World Cup KO: En-ger-land, En-ger-land, En-ger-land (was 'Group G')

BubblesNeverDies

BBB, it's funny you should say that about Maguire, I thought the same thing when I saw him playing for Hull.
I was surprised to see him go to Leicester and even more surprised to see him in an England shirt, but I thought it was just me not seeing something that others saw.

Also Steptoe for Sterling ;ok

alderz

I personally really like Maguire. I think he's strong, quick, and surprisingly good on the ball for a big guy

Kuchinghammer

Cahill, Maguire's likely replacement, is even slower and uses the ball a lot less intelligently. Delph is there as a 'close the game down' midfielder. We have no alternative (that I can think of) The answer is to keep scoring in the first 10 minutes! ;wink

Lukerz

Personally I would put Dier in the back three. CB by trade, although converted to DM, & comfortable passing as he plays midfield regularly.

Pickford
Walker - Stones - Dier
Trippier - Alli - Henderson - Lingard - Rose
Rashford - Kane

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Dier never impresses me at CB, and he didnt at Spurs this season

Think Maguire is just about doing enough, but i agree that I think belgium will think they can get at us, particularly down our left

Vorselaarhammer

Reports over here that Belgium will play their B team on Thursday.

I'm not sure where I stand on that for England, I think maintaining momentum is important but also trying to keep them fresh at the same time.

alderz

I think it's important to get a bit of rotation but not too much.

Pickford; Walker Stones Maguire; Trent Alli Dier Loftus-Cheek Rose; Rashford Kane

Yeoldhammer

I'm already booking a flight out to Moscow for the final. Its coming home.

Any case,

Rashford for Sterling (deserves his chance)
Rose for Young (needs game time)
Alexander-Arnold for Trippier (would like to see what he can offer)
Loftus Cheek for Ali (is there a point risking Dele Ali ? let Loftus Cheek get more experience)

Keep the rest of the team the same. (Back 3 and Keeper must remain the same its definitely not Englands strong point and getting as many games as they can together is important)



Pickford

Walker Stones Maguire

Alexander-Arnold, Loftus Cheek, Henderson, Lingard, Rose

Kane, Rashford

IronHerb

I've been doing a lot of 'what if's' around who will qualify to the next stage.

If Portugal win by more goals than Spain tonight there would be a big chance, imo, that the top half of the draw would contain France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Russia, Japan and whoever wins our Group.

See where I'm going here?


COME ON YOU BELGIANS

Yeoldhammer

Doesn't matter we're going to win the World Cup bring them all on !

MrsGrey

Loss. Deal with it.

Vorselaarhammer

BOOOO..

MunichHammer

Kane needs to play so he can score. I want him to outscore CR7 and Lukaku.
Germany and Brazil could easily meet in the next round so one of them will likely be eliminated soon.
I don't think England are half bad this time around and there is a chance we could end up reaching the semis.

billybondsbeard

I wouldn't care much if we sort of 'lost' this one..... ;wink

IronHerb

4-4 draw but we get a couple more yellows than Belgium. ;whistle

Brother_Sledge

England v Belgium is last game so all other teams in the draw will be decided - it may be obvious that both teams would prefer to lose - which would be a farce - Is there any scope for an intervention to give the winner of Group G the choice of draw - so that a competitive tie could be properly contested?

MrsGrey

There's no chance imo that either Kane or Lukaku will pass up the opportunity to score, even were their managers to send them out to lose.

baracks_a_hammer

Yes but there’s every chance that Kane will try and claim lukaku’s goals

Vorselaarhammer

I think Vardy / Rose / Trent will start.

MrsGrey

Brother_Sledge said:

England v Belgium is last game so all other teams in the draw will be decided

This will be the case in every last set of games in each pair of groups. I'm not sure if in any cases they will also be playing for first and second though.

MunichHammer

MrsGrey said:

This will be the case in every last set of games in each pair of groups. I'm not sure if in any cases they will also be playing for first and second though.

That's not what he meant. Group G are the very last group to play their final matches so they will know before they go out who their opponent would be if they win the group. And they will also know what opponents will await them in the quarters or the semis.

thornburyiron

Not sure what his point is though. It's one thing knowing but if you have a preferred route doing something about it is another eg if you'd prefer to finish second in your group.

MrsGrey

MunichHammer said:

That's not what he meant. Group G are the very last group to play their final matches so they will know before they go out who their opponent would be if they win the group.

Same goes for Spain and Portugal when they take to the field tonight. ;puzzled

MrsGrey

I must be missing something.

MrsGrey

MunichHammer said:

And they will also know what opponents will await them in the quarters or the semis.

How? They'll know that it will be one of 2. Same as, eg, Spain and Portugal.

England's not unique. The only special thing atm is that they are playing against the other team in contention with them for top spot.

Hammerwombat

The present Mrs Wombat is of Belgian blood. I will mind my Ps and Qs. But come Thursday night, my home, house and garden will be awash with the flag of St George.


#has to be done

whupathman

My wife is Belgian but hates football

Hammerex

Looking at the table we have identical pts, and goals scored for and against
both scoring 8 for and 2against. So what happens if we draw, just toss a coin. ?

Vorselaarhammer

We have one less yellow so go top on fair play...

imagelost

It must be about winning, England do not need to practice losing,dub hand at that,
So stick a strong team out, and none of Astra marlarky that put us the Europey cup,
Practice makes perfect same team please