As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
the playing mantis wrote:have to disagree been a shit tournament so far boring games and many teams looking average at best.
What previous tournament are you comparing this one too?
Taking 1982 World Cup as a benchmark, yes this is poor, but football changed at the end of that tournament and never recovered. Watching Spain beat Turkey tonight was boring but it's the best performance by a team so far.
northbank123 wrote:Think Woy's tactical genius is being overstated beyond reality.
The guy has four strikers who have hit 20+ PL goals at least once each in recent seasons against a side who have Spurs' reserve left-back at centre half and a lone striker who can't even find a Championship club willing to give him a contract. He could have had 8 strikers on the pitch and Wales would still have offered no threat as they had no intention of attacking.
Eventually one of those strikers made the difference with a bit of quality but over 90 minutes England created worryingly little against a side with little ambition to get out of their own half. Walker skinned Taylor every time he got on the ball but instead of trying to exploit that Hodgson watched on as England continued to try and play through the middle via Rooney and lumped shots well over the bar from 25 yards.
Wales are superbly organised and can be very difficult to break down but the way England played throughout qualifying they would have won comfortably. The knives would have been out for that performance had England not grabbed that late goal given that they completely and utterly dominated yet forced Hennessy into no saves of note. Woy even suggested that starting Kane and Sterling to put in even worse performances than against Russia was part of his grand plan!
Assures their qualification in reality with a game left but forget ideas of momentum - playing anything like that England won't beat a good side.
To be fair I don't think anyone is claiming that woy is a tactical genius - I thought that engerland were doing ok in the first half and if it wasn't for joe hart they would have gone in level at the break. What I commend woy for was for making the changes straight away - a lot of managers would be very hesitant to do what he did (wenger for example) because in essence it suggests that he picked the wrong team to start, and no manager likes doing that. It wasn't so much that he made a change at half time, but the fact that he made TWO changes at half time - anybody who has ever managed any kind of team (be it kids, pub, or senior footie) will acknowledge that only having 1 substitute available to you in the second half greatly restricts your options, but woy went for it anyway
I still come back to the question of whether he should drop hart and go with forster and if he has the balls to make that move
Hmm....if Hart hadn't fucked up on the stroke of half time, then I feel certain Woy would have stuck to the same shitey formation of Kane alone up front, with the hapless Sterling and Lallana in support. Make no mistake about it, he had the whole nation breathing down his neck at half time and in my view knew he would be slaughtered (and jobless) if he'd taken Vardy and Sturridge and watched us get knocked out without the pair kicking a ball. The boldest part was probably sticking on Rashford on top of that pair......even I thought "really ?" at that point
Sometimes you need a lucky break as manager and I think Bale's goal with hindsight was probably Woy's
arseofacrow wrote:Rooney's been ok but looking past his infatuation with playing needless crossfield balls, he's going to get found out soon.
Walker's done well but as NB said, where's the good end product. Having said that, he's been 100% better than Sterling.
Think Dier's done alright in general and Alli has a nice touch.
Ali is the man that needs to be dropped imo - rooner needs to play in the hole behind the strikers (more than a few lads needed to dig that hole ) and someone like wilshere needs to play alongside dier to give more balance. Of course that's what I would be advocating if I was English and actually gave a f.uck
arseofacrow wrote:Rooney's been ok but looking past his infatuation with playing needless crossfield balls, he's going to get found out soon.
Walker's done well but as NB said, where's the good end product. Having said that, he's been 100% better than Sterling.
Think Dier's done alright in general and Alli has a nice touch.
Ali is the man that needs to be dropped imo - rooner needs to play in the hole behind the strikers (more than a few lads needed to dig that hole ) and someone like wilshere needs to play alongside dier to give more balance. Of course that's what I would be advocating if I was English and actually gave a f.uck
We'll be sending your suggestions directly to Roy.
Alli is simply inexperienced - he is used to playing in a Spurs side which moves the ball at pace and creates space and opportunities for hit the box to get on the end of sweeping moves.
He didn't have a clue what to do against such a negative, organised park-the-bus side. Wilshere would have been a far better bet.
Well, we got the inevitable off the Belgians. Absolute gulf in quality tbh and they never looked worried by our second rate midfield and isolated lone striker. Our defence is proper shit too. Proper shit.
DB10GOONER wrote:Well, we got the inevitable off the Belgians. Absolute gulf in quality tbh and they never looked worried by our second rate midfield and isolated lone striker. Our defence is proper shit too. Proper shit.
Pretty accurate assessment DB but i wonder how things would have gone if you'd got the penalty shout, Belgium have shown they aren't as good a side as everyone makes out if you can peg them back
And before anyone says it wasn't a penalty you get free kicks for raising your foot above ball height outside the box these days so that was a definite penalty in my book
DB10GOONER wrote:Well, we got the inevitable off the Belgians. Absolute gulf in quality tbh and they never looked worried by our second rate midfield and isolated lone striker. Our defence is proper shit too. Proper shit.
Pretty accurate assessment DB but i wonder how things would have gone if you'd got the penalty shout, Belgium have shown they aren't as good a side as everyone makes out if you can peg them back
And before anyone says it wasn't a penalty you get free kicks for raising your foot above ball height outside the box these days so that was a definite penalty in my book
TBH I've seen them given as free kicks to defenders alright but very seldom as pennos for attackers. If we had gotten a penno and scored I'd still put money on Belgium to win - more because of how poor we can be than how good they can be.
I agree though Belgium are no great shakes and will be lucky to get past the round of 16 I reckon.
