He has done well for England but I don't see how you can possibly drop Foden or Saka.

Kaminski Brittain Hyam Wharton Pickering Travis Wharton Hedges Dack Brereton Gallagher Subs: Pears, Ayala, Buckley, Morton, Szmodics, Dolan, Markanday Simple team, no Hedges at wing back nonsense, get Dack and Hedges in attacking areas, and remove players not up to it from the squad.

The first page of this thread is rather interesting...

Around April time, you decided quite strongly and clearly like us all that Mowbray needed to be sacked. I presume that you went straight to the club at that point, rather than moaning on here?

We can't drop Foden or Saka, surely the same team again.

If struggling for a counter argument, accuse poster of moaning. Classic.

Going back to the on the continent podcast, they made the point about France's "second string" not being far off their third team considering their absentees. Kingsley Coman is also a good gamechanger but I would probably choose our bench if I was picking. Both England and France go into Saturday having not been tested by a team at the same level so it is the ultimate acid test. France have recent history of strolling through early games in a tournament without getting close to third gear and it is easy to obsess too much over the fantastic Mbappe but there are plenty of other quality players against each other on both sides.

A quite blatant lie.

It is the subsequent refusal to consider that a repeated inability for the club to come close to meeting demand with supply especially at peak periods is anything but a valid criticism of the efficiency of a part of the club.

I do love the constant naivety based around players speaking positively about the coaching staff, as if they would slag them off!

A repeated inability to get levels of supply anywhere near demand surely is enough to raise questions about efficiency? Maybe not if you are on the windup.

I don't swallow the talk of Mbappe being anything like a one man team, as much as he is the best player around at the moment and not just for his speed. France have loads of quality across their team and it should be a fairly even, tight game with lots of quality all over the pitch. You look in attacking areas and they also have Griezmann who is such an intelligent player and Dembele who could cause Shaw and Maguire all sorts of problems. Giroud is like the glue to that attack and I listened to the on the continent podcast where a very valid point was made that him over Benzema makes Mbappe more dangerous as the main man. Between the 2 teams there are so many good attacking players. Further back, Tchouameni is a really impressive player who has caught the eye alongside Camavinga who I am surprised doesn't start over Rabiot. They have plenty of centre backs who are not only good but are quick and strong. Their weakness IMO is Lloris who has a mistake in him.

There almost certainly wont be much in it but Holland are surely favourites for the quarter final, even with the Messi story. Holland have possibly the best defence in the competition, some quality in midfield and some real pace and threat up top.

You seem to have lost my point. General posts regarding the enjoyment of the World Cup are hijacked by the desire to push an agenda that England are unfairly treated even at irrelevant times.

No one has said that England are fortunate in this tournament any more than any of those. All (besides maybe Argentina) have received warranted praise for batting aside weaker opposition convincingly with minimal fuss. Your paranoia has meant that you cant even watch a seperate game without going into an England based frenzy.

We repeatedly run out of stock season after season including at Christmas. That says enough.

Portugal look incredible, Switzerland are gone but they are entertaining and effective in equal measure.

The rankings are certainly flawed but whilst we played capable opposition, we avoided the real big names in the most part.

Portugal are a good watch tonight, Joao Felix in particular is really standing out and Ramos is giving them energy in behind.

My point has not been that we haven't played some very capable sides in the knockout stages of these tournaments. I also described the way that we have dealt with the 3 the teams we have comfortably beaten as "impressive" and praised the team after all 3 games. I have also praised individuals including Foden, Bellingham and Saka who I think are all top talents. You keep taking my comments out of context, I really enjoyed watching Brazil last night and some of the football on show was superb. I saw no need to even bring England into it and it was roverandout that again felt the need to do so. My comments about us being fortunate (in terms of the draw) related to previous tournaments, I revert you back to my first paragraph about what I think of us so far in this tournament. The problem is that people cannot seem to discuss other teams positively or negatively without it having to come back to England. I haven't compared England unfavourably to anyone in this World Cup thus far. I stand by the assertion that in previous tournaments, we have avoided the very elite teams with the very elite players in the most part. Those England teams were inferior as you touch on, but equally we avoided France, we avoided Brazil and Argentina in the World Cup, Portugal with Ronaldo, Spain, teams like Colombia, Denmark and Sweden obviously were very capable but not on the same level.

And how they manage to mess up stock levels so consistently.

The best team in Africa for sure, but African teams have not done well on the world stage in recent history. My comments about Foden referring to Bellingham becoming the best midfielder in the world have been taken out of context. Roverandout has been repeatedly suggesting that pundits put England down and big up other big players to the point where seemingly he struggles to watch other teams without feeling sick. I used that along with some of the other bits not because I don't agree with it, but as recent evidence that we do big up our own, and that we do praise our own players. Regarding the draws, I stand by my comments. Obviously you aren't going to face minnows in knockout football at major tournaments, but in the last 2 tournaments we have faced draws that relative to what other teams we could have had, that had you offered such a path at the start of the tournament, that you would accept. Germany has always been the exception and I have always said as such and praised accordingly, in spite of their general recent tournament experience. Colombia especially without Rodriguez were tricky opposition but not close to being elite, Mina has never settled in England, Falcao was 32, Cuadrado etc, nothing special. Then came Sweden, you take them in a quarter final any day. Then Croatia who outclassed us. In 2020, Germany were the exception, see above. Then came Ukraine ie the weakest of the quarter finalists, before Denmark minus Eriksen, the weakest of the other 3 semi finalists, still we beat them which is all you can do, dodgy penalty or no dodgy penalty. You still have to beat these teams and Southgate deserves praise for doing so, but there are still big question marks over whether he can overcome the very elite in knockout tournament football. We have yet to face France, we avoided peak Belgium aside from in dead rubbers, we avoided Spain, Brazil and Argentina, and we couldn't overcome Italy and Croatia, indeed I felt that Southgate really struggled to manage early leads. Hopefully Saturday evening can be a coming of age. The draw is the draw, yes. In my and many others opinions, we have been fortunate with it in the last 2 tournaments.

They are a good team, some really top players in there. Fantastic by Hakimi.

I described our three wins in the quote mentioned as impressive and have praised us further after each of them. I would also agree that Senegal are better than South Korea albeit neither are one of the top countries in the tournament. Senegal are missing their talisman and were quite reliant on 2 attacking players currently playing in the Championship, they also really missed Idrissa Gueye. We have better players than him and beat them with minimal fuss which is worthy of praise. You are correct in that you can only play the teams you are drawn against, hence why there is an element of luck in the draw that doesn't exist in a league format. We have had very fortunate draws in the last 2 tournaments but we have got a really tough draw this time around. Roverandout doesn't display understandable, moreso ecentricity whereby any discussion about any other teams has to be assumed as a slight on England and regular 180 degree turns within minutes. He also seemingly cannot watch other teams and appreciate good football without being sickened by how commentators talk about some of the best players in the world.

Who on earth wants to watch that abroad? Match going fans not considered again.