Homepage Update: Scouse or English?

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..i’m not usually a fan of English international football. Too much was made of Gerrard, Rooney and Lampard era (fine players though they were), it seemed too many individuals had their own agenda and various managers tried to fit them into the same team.

The current side is a bit more refreshing. It’s true they have had a fortunate run in the tournament and ‘luck of the draw’ but they are where they are and I wish them well. The final will be a lot more interesting with them in it.

The team have a lot of Northern lads which is great considering how London centric England is. Big screen at the Pier Head for tonight’s game.
I think world cup finals are more interesting when the better teams and players are involved.

Croatia proved they were the better team last night, give me a Modric, Perisic and Mandzukic over an Horrenderson, Lingard or Kane any day of the week.

Roll on Sunday, should be a great game.
 
Usually I think everyone should have their views respected but you can shove those right up your janus. :)
lol - i'm happy to stand by them..

I didn't expect it to be a popular view, but I said it anyway.... we can now all move on the conclusion of the transfer window, to another mid-table season in the league and out of the cups before Christmas.
 
The reason this team is doing so well is because Southgate hasn’t allowed the media to pick the team for him. Eriksson Capello or Hodgson would have probably rang up Gerrard or Lampard to come out of retirement if one of the influential pundits or newspapers had suggested it. The media’s obsession with certain players from certain teams was absolutely sickening from about 2004 - 2016. The players knew that they were undroppable and the rest of the squad outside the 11 knew they wouldn’t play. Anyone who made it on the fringes was identified as a scapegoat if ever we didn’t win. Gerrard heads it back to Suarez and England go out? ‘It’s because Baines wasn’t as good as Ashley Cole’. The selection of Carragher and Upson for 2010 over Lescott and Jagielka was a complete joke which came home to roost when England were practically conceding goals from every goal kick from Neuer when we lost.

If the ‘normal’ England way of selecting a squad for this tournament had occured again then Pickford may not have even been in it, the media had anointed Hart and Butland as their favourites. Clyne and Alexander Arnold would be in over Trippier, Smalling and Jones would be starting, Lallana would be in the team regardless of fitness, as would Wilshere, Rooney would probably still be around the squad (if he hadn’t of moved to Everton and had stayed at United), they’d be begging for Milner to be recalled (which they did), and they’d be pushing for some young prodigy like Sessegmom to be included (which they did) For once however an England manager has ignored all of them and just picked his own squad irrespective of the club they play at and lo and behold the whole country is behind them, there’s no cliques, and they are actually performing well.

On the eve of the Tunisia game there was an article from an ex RS (might have been Fowler) demanding that Danny Welbeck has to start against Tunisia. It’s this sort of complete rubbish that has influenced poor England managers in the past. We saw it in 2010, Barry had played the qualifiers in midfield, with Gerrard on the left wing. In the build up to the USA game a few RS friendly media outlets start complaining that Stevie G isn’t being used properly and that England should play 442 with Lampard and Gerrard. Lo and behold we played that and got out played by the USA.

Well done Gareth Southgate for completely ignoring the utterly clueless English media.

I think this is a very decent point re Southgate. What I find interesting is that Pickford was definitely being set up as the scapegoat prior to the Columbia game. How far this is co-ordinated at producer level, or just a reflection of sub conscious bias of the main commentators we will never know.

Richard Keys, posting an interview with Wenger with the caption "Pickford is England's weak link" or equivalent on an interview segment that didn't make that point was sinister. This is a leading anchor, who can shape the pre-match debate and then if England lose you have the starting point for post match discussion. It took penalty heroics, one of the greatest saves I've ever seen, and one of the best performances by an England goalkeeper in my lifetime to shift that focus.

I don't think that impulse has gone away at all. I notice we haven't heard a words apology from him, Dixon, Neville or Cross for what they tried to do and how they had it wrong.
 
Scouser born L4 Catholic and Everton before my religion anyday, but only slightly more than my nation.
Support England in every sport.
Refuse to be labeled by the Uber Scouse red brigade, as some sort of tory loving sellout , the more they hate them the more I love them come on England.
Nice to have some fellow England fans on here for a change.
Never heard a blue say Scouse not English either.

I appreciate the input mate, it looks to have sparked a well natured and interesting debate anyway, with differing views.

I think the phrase scouse not English has become quite cringey as it's become weaponised by Liverpool fans who are often not associated with the City and who in the past have been big England fans. It's a shame as I've always felt the cultural values associated with the City were not only quite different to parts of the country (who tend to be most patriotic) but also a fair bit superior.

As probably comes across in the piece though, this is in no small part down to my dads brainwashing and insistence that Evertonian's were fundamentally superior to the supporters of other clubs who my friends supported and my literal interpretation of it which has always remained with me!
 

Similar to me, my support for England waned after '98 as the dominance of the Posh and Becks era took hold and strangled the term "team" out of the squad and replaced it with "individuals", "young players who aren't quite good enough, but we need to make sure they represent England over someone else just in case" and "players who are now somehow World Class from pish poor as now the Top 4 are interested in them warming their bench".
Only really the World Cup in 2002 where England were forced to field "unattractive" players, i.e. Mills, Butt, Sinclair did they actually gel and play very well as a team.

But to answer your question. Everton first, other home nations second, England somewhat after.
 
if I was asked to choose between seeing Everton win the Premier League (or even a Cup), or England winning the World Cup... the answer is simple... England.

i've seen Everton win the league/cups before in the 80s, so them doing it again would be nothing new for me... don't get me wrong, it would be good to see it happen, but not life changing.

on the other hand, i've seen England win the Rugby World Cup and the Ashes... and a World Cup win would be 10x bigger than either of them.
You’re just odd lol
 

I live in Spain these days so, I class myself as a European but, as I was born and bred in Dovecot and lived in Liverpool well into my adulthood I consider myself a scouser, but, above all I am an Evertonian, from the days when all our fans, barring some diehards off the Dublin boat and twenty or thirty coach loads from North Wales were scousers.
I was one of those diehards off the dublin boat in the late 70s early 80s
All night boat trip then the pub and strippers at 7.30am
 
I live in Spain these days so, I class myself as a European but, as I was born and bred in Dovecot and lived in Liverpool well into my adulthood I consider myself a scouser, but, above all I am an Evertonian, from the days when all our fans, barring some diehards off the Dublin boat and twenty or thirty coach loads from North Wales were scousers.

Ah yes, I remember it well. It's Ryanair these days - much quicker, but nowhere near as much fun!!
 
Exactly
I’ve been to a lot of British cities and Liverpool is the closest to Dublin in terms of atmosphere craic and people’s attitudes
Matthew street is like Temple Bar on steroids
Never watched some whopper kick some randoms head in for no reason in a European city. English cities though...
 

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