Originally Posted by megadude
As much as I love Kane's game and his technique, which is just a pleasure to watch at club level, I do wonder if him not playing at a top tier club has hampered him in these major tournaments. Quite frankly, he's done pretty much jack other than score through penalties (terrible goals to game ratio). Having the extra intensity of playing for a big boy club, especially deep in the UCL, could have been beneficial to him in tournaments.
Now, back to those small moments. If the ref actually made the right call of a penalty right off the bat, with all that joy and momentum right then and there, does Kane bury it? Instead, they had to wait around and shout, shout, shout and all that nonsense. Perhaps that altered his mentality. And like I said a couple of days ago, why ins't middle a more popular option? I was saying go middle, go middle. I can't even remember the last time he went middle. Just going off memory, it feels like he does the same thing so often.
As for blatant foul, not even two hours after I wrote about dumb ass things from pro athletes, WTF was he doing? Most long balls like that don't connect, so there's that. Commentators were saying it didn't look like Mount would have reached it too. Defenders know this. Yet Hernandez doesn't look at the ball, he just straight up wanted to bowl Mount over like a DB tackling a WR.
It must really suck being an England fan. Their record against the top teams is garbage. Now, if they could win more of the shootouts then it wouldn't be so bad but they very much could have avoided getting to that point last year if they just played normally after the early goal.
As much as ENG have improved the last few years, it's not really because of Southgate. Some of his decisions could very well have gotten them deep at Euro but some of his decisions also held them back. Time for him to go. I remember last year we were questioning some of his subs. I don't know why you take off Saka. He was having a pretty nice game. For as skilled as Foden is, it felt like he should be the one making way for Sterling.
I think Henderson is useful but I much rather would like to have seen Mount start any day over Henderson. It's hard to have Mount, Foden, Sterling, Saka, Grealish, Rashford and Bellingham in your squad and figure out who should start. I don't think it's hard to know that Henderson shouldn't be. ENG has the squad and style to win the WC and EU. Don't let the window close. I would love it if they would rotate coaches for each tournament but we know that doesn't happen in pro sports because no one has the balls to upset the apple cart. Well, the last two owners of Chelsea do. Both UCL titles came after firing their coach and the new guy immediately won. And they were both gone soon after. Both titles under Abramovich but the new owner this year fired Tuchel after a poor stretch and probably clash of personalities.
And as much as I hate to say it, ENG might actually be better off not having Kane start. Play like Spain with a false 9 going back a decade when they won in 2012 (Torres was their only FW of note, but he declined massively the past two seasons at club level). Look at Man City. They've played excellent football without a striker for a while until Halaand came along. If your striker is not in form, and Kane pretty much never is in tournaments, then you can play without one for a half and see what happens. Would take balls from a manager to try that.
As for Brazil... I really believe in intangibles. I think Brazil is better with Neymar, because they don't have a lot after him like in the past, but if he was not such a bitch (esp. in 2018) and had more of a leader's mentality, they would better. They have leader types like Thiago Silva and Casemiro, but it wouldn't hurt if Neymar showed more intensity on the pitch. If he would at least cut out the theatrics, that would be a start. For instance, do his teammates respect him like I would imagine teammates respected Ronaldo, Ronaldinho or Kaka? Even with Rivaldo's antics against Turkey at WC 2002, I bet guys had more respect for him because he was such a skilled and impactful player, but also because he wasn't dying his hair and trying to find the craziest outfit from a thrift store. Like Colin Cowherd always said, it's preferable if your QB, you know, the leader and the one with the most scrutiny, isn't "backwards cap guy".
Should also point out that they lost the Copa last year, but they won in 2019... without him in the squad. But I don't think they'd be better at this WC without him. They may have been betting favourites, but that's because there was no standout squad like France in 2018. This Brazil definitely can't match some of their all time great squads, which is fine. It's cyclical.
This was ENG's opportunity. A France missing Pogba and Benzema with Morrocco as the next opponent and probably an ARG side that has an aged Messi and rest of squad that is nowhere near their past great squads like from 2002 to 2006. 2010 to 2014 was better too. Such a shame.
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