Tragic Football Stories - Let us Kick Around the misshapen Jabulani that is English football right here

i've been trying to leave it, tbh. also liverpool 100% more likeable now under new management, regardless of players and argumental fans.

Ha, only cos you're sure they'll fail

I'd forgotten how sympathetic I was to Liverpool prior to Rafa's reign of terror. Getting rid of Gerrard wd have completed the rehabilitation tho.

I don't think liverpool will 'fail' under roy, but jeez what's 'fail'? they'll not qualify for CL next season, but they'll be moving in a better direction than they have been for a while i think.

Liverpool will qualify for the CL next season

sorry, wrong thread

lol

Mertesacker Emptiness

Just noticed this. A+++ would lol again

how many threads do you guys need to flog the same dead horse? seriously it's like groundhog day around here, 8 threads with the same 2 opinions.

Have we made some proper time to have a good laugh at Gerrard's pretence of "choosing" to stay at Liverpool btw?

have we made some proper time to say something bad about someone based on no fucking idea either way cos who the fuck has a clue about who did or didn't bid for anyone? if not RLOL.

and this goes for all gossip, not just gerrard.;

footballers what vile human beings, they can only aspire to be messageboard posters with all the associated achievements.

Man, these threads seriously need your moderating grumpy old man influence for balance, but I think Stevie can probably handle a bit of criticism to balance out the boneheaded "England superstars" bullshit hype that flourishes in plenty of mainstream media all year round. Think we all know when we're being unnecessarily scurrilous but personally the fact that I've not had a career as a Premier League footballer and serial failure at International level isn't gonna stop me from discussing people who have. Because I'm interested and because I spend enough time watching and thinking about footie.

Nice to see "you're all just jealous" get a run out off the bench tho.

Wouldn't have if it was Chelsea we were talking about, he would have still been sat there with Daniel Sturridge.

Sturridge is at Chelsea?

Criticising footy chat for being repetitive is like criticising water for being wet.

There's so much chat to be had, but there's not really that much to the game when it comes down to it, until you get into technical areas like tactics or finances or whatever. I like discussing those, but they don't really count as banter. Like I said above, even discussing what's wrong with the English game is just adding to a conversation that's been going on since at least 1929. I believe there's a back issue of Ye Private Eye from 1930 where legendary curmudgeon Mr L Garda hilariously lampoons an unfortunate correspondent who had rehashed the topic in his column the previous week.

local garda some kind of nominative determinism amirite

local garda i've got your back fwiw.

far too much b.s. over far too little substance.

i seriously don't know wtf you dudes are looking for in a football thread about england's WC failure on a message board where people basically just shoot the shit all day, and on top of that, during the football close season.

LG, you've contributed maybe a ballhair more more than the same meta complaints to any football thread this whole year, which is a real pity imo. maybe that's indicative of liverpool's season, but jeez that's a poor excuse for making the same attack every time you pop your head in the door.

there's prob too much transfer gossip, prob too much bitching about the premier league's english stars, prob too much posting of dumbass formations, prob too much dissing and not enough appreciation of the subtleties of the likes of r benitez and other very highly paid and experienced/talented professionals. prob too much of myself and a hoy hoy, in short.

but damned if i wouldn't sooner read a thesis from him on why fabregas will finish his career at arsenal than another line about how nobody on this board is qualified to lazily stick the boot in on steven fucking gerrard.

cesc is leaving once ramsey is fit imo fyi

would have happened this summer if barca weren't skint and ryan shawcross wasn't a cunt

i take it all back

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh why am I watching this

?

o look we scored hurrah

http://www.atdhe.net/21576/watch-spain-u19-vs-england-u19

that third goal sums everything up

Forgot this was on. Spain outclassing England in every way imaginable?

more or less, although I gather our U17s are far, far superior to this shower

yeah suuuuuure they are

England's tactic is 'pacy, powerful forwards' - that appears to be it

yeah we'll they'll all be in prison or jaded with footballing life by the time they're 23 so best have a backup

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IN1AUOgvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg

Book review:

The Anatomy of England
Jonathan Wilson

This is an attempt to trace the development of the England team through ten key matches in their history. It's absolutely marvellous.

The games are chosen to mark out the peaks and troughs over the decades. Some are obvious: Hungary 1953, Holland 1996, Croatia 2007. Others less so: Spain 1929, Italy 1938, France 1982. They're all given proper treatment and placed in the proper context of the periods and tournaments they occurred in.

The detail is just brilliant. He's taken great care to use proper sources instead of received wisdom, so it's continually surprising - just as much with the modern games as with the older ones. I had no idea that Hungary's lead-up to the Wembley game wasn't effortless genius, for example, but in fact some rather laboured games against teams who had worked them out tactically. And I'd clean forgotten the surge of violence the night England went out of Euro 96, and how out-of-character it was in the that tournament's context.

The best, though, is the detail he goes into on the games themselves. Individual moves get described over and over, which sounds like it might be dull but made it really easy to picture what was actually going on. Tactics and formations are pretty complex things, and it's lovely to have them addressed properly and explained on their own terms. He also draws parallels between the matches, but without being trite or tenuous - things like how England's kick-offs against West Germany in 1972 and 1990 and against Norway in 1993 were very similar, and trying to explain how somehow the middle one worked while the other two were fiascos.

It felt like there was loads of everything crammed into the book, and there is, but it's so well done that it isn't too dense or difficult to read. Highly, highly recommended.

haven't read ITP yet but really must

Slightly unexpected is that Wilson cites Why England Lose by Simon Kuper with approval on a few occasions. I was a bit dismissive of it in my previous review.

Having written that, I have unexpectedly found myself with a spare copy (of Why England Lose). If anyone wants it, send me a webmail and I'll see what I can do.

pretty sure we've covered why england lose on ilx premier league threads 2002 onwards

"Why England Lose"

cover picture- stevie gerrard, rest of it is actually a blank

hope u don't troll the real gardaí like tht

*that*

Gardaí- GAA men first and foremost

"Why England Lose"

cover picture- stevie gerrard, rest of it is actually a blank

― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 12:15 (54 minutes ago)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rKf10GO9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

That's not Gerrard is it?

It's his squad number.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/11/7/1257606409539/Steven-Gerrard-001.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_04/Gerrard2304_468x660.jpg

England boss Fabio Capello has called up the uncapped trio of Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Bobby Zamora for the friendly against Hungary on Wednesday.

Goalkeepers David James and Robert Green are replaced by Ben Foster and Paul Robinson.

Theo Walcott and Adam Johnson are both recalled having been included in the provisional 30-man squad before failing to make the cut for the World Cup.

Bolton's Gary Cahill and West Ham's Carlton Cole are also in the squad.

now more players in the england team than liverpool and utd - what a hater of english footballers wenger is.

rabble-rousing alternative perspective: Arsene hates English footballers so much he won't even play the ones who are good enough for international football.

How much are tickets for the Hungary game? I tried looking on The FA website but you need to register and get an ID number.

Gah, always the case. I look, can't find the answer, ask, look again, and find it dead easy. They're £40, £30, £25, £20.

David James didn't exactly cover himself in glory today.

Ha, Paul Robinson's retired from international football.

Thanks for the memories Paul, we'll miss you big guy ;_;