LiberalCommunist

Yep. And Ross needs a pre season more than any other player. Or he'll start the season like a 56 year old man reaching too far for the remote with a bout of sciatica. Click click snap.

I think we used up all the goals.

An interview with the enemy. Man, that takes some doing. After suffering threats, paying the biggest price, the most over the top punishment ever distributed. And yet, still just having this hanging over you, but also having to talk to the sneering press. I hope he gives them nothing this season, dead eyed monosyllabic answers and depart. Nothing. He has paid an unfair price already. He owes nothing more. I hope he gets off to a good start and frustrates them further.

We have two players on 6 goals, still with a chance of the golden boot. We have a manager that people have seemingly lost faith in. We have a chance to finish third in the largest world cup ever held. Nothing to play for, really?

This isn't a where it was said issue, its a what was said rule infringement. FIFA have to take action as there's already multiple precedents and punishments for this breech. Trump, shut the fuck up for once you utter moron.

England must be doing something right. How else do we explain how annoyed everyone is, that we didn't win the World Cup. Surely that's a step in the right direction?

You will be shocked to know I have no inside information. Pure speculation on my behalf.

His decisions reinforced their mental fragility. They share the blame. But in all honesty, we did well to get to the semi's. Looking back over the tournament, there was not much to suggest it was going to be a success. Ghana & Panama games were pretty insipid. We were kinda lucky to get through the Mexico game. Had they equalised and taken us to ET we would have been out. Norway looked well off it on the day, made some bad decisions, and we did benefit from some luck. So where does that leave me today? Tuchel should get a stay of execution. He will have learnt a lot from this competition. Some players have stepped up and bought into his philosophy. Special mention to Spence, he's really won me over. Our defence and midfield will be far more settled than it was in the build up to the WC. The fullback issue we entered the tournament with was frankly ridiculous, and Rice seemed to be injured/unwell throughout the whole competition. Mistakes have been made. But lets not chuck the baby out with the bath water. He'll be more ruthless with his picks in the future, and that will benefit us. This World Cup was far more enjoyable than I imagined it would be, and frankly its been a good distraction. Lets hope these under fire mad German managers turn out to be little gems in the coming months!

We fell short. All manner of short. But at least we didn't go out to a dodgy VAR decision. I'm strangely at peace with the result this morning. And the countdown has begun to the real football.

Damn.

Good half. Held our own. Shown Messi he won't get it all his own way. Spence looks really lively. James making space. I'm happy with that. The Argies being Argies. Lets barge them out.

No extra-time. No injuries. No suspensions. No drama. Advantage Spain. Clear favourites now.

Can the Spanish bore France into submission tonight? I hope so, as we are far better suited to beating them.

What they lack in talent they make up for in shithousery. This will be difficult to overcome. Probably the biggest danger is us scoring first, sitting back encouraging them on to us while the ref tries to even things up. No place for hiding this time.

Rentaghost. --------------- Now there's something I have given no thought to for over 40 years, but now I'm strangely intrigued to find footage of. I thought that zaniness might well have been some psychedelic mushroom trip of my teenage years, but it turns out it was just a tv show from a time before that. Side note, that horse had some moves!

Steve Gibson on the phone to human rights after the Norway coach threw that water bottle at the substitute. LOL

Okay, so it wasn't a foul on Kane. But, why did we get one non conclusive glancing view of it? Other games I've seen there's four of five different shots of it, while the whole fucking team petitions the ref. So lets just not have VAR. Simple.

Unusual for me, I feel quite optimistic. Just hope VAR doesn't do us tonight.

Although we did have a 90 minute storm break the other night, and they came back out and played.

Imagine being chucked out of a competition for this infringement. It still seems utterly ridiculous. An over reaction so great, that the football world will not know what to do the next time a serious breach of regulations comes to light. The lines are now so blurred, you'd need VAR and five working days to understand if it touched the line. Thankfully, for my sanity, we won another season in the best league in the world. So I won't dwell on it.

VAR still adds no real benefit to the game. We have more controversies than before its implementation. Decisions are still unclear, but now we just give more people more opportunity to make a subjective decision that can be result critical. And now we've seen it roll back play further to include incidents which shouldn't be in the same phase. We've seen refs allow play to continue, only for one team to be so vocal and demanding, that it influences the officials into looking for infringements. You could ague that's correct, but surely a more passive team like say Japan who don't get in their face and argue and debate every contentions decision will not be officiated the same way. I despise what it has added to the game. The Governing body seemingly have a mechanism that allows the cream to float to the top, and that is the opposite reason it was brought in for, or so we were told.........

Frustrating how they let the argies off the hook, but its down to them, not the ref. Some of the last minute defending was criminal. Painful to watch unfold.

I'd say there were shades of our first leg with M'boro reflecting on last nights world cup game. They looked like a distracted team, caught in the headlights of a drama far bigger than them. Like our team in the first leg of the play offs, as spygate broke out, we looked intimidated, rattled & disjointed. It was a bizarre performance, in both cases. Off field events clearly making a big difference. Belguim are a better team, but that result looked exaggerated.

This could well be the game that brings the curtain down on Ronaldo's international career. Whatever you think of him, he is firmly embedded into modern football history with a cult like status. I get the feeling he's going to somehow cling on and be alive in the next round. He's hard to shake. Lets find out....................

Really gutted for Quansah. I thought he looked really good up until that reckless challenge. I can't believe just how much trouble the RB slot has caused. It does feel somewhat cursed.