SF2: Croatia v England

[Johnners]

Sterling hattrick please.

 

[harsh.ag]

Luka vs Lukaku in the final the fates have written

 

[Howe_zat]

Would anyone drop Sterling for Rashford/Vardy?

Seems to be the only real talking point.

 

[Uppercut]

Would anyone drop Sterling for Rashford/Vardy?

Seems to be the only real talking point.

I feel like the wind has gone out of the anti-Sterling sails a bit. The attack was a mess when Vardy came on against Colombia and neither he nor Rashford were very good against Belgium.

Rashford's missed chance might have been a turning point- that goes in and England get a nightmare draw while the toxic media campaign against one of their best players gathers pace.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Would anyone drop Sterling for Rashford/Vardy?

Seems to be the only real talking point.

Sterling (in this world cup at least) has been a peculiar combination of some typically English qualities (willing runner, puts in a shift, occupies defenders) and some very un-yeoman virtues (ability to take players on at speed, good spatial awareness).

I think even his staunchest advocate wouldn't try to argue everything he's attempted has come off (or that's the polite version), but he's probably still bringing more to the table than any of the alternatives would.

If he can add the final ball to his repertoire (that "if" is undeniably carrying a lot of weight in that sentence) his case would be unanswerable.

The tl;dr version: no.

 

[wpdavid]

I feel like the wind has gone out of the anti-Sterling sails a bit. The attack was a mess when Vardy came on against Colombia and neither he nor Rashford were very good against Belgium.

Rashford's missed chance might have been a turning point- that goes in and England get a nightmare draw while the toxic media campaign against one of their best players gathers pace.

Sounds fair. I've read enough from people who know more than I do about what Sterling brings to the side to be persuaded that we should stick with him. I still don't particularly rate him though.

 

[Howe_zat]

the toxic media campaign against one of their best players

I'm clearly out of the loop here.

 

[Uppercut]

I'm clearly out of the loop here.

If Rashford had scored against Belgium, most people and newspapers would have wanted him to replace Sterling against Japan, escalating the (already pretty severe) abuse targeted at Sterling. But Rashford missed and the abuse has leveled off, resulting in a backlash against it from TV pundits and ex-players.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Sterling caused a fair bit of chaos in the Swedish defence at times. He is basically doing everything right but scoring, so I'd certainly keep him in the starting eleven.

 

[Howe_zat]

If Rashford had scored against Belgium, most people and newspapers would have wanted him to replace Sterling against Japan, escalating the (already pretty severe) abuse targeted at Sterling. But Rashford missed and the abuse has leveled off, resulting in a backlash against it from TV pundits and ex-players.

Yeah I mean, I didn't know he was receiving 'abuse' from the rags as opposed to just having his place questioned for performance

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yeah I mean, I didn't know he was receiving 'abuse' from the rags as opposed to just having his place questioned for performance

He got a gun tattoo on his leg and flew on a budget airline. Which means he's a terrible person.

 

[Furball]

Sterling will get both goals in a 2-1 victory.

 

[duffer]

I've made peace with England winning this whole thing.

Just get it over and done with.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah I mean, I didn't know he was receiving 'abuse' from the rags as opposed to just having his place questioned for performance

Oh yeah he's been targeted for years. https://twitter.com/adamkeyworth/status/1001218545588502530?lang=en

I think England should win this one quite easily fwiw. Croatia probably have better players but are less than the sum of their parts. Really unusual dynamic given that England are the big name.

 

[Howe_zat]

Oh yeah he's been targeted for years. https://twitter.com/adamkeyworth/status/1001218545588502530?lang=en

they slag him off for spending money and not spending money

 

[Daemon]

That's actually quite disgusting

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Sterling was one of the best English players in the Sweden game.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

The Sterling bullshit is exclusively because he's black. Nothing else to it. If nothing was different except he was white he'd be beloved in the press for all the charity stuff he does for underprivileged kids.

 

[Uppercut]

That's actually quite disgusting

Haha yeah it's just the tip of the iceberg of English national team media coverage. They relentlessly abuse their own in a way that looks utterly bizarre from the outside. Been doing it for as long as anyone can remember, too.

Just imagining the Irish press running a string of articles ripping apart Shane Duffy after a bad result. People wouldn't stand for it.

 

[S.Kennedy]

But it is not as if certain English players of the past have not set themselves up for a media deconstruction job, bed hopping, crashing Lamborghinis and racism being just some of the shenanigans indulged.