England v USA

[Scrug]

We just put six past Iran. At the last world cup Harry kane won the top goalscorer. The idea that we don't have any good players does seem a bit like you have a chip on your shoulder.

You’ve got some very good players, but certainly not any better than the likes of France, Belgium etc.

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

You’ve got some very good players, but certainly not any better than the likes of France, Belgium etc.

That is neither mine nor your argument.

"Fact is English players just aren’t that good, they look better than they are when they’re surrounded by talented foreigners in the PL."

 

[Scrug]

That is neither mine nor your argument.

"Fact is English players just aren’t that good, they look better than they are when they’re surrounded by talented foreigners in the PL."

They do! I started a thread asking who the greatest players people had seen were and the only Englishmen mentioned were Glenn Hoddle & Chuba Akpom.

Englands international record suggests they’re not as great as they’re billed up to be. I’m not saying they’re not good, I’m saying they’re not as good as it seems the majority of English fans, an English media, believe they are.

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

So your argument is that English people overrate English players and your evidence for that is English people don't rate English players.

I hope you're not a barrister.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

We got to the final in the last tournament and got to the semi final in the tournament before. We are 5th in the international rankings. Our international record does not suggest otherwise.

International rankings mean nothing, nothing at all. We've been higher and Mexico have been higher still.

It matters not how far you get without winning, that's why Steve Mac is thought of so highly.

 

[rbmfc1985]

McLaren you could actually argue underperformed, certainly in terms of the league though not really the cups.. For a couple of years we had arguably the 5th best team yet even when we came 7th we finished behind Bolton and Everton despite having far superior players.

I don't agree that we ever had the 5th best team. We had a side that could beat anyone on their day, but we always blew hot and cold. Mclaren was a goid enough coach (and having Beswick as a sports psychologist was a stroke of genius) to get those great performances out of the players when it mattered, but we could never get the consistency of the sides who were always around the top 7. Due to a mix of having some players who were past their best, some young players still learning the game, some players with quality but not a winning mentality and a handful of truly top players. It was the best time ever to be a Boro fan, but a trophy, a final and 7th really was the limit of what that squad could achieve.

We were similar to Arsenal in the early 90s and Liverpool in the late 90s. Just unfortunately we never had the money post Mclaren to build on what he did, like Arsenal were able to do under Wenger and Liverpool were able to do in the 2000s and 2010s.