Hi 20s, sorry back, I only get on here a couple of times a day. Yes it's me, thanks for remembering. My original account mysteriously suspended a few months before the court cases, so ever since I've just been a reader. Then the new site presented a chance to both start waffling again, and make a shorter username!
Yes you're right of course. It's wrong to automatically link player's abilities to their wage, and offending to all concerned to suggest the high earners should win the game.
As usual I'm struggling to describe some of the deepest feelings I have about the modern game. And it's a worldwide problem I'm sure, but the football in our country (and by that I mean everything connected with it) is one of the best examples. And therefore the England team is the high watermark of that problem, because playing for country is and always should be the top achievement.
I'm a Blackpool and England fan, and nothing else, although I always drop a respectful nod to any team I consider are doing it how I like to see it done. Sadly these days there aren't many. Sports, maybe even outside sports as well, bemoan the lack of individuality, or characters, people you really want to get behind. Football's gone like that for me, and that does make me sad. Time was I'd have watched a game anywhere between anybody, and often there was a contrast that made it all the more interesting. Mainly now, everyone's trying to do the same thing, and it seems the higher up the structure you go, the more similar it gets.
Someone made an excellent point on here after we beat Leeds' kids. They've already been drilled into possession rigidity, and don't know any different even when they have to chase the game
That's throughout the game now, and it stops at England as they represent us all.
Possession play is great, I certainly don't want to go to other, less aesthetically pleasing alternatives. But if it's not done at pace then the game can, frankly, often become really boring. For many years now I've likened a lot of what I've watched, especially top and international level, to the tactics of Handball, with a team manoeuvring around the opposition area.
That's really what I was meaning about England playing lower ranked sides. Not an issue against the top ones of course, but there are now so many hard working, well drilled but ultimately limited countries, you're bound to meet at least two of them in any group qualifiers.
If we get shifting at speed they can't get near us, and we look as dominant as you'd hope. But if we get stuck in second gear, we can look very pedestrian and, sad to say, boring.
And especially since the addition of the newer nations, that's happened far too often to be able to overlook it. Sure we've won the game, more often than not, but if you asked me to summarise a lot of people's increased apathy to the national side, I'd guess it's the lack of invention and flair, even when we have won.
And I think that's where my thoughts on the salary comes from, I just expect better sometimes. Maybe I expect too much.
on the point I made about Grealish. Oh and you still deliberately fail to address my two points about Germany and the Croatia game. I've repeated it enough times yet you seem to refuse to cmment.
