*Official* Road to 2022 World Cup

[wpdavid]

TAA must have a chance of making the final squad given the injuries to James and Walker.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Hard to believe this is only two weeks away with the PL in full swing. It’s going to be awful. Good old FIFA corruption.

 

[grecian]

Okay to keep this off the football forum, who we picking England fans:

Actually I was writing this out and lost the will to live wehen thinking of the defence, **** me, bring back Terry Fenwick....

 

[wpdavid]

Okay to keep this off the football forum, who we picking England fans:

Actually I was writing this out and lost the will to live wehen thinking of the defence, **** me, bring back Terry Fenwick....

Yeah, the defence doesn't exactly inspire confidence, especially with James and Walker crocked. My biggest issue with playing 3 at the back is who the heck is there to play alongside Stones and Dier? So I'll pick them to start with, as well as Pickford of course. Shaw is an easy pick now that Chilwell is out. Trippier on the right. Rice and Bellingham, obviously. Saka and Foden either side of Kane. Probably Mount as the final pick.

 

[grecian]

Yeah, the defence doesn't exactly inspire confidence, especially with James and Walker crocked. My biggest issue with playing 3 at the back is who the heck is there to play alongside Stones and Dier? So I'll pick them to start with, as well as Pickford of course. Shaw is an easy pick now that Chilwell is out. Trippier on the right. Rice and Bellingham, obviously. Saka and Foden either side of Kane. Probably Mount as the final pick.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that, it's just odd we're in a situation we're playing 3 centre backs when we've only got one good one in Stones. Which is part of the reason I wish we weren't wedded to this system. Just don't see how he won't play Sterling and Maguire though, and that just makes it horrid. Go on surprise me Gareth.

Ah well, We can boycott the latter rounds on moral grounds...

 

[GIMH]

I haven't seen any "It's coming home!" dribble from Corrin so far. Are England traveling that badly these days (not that it's stopped him before)?

I’ll get up for it I’m sure but the League 2 season continues so it’s a fairly surreal thing at the minute

 

[sledger]

It'll make for some good casual entertainment between Strictly episodes

 

[sledger]

Also England should totally pick Ben White

 

[Lillian Thomson]

God, this is appalling. Just accept that everyone will be singing "Three Lions Football's coming home" and save the bother of trying to come up with something new.

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's so weird; I can't ever recall being less enthused about a WC, even 1994 when England played no active part in. Can't quite get my head around it starting in less than a fortnight.

Having it in (northern hemisphere) autumn and, consequently, bang in the middle of the season, is just all kinds of wrong.

 

[ashley bach]

Hopefully you'll get a bit more of a buzz in just over a week's time when it gets close to game time, then get into it when the tournament begins.
There's every chance however there'll be some disappointment before the end, and we may just have to all accept that 1966 was just a complete fluke.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The destiny of this tournament is to be awful, on and off the pitch.

 

[GIMH]

I'm sure I'll be in the local with my older brother for the England games and I'll be up for them but honestly, with TRFC playing throughout it will take on a completely different form than usual. When England play in the regular season, it kind of creeps up on me and I'm like 'oh I'll watch England tonight'. At the end of the day it's a World Cup so it won't quite be like that but honestly my focus will most likely be TRFC first. Club v country is a silly debate, but if TRFC and England games wound up clashing (theoretically possible; if we finish 2nd in the group then it clashes directly with Northampton V Tranmere - I say theoretically because I'd be shocked if the EFL didn't move it) I'm pretty sure I'd prioritise Tranmere. But ultimately it would just serve to ruin both games for me because whichever I watched I'd also be fixated on what happened in the other.

I know the angle is slightly different for Prem/Champ clubs but the season abruptly stopping is so bizarre. And I know players getting injured in a summer WC can impact a season as well, but for example if Arsenal lose a key player right while they're sat at the top of the league, it just seems so much more disruptive happening in an autumn WC.

All that being said, if England somehow did win it would make for a great Xmas

 

[BoyBrumby]

Qatar hosting world cup a mistake sez Blatter.

I mean, firstly, well, durrr.

And secondly, he presumably said it just after wiping his arse with a 1 million Swiss Franc bill after having shat into his platinum bog.

But his dissatisfaction isn't because Qatar is a serial human rights abusing autocracy with no football pedigree and average summer temperatures that wouldn't embarrass Mercury, oh no; because it's "too small".

Obviously.

 

[GIMH]

In fairness, even if it was perfect on all the other issues, it is too small. But hardly the thing to worry about at this stage…

 

[BoyBrumby]

In fairness, even if it was perfect on all the other issues, it is too small. But hardly the thing to worry about at this stage…

Yeah, I mean Kim Jong-un does have a twatty haircut, but it's probably not #1 in the list of reasons why he's not 100% sound.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, I mean Kim Jong-un does have a twatty haircut, but it's probably not #1 in the list of reasons why he's not 100% sound.

Has he got bad taste in music as well?

 

[Uppercut]

Qatar hosting world cup a mistake sez Blatter.

I mean, firstly, well, durrr.

And secondly, he presumably said it just after wiping his arse with a 1 million Swiss Franc bill after having shat into his platinum bog.

But his dissatisfaction isn't because Qatar is a serial human rights abusing autocracy with no football pedigree and average summer temperatures that wouldn't embarrass Mercury, oh no; because it's "too small".

Obviously.

Well he says he (somehow) doesn’t regret giving the 2018 one to Russia, so size might just be the only reason he can give that’ll avoid some obvious questions.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well he says he (somehow) doesn’t regret giving the 2018 one to Russia, so size might just be the only reason he can give that’ll avoid some obvious questions.

Yeah, very likely right. Plus he can't semi-plausibly pass the blame parcel to Platini like he could with Qatar.

Everything else aside Russia is literally the biggest country on earth and does have a decent football pedigree (albeit mostly as part of the USSR, propped up by Ukrainian talent), but Qatar? Not so much.

 

[Everton Seymour]

I hope I'm wrong but I just get this feeling that something terrible is going to happen at this tournament off the pitch .