Oles style would probably suit international football to be fair.
Internationals March (Euro Play-Offs + Friendlies)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Yessss I scored the third!
Scotland getting hammered now.
Fixed.
It’s a miracle!
That wasn't very good.
Romania 1 v 1 N.Ireland
Great result for a very young side and showed plenty of potential. Hopefully a wee change in fortunes for the lads.
Great result for a very young side and showed plenty of potential. Hopefully a wee change in fortunes for the lads.
We are still a bit of a sorry for ourselves nation at times despite having decent qualifying campaigns more often than not under Clarke. Really need to address that mentality sharpish otherwise it will be an early exit again.
Reijnders is really developing into an awesome player.
Great Goal by Colombia
Neither do I honestly. Couldnt name 2 other Milan players
Xavi Simons in our national team though. Fecking hell he's crap.
Lagerbäck was pre-Haaland and Odegaard was taking his first steps though and even then you only lost 1 qualifier. Iceland didn't make their first qualifier under Lagerbäck either. Lost in a similar manner.
I watch football with more attention since 1990 and I can’t remember a worse version of Spain than the current one.
More strange than that it’s that they usually are strong until the under 21 level but for some reason after 2012 their performances and quality of football played in the big tournaments has been decreasing massively, only with a good performance in 2021.
Don’t even know if it’s only a Spain problem, when we look around Europe the quality has been declining since 2020 at least, not a lot of great NT’s around.
And the idea of enlarging the Euros to 24 teams looks more ridiculous than ever, they killed the quality of the tournament, 16 teams was adjusted to the quality we have in Europe.
More strange than that it’s that they usually are strong until the under 21 level but for some reason after 2012 their performances and quality of football played in the big tournaments has been decreasing massively, only with a good performance in 2021.
Don’t even know if it’s only a Spain problem, when we look around Europe the quality has been declining since 2020 at least, not a lot of great NT’s around.
And the idea of enlarging the Euros to 24 teams looks more ridiculous than ever, they killed the quality of the tournament, 16 teams was adjusted to the quality we have in Europe.
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Yeah, the state of European national teams is pretty poor just now. Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands are all complete shit compared to the sides they could have put out 10-15 years ago. Belgium's 'golden generation' has mostly come and gone. France are still a solid side, but not really a patch on the team that won the World Cup. Croatia were great underdogs for a while but have to be past it now. Portugal have some quality but currently seem to be set up more to pad Ronaldo's stats than win tournaments.
England are the only big side more loaded with talent than they were a few years ago, they have the easiest draw you could ask for and probably play a third place team in the first knockout round. It really is just Southgate's incompetence that could possibly hold them back from walking the tournament.
Netherlands 4 - Scotland 0
I don't think I've ever gone away from a 4-0 defeat happy before.
Scotland were the better team for 60/70 minutes. We hit the bar twice. We had at least 6 chances to score.
We looked confident and comfortable on the ball. At long stages we pinned the Dutch in their own half.
And yet...
Such a strange match. Even Koeman said that Scotland were the better team.
It's just one of those games where you could play all day and not score.
As far as international football being in decline. Isn't that directly linked to club football declining in quality?
Barcelona aren't what they once where. Real Madrid aren't. Manchester United aren't. Juventus aren't. AC Milan aren't. Bayern Munich aren't. Borussia Dortmund aren't.
It's ironic. Football Has never been richer, but the quality has greatly diminished.
Look at Brazil and Italy and Germany. The teams of the past would wipe the floor with today's generation. Same goes with the previous generations of Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid, etc.
People wax lyrical about England having a golden generation now. Do they? Potentially, the spine of the England team is Maguire and Henderson.
When you think back of England teams that had King, Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, Hargreaves, Adams, Scholes, Gerrard, Ince, Batty, Robson, Gascoigne, etc. I'd say that none of today's center backs or midfielders would make previous England XIs. (I don't count Bellingham as a midfielder. He's a no 10/false 9)
I don't think I've ever gone away from a 4-0 defeat happy before.
Scotland were the better team for 60/70 minutes. We hit the bar twice. We had at least 6 chances to score.
We looked confident and comfortable on the ball. At long stages we pinned the Dutch in their own half.
And yet...
Such a strange match. Even Koeman said that Scotland were the better team.
It's just one of those games where you could play all day and not score.
As far as international football being in decline. Isn't that directly linked to club football declining in quality?
Barcelona aren't what they once where. Real Madrid aren't. Manchester United aren't. Juventus aren't. AC Milan aren't. Bayern Munich aren't. Borussia Dortmund aren't.
It's ironic. Football Has never been richer, but the quality has greatly diminished.
Look at Brazil and Italy and Germany. The teams of the past would wipe the floor with today's generation. Same goes with the previous generations of Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid, etc.
People wax lyrical about England having a golden generation now. Do they? Potentially, the spine of the England team is Maguire and Henderson.
When you think back of England teams that had King, Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, Hargreaves, Adams, Scholes, Gerrard, Ince, Batty, Robson, Gascoigne, etc. I'd say that none of today's center backs or midfielders would make previous England XIs. (I don't count Bellingham as a midfielder. He's a no 10/false 9)
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One of your points was that you don’t need world class players to make it. Also, getting Iceland to qualify is a bigger feat on paper, having a tenth of the Norwegian population.
Anyway, I maintain that it’s quite reasonable for us to be despondent and pessimistic. Agree to disagree if you don’t.
Not very friendly...
Agreed. A disappointing result yesterday. I hope that we can fix that mentality because we don’t seem to be able to go toe to toe with the big boys, apart from last year’s win over Spain. We seem to have taken the foot off the gas since qualifying.
Interested to see if Mainoo and Branthwaite start or if he saves them for the Belgium game.
One of those weird players who do great at clubs and terrible at the NT. It's time for Malen to play some more, so either shift Simons to the #10 position (get rid of Wijnaldum please!!) or straight swap Malen in for Simons.
I think the future for NL finally looks good again. It's probably too early this summer with our current lack of top striker, but in 2 years i think Zirkzee and Brobbey will be ready to go!
Seems like Henderson is injured so will be either Gallagher or mainoo.
Would rather mainoo gets a start as friendlies tend to get very disjointed in the second half as both teams make multiple subs and much harder to make a good impression.
I think a Gallagher - Rice - Bellingham midfield will likely be one used so will probably see that at some point. A Mainoo - Rice - Bellingham midfield is a good future midfield though.
They'll definitely be saved for the easier game
I didn't say you didn't need good players. I responded to you about the comments about your goalkeeper and defense. At our height our goalkeeper and defenders were about Norwegian league level. We had the 1-2 players in the Premier League and a couple in the Championship and Eredivisie but that's it. Mostly it was a team of players following tactics that worked.
You can be pessimistic if you want. I'm saying the reason you aren't qualifying isn't the defense or goalkeeper to blame. The squad is good enough to finish above Scotland and Serbia.
Just seen Gakpo's dive trying to win a penalty of Scott McTominay, embarrasing that from Gakpo and its shocking that he wasnt booked.
ROI have no good CMs. Until that changes they won't be qualifying for anything. Surprised Mikey Johnston isn't starting as he's been excellent for West Brom since coming in on loan, him one side and Ogbene the other would be lively.
Then I don’t get why you brought up two offensive players as part of your reasoning for why Lagerbäck didn’t get us through (not saying that was your only or main point)
I also didn’t say good players, I said world class players. Obviously you need good players.
Anyway, I agree we have a good enough squad in theory. We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and in large part it’s due to defensive blunders. For example were on track to make it to Euro 08, and leading 2-0 vs Turkey when Thomas Myhre gifted them two goals. My main contention is we have a mentality issue we can’t seem to get past, and when your defence keeps fecking up in the final minutes of matches it is fair to heap some blame on them and question their abilities.
It's understandable considering the top scorer in the Championship is starting ahead of him. Ferguson has to play to build his confidence. We've half decent options in forward positions, first time in a while. Hopefully O Shea gets off to a good start.
Johnston ahead of Robbie Brady surely?!
A few years back ROI had potentially a nice collection of forwards. Idah, Obafemi and Aaron Connolly who ironically looked decent for Brighton like Evan did up to last six months.
He's trying to get his career again at Hull City after a couple of poor loan moves. Obafemi just bench warming at Burnley. Idah one I thought looked decent at Norwich but could never stay fit, scored a few at Celtic early on and only just turned 23 so could well come good in next few years.
Extremely young Belgian team this, no Lukaku, De Bruyne, Courtois, Vertonghen. Will be interesting.
Why didn't Ogdene pass it man ffs. They won't be getting a chance like that again.
Like the look of this Irish team, definitely something we need to build on for the future
Never a penalty, comes off his own body
No VAR! Feck themNever a penalty, comes off his own body
Ferguson to take the penalty. Saved, he really is off form.
Awful penalty from Ferguson
Ferguson's value compared to last summer is plummeting.
Eriksen And Rasmus are in the lineup of Denmark against Switzerland