I don't mind them, heck i couldn't hear the band that follows England so i was happy. They play the same fucking tune constantly!
I don't mind them, heck i couldn't hear the band that follows England so i was happy. They play the same fucking tune constantly!
Originally Posted by Lor
do de dooooo, do de dooooo, do de dooo do de dooo deee dummmm
WooAnd now the English aren't the only ones who gave away a goal
Agreed about killing the atmosphere, without hearing the ooohs and aaahs and silences of the crowd, it's just less exciting to watch! I wouldn't mind the things but they are so monotone... Earthjoker's picture sums it up very well.
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
2 - 0, nice.
Will watch the highlights tonight with interest, but the Beeb summed this up with; But in truth, the ninth game of the tournament followed many of its predecessors as both teams struggled for any sort of fluency and neither could find any real attacking momentum in the Johannesburg sunshine..
Not convincing then ...
I think it's extremely funny that way England seems to consistently under-perform in international tournaments and no one ever seems to stop and wonder "why", but instead just carries on the same irregardless and hope that it'll be different this time. I mean, obviously if they keep under-performing compared to the talent pool available then there's something wrong with the way the teams are being coached/prepared. But no, no, just carry on doing the same old stuff, I'm sure it'll come together one day. Football is truly the sport of ignorant, blokish cretins.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Except that the coaching/preparation has frequently changed. I don't think that Capello is a duplicate copy of Sven
The coach has changed, but has the methodology? I suspect, but obviously cannot prove, that they're pretty much ignoring sports psychology. I don't know much about football, but talented sportsmen or women who consistently fail to produce 'it' in major competitions is a classic sign of it being a mental rather than a physical/talent issue. Badly handled nerves can really fuck you up, and the pressure on these guys must be absolutely immense. The laddish drink drink rar rar I'm a tough guy culture that prevails in football land is hardly conductive to dealing with those issues sensibly.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Don't know a damn thing about FIFA, but someone made an on the air musing during the USA game that England had far better players, but the team unity wasn't there. Am I right to think all the England players come from clubs they spend far more time playing and practicing with?
Oh yes. The premiership is far more important to football, as an industry, than the World or European cups. All the money is in the premiership, so the clubs don't like losing their players to go and practice with England.
This is because football in this country is really a business, not a sport.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Could it be that English players are just overrated?It's not like there are a lot of them playing outside the British Isles...
Hope is the denial of reality
The premiership is probably one of the biggest leagues in the world (correct me if I'm wrong, anyone), I don't think you get on one of those teams by being mediocre.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
And what portion of the elite players there are English?
Hope is the denial of reality
Not convincing until the very end. Might be because the Danes had a rather tight defense that was never really penetrated by the dutch attackers. In the last ten minutes or so it became more interesting2 - 0, nice.
Will watch the highlights tonight with interest, but the Beeb summed this up with; But in truth, the ninth game of the tournament followed many of its predecessors as both teams struggled for any sort of fluency and neither could find any real attacking momentum in the Johannesburg sunshine..
Not convincing then ...
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
Uh, well, all the ones in the team are Premiership players, so obviously earned their position competing against the best players from abroad who wanted to play on an English team.And what portion of the elite players there are English?
That said, I wouldn't rule out complacency as a factor. There always seems to be some kind of unwritten assumption every time there's a world cup that we should do well by default because we're England and we invented the game. I think our players are better than their usual performance suggests, but not necessarily as good as we think we are - or we just don't give other teams enough credit.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Which doesn't change the fact that a large portion of the top players there are not English. Just looked at team of the year for 09-10 (3 Englishmen out of 11):
Goalkeeper: 100% English
Defense: 0% English
Midfield: 25% English
Attack: 50% English
Same thing for 08-09 (4 Englishmen out of 11):
Goalkeeper: 0% English
Defense: 50% English
Midfield: 50% English
Attack: 0% English
So you can hardly attribute the quality of the Premiership to English players.
Hope is the denial of reality
No, you've got my argument the wrong way round: I'm attributing the quality of English players to the fact that they've earned their place in the premiership, not saying the premiership is a high quality league because it's English.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
They've earned their place because it's too expensive to bring in mediocre talent from other countries. All that proves is that English talent doesn't get demolished by foreigners. It doesn't mean it actually is better. So let's see: the top players in Spain are Spanish (and South American), the top players in Italy are Italian, the top players in France are French, and the top players in England are English, Spanish, Italian, French, and South American...
Hope is the denial of reality
You really think the Premiership is the only league in the work which imports foreign talent?
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
A high amount of foregin talent speaks more to the prestige of the league, rather than any deficiency in the English players.
It relies on foreign talent far more than the other major leagues. For a comparison, 4/5 of the teams in the NHL are in the US, but that doesn't mean that American talent is particularly good. In fact, it's probably 4th or 5th best in the world.
Hope is the denial of reality
Loki, are you just arguing for the sake of being difficult? And did you just claim American hockey talent is only 4th or 5th in the world? Isn't there a test for that? Oh yes. It's called the winter Olympics, where each country brings its best. Now, who was 2nd there?
You need an English Phil Jackson. The guy has made a hall of fame coaching career by handing head cases.
Yeah, but the Dutch are the ultimate possession team, so that stat says nothing (in fact, it seems a little low to me). Now can they move he ball somewhere while maintaining the possession? That always seems to be the Dutch problem.Not convincing until the very end. Might be because the Danes had a rather tight defense that was never really penetrated by the dutch attackers. In the last ten minutes or so it became more interesting
Are you serious? You're going to be basing which country has the best talent on one competition?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...Olympic_record
And you can just look at how well the top players from each country play in the NHL. It's pretty damn clear that Canada, Sweden, Russia, and possibly the Czechs have superior talent.
Hope is the denial of reality
Pfft. Loki is just being silly. Obviously a league which can with a relatively straight face consider itself one of the biggest, best and wealthiest in the world is going to attract significant numbers of the worlds greatest players. Since only the better foreign players will be transferred (why bring a poor german player when you can just have a poor english one. Actually, never mind that.) the "team of the season" etc is of course going to contain a disproportionate number of foreign players.
"Son," he said without preamble, "never trust a man who doesn't drink, because he's probably a self-righteous sort, a man who thinks he knows right from wrong all the time. Some of them are good men, but in the name of goodness, they cause most of the suffering in the world. They're the judges, the meddlers. And, son, never trust a man who drinks but refuses to get drunk. They're usually afraid of something deep down inside, either that they're a coward or a fool or mean and violent. You can't trust a man who's afraid of himself. But sometimes, son, you can trust a man who occasionally kneels before a toilet. The chances are that he is learning something about humility and his natural human foolishness, about how to survive himself. It's damned hard for a man to take himself too seriously when he's heaving his guts into a dirty toilet bowl.
By that same metric, you have just "proved" that countries other than the US are best at basketball. Or, y'know, only really top international players are worth the hassle and cost of buying away from foreign leagues to bring them to the US. Edit: And, on the flip side, only foreign players with excellent prospects deem it worth moving halfway around the world to play. The mid or low level prospects aren't worth it from either side.Are you serious? You're going to be basing which country has the best talent on one competition?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...Olympic_record
And you can just look at how well the top players from each country play in the NHL. It's pretty damn clear that Canada, Sweden, Russia, and possibly the Czechs have superior talent.
PS The US and Canada hockey teams pretty much kicked the shit out of everybody else at the Olympics. And yes, I'm going to say that a direct competition is a helluva lot better than your pin-headed numbers games. But ain't that just a political scientist for ya?
That doesn't change the fact that most of the top players in the Premiership aren't English. So you can't claim that just because the Premiership is an excellent league, England has the best (or anything near it) players. The reality is that if you look at the top players in the world, far more of them come from Argentina, Brazil, and Spain than from England. There's a reason why those three countries consistently do well in international tournaments.
I'll just drop it, since you clearly have no clue about hockey and are being your usual trollish self.
Hope is the denial of reality
Okay, so, to summarise, the Premiership is mostly a competition between highly-talented non-English players?
And a country with many players in the Premiership would be expected to perform better than England does??
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
The Premiership is a competition between highly-talented players from the entire world, including England. Meanwhile, most of the elite players in the other major leagues are from the same country as the league. If English players were so great, why aren't they being signed by rich clubs in Spain and Italy?
Hope is the denial of reality
Because they have a superior league that is conviently right at home?
I'm glad to see Loki coming around to my way of thinking: categorizing people as either "English" or "foreign".
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
The league might be marginally better, but the players might want to have more success in Europe or simply to get higher wages. Are you honestly telling me that all English players prefer playing in England? Why don't AC Milan, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Barcelona have a single English starter?
Eh? The whole discussion is about the quality of English players...As I said, English players have only shown their ability to succeed in England, and even then, they usually fare poorly against the foreigners in the Premiership.I'm glad to see Loki coming around to my way of thinking: categorizing people as either "English" or "foreign".
Hope is the denial of reality
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