England will never win a major tournament with Declan Rice in midfield and Harry Kane up front. The World Cup inquest continues.
We also have views on refereeing (yawn) and Morgan Rogers. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
What we learned from the World Cup
1. England are in the 2nd tier of countries in world football (with Brazil and Portugal) below Spain (current holders of 3 trophies), France (appeared in last 3 WC finals) and Argentina (deposed WC champions, appeared in last 2 WC finals and won last 2 continental championships). The idea that we ‘should’ be above these 3 multiple trophy winning countries boasting players like Messi, Mbappe, Rodri, Yamal and Ruiz is demented, for the birds.
2. By finishing 3rd we overachieved.
3. Jude has sorted his sh*t out enough to be absolutely fantastic for England. This is major as we need him in Euro 28. Both his defenders and detractors deserve credit for getting him to where he is now as a likely future England captain. As does Tuchel for finding a liberating role for Judemaxxing him in his system.
4. The debate is over. Harry Kane is not just useless in the latter stages of tournaments but also taking up spaces that could be exploited by more technical players with better movement like Jude, Saka and Palmer who are more likely to score actual goals in QF/SF/finals.
5. We can’t win a trophy with Declan Rice in midfield BUT (and it’s a big fat Kenny Dalglish sized butt) Declan Rice IS a world class right back. The English Dani Alves.
6. The players were unable to implement Tuchel’s tactical changes under pressure v Argentina. He now has 2 years to put that right. In my opinion the better option wouldve been to bring on Watkins to maintain a goal threat plus Mainoo, Wharton and Palmer (sob). But what do I know?
7. Cole Palmer is the player most likely to change a semi or final for England. How do we know? Because we’ve already seen it with our eyes.
8. Tuchel fell into the same trap as Tony Blair in Iraq (after his victories in Serbia/Kosovo and Sierra Leone). He stopped questioning his own judgement, started believing his own hype and thought he he was infallible. Tuchel will learn from this and England will benefit from his extra experience in 2028.
Ben Teacher
READ: Ranking the England centre-forward options that make Bellingham most likely to replace Kane
Are hydration breaks really so bad?
To all right-thinking football fans, it’s obvious we must resist those FIFA idiots and their insane hydration breaks. They’re americanising our sport, those freaks. And the corporate sponsors are just milking it with more adverts. It wasn’t as if most of those stadiums needed it anyway. It’s just not a footy thing to do.
This is what I’m hearing, but the way I see it, are they really so bad? Or are we letting our prejudices get the better of us (however justified some of those prejudices might be..)
Don’t we love a bit more tactics in the game, letting managers earn their wages by shaking things up, making changes that count?
Isn’t it good that, when football is more physically demanding than ever, and injuries can make a devastating impact on our club’s season, the players are allowed to stay that bit fresher or get some treatment they need?
When there’s already an extra 5-10 minutes of match-time per half, what difference does an extra 3 minutes really make – some VAR calls are much longer – so long as the break happens at a time when the match had been stopped anyway?
And isn’t it helpful, whether at the ground, in the pub, or simply at home, we can quickly grab another pint or run to the loo without becoming a pariah for the 30 people whose view we’d block if we did it during the match (not that we would)?
Just saying…
Alexi Lalas, Under Zlatan’s armpit
READ: The World Cup pundits we would happily never hear from again
Tickle me Olmo
Hearing Matterface refer to Danny Olmo as Danny Elmo during every Spain game made me laugh/sigh in equal measure. When it comes to muppets, it takes one to know one I guess.
DF (RIP Kev. Two Ballon d’Ors, but best remembered for crashing his bike on Superstars)
Investigate FIFA now
For the good of international football, there needs a serious investigation for the following subjects.
1 Why did FIFA bow done to Trump and recide a red card for an American player. Suspended for 12 months. Total farce.
2 Why were the referees told to let the game flow and ignore the clumsy pushing, bad tackles, pulling or pushing the opposition to the ground, without issuing yellow and red card.
3 Why were Argentina aloud to be given special concession to act so unsportingly?
4 We watched every Argentina game screaming at the TV regarding their brutality. And the referees turned a blind eye to it. Why?
5 Argentina should be given a life ban from the World Cup
6 FIFA need to come clean and dismiss the top officials involved in this World Cup. Get Police involved checking bank accounts for fraud.
FIFA HAS NOW LOST THE RESPECT OF THE WORLD
Ray Preston
Referee changes needed
“That ref was awful, had no control of the game”…
Why?
We need to get rid of yellow cards for time wasting; if there is a clock that was sponsored by Rolex sitting on the half way line that stops for each “injury time” addition, rolling around will give you a break but won’t shorten the game – we have all the time in the world my friend. ( p.s. – our manager friends must stay away from their players, unless a substitute)
Blue card for someone on a yellow that is just about deserving a red means automatic sub or 10 minutes sin bin for just cheating around the pitch or being disrespectful to the game.
VAR – Hand balls “I’m cheating” defending in the box are penalties, hand balls “I did get an advantage” attacking are free kicks.
All this means is a referee is not afraid to impose himself on the game and own it, be as strong as they can be and follow rules during what maybe is the biggest challenge for both him and the players in their careers.
Without the above rules, and if you were to logically follow the FIFA ref rules, more than five of Argentina’s team players would have been sent off and the game would have ended before the final whistle.
(Similarly, in the semi-finals, a referee doesn’t want to “ban” a player for the final).
Colinger
Morgan Rogers could have said no to Chelsea
I saw a couple of mails earlier discussing the transfer of Morgan Rogers to Chelsea, both of which seemed to imply that the only parties which had an input were Aston Villa, Arsenal and Chelsea.
We had Gary AVFC suggesting that ‘Maybe Villa said ‘We need the cash Morgan, off you trot please’ and that ‘It just doesn’t strike me as a ‘dream club’ type move’ whilst Dion thinks it was a case of ‘Rogers didn’t simply pick Chelsea over Arsenal. Chelsea offered the amount of money Villa wanted, Arsenal didn’t. It’s pretty basic stuff’.
Both of these ideas suggest that the player has no input here really. Firstly, if Rogers didn’t want to move to either club he could have said no, he’s under contract and Villa would have to lump it. It seems unlikely Villa would refuse to play him because a) they’d devalue him and b) it would be cutting off their nose to spite their face. Secondly, in a similar vein he could have said I do not want to move to Chelsea, only Arsenal.
I agree that this doesn’t seem like a ‘dream move’ but really I would think neither would be unless he is a Chelsea or Arsenal fan, and a ‘dream move’ would surely be to the club you support? I know a lot of players say this after transfers but perhaps they are advised to / feel obliged to say it so bring supporters on board.
Players are definitely an active party in transfers but mainly for selfish reasons, be it simply getting some games the might not have otherwise, ditto winning trophies but sadly, mainly because of remuneration. It is not that often a case that a player who starts somewhere else ends up at their boyhood club, and any talk of a ‘dream move’ is normally bullshit.
A, LFC, Montreal
READ: Morgan Rogers to Chelsea is the biggest step down in Premier League transfer history
Fab: Back to normal
Best thing about WC ending? You don’t have to scroll through all the nonsense Fabrizio Romano tweets about WC; when you’re really just there for transfer news. Romano, bless his soul, seems to like absolutely anybody and everybody and doesn’t find room for any kind of criticism about anything. You couldn’t ask for a better proponent of commercialism, materialism and corporate greed.
Karen Asad
