Apparently the Russia team ran 125km yesterday. That’s with a 38, 34 and 33 year old in the team.

comment by Alexis The King Sanchez (U10026)
posted 1 minute ago
Apparently the Russia team ran 125km yesterday. That’s with a 38, 34 and 33 year old in the team.


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this WC has got Sochi winter olympics written all over it

Putin has been at it again

Putin is a legend

comment by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (U11781)
posted 13 seconds ago
Putin is a legend
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i like him

proper bloke

takes no shiiite

no pusssy like most western leaders

It’s so blatant. They stopped testing until after the world cup apparently.

https://twitter.com/bennettron/status/1009528938220138496?s=21

I actually loved Keane tonight

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comment by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (U11781)
posted 8 hours, 1 minute ago
https://twitter.com/bennettron/status/1009528938220138496?s=21

I actually loved Keane tonight
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One of my brothers is just like that. Seems to hate everyone and everything, including himself.

Silly cant never liked footy though. He might've made a top drawer DM hardman.

what were your assessments of the spain match fellas

That we haven't got a good manager. Teams have been setting up against us the same way for years, surely you must be able to predict that and find alternatives.

It's unforgiveable to be unable to find other solutions when we have so much talent in the squad to mix it up a bit. A lot of the time we played it out wide we only had Costa in the box against seven or eight defenders. The game was crying out for some players who'd pose a threat from outside the box.

The occasional long range shot would have helped to draw them out a bit. Not to mention that the keeper would often have been unsighted and that the sheer amount of bodies in there would've made any deflection a lot more likely and dangerous.

Then there was our panicky defending. Piqu'e was horrendous. Nearly all his headed clearances went straight to an Iranian player, and half the balls he played out on the deck he was giving to players in compromised situations.

Our full backs have contributed very little, as did Lucas yesterday, and Iniesta has been very sub-par too.

Biggest pluses so far is that Ramos has been very good and Isco looks to be in good form.

We need big individual and collective improvements if we want to get anywhere. Granted it's only been two games, but so far Hierro hasn't given the impression of knowing what he can do to make a difference.


As an aside, the ref was awful too. Tolerated their spoiling tactics way tooo much. You can just let go all the persistent time wasting and petty, repetitive fouling like he did.

My biggest issue with Spain is the insistence to play the same way as they have done since 2008 when Xavi/Iniesta are in their prime. Yet the team isn't set up to play that way.

Costa isn't a real tiki-taka player, like a lot of your other forwards. As said previously, Iniesta just doesn't look up to it. Meaning that half the time when you do get a break it leads to one of Silva or Isco running at the defence and Silva especially - I would prefer him to be playing the passes and not running driving at the defence.

Agreed about Pique though, he was shambolic. Him getting megged and literally stopping is the worst bit of defending I reckon I have seen this tournament - it was kids standard of football.

Agree with all of that, Edin, except that I don't have an issue with Silva/Isco taking players on. Like so many others before them, Iran essentially narrowed the active playing field to a band of 20 yards. You need to force some kind of opening.

Another thing I badly miss in Spain is an interest to attack or counter more directly from time to time. What seems to have been forgotten about the Aragonés version of tiki-taka was that we did actually alternate our approach. Yes, we'd play a lot of possession, but were were also happy in spells to sit and soak up pressure and hit opponents on the break.

It was certainly much better to watch, and still very effective. Nowadays we're way too one-dimensional and even seem to have completely forgotten how to defend without the ball.

I've been saying this for 6 years though, and there still isn't really any sign of change.

I don't have as much of an issue with Isco taking players on IOAG. Yet Silva doesn't have the legs for it anymore I feel.

I think I would like to see if I was a spain fan:

Asensio Costa Silva
------Isco
Busquets Thiago

Isco, Asensio & Silva could be quite fluid in that set up as well, changing positions while Costa remains the focal point.

can't believe my Sugar article is closing in on 500 comments ffs

IOAG, I was telling my cousin yesterday you guys really lacked width. I would've taken Pedro for that reason, at least he can stretch the play from out wide and is comfortable with both feet.

Not much point in width though if you don't pose a realistic, diverse threat in the box.

Oppo knows that 90% of the time we're going to try to cut it back rather than go for a high cross, so they look to cover those lines.


Edin, it depends on the oppo, imo, but I'm not that big a fan of Thiago's, especially not that deep. He's prone to giving the ball away in dangerous situations.

I'd rather have Saúl pushing up next to Busquets, or even just Saúl locking up the MF in games where the oppo doesn't threaten that much, in that case behind two more creative mids. Not sure which ones though, as at least one of them would need to stand in for him when he did push up.

Not much point in width though if you don't pose a realistic, diverse threat in the box.

Oppo knows that 90% of the time we're going to try to cut it back rather than go for a high cross, so they look to cover those lines.
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Yeah you would think Alba would look for more first time overlapping crosses to Costa.


Tbh IOAG I don't know too much about Saul/Thiago but said Thiago based on his reputation.

Alba gets a lot of assists for Barça because Messi's so quick and mobile, Suárez is a permanent danger in the box and they have other players who are good at arriving late, so defenders' attention gets really divided.

Spain just don't have that variety of threats in the box.


Saúl is not as gifted technically, but a lot more versatile than Thiago. He likes to get forward as much as possible, but Simeone has instilled a bit more discipline in him.

I'd also much sooner have Aspas than Lucas Vázquez wide of Costa, he's a much smarter and more elusive player. Lucas is more of a grafter, but not a very inspirational player.

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Iran created a few more chances in the second half, they deserved a goal tbh. Hopefully they tank Portugal and qualify.

Second half was much better, imo. Lots more chances at both ends and less spoiling tactics than the 1st.

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