World Cup 2022

Unfortunately I suspect that if Maguire isn’t fit Southgate will select dire Dier :slightly_frowning_face:

Oh no that’s worse! Diarrhoea…

Put very simply football can be played in two ways first it can be passed from player to player along the ground the faster and more intricately this is done the better or secondly hoofed from keeper or defender up to a big, strong striker/target man missing out three quarters of the pitch and players a la Brentford against Man City and Wales in the second half however this done run the risk of giving the ball straight back to the opponent most of the time.

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Funnily enough Maguire always plays better at international level than club level. If anything our weakness at the back is Stones who is a poor tackler.
By the rules of the game it was a clear penalty to Iran for shirt pulling.
The trouble now is refereeing has been so lenient in the past players now consider shirt pulling a legitimate part of the game.

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VAR has obviously just identified pulling against an Argentinian player and awarded a penalty - so wonder why VAR didn’t pick up Maguire being wrestled to the ground by Iranian player

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What a goal by Saudi Arabia. Could be one of the greatest ever World Cup shocks!

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yep, not only one goal but now two & giving Argentina a lot to think about. A game of two halves maybe? Argentina taking it just a bit too casually possibly? but Saudi fighting for everything now…

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one of those brilliant, unexpected results…and well deserved, they fought for everything and Argentina did not have an answer or way through the Saudi back line.

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Certainly well deserved. Though I generalise, it’s the same pattern for Argentina as usual. The team gets reduced to a few players and each attack seems to happen with Messi and Di Maria. Messi then starts looking suffering / grumpy and lost is the match …

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Only just caught the highlight on my lunch break what a fantastic result.

Do people still think Messi is a better player than Maradona?
I think this question was answered today.

So wishing “Hannibal” does a “Handball” that concedes a goal.
Then known forever as “Handball Hannibal”.

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Nope. Both had exceptional talent but Maradona had a will-to-win and ability to carry his lesser gifted teammates in a way that Messi never has.

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I think Messi is in the top five best ever players but is only considered GOAT due to the huge amount of media exposure compared to the eras of Maradona and particularly Pele.

The latter remains GOAT for me, followed by Grant Holt with Maradona a fraction behind…

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Interestingly IIRC both Maradona and Pele have said at times that they think Di Stefano was the best ever. Better than they were.

For me it would be Johan Cruijff, a player that not only was on another level individually, but would force the whole team to play better.

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Di Stefano was,I believe, Alex Ferguson’s favourite player.
I would like to see if some of todays players could play in a foot of mud with various defenders kicking lumps out of them and look as good as George Best.

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Watching the KSA play with such aggression has made the rest of todays matches so far look like safe boring football painted by the numbers.

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Would I be correct in assuming you rely on humorous cartoons for in depth analysis of world news. :blush:

That’s a proven method innit?

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