I don't want to sound like a broken record but I'm going to anyway. Anyone who's been a big club in non league would understand. It reminded me of seven of the nine Tranmere home defeats last season. You go away knowing we've had more of the ball and that on paper we should win but that the other team did their homework better and thoroughly deserved the points.
Yeah I completely agree. There's this huge gulf right now, and it's especially obvious at international level, between teams that have a plan and teams that don't. Iceland have a pressing plan, so every player knows what opposing player they're meant to pick up when they press, how high they're going to press, and in what circumstances they're going to give up and drop back. They have transition plans, so everyone knows exactly how to respond when the team wins or loses the ball. They have pre-arranged set pieces, which got them a goal out of nothing tonight. You see a team doing these things and you know, even if they're losing, the coach is doing his job well.
If the All Blacks completely lost their marbles and appointed me as coach, I can almost guarantee that the players would still find a way to beat the rugby equivalent of Iceland 99/100 times.
*McAteer is a ****
What you've just described is the difference between football and rugby, and what makes football far better.
No this is true but I think Furball nailed it. We got through a tougher group than this time four years ago with seven points because Gerrard was excellent. We have players of that quality but nobody who could drag you through a game.
I actually think that the ability of teams to play negatively and be vastly outclassed but still beat their opponents by capitalising on one or two opposition mistakes is one of football's biggest drawbacks as a sport. But to each their own I gues.
Yeah this is true. It's one solution to a dysfunctional team, to just have one inspired player who tries to do everything and succeeds more often than he has any right to. But it's not my favourite solution.
England is not even on the same level of ability in football as the All Blacks are to Rugby though. They are a consistent top 20 side, not number 1.
I just think it's too easy to heap all of the blame on Hodgson when there is literally nothing to stop the players from changing things up on the park when things are going awry e.g. from what I've seen/read, Kane's dead ball stuff was pretty atrocious in a couple of matches so why not give it to somebody else?
True I find thats the case a lot of the time as well
Think Iniesta might fit that bill for Spain
