraped a draw against the USA and knowing it'll probably come down to who can smash Iran the most.
 

Steffa Barnesa

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Studio pundits seem a bit better prepared nowadays than in the latter days of Hansen, when it was a bit lazy. But they're a fairly dull bunch nowadays, especially this time around (so far), with Keane just now on ITV surrounded by dullards instead of characters or giants of the game. I think the cast of foreign pundits has usually been a highlight, so I will be sure to watch Pochettino in the studio. Shame he's not on ITV with Keane, though! Schmeichel on commentary and Gilberto Silva in the beeb studio will be something different.
 

Djemba-Djemba

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Keane has his full grey beard of sorrow on.

I'm assuming it's because of the Ronaldo getting sacked by Utd scandal.
 

Yorke to Cole

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I thought Dion Dublin was awful yesterday's opening match.His structure seems stream of consciousness and not really any structure to his points.
 

Deery

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Alan Shearer started chatting about some story about the manager put faith in him, feck he’s boring.

Keane doesn’t look bothered at all and not happy to be there, just waiting to be cynical about someone.

Micah Richards with that laughing carry on too just annoying.
 

RomfordRed75

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Jenas and Dublin are terrible co-commentators, surely the BBC could do better than them. McCoist and Hartson were good today.
 

acnumber9

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I enjoyed Hartson just now.
Was that Hartson? I thought it was Chris Coleman. I thought he was fecking awful. Whining constantly about American players staying down and then when Wales did it he was all “you have to go down if you’re injured.”
 
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V.O.

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Was that Harrison? I thought it was Chris Coleman. I thought he was fecking awful. Whining constantly about American players staying down and then when Wales did it he was all “you have to go down if you’re injured.”
Try listening to an England game on the BBC/ITV when you're not supporting them - beyond insufferable. I'm thankful my stream had what I assume is the global feed with neutral comms. I fecking hate partisan commentary.

Can't be arsed with how BT Sport especially are on a crusade to make every European game with an English club feel as though the national team is playing as well, either.
 

PoTMS

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Eni Aluko and Jermaine Jenas do my head in. Just waiting for Sam Matterface to show up to complete the trinity.

Laura Woods, Alex Scott and Nigel De Jong have been the highlights so far.
 

acnumber9

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Try listening to an England game on the BBC/ITV when you're not supporting them - beyond insufferable. I'm thankful my stream had what I assume is the global feed with neutral comms. I fecking hate partisan commentary.

Can't be arsed with how BT Sport especially are on a crusade to make every European game with an English club feel as though the national team is playing as well, either.
Oh I have. Also incredibly annoying. The whole reaction on ITV to Bale scoring a penalty was ridiculous. You’d swear he’s just cured world hunger.
 

Rozay

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Hartson was ridiculous tonight. Partizan in the extreme. Called Bale’s booking a ‘good tackle’, and the general reaction Bale scoring a penalty was even worse than the Harry Kane media.
 

Red00012

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Clive Tyldesley was embarassing tonight with his over the top reaction to a fecking penalty by a player who was poor for most of the game
 

RedDevilRoshi

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Hartson was ridiculous tonight. Partizan in the extreme. Called Bale’s booking a ‘good tackle’, and the general reaction Bale scoring a penalty was even worse than the Harry Kane media.
Yep he was brutal. Just as bad as Jermaine Jenas on commentary earlier in the England game.
 

Pink Moon

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They're all terrible. Hartson in particular is really bad because not only he is incredibly biased but he just waffles a lot of nonsense with no insight. It's genuinely like the fan commentary thing Sky used to do in the 90s.

McCoist is incredibly overrated and I don't get why people go crazy for him. He just reels off the same cliches and soundbites all game. 'Let me tell you something', 'you have to say', 'certainly', 'absolutely'... take a shot every time he says these and you'll be comatose by the 20th minute.

We've got Jonathan Pearce tonight in the France game, I believe. That'll be unbearable. I wonder how many racial stereotypes he'll manage to fit into this one. And if he doesn't manage to completely ruin the game, Danny Murphy beside him will finish the job. I can't think of a more soulless, dull, soul-destroying co-commentator/pundit than him. I'm not convinced he even likes football. He'll spend the entire game aggressively moaning about the players and how France's world class, world Champion superstars should've done something differently because obviously Danny knows better. That'll be when he's not talking about Liverpool, right enough, which won't be very often.

ITV started broadcasting the build up to Netherlands v Senegal at 3pm yesterday. It was only at 3:42 did they actually start discussing Netherlands v Senegal. It was all England talk. England highlights. England interviews. So much so they even jokingly apologised to Nigel De Jong for essentially wasting his time. The cherry on top though was that as soon as the game had ended, they went back and spoke about England again. Surely even English fans get bored with the same crap repeated ad nauseum? You've got a top class pundit like Gary Neville there. Let us hear him analyse the game we just watched. Why the Netherlands were underwhelming. Why Senegal made it more of a game than people expected.

Micah Richards casually trying to downplay German football was weird but not unexpected. Thankfully Lineker immediately interrupted him to point out the Bundesliga isn't some footballing backwater.

It'd be great if broadcasters offered stadium noise audio only like Amazon do with their PL games.
 

altodevil

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I'll put McCoist in the Lawrenson bracket. Not particularly insightful, but a good bit more entertaining than the usual fodder.

The worst was whoever was doing the England match, was that Jenas? Horrible.
 

Andy_Cole

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Was in a fan park in Dubai where Jamie Carragher was doing live punditry for the England game. Random.
 

Scottynaldinho

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The best experience is to watch the game in another language that you don't understand. Sad that the only choice I have is Fox Sports, I would rather watch without the commentary if I had an option.
 

Oranges038

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I enjoyed the moment yesterday when Trippier smashed a freekick into the wall and the BBC commentator made a comment about the "Iranian construction".
 

Gavinb33

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Keane and Souness really going for it there, Roy was wrong how is that not a penalty the player never once looks at the ball.

I sometime think Keane gets bored so he'll act contrarian to rile people up :keano:
 

Dan_F

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Keane and Souness really going for it there, Roy was wrong how is that not a penalty the player never once looks at the ball.

I sometime think Keane gets bored so he'll act contrarian to rile people up :keano:
Yeah any chance to have a go at Souness.
 

Oranges038

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Where do they get these commentators from. This guy on ITV for the Denmark game is awful.
 

Parma Dewol

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Getting really tired of the commentators constantly moaning. Appreciate this World Cup is controversial, but they’re choosing to complain about every single thing.

Commentator in the Argentina game reckoned Saudi’s were using “every trick in the book” when the defender was nearly knocked out. Keown now reckons this ref isn’t strong enough to overturn VAR.

Give it a rest. If I have to hear about the Harry Maguire penalty one more time…
 

Blackbeard

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Commentary on the Mexico v Poland game was awful. I know it was a boring game but that was beyond bad. I’m all for female commentators but surely they can find someone better than this. She even made Keown sound interesting.
 

Buster15

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France v Australia BBC1, Jonathan Pearce. Best commentator so far by a mile.
Not just who passed to who. And not talking non stop for the sake of it. But such a treat to listen to him.
Excellent.
 

Semper Fudge

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Getting really tired of the commentators constantly moaning. Appreciate this World Cup is controversial, but they’re choosing to complain about every single thing.

Commentator in the Argentina game reckoned Saudi’s were using “every trick in the book” when the defender was nearly knocked out. Keown now reckons this ref isn’t strong enough to overturn VAR.

Give it a rest. If I have to hear about the Harry Maguire penalty one more time…
Was that Matterface? He looked like an absolute tool saying that just before the replay.