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Today’s Football - 2024/25 Season


A pleasant surprise today to see I could get live coverage of NZ v Ivory Coast playing a friendly in Toronto, Canada. No surprise to see Gbamin going off injured. NZ won. Eli Just with a cracking finish from a pass by Marco Staminich.
 

It amazes me how the best teams and the best coaches in the world continue to be flummoxed by really bad teams parking the bus. For all their millions, no one seems to have found a way around it.
To be fair, how does one successfully if not consistently break a parked bus? Millions or not, there’s a reason why it is an often used tactic against superior opponents

Courageous, not for me…effective, a lot of the time
 

When you've got players like Madueke playing who's more interested in making sure those two little bits of hair are perfectly placed proceeding from under his hair band than how he performs on the pitch, it's time to give up.
 
It amazes me how the best teams and the best coaches in the world continue to be flummoxed by really bad teams parking the bus. For all their millions, no one seems to have found a way around it.
Ferguson did. He had a hyper specialist right winger* with a willing RB overlap control the right side. He had a proper ball player with a superb and quick range of passing operate in midfield. He had himself cast as the midfield enforcer watching the ball players back. He had some dog with a load of pace and a good left foot run the left wing. When he couldn't buy the best striker England had, he went and bought the second best instead. The striker was the position he'd most easily swap, the machine behind him was what was relied on. So he had options, two up top? he had the options, AM supporting sole striker? he had the options. The entirety of his front 6 players weighed in with their share of goals in a season. They knew how to work, they knew one another, and he had a bit of similar on the bench to cover when needed. Or, up front to change it up. A style of play that had a bit of quite a lot.
I'd have needed locking into a seat with my eyes fixed open a la...
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to be put through yet another Andorra serve up for england yesterday.
The england set up currently relies on solo impetus, a flash of brilliance, a bit of fifa*, instead of a coordinated effort to move the players into areas where they have the choice of who to pick out and expect runs and movement and certain deliveries. And relying on a legs-gone harry kane at this late stage is quite simply baffling. the fa such as they are are so stale and out of ideas, it is no surprise the apathy has leaked into the manager choice and the manager attitude. A pay cheque job with limited expectations, just keep your head down and mouth shut and nod along to the music. The media have your guts for garters regardless.

Jules Rimet still gleaming... (2030 is the centenary of the first world cup).
 

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