[Johnnyspireite7]

Spire-Power, on 13 October 2015 - 11:22 AM, said:

Imo there should be a pre-qualifying group competition to weed out the total dross like San marino who create no-contest games. For example, all of the pot 6 teams (San marino, faroe islands, gibraltar, luxembourg, malta, andorra, lichtenstein) in a pre-qualifier with some or all of the pot 5 teams (lithuania, Moldova, macedonia, albania, cyprus, northern ireland, azerbaijan, georgia, Iceland). We could then have smaller groups of teams with more keenly contested games, perhaps ending up with 9 groups of 4 teams. Or something along those lines.

Considering that the highlighted teams have qualified for the main tournament and in Iceland & Nor'n Ireland's case topped their groups that's hardly fair.

[Tha Knows...]

Johnnyspireite7, on 13 October 2015 - 11:36 AM, said:

Considering that the highlighted teams have qualified for the main tournament and in Iceland & Nor'n Ireland's case topped their groups that's hardly fair.

Not at all imo as they would surely have been among those that reached the qualifying group stage.

[sophocles]

JonB, on 13 October 2015 - 07:34 AM, said:

I'm not jumping up and down but i also dont see the point in slating a side thats the only one in the whole of qualifying to have a 100% record! Yes there are going to be a lot tougher tests ahead and its probably unlikely we'll win it but to date its been pretty good.


http://www.theguardi...so-no-more-live

I actually haven't 'slated the side' at all, or dismissed their qualifying record. However, only the blind could fail to see that England will struggle against decent opposition, especially defensively.

[Goku]

sophocles, on 13 October 2015 - 11:50 AM, said:

I actually haven't 'slated the side' at all, or dismissed their qualifying record. However, only the blind could fail to see that England will struggle against decent opposition, especially defensively.

Thanks for telling us exactly what we all knew lol

[sophocles]

NOKIN, on 13 October 2015 - 11:41 AM, said:

You're Scottish so presumable you have a downer on England anyway?

Well I'm actually Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English since you raise the subject, so I support all international teams from the British Isles, which is great for me. I'm also interested in the quality of football produced, so I comment on it and express my opinion. I actually think it would have been a disgrace if England hadn't qualified very easily from their group, and I think they are not as good as they think they are. Of course my opinion could be totally off-target, but I will be very surprised if the England defence looks comfortable against higher quality teams. Good luck to all British teams, and to fans going across the channel; if I could afford it I'd be joining in.

This post has been edited by sophocles: 13 October 2015 - 12:00 PM

[Tha Knows...]

sophocles, on 13 October 2015 - 11:59 AM, said:

Well I'm actually Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English since you raise the subject, so I support all international teams from the British Isles, which is great for me. I'm also interested in the quality of football produced, so I comment on it and express my opinion. I actually think it would have been a disgrace if England hadn't qualified very easily from their group, and I think they are not as good as they think they are. Of course my opinion could be totally off-target, but I will be very surprised if the England defence looks comfortable against higher quality teams. Good luck to all British teams, and to fans going across the channel; if I could afford it I'd be joining in.

Maybe you're a plastic Jock lol. The native Scots, Welsh and Rep of Ire generally dislike the English which diminishes my sentiment towards them somewhat! That said, I was pleased for Wales and N. Ireland as they rarely get to the finals. Scotland's failures are always slightly amusing (sorry) not least because they (as you say about England) think they are better than they are.

This post has been edited by Spire-Power: 13 October 2015 - 12:15 PM

[sophocles]

Spire-Power, on 13 October 2015 - 12:13 PM, said:

Maybe you're a plastic Jock lol. The native Scots, Welsh and Rep of Ire generally dislike the English which diminishes my sentiment towards them somewhat! That said, I was pleased for Wales and N. Ireland as they rarely get to the finals. Scotland's failures are always slightly amusing (sorry) not least because they (as you say about England) think they are better than they are.

As regards 'plastic', I was born 200 yards from Ibrox Park and went to the Ibrox Primary School you can see right across the road from the ground when the exterior is shown on TV. Just happen to have mixed nationality parents/grandparents from every part of the British Isles, so I want all British teams to do well. The only problem is when they play each other, but if Scotland are involved they take precedence. Anyway, that dilemma won't exist at the Euros as, unfortunately not all the British teams will be there. The good thing is that I have more than one team to follow as they, hopefully go through the stages.

[Tha Knows...]

sophocles, on 13 October 2015 - 12:28 PM, said:

As regards 'plastic', I was born 200 yards from Ibrox Park and went to the Ibrox Primary School you can see right across the road from the ground when the exterior is shown on TV. Just happen to have mixed nationality parents/grandparents from every part of the British Isles, so I want all British teams to do well. The only problem is when they play each other, but if Scotland are involved they take precedence. Anyway, that dilemma won't exist at the Euros as, unfortunately not all the British teams will be there. The good thing is that I have more than one team to follow as they, hopefully go through the stages.

England have a reasonable amount of quality in the team but are always flawed organisationally, especially in defence as you say. The Scots and Irish are not big on quality but try their best to get by on effort.

[calvin plummers socks]

Spire-Power, on 13 October 2015 - 12:35 PM, said:

England have a reasonable amount of quality in the team but are always flawed organisationally, especially in defence as you say. The Scots and Irish are not big on quality but try their best to get by on effort.

How are they flawed organisationally?

[Tha Knows...]

calvin plummers socks, on 13 October 2015 - 12:43 PM, said:

How are they flawed organisationally?

Poor organisation in midfield, not enough movement against better teams.

[calvin plummers socks]

Spire-Power, on 13 October 2015 - 12:46 PM, said:

Poor organisation in midfield, not enough movement against better teams.

I presume you've written to the FA?

[JonB]

sophocles, on 13 October 2015 - 11:50 AM, said:

I actually haven't 'slated the side' at all, or dismissed their qualifying record. However, only the blind could fail to see that England will struggle against decent opposition, especially defensively.

And folk who have praised the qualifying effort have hardly gone on about winning it have they. Beat whats in front of you and go from there. You'll be pleased to know you'll be able to moan about England being crap again over the course of the friendlies they have lined up....Spain away, France at home and Germany away!!

[sophocles]

JonB, on 13 October 2015 - 12:55 PM, said:

And folk who have praised the qualifying effort have hardly gone on about winning it have they. Beat whats in front of you and go from there. You'll be pleased to know you'll be able to moan about England being crap again over the course of the friendlies they have lined up....Spain away, France at home and Germany away!!

Friendlies prove absolutely nothing. Apart from that you seem to have picked up the habit of inventing totally fictional comments that people have never made so that you can criticise them. None of my posts 'slate' England at all, unless you consider perfectly factual comments about defensive quality to be 'slating', which IMO is a very immature and juvenile attitude to take.

[Tha Knows...]

Holland really are a car crash. RVP just headed an own goal against Czech rep, 3-0 down at home against 10 men with half an hour left!

This post has been edited by Spire-Power: 13 October 2015 - 08:10 PM

[metallilad]

Spire-Power, on 13 October 2015 - 08:10 PM, said:

Holland really are a car crash. RVP just headed an own goal against Czech rep, 3-0 down at home against 10 men with half an hour left!

They did make a game of it though, just too little too late.

[Trigger]

Johnnyspireite7, on 13 October 2015 - 11:36 AM, said:

Considering that the highlighted teams have qualified for the main tournament and in Iceland & Nor'n Ireland's case topped their groups that's hardly fair.

Iceland ended up runners up in the group 😉