Saying England have failed to produce is a kind understatement, for which I thank you.
I just think they will be better than they were in Brazil or South Africa....which isn't really saying much I suppose. In Harry Kane they have a genuinely world class player. Cahill at the back is the right decision. Rashford up front with Kane and Sterling sitting in behind or out wide (or actually, play Kane out wider on the left, he has played that position very well in the past, believe it or not)? I'm just not convinced about the rest, Butland, Dele Ali, Dier, John Stones, Danny Rose, Kyle Walker, is Ashley Young really a top international player?........can this group step up? Would Jordan Henderson play? I really like him. What about Harry Maguire?? Every successful team in history (except maybe Brazil in 1970) has had a workhorse like Maguire or Henderson in the team.
Like all long-suffering England fans, I'm hugely torn between irrational optimism and foreboding of despair. There is one weird thing about England teams in the past 50 years though, they tend to play quite well against the better teams (think Brazil in 2002 and 1970, West Germany in 1990 and Argentina in 1986 and 1998). Yes, yes, I'm aware we lost every one of those....but oh, what glorious defeats!!
Anyway, back to the serious end of affairs. I shouldn't be quite so dismissive of France. I think we will see the real Paul Pogba finally, but who is that exactly? The guy who plays the first 10 games of every season as if he is a cross between Franz Beckanbauer and Johann Cruyff? Or the guy who plays the rest of the season like he just can't really be bothered and its all too much trouble? I know Grizemann is the real deal, but I like Mbappe even more in the WC as teams will work hard to shut down Grizemann giving more space and opportunities to Mbappe, who is truly a world class goal scorer.
Not a huge Lewndowski fan - seems like a whiny baby to me when things go wrong - which they do for every team at some stage. But I think the Poles could cause some real upsets. I'm just not so sure Colombia come out of this group, its not easy. Senegal are not the worst team.
Croatia are going to struggle. Modric and Rakitic might be going to prison after the WC for perjury in a fraud trial. Lovren and others are also involved. Apparently there is huge dissension in the camp, didn't stop them qualifying well though. I have read that there are factions in the camp caused by the issues of the initial fraud trial and the aftermath, with much bad feeling over Modric's testimony especially. Be very interesting to see how they do in what is not an easy group. Iceland and Nigeria are not easy games, and they probably won't get anything from the Argentina game.
I'm wondering if Brazil are on a mission after last time. How interesting will it be if they have to play Germany in the final or semi? Italy and Holland will be missed. Its a shame. The field is expanding to 48 teams in 2022, but Europe are only getting 2 of the extra teams. FIFA is, of course, laughingly corrupt in every way.
The Germany Mexico game will be very interesting. I honestly think Germany might struggle. They will probably come out of their group but I like this Mexico team. However, Germany have a truly great GK as long as Neuer is fully fit, which is very questionable.
Why my love for Spain? Firstly, they have one of the best goalkeepers I have ever seen and certainly the best in the world right now. Just like my comments re Messi and Ronaldo, if you have a great GK, he will keep you in a lot of games and anything is possible (think Schmeichel in the CL Final in 1998). Look at the outfield...Ramos, Pique, Alba, David Silva, Busquets, Costa, Rodrigo. Jesus Christ....any other year I think they should be heavy favorites.
But, I think that at the end of the tournament we might be talking about another Brazilian "super" team. They even have a superb GK this time around, Allison. They have been very impressive defensively in the past 2 years, but really, look at this midfield they have to choose from...Casemiro, Fernandinho, Paulihno, Coutinho, Willan, Fred. Really? Is that even fair? Each one of those players would walk into any other national team (with the possible exception of Spain) and each one of them scores lots of goals arriving from deep. Brazil can only pick 4 of them at the most to start. Perhaps they will let the two that are left out play for England??
Oh, sorry, I nearly forgot their front players, Neymar, Firmino, Gabriel Jesus!!! LOL, even if Neymar is not fully fit, this is not 2014 and they do not rely on him as they did then. Having said that, if he is fully fit and playing at the top of his game, this team will make for amazing viewing.
There you have it. No weaknesses. Its a long tournament....the best teams will play 6 or 7 games, you need a deep squad. And you need experience and quality. Yes, there will be surprises, and yes a couple of the big boys will fall by the wayside in shocks, but when the dust clears it would not be surprising to me if Brazil are playing either Spain or France for the whole thing. Just remember this, the best team almost always wins and the best two almost always make the final game. Go back in the history books and check it out In fact, this is so true that we all remember the one glaring time that did not happen, of course the awesome great Brazilian team of 1982. And still, the second and third best teams went on to contest the final that year with the second best team, Italy ( who astonishingly beat Brazil) winning the cup.
It's going to be an exciting WC, and I'm going to especially be interested to see how England fuck everything up. We can be very creative in this regard. Will we go out on awful misses in a penalty shootout? or getting a man sent off early in a must-win game? or a horrendous defensive mistake? or a truly shocking loss to Tunisia in the group stages? All of these things are very possible.
Just writing this has got me excited. Can't wait for Thursday. I think I'm going to be pulling a lot of "work from home" days in the month ahead!!
