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Post by ginnywings on Jun 20, 2016 22:04:27 GMT
Yep, typical England. Make a relatively straight forward task more difficult than it needed to be and it's not the first time we have ended up in the tough half of the draw by failing to beat sides we really should have. Our slim chances just got much slimmer.
We may yet get Portugal next game now as well.
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Post by Barmy on Jun 20, 2016 22:09:41 GMT
Yes but Portugal look poor even with Ronaldo
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Post by GollyGTFC on Jun 20, 2016 23:43:53 GMT
Portugal will either finish 1st or 3rd. If you look at the table and the remaining fixtures the only way they can finish 2nd is to beat Hungary & Iceland to beat Austria and stay ahead of Portugal on GS or GD or for both games to be a draw and Portugal to score 1 more goal than Iceland whilst maintaining their fair play advantage over Iceland. I don't think either is a likely scenario. Hungary will be through whatever by the time the match comes around & Portugal will beat them soundly IMHO.
If Portugal win they'll finish 1st. If they draw they'll finish 3rd (and go through). If they lose they might still finish 3rd (but will go home as 2 points isn't enough for one of the four 3rd place spots).
I think we're 70% certain to be playing Hungary.
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Post by exmerseymariner on Jun 21, 2016 6:47:30 GMT
There you go. We're in the same half of the draw as France (QF) & Italy or Germany (SF). A great opportunity to go a long way in the tournament squandered by failing to beat Russia or Slovakia. Indeed. We kept us shape. Our best player seems to be Dier, who sprays useful passes through to the 2 front men, who have zero support from Henderson (depth, out of his), Wilshere (see previous threads), Lallana (neat but not dangerous). Also, in a Hurst-esque approach, Hodgson goes for like-for-like and never takes off Cahill/Smalling for a front man. And, to repeat another earlier point; Townsend off the bench, or even Carroll, would at least mix it up. But oh no, he took Henderson, Wilshere etc.... One last moan; Bertrand instead of Baines? At least Baines is a free kick/penalty threat. Bertrand is probably the 5th best English left back. We kept us shape..........
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Post by GollyGTFC on Jun 21, 2016 7:23:13 GMT
Re: Leighton Baines...
I found a website which gives players a rating based on their performance statistics. Basically the same as Opta.
This season Baines scored 6.86 against previous seasons of 7.26, 7.25, 7.42, 7.13, 7.20, 7.23 and 7.22. Points to Baines being passed his best and lost the consistency which he was renowned for. And based on these stats he was the 3rd best LB at Everton behind Oviedo & Galloway.
English LBs ranked as follows:-
Luke Shaw 7.36 Danny Rose 7.25 Ryan Bertrand 6.92 Charlie Daniels 6.90 Brendan Galloway 6.89 Leighton Baines 6.86
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Post by Barmy on Jun 21, 2016 11:08:57 GMT
Aaaaah Charlie Daniels
The Devil came down to Georgia
Brilliant
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Post by diehardmariner on Jun 21, 2016 12:16:53 GMT
That was pap but don't care where we finished in the group.
We'll have to meet a decent team at some point so this 'wrong side of the draw' thing doesn't bother me in the slightest. If anything I would rather face France or any other good tournament team as soon as possible, less time for them to hit their stride.
Going out in the semi's after meeting some piss poor sides doesn't make it a successful tournament in my eyes, just makes it very fortunate.
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Post by GollyGTFC on Jun 21, 2016 21:19:42 GMT
And now Spain blow their group and we find Italy, Spain, Germany, France & England in the bottom half of the draw.
And Wales are pissing themselves as there's Belgium and a load of average dross between them and the Final.
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Post by exmerseymariner on Jun 22, 2016 6:06:15 GMT
Re: Leighton Baines... I found a website which gives players a rating based on their performance statistics. Basically the same as Opta. This season Baines scored 6.86 against previous seasons of 7.26, 7.25, 7.42, 7.13, 7.20, 7.23 and 7.22. Points to Baines being passed his best and lost the consistency which he was renowned for. And based on these stats he was the 3rd best LB at Everton behind Oviedo & Galloway. English LBs ranked as follows:- Luke Shaw 7.36 Danny Rose 7.25 Ryan Bertrand 6.92 Charlie Daniels 6.90 Brendan Galloway 6.89 Leighton Baines 6.86 You are Angus Loughran and i claim my 5 pounds. Baines' stats are skewed by that clueless Martinez muppet playing Stones, Lukaku and Barkley irrespective of form, and Oviedo at full back. Galloway went AWOL mid-season despite good form; another Martinez stunt, not injured as he appeared for u21s post-season. My top 5 were Shaw, Rose, Baines, Cresswell, Bertrand, with very little to choose between #2-#5. Rose worries me as seems most likely of those 5 to get sent off.
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Post by ginnywings on Jun 22, 2016 18:07:08 GMT
Well, in the end, we were about 30 seconds away from Portugal in the next game but Iceland it is. Has to be said though, that England have royally fucked up yet again and have a very difficult path to the final. At least we will see where we are at, if we get past Iceland of course. I'll take nothing for granted with our national side.
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Post by diehardmariner on Jun 23, 2016 9:34:47 GMT
Let's just say we finished top of our group and saw off Northern Ireland in the next round, Hungary or Belgium in the quarters and then Poland in the semi's before getting hammered by France in the final.
Would that actually constitute success? To me that would say we had a fortunate and highly favourable route to the final before ultimately getting found out.
I really don't see why people are so hung up on which side of the draw we're on. If we're going to do anything of note at this tournament we will have to beat at least one decent side. I would rather have faced Portugal than Iceland in the next round. At least Portugal would have played to attack us, Iceland on the other hand will sit really deep and leave us faced with the same problem we had against Slovakia.
We look better against better sides. We're terrible against teams that play to be broken down.
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Post by ginnywings on Jun 23, 2016 9:49:02 GMT
I'm sure when people look back at previous winners, nobody remembers or cares about how difficult or easy their route to the final was. I can't get over the fact that finishing second in the group was a great opportunity missed.
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Post by GollyGTFC on Jun 23, 2016 10:18:53 GMT
I'm sure when people look back at previous winners, nobody remembers or cares about how difficult or easy their route to the final was. I can't get over the fact that finishing second in the group was a great opportunity missed. Losing in the QF to France at Stade de France would be seen as acceptable exit as a one off match. BUT if Wales progress further than the QF there is no doubt a QF exit would be a massive failure.
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Post by believeincod on Jun 23, 2016 12:06:42 GMT
Strange to think that if we had finished top of our group then not making the final would have been an abject failure. Makes us sound like Germany or summat.
At least this way normality is maintained.
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Post by believeincod on Jul 2, 2016 6:47:40 GMT
Well we should congratulate Wales on their historic achievement last night but after their players' celebrations last Monday night, naah. Ta for helping me do ok on that bet365 offer though.
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