Big Boy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 8:15 am
I had the game on, and despite the great expectations of this weekend's footie fix, couldn't stop myself from drifting off to sleep. I was awake for the goals though, so I guess my brain was in highlights mode
Strangely enough I didn't watch the match, but I see the press are giving your hero HK a fair amount of grief over his performance (or lack of) - also noticed he has had somewhat of a panning in the German press for recent club performances?
Despite the piss-taking, surely a 3-1 result can't be that bad can it?
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" - Yma o Hyd.
Fortunately he wasn't part of my 'highlights viewing'.
At the end of the day, these games are only a replacement for friendly matches, and don't mean that much. Its nice to win, but losing isn't the end of the world.
Big Boy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 12:48 pm
At the end of the day, these games are only a replacement for friendly matches, and don't mean that much. Its nice to win, but losing isn't the end of the world.
Oh, we Welsh will take any victory (or draw) in any competition! Actually, I hear Huw Llewellyn is through to the Semi's of the Celtic Nations Tiddlywinks - special indeed!!
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" - Yma o Hyd.
dtaai-maai wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 1:04 am
And stop bothering me with silly little messages on WhatsApp. Does anyone know if there's a 'block' option? <sigh>
Oh hush up you pair of tarts...
[EDIT] And anyway, if I was to "Say it with flowers", I'd send DM a Triffid!!
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" - Yma o Hyd.
pharvey wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 12:23 pm
Strangely enough I didn't watch the match, but I see the press are giving your hero HK a fair amount of grief over his performance (or lack of) - also noticed he has had somewhat of a panning in the German press for recent club performances?
It's usually said, fairly, that he needs service (not servicing). There's little he can do when the ball isn't being played through space to him, or being crossed from the wing. I didn't watch much of the match but it looked at though the Finns just locked the match down and kept in formation in their own half. It needs a team with a lot of flair to break that down, but even that's hardly possible if the opposition don't intend to attack except on a rare breakout. Maybe 3 goals isn't a bad haul then.
Finland did defend deep in numbers but these days England don’t appear to have anyone who can take players on down the wings and get the ball into the centre for the likes of HK to put the ball in the back of the net.
It isn't his goal scoring ability that I criticise. It is his performance elsewhere. It's a team game, and if not scoring goals, the guy becomes invisible. If they aren't crossing the ball to him, he shouldn't be sat in a sulk somewhere, waiting. He should be helping out his teammates elsewhere. Maybe that is why England struggle so much when a team parks the bus. They go a man down at the same time.
Big Boy wrote:It isn't his goal scoring ability that I criticise. It is his performance elsewhere. It's a team game, and if not scoring goals, the guy becomes invisible. If they aren't crossing the ball to him, he shouldn't be sat in a sulk somewhere, waiting. He should be helping out his teammates elsewhere. Maybe that is why England struggle so much when a team parks the bus. They go a man down at the same time.
I assume you’re referring to Harry Kane - if so I’d have to disagree completely as one of the main criticisms about him is that he often drops deep to help out resulting in there being no one up front to pass the ball to.
Whilst they claim he was “invisible” during the Villa game, that’s just a one-off - they also include his statistics since joining Bayern Munich -
“Kane has an exceptional scoring record since departing Tottenham for Germany last year, registering 54 times in the 53 appearances for Bayern”. What’s wrong with that?
He’s also Englands top goal scorer and no doubt had he stayed at Tottenham he would have eventually overtaken Jimmy Greaves record and at the same time he would have eventually overtaken Alan Shearer as the highest goal scorer in the Premier League.
And I’m not really even a HK fan - just acknowledging that his record in English football is almost second to none!!
As I said, it has never been his goal scoring ability that I query. I think it was Brian Clough who was credited with the 'It only takes a second to score a goal' comment. A football match lasts 5,400 seconds. It is what the guy is doing for the 5,399 seconds that he isn't scoring his goal. He so often just does get involved in the games when I'm watching him.
I will qualify the above by saying I never used to watch Spurs very often - I'm sure he must have had his moments, but rarely when I've been watching.
