*Official* Fourth Test at Headingley

[Pigeon]

Fear factor in us English fans maybe.

Lol'd.

 

[zaremba]

And whoever gets to field at second slip.

 

[Pigeon]

Whatever could go wrong for England went wrong in this test. Hopefully that monkey is off their backs and lady luck shine on them in the next one. Fred being match fit would be a huge step in that direction.

 

[howardj]

Thought Haddin kept well in this game considering the state of his finger.

While on this topic, how much do people exaggerate (a) the keeping skills of keepers who are pretty useless with the bat eg Manou and (b) put down the keeping skills of those who are awesome with the bat eg Gilchrist and lately Haddin.

People just love to sieze on any keeping mistakes made by guys like Gilly etc, as though they're in the team just because of their batting. While some folk went so over the top with Manou's glovework at Edgbaston.

 

[Redbacks]

Check out Portugal's population. Why are they world class and us not? & ****ing Greece won in 2002. Greece! It's relative, we are one of the biggest footballing nations in the world, but as I keep saying we're comfortably the worst of them. We should be beating the likes of Portugal and Croatia with plenty to spare.

Are you suggesting we should be happy with the occasional quarter-final? To me that is settling for mediocrity.

Suggested answers:
a) re jig your whole junior development system to bring it into line with the rest of Europe, better technical players rather than just speed or aggression. Reward clubs for producing young players rather than them getting their best youth poached these days. I.e. Argentina's clubs survive on transfer fees by selling players to the big clubs in Europe, not just a top down approach.
b) you would have to change the style of football at the top level as the pace makes the games littered with school boy errors you wouldn't see in another European league no matter what the standard.
c) 2nd division is so ultra competetive that there is no time for player development, you wouldn't think any player in that league would be good enough to play for England or a young player learning how to play the game either. It's a game for the fans so there is no need to change the product I guess

 

[zaremba]

Check out Portugal's population. Why are they world class and us not? & ****ing Greece won in 2002. Greece! It's relative, we are one of the biggest footballing nations in the world, but as I keep saying we're comfortably the worst of them. We should be beating the likes of Portugal and Croatia with plenty to spare.

Are you suggesting we should be happy with the occasional quarter-final? To me that is settling for mediocrity.

International football is a deeply weird world in which performance is almost exclusively measured by a team's results in a couple of 4-yearly knockout cup competitions in which being knocked out in the QF is regarded as abject failure and getting knocked out in the SF or Final is regarded as some kind of success.

In England's case they've often been lucky to progress to the QF and yet unlucky to get knocked out on (usually) penalties.

So much depends on luck - whether a bootstud connects with a ball (Gazza's miss v Germany 1996); which goalie guesses right in the penalty shoot-out; whether a key player is injured; which team happens to hit good or bad form at the time of the tournament in question; etc etc etc. And ergo, Greece 2002.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

International football is a deeply weird world in which performance is almost exclusively measured by a team's results in a couple of 4-yearly knockout cup competitions in which being knocked out in the QF is regarded as abject failure and getting knocked out in the SF or Final is regarded as some kind of success.

In England's case they've often been lucky to progress to the QF and yet unlucky to get knocked out on (usually) penalties.

So much depends on luck - whether a bootstud connects with a ball (Gazza's miss v Germany 1996); which goalie guesses right in the penalty shoot-out; whether a key player is injured; which team happens to hit good or bad form at the time of the tournament in question; etc etc etc. And ergo, Greece 2002.

Greece won Euro 2004 and came close in the Eurovision Song Contest.

 

[zaremba]

So they did. I was referring of course to Greece's fine 5th place in the 2002 Water Polo World Cup.

 

[Top_Cat]

People just love to sieze on any keeping mistakes made by guys like Gilly etc, as though they're in the team just because of their batting. While some folk went so over the top with Manou's glovework at Edgbaston.

What? Who? I saw nothing of that nature (about Manou) in the press or on here. I took the absence of comment basically to mean he was tidy, really. Best 'keepers are the ones you barely know are there.

 

[sledger]

Yeah tbf there's been barely any mention of him in the press over here either. Apart from Mark Nicholas droning on about how good he thought he was.

 

[FBU]

Well we must have got the momentum back now in the series with 161 runs in a session from the tail.

11-1-74-0 wonderful bowling.

 

[sledger]

Really hope that is a joke.

 

[howardj]

What? Who? I saw nothing of that nature (about Manou) in the press or on here. I took the absence of comment basically to mean he was tidy, really. Best 'keepers are the ones you barely know are there.

RHogg

Matthew (one of my work colleagues)

That's two off the top of my head.

 

[Top_Cat]

RHogg

Matthew (one of my work colleagues)

That's two off the top of my head.

Heh, Hoggie's a legend. My cousin played with him when he was at Woodville, obviously a long time ago, and said (shock) he's somewhat prone to exaggeration just to get a reaction. Love the guy, though.

Personally reckon Manou edges Haddin with the gloves (best pure 'keeper in the country I reckon) but Haddin is definitely a better batter. Haddin should have the job for a while, even after ordinary games like at Lords (any reaction against Haddin is indeed an over-reaction, even if he wasn't batting all that well tbh). That he is makes him a really good Test package right now. Plus, unlike Manou, he'll play the shorter forms of the game.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Best song I heard at this Test came from the Aussies, "Broady, Broady, dude looks like a lady." Now as everyone knows, I like Broady, but I thought that one was clever/

That's not bad at all! Much better than "Aussie aussie aussie, oi oi oi"

 

[Son Of Coco]

Ah, lectures in crowd behaviour from Australians whose chosen way of communicating is to raise "a giant middle finger". Nice one. Ranks up there with Ricky Ponting sermonising about the Spirit of Cricket.

Yes, as opposed to the cultured English. Ranks up there with Poms sermonising about cultural sensitivity, use of the English language and dental hygiene.

Using the hypocrisy line isn't really wise given none of our countries are bastions of decency 100% of the time. I've met some chavs and neds in my time, don't think it'd be fair to assume you are all like that though.

And GIMH is right I think, he's English as far as I know.

 

[howardj]

Athers' Ashes Bombshell

 

[vic_orthdox]

Thought Haddin kept well in this game considering the state of his finger.

While on this topic, how much do people exaggerate (a) the keeping skills of keepers who are pretty useless with the bat eg Manou and (b) put down the keeping skills of those who are awesome with the bat eg Gilchrist and lately Haddin.

People just love to sieze on any keeping mistakes made by guys like Gilly etc, as though they're in the team just because of their batting. While some folk went so over the top with Manou's glovework at Edgbaston.

There's a clear difference in footwork between the two of them. Haddin ends up diving too much because he is lead footed behind the stumps, whereas Manou is much more nimble and gets into a better position. Haddin was tidy this game, but his record with regards to byes says enough about the quality of his keeping.

 

[Ausage]

I know I'm a bit late but.

1-1!!!

So happy for Mitch

 

[pasag]

Athers' Ashes Bombshell

Spelling clearly not the Hun's strong point.