atypical_boro
Well-known member
I’m at a fecking wedding. The bride has “accepted” that people will be watching it on their phones etc apparently. So I will be one of the people pushing the boundaries further and watching it in the kitchen with the chef or whatever.
But I have two thoughts about the match:
1) shall we just sh1th0u5e them? Everyone else seems to do it these days. Portugal did it to us twice in as many tournaments. Is this the part of our game that’s always been lacking at the “business end” of major tournaments?
2) it has a distinct feel of Brazil in 2002 or maybe even Argentina in 1986, where we lost both to the eventual winners who had brilliance in the side, and it didn’t feel like we’d let ourselves down too badly (certainly not catastrophes of the Roy Hodgson mould).
However, I think if you took Mbappe out of this side we’d have nothing to fear. But that got me thinking; has Mbappe actually played that many games against “top” opposition and been successful? His club side consistently fail in the CL and he couldn’t drag France beyond the last 16 of the Euros.
Obviously he did have success against Argentina in 2018 but after that (Uruguay/Belgium/Croatia) it wasn’t the hardest run and he was very much an unknown quantity at that level at the time.
I know he’s widely accepted as the best footballer on the planet atm (though I think his game is hugely about unrivalled pace on the ball) but sometimes these mantras come too soon for players. He has never played in one of Europe’s top leagues yet either.
Is there a chance he buckles with the weight of a nation on his shoulders, and we capitalise?
We’d beat Spain btw, I think. After that, who knows.
But I have two thoughts about the match:
1) shall we just sh1th0u5e them? Everyone else seems to do it these days. Portugal did it to us twice in as many tournaments. Is this the part of our game that’s always been lacking at the “business end” of major tournaments?
2) it has a distinct feel of Brazil in 2002 or maybe even Argentina in 1986, where we lost both to the eventual winners who had brilliance in the side, and it didn’t feel like we’d let ourselves down too badly (certainly not catastrophes of the Roy Hodgson mould).
However, I think if you took Mbappe out of this side we’d have nothing to fear. But that got me thinking; has Mbappe actually played that many games against “top” opposition and been successful? His club side consistently fail in the CL and he couldn’t drag France beyond the last 16 of the Euros.
Obviously he did have success against Argentina in 2018 but after that (Uruguay/Belgium/Croatia) it wasn’t the hardest run and he was very much an unknown quantity at that level at the time.
I know he’s widely accepted as the best footballer on the planet atm (though I think his game is hugely about unrivalled pace on the ball) but sometimes these mantras come too soon for players. He has never played in one of Europe’s top leagues yet either.
Is there a chance he buckles with the weight of a nation on his shoulders, and we capitalise?
We’d beat Spain btw, I think. After that, who knows.
