Sven Goran Eriksson

[bennocelt]

So there's only 4-6 good teams in the whole of English football?

If he was that crap , his team certainly wouldnt be in the position they are in now , nor would he have ever won a trophy as a manager at all no matter how much money was spent.


The same Roma who are 2nd at the moment in Serie A ?and who have finished in that position the last 2 seasons . Sevilla came 3rd last season and were top for large periods of it , going through a rough patch now though , Villareal are in 4th now.and have finished in the top 4 before.
To be fair your assertion about the strengths of the mid ranking Italian and Spanish teams would have been true maybe 2-3 years ago but I dont think its true now.

hands up who doesnt watch football
Did you enjoy the weekend? looking at the delights of the Premeirship............Villa, Wigan, Sunderland, Birmingham, West ham and Man city
But to top it all off...........last night Newcastle were terrible, couldnt string a pass together

Seville are a good team, 2 uefa cups would attest to that, Villlarreal are good for a uefa cup, and i reckon ac milan will do it again.......sorry to rupture your shell but the EPL isnt that good

imagine signing a player cause someone told you too, without even watching him!

By the way, in what way is Sven a good coach? You only spout stats, which dont mean much in the real world of 90 minutes. England were bad under Sven, and its not like a world cup is that difficult to win

Humble pie? as i said yeah im surprised at Man City doing well, but it underlines how rubbish the rest of the EPL is, and Sven wont be winning anything soon..........ever..........(and Im sure you will be waiting a long time to prove me wrong on that count!)

[gustavo]

hands up who doesnt watch football
Did you enjoy the weekend? looking at the delights of the Premeirship............Villa, Wigan, Sunderland, Birmingham, West ham and Man city
But to top it all off...........last night Newcastle were terrible, couldnt string a pass together

Seville are a good team, 2 uefa cups would attest to that, Villlarreal are good for a uefa cup, and i reckon ac milan will do it again.......sorry to rupture your shell but the EPL isnt that good

imagine signing a player cause someone told you too, without even watching him!

By the way, in what way is Sven a good coach? You only spout stats, which dont mean much in the real world of 90 minutes. England were bad under Sven, and its not like a world cup is that difficult to win

Humble pie? as i said yeah im surprised at Man City doing well, but it underlines how rubbish the rest of the EPL is, and Sven wont be winning anything soon..........ever..........(and Im sure you will be waiting a long time to prove me wrong on that count!)

I am hardly a Premiership fan , just that if you say that it is a rubbish league then I can only assume you are using the very highest of criteria as its teams regularly perform well in European competition which suggests that it is one of the better leagues in the strongest continent footballing wise.

If England were that bad under him they wouldnt have qualified for any tournament never mind reach the knockout stages
"ac milan" will take a lot of beating thats true but then again so will Liverpool and as far as I know they arent doing that well in the Premiership

[osarusan]

and its not like a world cup is that difficult to win

how do you figure that?

[tetsujin1979]

its not like a world cup is that difficult to win

If it's so easy, then why have quality teams like Holland, Portugal or Spain never won it?

[bennocelt]

I am hardly a Premiership fan , just that if you say that it is a rubbish league then I can only assume you are using the very highest of criteria as its teams regularly perform well in European competition which suggests that it is one of the better leagues in the strongest continent footballing wise.

If England were that bad under him they wouldnt have qualified for any tournament never mind reach the knockout stages
"ac milan" will take a lot of beating thats true but then again so will Liverpool and as far as I know they arent doing that well in the Premiership

But the thing is they dont really
Apart from liverpools lucky win what have you?

[bennocelt]

If it's so easy, then why have quality teams like Holland, Portugal or Spain never won it?

Well spain were unlucky in 2002, but they were nothing special either
Holland always hyped to the last, and when did Portugal last have a decent squad (oh yeah 1966!)

I guess i expect too much, but the last two world cups have been poor, very poor, with very few half decent teams, and few "great" players
The CL is the cup to win, with good teams and good games
Im sure Ac Milan, United, Barca, etc would beat Italy, Portugal, Spain, etc

England shoud have done better. They have good plaers but never play as a team. I mean apart from italy, what other team had as good a defence as england?

[Stuttgart88]

the last two world cups have been poor, very poor, with very few half decent teams, and few "great" players

I think this is a common misperception.

I think it's mainly down to being brought up watching UK football when it was predominantly made up of UK & Irish players, and then when we saw the finals of a major tournament the better international teams stood out by comparison.

Now many of the major international players play in the EPL or in Spain which is widely televised, or the Champions League. We get used to watching top quality players and a handful of genuinely really good club teams week in / week out on TV. For example, Brazilian players are on TV all the time now but in the 70s and 80s we only saw them every 4 years.

Now when we watch the WC or Euros on telly we're not seeing anything much better (if better at all) than what we see in between these tournaments.

The lesser nations have generally improved, Eastern European teams like the Czech Rep are a force again (they were a joy to watch in 2004), African countries are generally miles better than even a decade ago, so just because the teams that do well in these tournaments haven't put the minnows to the sword like they used to doesn't mean that the quality isn't what it was.

I saw England vs Cameroon from Italia 90 on TV recently and it was a laugh, poor skills, no athleticism and it was played at a pedestrian pace. What we see these days is streets ahead.

Germany vs Italy, Argentina vs Serbia, Argentina vs Ivory Coast, France vs Spain were all super games in WC06, as were some of the cagier games involving Italy. I was at England 2-2 vs Sweden, very entertaining.

[Stuttgart88]

mean apart from italy, what other team had as good a defence as england?

With Robinson in goal, are you serious?

France's defence was good. So was Germany's after the first game. Portugal had a good defence.

England do have good players but are lacking someone in midfield with (here comes the Giles bit) lacking the moral courage but also the technique to put his foot on the ball and dictate play / facilitate the retention of the ball. Portugal, France, Spain, Germany and Italy all had this, as did Argentina and Brazil (who never got going at all).

[bennocelt]

I think this is a common misperception.

.

j H Chriss, no its just my opinion from watching a bloody lot of world cups down thorugh the years!!

Yeah you are right, the cream does rise to the top. italy were the best, a good team, and germany too, and france, but that was it

2002 was easily the worst i have ever seen, Brazil deserved it, without really trying, and turkey were the most exciting, but jeez it was an easy one to win. Korea got to the last four for fecks sake!

About italia 1990, well yeah the football was boredom, but their defences were excellent, and im sure a lot of those teams would have slowly ground out a win against the teams of the last two world cups
Lots of silly goals doesnt exactly equal good world cups
im talking about quality of teams and oppositions (which isnt always the same as excitment)

[Stuttgart88]

im talking about quality of teams and oppositions (which isnt always the same as excitment)

So am I. I know there was an emphasis on defensive football in 1990 but I'm talking about the quality, fitness, athleticism - everything. It just wasn't very good! Look at the Ivory Coast who didn't even get out of their group in 2006. They'd have won the 1990 WC.

I'm well able to appreciate the difference betwen an interesting game and an exciting game. I'm one of few that I know that thought the 1994 WC Final was a good game!

I still stand by my point that the WC used to be the pinnacle, well above what we were used to seeing week in / week out. Now the best of what's on telly every week is much closer to the best that you can watch. Real & Baercelona are on TV every week, as are Arsenal, Man U & Chelsea. All the Brazilians play in the CL (how many were in the QFs in last 2 seasons? somethinmg mad like 30 I think!).

I agree there were no outstanding teams in WC02 - one or two positive surprises alright - but I thought 1998 and 2006 were good, once the dross teams from the lesser federations were eliminated.

j H Chriss,

Chill your boots mate.

[osarusan]

I still stand by my point that the WC used to be the pinnacle, well above what we were used to seeing week in / week out. Now the best of what's on telly every week is much closer to the best that you can watch. Real & Baercelona are on TV every week, as are Arsenal, Man U & Chelsea. All the Brazilians play in the CL (how many were in the QFs in last 2 seasons? somethinmg mad like 30 I think!).

Agreed. Even up to quite recently, the old English division (now premier league) had very few foreign players in it. If I remember correctly, there was a time when Mirandinho (sp) at Newcastle was the only player who wasn't from the UK or Ireland. So the main diet of football was almost exclusively UK and Irish players. When I was growing up, there wasn't even European football to watch due to Heysel. Now, with cable tv and players from all over the world, we're seeing more of what's out there, and the Brazilians and Argentinians of the world cup are not the somewhat unknown quantities they once were.

but I thought 1998 and 2006 were good, once the dross teams from the lesser federations were eliminated.

Don't talk about Ireland like that.

[bennocelt]

Chill your boots mate.

fair cop, but thats football for you

[OwlsFan]

Well City were hopeless yesterday against the Blunts. Petrov barely putting in any sort of effort with his gloves on. Hopefully he'll continue that form against us.

No stomach for the fight, apart from Dunne as usual, so Sven needs to pull the finger out.

[shanman2]

Well City were hopeless yesterday against the Blunts. Petrov barely putting in any sort of effort with his gloves on. Hopefully he'll continue that form against us.

No stomach for the fight, apart from Dunne as usual, so Sven needs to pull the finger out.

He cant get the players in not during this window anyway. Some of his signings have been crap.

[shakermaker1982]

City need two (world) class strikers. Anelka would have been ideal but they could never compete with guaranteed CL football at Chelsea. Elano seems to have hit a bad patch as well which hasn't helped..

[gaiscíoch]

City need two (world) class strikers. Anelka would have been ideal but they could never compete with guaranteed CL football at Chelsea. Elano seems to have hit a bad patch as well which hasn't helped..

You have to ask yourself are Elanos fitness levels as good as the should be? He seems ******ed after an hour in-variably being substituted.

[OwlsFan]

He cant get the players in not during this window anyway. Some of his signings have been crap.

You can have all the great players in the world but if they are insipid and not prepared to put in the effort, then they'll get exactly what Man C got from that game against Sheff U. They just didn't have the stomach for the fight on a wet and windy day in Sheffield. Ironic though that one of the goals was caused by sky blue baloons behind the goal

[gaiscíoch]

You can have all the great players in the world but if they are insipid and not prepared to put in the effort, then they'll get exactly what Man C got from that game against Sheff U. They just didn't have the stomach for the fight on a wet and windy day in Sheffield. Ironic though that one of the goals was caused by sky blue baloons behind the goal

It's good enough for City after accepting all that Thai blood money. All the fans have the blood of 1,000s of Thai people on their hands. I realy hope they don't qualify for the Champions league. I'd say you were bulling with Citys performance. Being an Owls fan and all that

[gustavo]

All the fans have the blood of 1,000s of Thai people on their hands. that

No , They don't.

[OwlsFan]

I'd say you were bulling with Citys performance. Being an Owls fan and all that

Certain truth in that although I was pleased to see Geary have a good game. Put in some nice crosses, one of which led to a goal. Quinn also did well in midfield.