Claudius wrote:
Tony Montana wrote:

I support England because I'm English. I was happy when the winner went in and in general don't care about the Spurs and Utd players even when they're playing for their clubs. It's the clubs themselves I hate.

I am able to put club affinities aside anyway. There will always be rival players playing for England anyway.

It’s ridiculous for anyone to expect an Englishman to allow club rivalries to get in the way of his allegiance

I don't think that's ridiculous at all, generally speaking not just about England. Some people simply don't care for Intl footy and for them the ridiculous thing is cheering for some prick that you despise and ridicule the remaining 11 months a year just because he happens to have been born in the same general area as you have

Supporting an international team is no more ridiculous than supporting a club team.

Tony Montana wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:

I still fail to comprehend how any Arsenal fan can cheer a goal scored by that fucking gimp. I know thousands and thousands do, I just can't rationalise it personally.

I wish I could fast forward football to the start the League season to be honest. Ronaldo and the other top players are fun to watch, but I don't have any interest in Panama, Iran and, worse, England.

You don't have to prove your Arsenalness on here.

It's possible to celebrate a goal scored by England.

Nothing to do with "Arsenalness". To a degree, I detest the English national team and the incredible arrogance that surrounds every aspect of it. On top of that I couldn't care any less about international football. I don't care for nationalism in general.

When you don't care about the England team, the natural result is to see it from an Arsenal perspective. All I see is Spurs scum, United twits, Gareth Southgate (hahahah!). I couldn't cheer Harry Kane on if you paid me. Genuinely. I would probably cheer a dislocated knee if I happened to be watching a game he was involved in, but a goal, no, not a chance.

And I didn't say it wasn't possible to celebrate an England goal. I said I can't personally make sense of that in my world.

Want England to do well, but can't bring myself to cheer players like Ali or Kane. Especially the hyperbole that surrounds them in the media.

We made hard work of beating a Tunisia team that had no credible goal threat. The big worry for me was the number of times England pushed so many players forward that Henderson was the only person occupying midfield territory. Any breakdown in the move and England would have been exposed defensively very easily. Good thing Tunisia were so poor today. Honestly felt that Dier should have started along side Henderson as I can't imagine going into games against Belgium and any other knock-out games with only one actual central midfielder. De Bruyne, Hazard and Mertens would completely overwhelm Henderson. Panama is a pointless game for tactical experimentation so for me, Southgate should have used this game to get the players set up for the group decider.

Win is a win is a win etc. We'll get rolled over by one of the big teams but still good to start off with a win. Wasn't pretty but Germany lost and Argentina and Brazil failed to win, none of them being against particularly fancied teams so there's not many easy games at a World Cup.

I’d play Rose over young. Not sure having a right footer on the left works

Started pretty smartly, Sterling and Alli's movement was pulling them apart. Lingard is as average as they come, no patience for him. I like Maguire in theory, but he's inconsistent from minute to minute. If Stones or Lingard had managed to actually make contact with the ball properly...but this whole Cup so far has been full of terrible finishing and poor final balls, other than the opening game and Ronaldo vs Spain.

I guess Belgium got it together in the second half. Definitely have to play more than just Henderson in there against them, and I'm not sold on Walker as a CB in the 3, especially as Trippier is an annoying kid without much else but good delivery. I do appreciate Southgate's committment to playing 3 forward-thinking centre backs, though. I'd rather see Delph (maybe RL-C) next to Henderson, with Lingard making way, and maybe Dier at CB with Walker overlapping/covering.

-------------Pickford
------Stones--Dier--Maguire
Walker--Delph--Henderson--Young
------Sterling----------Alli
-----------------Kane

Give the 2 AMs free roles to run off Kane, who stays central. FBs provide the width, keep the center strong and release runners from deep, otherwise, just recycle. All 3 CBs are good with their feet so it will feel like a 5-man midfield sometimes. I like Loftus-Cheek as an impact sub, and I just wish Lingard and Rashford has a shred of...anything...between them. Very underwhelming. Rashford is capable of more, not sure Lingard is.

Welbeck is always good for an England goal, not a bad option off the bench. If you need a goal to break down a stubborn team, can take Delph off, have Ruben L-C start next to Henderson and drive forward.

The ball needs to move much, much quicker. Like Mexico/Spain/Portugal, or Brazil in their sporadic moments of decent play. You need passers in there for that to happen. For Lingard to play the 10 role he does at Manure, I don't think you can play 3 atb. It's one or the other for me.

Well, we'll see what Southgate does, but it seems to me he's gotta tweak things a bit. Hopefully these first-round games, in general, are just nerves.

He should close his mouth sometimes, that thing is always open.

Lukaku has scored twice against mighty Tunisia after 2 against giants Panama so redcafe are going crazy about him.

And probably half of OMITT fanboys too in fairness.

Yeah I bet Daz has an account there.

Belgium are comically shit in defence. They literally stand by and watch

And now they score the cunts

Beautiful goal from the Belgians. Incisive