Re: Season 22-23
 

I think it would have been expected England would get out of the group and probably the 2nd round. If we'd come 2nd we would have probably played Netherlands and then Argentina still which would have worked out similar to Senegal and France.


In terms of expected progress I suppose the only thing you can look at is the FIFA world rankings (those in bold are still in it)
1 Brazil
2 Belgium
3 Argentina
4 France
5 England
6 Italy
7 Spain
8 Netherlands
9 Portugal
10 Denmark
11 Germany
12 Croatia
13 Mexico
14 Uruguay
15 Switzerland
16 USA
17 Colombia
18 Senegal
19 Wales
20 IR Iran
21 Serbia
22 Morocco
23 Peru
24 Japan
25 Sweden
26 Poland
27 Ukraine
28 Korea Republic

Guess here you could make the reasonable assumption the higher ranked team is the favourite. So far we haven't played anyone above us in the rankings but both possible opponents (depending on group progress not the other match) would have been above us. So QF is expected progress here.


Also goes to show how much of an upset it was for Belgium to go out in the groups and of course Italy not to qualify at all.

Re: Season 22-23
 

None of the other top teams have played anyone above them. England are the only team in the last 8 to play four teams from the top 20.��

Also Argentina, Brazil, France, Spain and Portugal have all lost one game to teams outside the top 20 already.

Just trying to look for positives.:angel:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Japan clearly need to practice penalties. :erm:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Livakovic did well to save them really.

Re: Season 22-23
 

l dunno why they did not whack them as too many of their penalty takers tried to place them.

Re: Season 22-23
 

It's a simple game.

The key to it, is kicking it in their net. The cunning bit is stopping them kicking it in your net. That way you win game. (Switzerland dont seem to understand the concept).

I should have been a football manager, piece of p*ss. :)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Let's all laugh at Spain :D:p::p::p::p::p::p::p::p::p:.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Yep.

Aslo congratulate Morocco, who have a pretty impressive defensive record. :)

Re: Season 22-23
 

h/t @Pundamentalism

Re: Season 22-23
 

Croatia could well do the same thing to Argentina. Besides Messi they aren't that good, probably as a team not as threatening as Brazil are, but Croatia seem to be difficult to break down and threatening if you do. Plenty of good pen takers and a keeper who's shown he's capable of keeping most things out including more than average number of pens. Could quite easily be finalists again or even go one better considering the other final is either likely to be Portugal, France or England.


Morocco going any further would be absolutely amazing though.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Another big team with its superstars bites the dust.:)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Catenaccio.

Nothing to watch.

Go Marocco!

Re: Season 22-23
 

Indeed it was. :)

Lets hope we get past France, to meet them. :cool:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Bah, I think thats it, Kanes penalty blunder has probably just put us out. :(

Re: Season 22-23
 

At least he won't get the racist stuff Rashford got last time.

Well played the French, but crap referee. He'll be going home aswell.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Told you he is a bellend.

Repeatedly carried by the rest of the team so he can take penalties.

Shame for the rest of the team really.

Hopefully now southgate will go and we can can get a FOOTBALL manager in not a woke mouthpiece.

Re: Season 22-23
 

He's the only manager to take England to a tournament final since Alf Ramsey. Seems woke works.

We aren't the best team in the World, not his fault. Blame the Premiership and how we prioritise that over everything else.

Re: Season 22-23
 

I think we were unlucky in that game. The ref made a few shocking decisions, we missed that penalty and we also made a few mistakes. We were, IMO, the better team against the World Champions though and it could so easily have gone a different way. We kept Mbappe quiet and set out well against them.

This is the best England team we've seen in a while. Euro 2024 should be a good option for us.

Re: Season 22-23
 

I call it Marocco. Why Morocco?

Half of the channels called it Marocco....

Re: Season 22-23
 

Indeed the ref was appalling as if only we could have defended better and performed better in the first half then we could have made it through.

Plus the penalty miss as well, yes that old chestnut haunts us again!

A golden chance gone again will be English footballs epitaph.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Funny how it’s never because we weren’t good enough. Good luck to whoever wins ultimately because it will hang around their necks for years.

Re: Season 22-23
 

England are good enough this time though and yesterday it was 50/50 between us and the World Champions. We even did well containing their best player which was the major concern going into the game. It was small margins and poor decisions from the ref that cost us in the end. Incredibly frustrating but something to be proud of.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Half are wrong (unless you are Italian)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco

Re: Season 22-23
 

Argentina win is an excellent result. Argentina is the lesser enemy, sort of thing. What a delight to see Macron's disappointment!

And remember, it was French Exocet missiles that sunk our ships in 1982.

Re: Season 22-23
 

A definite case of Francophobia....

Re: Season 22-23
 

The war however was against Argentina ;)

They also cheated us out of the 1986 quarter finals.

Re: Season 22-23
 

The Argies still haven't stopped cheating. Their goalkeeper throwing ball away as the French penalty taker came up warranted a yellow card at least. Worked a treat though, just like Maradonas hand did.....

Re: Season 22-23
 

Re: Season 22-23
 

Re: Season 22-23
 

Re: Season 22-23
 

I think it's a bit of mental gymnastics to support Argentina over France because of the Falklands War. ;)

I was glad to see Messi win it but France would have been good as well. To see a team win it twice in a row would also be historic. Most of the time I separate the government/history from the team and besides there is little need to be that angry at Argentina because we won that war. :)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Do they get to keep the trophy for winning it 3 times?


Too much fakery in the final and matches before that.

Re: Season 22-23
 

I dont think so, that was specific to the Jules Rimet cup (as stipulated by the man himself in 1930).

[ Technically, Germany won it for a 3rd time in 2014, although one of those was as West Germany ]

Argentina declared a Bank Holiday for the teams return : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64036207

Re: Season 22-23
 

Two of those as West Germany

Re: Season 22-23
 

Indeed, you are correct, on checking they were still "West" in 1990.

Re: Season 22-23
 

We're coming ;)

Re: Season 22-23
 

It has been a long time coming though.;)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Nice to see Forest back at Old Trafford. Comfortable win in the end for United. The Forest defence did ok but the pace of United caused them problems. A howler from the keeper for the second. Forest a bit lightweight up top.

Re: Season 22-23
 

The purists of German political history would insist East Germany dissolved and it’s states joined Germany.

The Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) has existed since 1949.

;)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Re: Season 22-23
 

You are never going to do well if you gift the other side goals. :(

The first was poor defending, the second was questionable goal keeping.
Its a shame our goal was ruled out for offside, it might have made more of a match out of it.

TBH, I never expected mutch from this match, my hope this season is get enough points at home [and the odd away match] to avoid relegation.

Re: Season 22-23
 

No goals scored away since August and only 11 in total highlights the main area for concern.☹

Re: Season 22-23
 

The defending is also of concern, aways defeats of 3 - 0, 4 - 0, 5 - 0 & 6 - 0.
Twice losing at home 2 - 3. Scoring a goal or two (home or away) isnt much use when you are conceeding so many. :(

Re: Season 22-23
 

Tbf Paul most teams will lose to Man City and Arsenal away heavily. We have, at least, played 3 of the top 7 teams away as well as recent champions (Leicester).



Our one away goal (well, we might have more if VAR didn't happen) got us a point at Everton and could have been 3 if we'd held onto the lead. Likewise the 3-2 at home vs Fulham and Bournemouth were disappointing because we were ahead in both games but we have been better at that recently.



There's plenty of room for improvement but we had to settle 22 new players in the summer and with another about to be registered and who knows what we will bring in during the window, hopefully not too many as we really only need a striker who can hold it up better than the ones we have. But not everyone is going to be able to afford a Haaland or an Alvarez or a Rashford in the window so we're not going to be getting an established PL player there either. If we can get a mobile CB that would be nice too but actually I think Boly alongside one of the 3 from last season would probably be OK.



As for last night it was important we held on and didn't do anything silly at the back. Then someone decided not to mark Rashford (don't get zonal marking at all) and gave him a free sandwich, er I mean shot. He wasn't going to miss that. I don't think the 2nd was a keeping error. He was wrong footed by it bouncing and going through Boly's legs and was largely unsighted until late on yet managed to get a hand on it, unfortunately that wasn't enough to tip it wide, which perhaps made it look worse than if he'd not got to it at all. Then we have Dennis being silly as per usual and giving the ball away in a dangerous area and they got a 3rd. But largely we didn't do too badly and it could have easily been another 5 or 6 but I don't think many would have expected us to get anything at all really.


At worst we go down and keep the squad for promotion again next season.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Pele the great Brazilian football legend has died aged 82.:(

Edit: Please see/use https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...php?t=33711593

Re: Season 22-23
 

Please use : https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...php?t=33711617 for posts on Vialli, Thanks.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Coventry 3 Wrexham 4.
The S4c commentary were very excited by it ! 3 leagues between them. The FA Cup delivers more excitement than the Premiership ever will .

Re: Season 22-23
 

Villa 1 Stevenage 2. Another 3 league turnover. I'm not sure these Premiership players are all they are cracked up to be. The standard of football isn't that different, just the finances of the clubs.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Most of these premiership teams are not playing their full sides.
Forest made 11 changes (so changed the entire team) for their match.

It makes a bit of a joke of the FA Cup [ and is very annoying for fans ].
I feel like our fans who paid to go to Blackpool on Saturday were cheated. :td:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Teams used to get fined for fielding under strength sides. Not that the big boys would give a toss about that. Maybe chucking them out of the cup and European competitions would have more effect.

Re: Season 22-23
 

I think they are allowed to rotate provided they pick a side which is capable of winning the match.



Though Steve Cooper did make 11 changes from the Southampton starting line up all but 1 of the players who did (who was a 19 yr old lad making his debut) have played for us in the league this season. The back 4 I think started matches as a unit. But then there's always the issue of the players playing together anyway when you do that, change 1 or 2 usually doesn't disrupt the flow of the team as much as 11.


Given that we played Chelsea on Sunday, then Southampton the Weds after, then Blackpool, we have a LC QF with Wolves tomorrow, and then again in the league vs Leicester on Saturday (with both league matches around the cup ties then it does make sense to give players a break as there are a lot of fixtures together. There are also a few knocks (Lingard is out for a few weeks, Mangala has missed most of the season, Niakhate hasn't played since August, Richards hasn't even played for us yet) and other injuries (Awoniyi went off vs Southampton but that didn't look too serious) so they could probably just argue the other players were too tired or not fit enough to play 90 minutes or something.


As for kicking a team out of the cup who's already lost (and is not likely to qualify for Europe) this seems a bit silly. I think Liverpool actually played the kids in a league cup semi a few years back because the first team was off somewhere else in another competition. I do agree using the squad can devalue the team out there but that really is ultimately the club's decision.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Strong rumours Qatar are looking at buying a minority shareholding of Spurs...

Re: Season 22-23
 

You make teams have a squad of 25 it stands to reason they can pick from those 25

Re: Season 22-23
 

I think it's actually 25 plus under-21s.


From recollection last season's top scorer and a player who cost us 17m in the summer aren't in our 25 because they're only 20, or were at the cut off date (Johnson and Williams).

---------- Post added at 13:02 ---------- Previous post was at 13:02 ----------

of course, the PL 25 man squads don't apply to the FA Cup anyway

Re: Season 22-23
 

It is plus under 21s but pick to many of them and you'd fall foul of the weakened team rules

Re: Season 22-23
 

Brilliant result for the Saints, hopefully they can kick on from here.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Good result for Forest as well, even if it took penalties in the end. :)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Two brilliant goals!

Re: Season 22-23
 

Just got back from the Emirates. Football good

Re: Season 22-23
 

Still can't believe it's Jan and we're 13th.


Getting 12 points would have done me fine...

Re: Season 22-23
 

Was a good watch, two cracking goals from England forwards Rashford and Sako, a pity we couldn’t hang on but overall I think Arsenal deserved the win.

Re: Season 22-23
 

..and 3 points clear of 14th. I'm well pleased atm. :)

Re: Season 22-23
 

I'll be waiting until we're a bit more clear, but it looks good as they're just getting better and better. Everton might get a new manager bounce now Fat toff has gone and there's always the chance Jones will click at Southampton (given they seem to have signed a tennis player and also Orsic who is decent) and Wolves seem threatening to do so under their new manager like Villa did with Emery. It wouldn't take more than us losing a few on the spin and 2 or 3 below us winning to pop us back at the bottom again.


But considering the last few times we went down without much of a fight at all at least they're making the effort this time.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Just do the decent thing and concentrate on the League, forget the League Cup .;)

Re: Season 22-23
 

I think all the players who aren't broken will play :dozey:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Cannot believe that the last time we played at Forest was in 1999. :shocked: Did you go to that game?

Re: Season 22-23
 

An oil team! (EVOO)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Nope but it was 1 to h8 all the same

Re: Season 22-23
 

Think we might have to bring Ole out of retirement for a reprise.;)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Tbf I think this side would easily beat the 1999 one anyway

Re: Season 22-23
 

6th Feb 1999, I was there :(
As I recall it was 1 - 1 after 7 minutes, and only 1 - 2 at half time.
They fell apart in the second half, and super sub Solskjaer got 4 goals.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Well it looks comfortable on paper but a very sloppy performance from United for a lot of the game.:rolleyes:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Keylor Navas to Forest just seems totally amazing. Not eligible for tonight's thrashing though.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Not the best of games, if Forest had really tried to give it a go it might have been a better game. One or two of their players just seemed to want a bit of aggro.
There seems to be enough in their team to get them out of trouble all the same.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Are you going to the final Jim?.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Ticket ballot opens 8.00am this Friday. 32,000 ticket allocation for 60,000 season ticket holders.
As I haven’t missed a home game in ten years my chance of getting a ticket is quite high.:cool:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Yeah my younger brothers have been watching Portsmouth home and away for over 20 years so for any special matches they have a great chance of getting their tickets for it.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Eriksen will be a big loss for us, not sure if Toons Bruno Guimaraes will be suspended for the final after his red card?

Biggest problem I see for us is playing Barcelona 3 days before the final whilst Newcastle have 8 days to prepare.:(

Re: Season 22-23
 

I hope you get there, and enjoy it :)

If you win, we can at least say we lost to the winners. :D

Re: Season 22-23
 

It seems that Bruno Guimaraes can play in the final as his three game ban takes in the intervening league games.

---------- Post added at 13:49 ---------- Previous post was at 13:35 ----------

I have missed my regular Wembley visits, went five times between 2016 and 2018 with United and also went to watch Rochdale v Spurs in an FA Cup replay in 2018.

I hope we win but Arab oil money aside I can’t think of a better set of fans than the Toon Army that I would like to have a bit of success.:)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Marsch sacked by Leeds..... Crazy season continues.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Pathetic...

Re: Season 22-23
 

It's usually us who sack the manager after beating Leeds.

Re: Season 22-23
 

I thought Leeds where marginally the better side yesterday, just hope they don’t get new manager bounce in next two games.

Re: Season 22-23
 

This is where having a genuine world class keeper will make all the difference, even when Henderson is fit.


First half Navas was in a mood where nothing would get past him, second the defence basically made sure nothing would get to him.


I'm not sure Leeds would have scored if we'd played all day and Forest were closer to a 2nd than they were to an equaliser.

Re: Season 22-23
 

In the first half, Yes. In the second half, No.
We didnt play that well, but got the result, thats going to be difference between survival and relegation.

Re: Season 22-23
 

It's a bit tight in the whole bottom half really. We are 13th and 6 points clear which you would think might be plenty, but we have got into that situation from being 19th when the WC finished. Southampton and Bournemouth are clearly struggling a lot and not really showing any signs of improvement but Everton and Leeds have new managers (or will have) which can often provide a short term bounce, and you'd imagine West Ham would have enough quality to get themselves a bit higher and out of it as well.


I don't think it's unfeasible that any of the bottom half teams could go on a similar run. We still have the top 4 to play again (all of them beat us convincingly in the other match and I don't think we're better enough at home to change that) and a bad run of results like we had in September time is likely to put us back into the mix.


Likely anyone Palace down is involved in the scrap and if they hit a bad run it could easily drag Villa or Liverpool into it as well.

Re: Season 22-23
 

In short, its going to be a nail biting 3.5 months, but I'm a lot more hopeful than I was 3.5 months ago.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Looks like they found a VAR scapegoat in Lee Mason.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64683971

Re: Season 22-23
 

Life without VAR is so much cheaper and entertaining . It involves going to watch your local team at whatever level they're at in ultra ultra HD. ( it also involves going outside which I know is a big no no for many..)

Re: Season 22-23
 

Are they going to rescind all the shit decisions he's given which have cost teams like us goals and points? Didn't think so.


Should be clear and obvious errors which could have been seen on the pitch

Re: Season 22-23
 

VAR only exists in the PL (and some FA Cup) matches, matches outside of that are not always cheaper (nor entertaining).
The two are not related. many matches with VAR are highly entertaining.

---------- Post added at 01:15 ---------- Previous post was at 01:11 ----------

Well most "shit decisions" are subjective anyway, depending on who you support.
His screw up last saturday however was a "clear and obvious" error :D [ Not rescinded either ].
The Arsenal manager however is just making himself look like an arse with his bleating about wanting the points back.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Lee Mason made quite a few high profile mistakes on VAR this season which is probably why he is gone. I think it was 6 or so over 20 matches.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Such terribly tragic news this morning about Christian Atsu.:(

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64687384

Re: Season 22-23
 

Tragic news for over 46,000 other people as well.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Love the new name for Bolton Wanderers stadium. :D

Re: Season 22-23
 

LOL, I saw that today, classic. :rofl:

Re: Season 22-23
 

So Den, now the dust has settled, your thoughts on last night.:shocked:

Re: Season 22-23
 

Two years in the making l would say as its been clear for that time that the defence and midfield has needed significant investment.

Re: Season 22-23
 

Anyone know why the times for the FA Cup games tonight and tomorrow have a 15 minute gap between all four kick offs?

Had a great day out at Wembley on Sunday. Had lots of great friendly banter on the tube to and from the ground with loads of Toon supporters.:cool: