Rousseau

8 minutes ago, buster. said:

I feel a bit guilty taking a point for that after predicting a dour game 

I thought the same.

I feel the next one will be the same, so another goal fest?

24 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

Don’t cry 4-3 Argentina.

 

I’ll get my coat.

Fewer than I expected went with France.

Unsurprisingly, no one got a Correct Score!

Rousseau, compo, Craig, Franc, CD, Gaffer, buster, dB, r_s, coop and TB gained 1 point for the Correct Result.

Latest Standings:

What a game.

Inches away from another penalty. Free-kick instead.

Mbappe again in behind from a raker of a pass from Pogba, before being taken out.

They can't stop him; Or, they can, but it's illegal.

This could be any number now, I think.

It suits France to play on the counter, with their pace up front. Up until now, teams have sat in against them, preventing them from being able to counter. Argentina need to come out now.

1-0 France. Greizmann. Cool as you like.

Penalty France!

What a run, what speed, from Mbappe.

Silly challenge.

Ooft! Griezmann hits the bar with a delightful free-kick.

France-Argentina is a tricky one.

France have been unconvincing; they have quality players, but they have been solid, untroubled and, crucially, have got the job done. 

Argentina have been rubbish, but they have Messi.

It looks like Messi has told the manager to line the team up in a 4-3-3 today, with himself playing as a False-9; it's geared around Messi. If he turns up, they can win.

Saying that, I've went with France, 1-0.  

Any news on whether James Rodriguez will be fit for the England game? Columbia have a much better chance if he plays. 

France 1 - 0 Argentina

Uruguay 1 - 1 Portugal

Spain 2 - 1 Russia

Croatia 2 - 1 Denmark

Brazil 2 - 1 Mexico 

Belgium 3 - 0 Japan

Sweden 1 - 2 Switzerland 

Colombia 0 - 2 England

Neither France or Argentina are that great. For Argentina it's a big problem, but for France I think it's just down to how they play; I actually think it'll suit them more the further they go, because it's defensive and counter-attacking, which is difficult when teams are defending deep. 

Switzerland have really impressed me: their positional structure is so flexible and effective in different phases of the game.  

Mexico have been good, but switched off in that last game, having already qualified. 

Uruguay and Portugal could go far, but there won't be many goals.

Croatia are solid and effective, and they could go far too with the 'big guns' shooting blanks.

Brazil are there or there about, but they have their flaws, and I don't think they've been tested -- neither have Belgium.

Croatia, Mexico and Switzerland have been the most impressive for me. 

28 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Given the form shown so far, some scores are pretty much unpredictable. Which obviously won't stop us ...

 

To be fair, I think that was down to teams changing their teams too much in the third, meaningless games. I would've changed my predictions if I had known teams would change -- perhaps I should have guessed. 

For the most part we've done rather well: we've picked a lot more Correct Scores than I anticipated.

That looks like a superb machine for improving your first-touch, and distribution because you need to take a look around before your receive the pass. 

I don't think there's any evidence of SG preferring a "4-3-3 system [...] with an aggressive Kloppesque pressing game". SG set up Liverpool U18s a couple of times with a 4-3-3, but his preferred formations were 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1, with the latter the most preferred. I think we're just seeing the Liverpool connection and the intense start to pre-season and spinning it out. I do expect a pressing game, but not quite "Kloppesque".

I agree with the rest. It was a measured evaluation of our signings. 

We have a good group of versatile players, able to play in a variety of ways. 

12 hours ago, compo said:

Is there no joker in this round of games 

No.

Too few games. 

It makes it a tighter run-in.

2 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

He’s played a total of 62 games in French football since 2015. Has he been injured? Not good enough?

It's not bad for a youngster, for me. He's only just turned 22. 

Windass must not be sold -- especially for a paltry £3m.

39 minutes ago, buster. said:

We need to have a recruitment policy that makes sense at various levels or we won't move forward as a club.

 

We need to build, rather than the annual chuck it in the bin and start again.

What we have been doing in recent years is the road to nowhere other than financial problems.

 

 

 

Absolutely. 

I think we're seeing that with the DoF. It's still just the beginning.

1 minute ago, buster. said:

It comes down to the questions

 

Is he significantly better than what we have already ?

Would there be an option to make it permanent ?

 

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I think we have to first and foremost develop and add value to our own players.

 

The loan system is good if you use it well, ie. bring in real quality that is significantly better than what we have at home.

 

 

 

I don't know the answers. 

I was just outlining what I thought, looking at his stats and what I know from the league.

The only question I ask is: Can he do a job for us? I think he could do. 

18 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

Yeh, and why is FS above me in the table when I have more points? Is this what’s likely to happen to us nest year...,....

Sorry about that, I had copied in the table I had sorted by previous round results.

Oops! 

Scores a nice header around 2 mins in.

They show the line-up at the start too.

Looking at some highlights when he plays, he's deployed to the right in a midfield three, in a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1, so he's not a DM.

12 minutes ago, buster. said:

Let's go with that for a minute........how many holding midfielders do we need ?

 

 

How many holding midfielders do we have?