World Cup Chat

[craig 5,199]

2 minutes ago, buster. said:

Sometimes I think that Scottish fitbaw is a particular sport that time forgot.

When Scottish football openly "celebrates" the virtual end of the career of the creative player of his generation (Durrant) then we know exactly what to expect......

[buster. 5,199]

1 minute ago, craig said:

When Scottish football openly "celebrates" the virtual end of the career of the creative player of his generation (Durrant) then we know exactly what to expect......

Interested hatred and relatively  scant regard to professionalism has helped Scottish fitbaw secure it's niche !

[craig 5,199]

Just now, buster. said:

Interested hatred and relatively  scant regard to professionalism has helped Scottish fitbaw secure it's niche !

And then we wonder why a country of 4 million like Croatia can make a WC final yet we cant even make the tournament itself....

 

Scottish football is a complete backwater - and internal hatred (particularly of all things Rangers) sees it eat itself alive. 

 

In my lifetime the best Scottish national teams have been co-terminous with strong Rangers teams.... but don't let the doubters and haters hear that as we would be pyoor lying huns.

[Uilleam 5,948]

Wot those pesky Croats said.

 

From today's Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/12/england-unbelievably-inferior-croatia-press-world-cup-semi-final

 

In the interests of "balance", I tried to find some English comments on last night's events, but couldn't find anythbing at all. Perhaps someone could help out in this regard.....

 

 

England were 'unbelievably inferior' – Croatian press on World Cup semi-final

‘The arrogance hit them back’, say Croatian media

 

Confidence is high that team will beat France in final

Aleksandar Holiga

 @AlexHoliga

Thu 12 Jul 2018 11.36 BSTLast modified on Thu 12 Jul 2018 16.31 BST

 

 Vecerni list said Croatia play the best football on the planet at the moment, while 24 sata added: ‘You aren’t dreaming, this is reality.’ 

 

A wave of euphoria hit Croatia after the national team defeated England 2-1in the World Cup semi-final and, befitting the historic achievement, it was a wave of epic proportions.

Croatia motivated by English pundits’ lack of respect, says Luka Modric

 

The national broadcaster, HRT, started its post-match programme with presenters and studio guests jumping around and chanting, while Robert Prosinecki, a member of Croatia’s bronze-winning side in 1998, said: “We murdered the English in the second half!” Josko Jelicic, Croatia’s self-styled answer to Gary Lineker, added: “They [England] have nothing to cry about – they were knocked out by the future world champions. We played a mature game, the English were unbelievably inferior.”

The Vecernji list newspaper went with the headline “We knocked the English down, Croatia are in the World Cup final!” with Zeljko Jankovic writing how Croatia and France will now decide “who plays the best football on the planet at the moment”. It turned out to be rhetorical as he answered it himself by adding: “It’s Croatia, don’t even doubt that!”

Vecernji’s website devoted an unusual amount of space to gloating over the fate of the losing team, with headlines such as “Football’s not coming home”, “The arrogance hit them back”, “The English are sore losers” and even published a photo gallery titled “Look how the English cry after losing to Croatia” with pictures of downbeat players and fans.

 

The 24 sata daily published a video from the team’s hotel, where players can be seen standing on a dinner table and singing along with veteran entertainer Mladen Grdovic. “Pinch yourself and don’t worry, you aren’t dreaming, this is reality,” wrote Marko Snidaric. “Close your eyes without any fear, and when you open them you’ll see Croatia celebrating. You’ll see Croatia crying. Out of happiness.”

 

utarnji list gave central space to quotes from players. “Croatia is burning, but we haven’t burned down yet,” Danijel Subasic said. Sportske novosti, the nation’s only daily sports newspaper, was full of praise for the manager, Zlatko Dalic, claiming he has outdone every other Croatia coach by leading the team to the final. “France, who are better than England, can hardly stop them,” wrote Drazen Antolic. “That will be a true final, a top clash between the two sides who have shown the most at the tournament.”

Index.hr, a popular website, acknowledged that England were the better side in the first half, but when Ivan Perisic scored, Sasa Cobanov said, “it was the beginning of the end for the English”.

Telesport’s Juraj Vrdoljak compared Croatia’s second-half comeback to an “adrenaline-driven man lifting a truck to save his child”. Croatia emerged victorious, he stated, after “clinching her teeth and biting on a knife in the manner of Cholo’s commandos before using it to rip the history apart at the finishing line”.

 

[Rousseau 10,640]

4 hours ago, craig said:

I told guys in the pub after 15 minutes "England are giving up way too much possession and it will hurt them".  Proven right.  You simply cannot give a team like Croatia that much possession.  Personally disagree that they needed to go to a back 4 - a back 4 would have meant an extra body in defence, not one less - they had 5 in midfield because both Trippier and Young were acting as wing backs (though Trippier was going forward more than backwards - 5 in the middle should have been enough to stifle Croatia's possession - I think the bigger issue, rather than formation, was personnel.  In the engine room they really only had Henderson to break play up as Alli & Lingard offer very little defensive protection - with Rakitic "destroying" and Modric showing just how much of a little genius he is by way of creation, England offered little resistance to them - Trippier & Young had hands full with Rebic & Perisic so couldn't offer any help.  IMHO, England should have considered bringing Dier (I don't really like him as a player but they had few options for midfield enforcer) on much earlier (when up 1-0) to assist Henderson.

 

Southgate is a thoroughly likeable guy - but even at half time he should have seen the ominous signs of giving so much possession to a team like Croatia.  The signs were there.  At that level you have to take your chances or you will get punished - England got punished for missed chances - how Lingard missed the target when central in front of goal is beyond me.

 

They definitely lacked creativity - and Souness made a really good point - Alli and even Lingard are the typed who prefer to be on the end of things rather than creating them.  They don't keep possession that well.

 

Modric was masterful last night - what a player !

No, they were pinned back making a back-five. The pictures show pretty much a line of 5 with 3 in front. And then, of course, Stirling and Kane weren't really helping out.

 

Yes, they sat off them too much. 

 

I would've sacrificed Trappier -- good player but Walker could move out to RB -- for a wide midfielder; Or sub in a LB, moving Young further up to play LM. 

 

I agree with the rest. 

[ranger_syntax 4,329]

 

smh

Edited July 12, 2018 by ranger_syntax

[craig 5,199]

5 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

No, they were pinned back making a back-five. The pictures show pretty much a line of 5 with 3 in front. And then, of course, Stirling and Kane weren't really helping out.

 

Yes, they sat off them too much. 

 

I would've sacrificed Trappier -- good player but Walker could move out to RB -- for a wide midfielder; Or sub in a LB, moving Young further up to play LM. 

 

I agree with the rest. 

I don't think Trippier was pinned back at all.  He was playing a high line with Walker moving across to CB/RB.  Young was also getting forward too, though not starting as high as Trippier and not as often.  I guess we will agree to disagree on what we saw.

 

I wouldn't have sacrificed Trippier either - he was still doing well.  For me Lingard was absolutely spent after an hour and offered ZERO from that point on - he would have been the one I would have sacrificed because he was exhausted and did little, but not only that but he is too similar to Alli - you don't need both of them in that line-up when up 1-0.  And that could be the naivety of Southgate as a coach - at 1-0 and having witnessed his team giving up possession easily, whilst also watching Modric dictate play like a puppet master.... he should have seen the signs and made the switch to bring on a ball-winner, someone who will stick the foot in - no need to look for a second goal when 1 up.  Bring in Dier for Lingard/Sterling/Alli and have him man mark Modric so that Modric cant pull the strings.  Remember, Croatia didn't score till the 68th minute - but the concerns were already there as they were battering England with possession, almost entirely through Modric.  So at 65 minutes sacrifice an exhausted player (Lingard for me as I said) and prevent Modric from dictating play.

[Rousseau 10,640]

3 minutes ago, craig said:

I don't think Trippier was pinned back at all.  He was playing a high line with Walker moving across to CB/RB.  Young was also getting forward too, though not starting as high as Trippier and not as often.  I guess we will agree to disagree on what we saw.

 

I wouldn't have sacrificed Trippier either - he was still doing well.  For me Lingard was absolutely spent after an hour and offered ZERO from that point on - he would have been the one I would have sacrificed because he was exhausted and did little, but not only that but he is too similar to Alli - you don't need both of them in that line-up when up 1-0.  And that could be the naivety of Southgate as a coach - at 1-0 and having witnessed his team giving up possession easily, whilst also watching Modric dictate play like a puppet master.... he should have seen the signs and made the switch to bring on a ball-winner, someone who will stick the foot in - no need to look for a second goal when 1 up.  Bring in Dier for Lingard/Sterling/Alli and have him man mark Modric so that Modric cant pull the strings.  Remember, Croatia didn't score till the 68th minute - but the concerns were already there as they were battering England with possession, almost entirely through Modric.  So at 65 minutes sacrifice an exhausted player (Lingard for me as I said) and prevent Modric from dictating play.

First half, sure; which was when they played well. Second half they were pinned back. 

 

This was actually a still from the first half -- which was only the case for small moments -- but the second half, this was a common pattern:

 

 

And, this was from the Second half:

 

 

[Rousseau 10,640]

@craig -- I actually thought Alli looked shattered. They both had too much work to do in that three. I agree, two of them were not quite needed. 

 

Trippier did well, and was not playing badly, I was just thinking about how you'd get another man in midfield (See above stills); it sounds an easy player to drop because they have another RB behind him. 

 

If they brought on another LM, going to a 4-4-2, they would've been better equipped:

 

Walker - Maguire - Stones - Young (although he looked shattered too and didn't play well)

 

Lingard - Henderson - Alli - AN Other (struggling to think of their bench)

 

Kane - Stirling. 

 

Or, keep what they had, but bring Stirling back and wide to make a 5-4-1 -- but then you sacrifice his pace in behind. 

 

It's a puzzler. 

[The Black Wolf 11]

thoroughly enjoyed this Worldcup. 

I'm a big fan of Modric so it didn't surprise me to see he ran the show last night. Was disappointed to hear the vitriol on Talksport last night and today from Cundy and Whyte. Cundy calling England fans who disagreed with him '' Scum like you '' and Jim Whyte openly calling people deluded. What a lot of the pundits fail to realize that England isn't the only team who will be stronger next time around. Granted these guys are paid to big up the game and make out that it's the best thing that's ever happened. 

They had the easiest group and route to the Semis. They still had to beat who was in front of them but still, it's not the gallant effort the media are painting it as. Wasn't surprised to see Harry Kane disappear in a puff of smoke last night either. 

Still have a cracking final to look forward to though.