Premier League Match 16 - Southampton 1 Brighton 3

 

Good With Feet, Hands Need Work

Even though we’ve had the Liverpool away game and the Lincoln game in the cup, either side of the World Cup, today feels like the real beginning of Nathan Jones tenure as Saints manager. I guess it’s the first really important game.

No one was expecting anything at Anfield and that’s what we got but with the precarious position in the league table that we currently occupy, today is certainly a game that we need something out of, preferably a win of course. Having not provided a decent performance against Lincoln on Tuesday night, may fans are apprehensive about what lies ahead today against what is a very good Brighton side, or it was before the World Cup anyway.

They got themselves in a very good position in the league table when Graham Potter was manager but he left to take the poison chalice at Stamford Bridge.  Brighton appointed Robert de Zerbi within a matter of days and have carried on picking up the results and sit seventh in the table. One of the star performers this year has been Alexis MacAllister who was a bit part player last year but got in the team regularly this season, got picked for the Argentina World Cup squad, got himself into the starting 11 and is now a World Cup winner, immortal in his own country. I really much doubt he’ll be playing today because if he’s got any sense, he will still be on the piss in Argentina. Whether MacAllister plays or not, they will still be some real quality in this Brighton team with the likes of Caicedo, Gross and Trossard. Brighton have been improving year-on-year and this year would be the first where they have not even been in anyone’s conversation about potential relegation candidates. Hopefully, de Zerbi’s new manager bounce would’ve worn off by now and they can throw in a stinker of a performance today because we might need it.

“Relegation candidates” is of course the bracket that we are in now and Nathan Jones needs to get this side picking up some results to get us out of that bracket as soon as possible. It will be interesting to see what the starting formation is today. We were clearly better on Tuesday when we went 4-3-3. Ralph Hasenhüttl never got us playing well with three at the back though Jones sought to distance himself from that being his favourite formation after the game on Tuesday, I’m sure we will see it again at some point. With Stuart Armstrong and Sam Edozie impressing substitutes on Tuesday and AMN and Adam Armstrong sucking ass, I’m expecting there to be changes.

As it turned out it was 4-3-3 but it still managed to be worrying on paper.  Lyanco was picked ahead of both ABK and Caleta-Car and Diallo got the nod in midfield with JWP and Elyounoussi.  Sam Edozie got a deserved first start on one wing but this was offset by Moussa Djenepo being included on the right.  Che Adams was of course, up front.  There was a place on the bench for Jimmy-Jay Morgan, due to the injury to Theo Walcott.

Unfortunately, right from the kick-off, Brighton are looking like they have no issue with the fact they haven’t played a game for a few weeks and Mitoma, who had a very good World Cup for Japan, turns Lyanco inside and out before forcing a save out of Baz at the near post. We have our own twisting turning winger of course in Sam Edozie and he immediately follow suit by bundling past three players and putting over across which is met by Elyounoussi but he can only direct it straight at Sanchez.

So far so good and even though Brighton are having most of the ball, we are looking comfortable enough until Brighton build down or left hand side and work the ball across to Lallana in the middle. He moves it onto March on the right hand side, who moves it onto his left foot and chips it back in and Lallana is completely unmarked to flick his head at it. The header is marginally to the right of Bazunu and he absolutely fucking clown-fumbles it into the net. Fucking hell. Yes it’s a free header but you’ve got to be saving that for fuck‘s sake.  Lallana tones down his celebration but have no fear Adam, we still think you’re a twat.

We have a chance to get back into the game straight away and it’s through the livewire Edozie again, as he tricks his way infield before being flattened which gives us a free kick. Up steps JWP for his first free-kick in what seems like ages and it’s decent, it just swings away at the last moment and goes a foot wide.

Any confidence that we may have had at the start of the game has gone to pot a little bit and Brighton are comfortable in possession and we are not getting close to them. They seem to have a spare man everywhere and our midfield is absolutely nowhere.  Diallo just doesn’t mark anyone and he’s not scanning around to see where any free player might be.

Goalkeeper, Right Back, Centre Backs and Defensive Midfielder Not Involved

Salisu tries to get in to win a 50-50 but it’s all slightly half-arsed and the ball drops to Gross. Out left it goes to Mitomo, who waits for the overlapping Estupinan before laying the ball in front of him and his first time cross is missed by Baz and it’s going to be a tap-in for Solly March but Perraud does his job for him and hopelessly slices it into his own net off his right foot. Fucking hell. Again, Baz should’ve cut it out and Perraud has to do better than putting it in his own net but where the fuck were the two centre backs and the right back?

KWP is still absolutely nowhere to be seen as Mitomo bursts down the left hand side and crosses low. This time Baz does get a hand to it which prevents us going three down. Half-time, booed off and deservedly so. That was absolutely fucking clueless shit.

The half-time conversation concerns what an earth we can do from the bench at half-time and there is uniform agreement all around me that Diallo and Djenepo should come off so we can at least have 11 players on the pitch. Unsurprisingly, Nathan Jones thinks the same so Stuart Armstrong and Joe Aribo make an appearance as the teams come back out.

Immediately, Saints are pressing higher up the pitch and there is more energy but Brighton are such a good passing side that they inevitably deal with the press easily enough mainly through giving the ball to Caicedo, who seems to have a force field around him which means no Saints player can go anywhere near him.

Stuart Armstrong plays a decent ball into Edozie, who now seems to be playing up front but he takes a touch to beat the last defender before lashing well over the bar.  Another substitution is needed on 55 as Perraud is struggling so on comes Maitland-Niles to go to right-back, with KWP switching to the left. Edozie is still our best chance of anything happening and he has a shot blocked after Adams chests a cross down to him. We don’t look like scoring but at least we are carrying some sort of threat… and with that the game completely dies as Solly March picks up the ball on the right hand side, cuts in onto his left foot which everyone knows he was going to do, apart from JWP evidently, and he absolutely smashes it into the far top corner. Brilliant strike.  It should be 4-0 straight away after that as March is again allowed to get a cross in and Mitoma meets it about 8 yards out but heads it badly wide.

The referee Robert Jones has not had much to get involved in today but he makes himself the centre of attention as Edozie jinks past another two players before being blocked to the ground by Pascal Gross. Penalty given. Interesting, looks a bit harsh to me but VAR upholds the decision with both Sanchez and Gross getting the right arse about it and Sanchez’ mood is not improved as he saves JWP’s penalty but is powerless as JWP heads in the rebound.

With a little bit of momentum Che Adams then tries to bundle his way into the box but brings down Estupinan but there is no whistle so Adams plays on and piles into Sanchez and there are some handbags. With Sanchez already having been booked, that should be yellow cards both and therefore red to the Brighton goalkeeper but Jones completely bottles it, so both players escape.

It’s just winding down now. Sekou Mara is on for Elyounoussi and he hits the corner flag with one effort before the final substitution which sees it Edozie taken off and replaced with Adam Armstrong. Could’ve got something out of the game by giving Jimmy Morgan a few minutes but no, Adam Armstrong.

Absolute fucking dog shit and the first question for any journalist to ask is – What in the name of fuck have we been doing for the past six weeks?

When you are looking at a new player or a new manager, you never want to jump to immediate negative conclusions but sometimes the evidence in front of your face makes it very hard not to do that. No one is expecting miracles but in that time you should expect to see something.  Five weeks of training and two matches this week and what improvements or even potential improvements have we seen? 

Are we playing better football going forward? 
Is our midfield structure better?
Are we defensively more solid?
Are we playing with more intensity?
Do we look better organised?
Do we have more will to win?
Do we look fitter?

Of course you are not going to get everything but surely something should be better.  Then there's the old 'new manager bounce' cliche.  New Manager Bounce is not suddenly having a team of world beaters just because the manager has changed but what it is, is an increase in performance levels due to an increase in intensity as players try and impress the new manager and respond positively to his new impetus.  Have we seen any of that?

It is really not going to take to many performances like that before Nathan Jones find himself in trouble. From his point of view, that was a performance that suggested he hasn't achieved very much at all in the past 6 weeks. There needs to be some green shoots poking through the shite pretty quickly, to show the world that Jones just might just be the man to turn it around. Today, he set the team up, as he did against Lincoln, with just one defensive midfielder. With the players we have, I really don’t see that that is the way to go without Romeo Lavia. It doesn’t help when you pick Maitland-Niles or Diallo as your single holding midfielder. Both of them are simply not good enough in that position.  Neither have the awareness that the job requires.  It was interesting that last week, Jones was saying that he wished he had Oriol Romeu.

Having been dismal in the first half, we pressed for a bit at the start of the second half but not really.  I assume we were trying to stop Brighton playing out from the back.  Brighton still played every goal kick through Caicedo on the edge of their box.  No one nicked the ball off him, no one even fouled him.  I’m just a bloke in the crowd who’d had a couple of pints and I could see that pattern so how does a well paid manager, his team of analysts and alleged Premier league footballers not see it.  Fucking joke.  Maybe the ‘data’ before the game didn’t make that clear.

So, our attacking play - the ball either went to the Edozie to run at Veltman or it was the long ball up to the striker. Six weeks of training from Jones and that’s it, is it? If we were going to play like that then we might as well have appointed Sean Dyche, who at least has some relevant experience at the top level.

I’m less annoyed with Jones right now, than I am with the board.  Jones was appointed using the data analytics approach favoured by Rasmus Ankersen, rather than by a more conventional method such as, you know, looking at any experience that a prospective manager has at a decent level of football. Nathan Jones has managed for one complete season in the Championship. Of course, he has never managed in a top league and all bar that one season has been managing in League One or League Two.  I wonder if any other Premier League club has ever looked at him?  Wolves appointed Julen Lopetegui as their new manager around about the time that we appointed Jones.  He of course has years of experience of managing both in international football and at top level club football – Real Vallecano, Porto, Real Madrid, Sevilla and the Spanish national side. After his five weeks of working with his new squad, which was lower than us in the league, Lopetegui managed to win at Everton and we have gone to the rock bottom of the league.  Of course, it’s only one game but it’ll be interesting to see the difference between what Wolves do for the rest of the season, against what Saints do.  It may turn out that we turn a corner and storm to safety and Wolves drop like a stone but I wouldn't bet on that if I was you.

Jones has got no honeymoon period and he has no grace with the supporters and no credit in the bank. One of the reasons Ralph survived as long as he did is because he had proved at one point, that he was up to the job.  Jones hasn’t got that to fall back and whether that's unfair or not, that's where we are.

Moving away from Sports Republic and their Data Driven Alignment Best Practice LinkedIn Model for a minute… let’s look at the players and what they did or didn’t do today - a number of them out there today are shit and to be fair to Jones, any manager would struggle to get a result out of them.

Gavin Bazunu has let in a few ropey goals this season but none have been completely his fault but he has got to be saving the first one today because it’s straight at him. The fragile confidence that we have in the team was completely deflated by him allowing Lallana‘s soft header to bobble through him. He didn’t look great on the second goal either driving out to try and cut out the cross and missing it but there were other factors involved in how that one ended up in the net. Personally, I think it’s time to take Gavin out first team for a while now.  He will come again but a rookie keeper is not what we need right now. We have two experienced goalkeepers and though neither of them are brilliant, now is the time for either Alex McCarthy or Willy Caballero to come in. The last time we were in this position at Christmas was in the Pellegrino season and around this time of year, we got absolutely smashed at Tottenham and McCarthy came into the team for Fraser Forster and played a huge part in us staying up at the end of the season.

Both first half goals featured absolutely shocking marking. Don’t get me wrong, Brighton are very good side and they’ve got very good movement.  Our one defensive midfielder, Diallo just wandered about, not picking up anyone and Lallana, Trossard and Gross just wandered unhindered into whatever area they wanted to wander into. With no one playing as an out and out centre forward, Salisu and Lyanco were completely confused and they didn’t mark anyone either, nor it seems, communicate with the midfield in front of them. So, you have your three main players responsible for picking players up, not bothering and Brighton also had a March on the right and Mitoma on the left, terrorising their respective full backs.

So with the back half of the team being abysmal, what do we have going forward? We had Sam Edozie who was brilliant again and got kicked all over the park but he kept getting up and kept trying to make things happen. He got his reward in the end getting given what was probably a very generous penalty. It would probably have been given as an indirect free kick for obstruction in days gone by but that rule seems to have disappeared from the game but regardless, he deserved some sort of reward for his bravery and quality on the ball. The Jones-ball formation meant that once again, Elyounoussi and JWP barely saw the ball (watch Elyounoussi's lack of movement when our defenders have the ball) but when they did, they did absolutely fuck all with it. If Edozie was decent on the left-hand side, Djenepo on the right was absolutely fucking atrocious. He has absolutely no idea what to do and when to do it and one of the things that Jones got right today it was taking him off at half-time.  It gives me no pleasure to be right but I said at the time that the new contract for Djenepo was a ridiculous decision.  If Djenepo is getting minutes on the wing, then it is absurd that Nathan Tella is out on loan.

Che Adams again was decent, showed he cared and tried his best against the uncompromising Brighton defence. How dispiriting must it be when your job for today is basically to compete for high balls against Lewis Dunk, quite possibly the best defender in the Premier League against a high ball. It was good to see Adams smash into the goalkeeper as well.

Brighton were absolutely outstanding and are possibly the best team that we’ve played this season but on the other side of that is the fact that they won’t have had or will have an easier game than that this season. The key period of the game was after the first goal and we didn’t react at all until after half-time, by which time we were two down and the game was dead. Brighton are a club with a smaller stadium than us and have been in the Premier League for less time but they are absolutely light years ahead of us in terms of the first team on the pitch and they will be challenging for Europe this season and we will be challenging for the “Best Alignment across all Departments“ trophy. The Rasmus Ankersen Grand Vision needs to start providing short-term results pretty quickly otherwise Solak’s golden boy's star is not going to be shining so brightly when millions are wiped off of the turnover of his biggest asset.   The incoming transfer window and it’s going to be absolutely crucial for us. I would say that if we do not sign four players who are fit for purpose to make a difference in the first team, then we are almost certainly going to get relegated. We are currently rock bottom of the league and deserve to be there. This is where we are as a club.

Happy New Year everyone.

Carabao Cup 4th Round - Southampton 2 Lincoln City 1

 

You Lot Moaning About a Win? Really?

Two days ago I was sat in front of my TV watching the World Cup final play out with the mesmerising skills of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé. Now I was back in the cold at St Mary‘s, about to witness the first home game of Nathan Jones, our manager recently recruited from Luton Town, who was sending his Saints side into a Carabao Cup 4^th  Round game against League 1 Lincoln City. For Messi and Mbappé, read Maitland-Niles and Mandroiu… perhaps.

So, what would be getting after 5 weeks of working with a virtually full squad of players?  The noises coming out the camp have been good but with a  new manager, they always are. I’ve learned over the years not to expect miracles – for example, any new manager is not going to transform an underperforming player over night. I am expecting this to be disjointed but I am expecting us to win and I am hoping that we show of style of play which looks like it might work at Premier League level. I am wanting us to be in their faces and unpleasant to play against.

To the team news and it’s three at the back with the only slight surprise being Lyanco being preferred to Caleta-Car. The midfield three consisted of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Mohamed Elyounoussi in addition to JWP and Adam Armstrong given the nod up front partner Che Adams.  OK, not going to lie, I’m a little bit underwhelmed with that midfield three but let’s see how it works out.  Brave New World and all that.

Lincoln’s first attack saw them win a corner over on our right after two minutes. Inswinger and it went to Maitland-Niles at the back post and instead of clearing it like a normal player would have, he slices it up on the air and it comes down with fucking snow on it on top of Baz, who has been policed by some lamp post of a bloke who was about 6 foot 5 and Baz manages to push it in his own net.  No worries though, because the lino has the flag up so surely this is going to be disallowed… but no the referee’s given it and there's no VAR for some reason and the Jones era gets underway with us going ago behind after two minutes to a fucking League One side.  Awesome.

No worries, lots of time to go I guess. Time to show the new style of play that we’ve been expecting but all we get is booming long balls from the centre backs and no one in midfield interested in receiving the ball. It’s fucking weird. Maitland-Niles is playing just in front of the back three and then you’ve got JWP and Elyounoussi and the wingbacks who are not really getting involved because the ball is being bombed long towards Che Adams and Adam Armstrong.  You can see straight away why none of the defenders are giving it to AMN.  To call him shit would be an insult to shit players.  He’s performing at several levels beneath that.

We do press well to win the ball in their half an Elyounoussi slips Adam Armstrong through but he hasn’t got a left foot so tees it up for Che Adams but the pass is a bit behind him so he has to dig it out which allows the goalkeeper to smother the shot out for a corner.

After 25 or so minutes of not a lot really, we get the ball down and Salisu plays a progressive pass through the lines of Lincoln defenders and the ball pops off of AMN by accident to Elyounoussi just the right of centre and his cross his headed into the net by Che Adams. The main man and only goal scoring threat we have is up and running under the new manager. Get in.  Lincoln are appealing for offisde but as you know lads, there's no VAR today.

No VAR Today Lads

There is one more chance before half-time and it falls Lincoln as they build up down our left hand side after Perraud has given the ball away.  None of the defenders cover themselves in glory and Lincoln build well and eventual shot by Vernon is comfortably saved by Baz.

A bit of half-time research reveals that Adams was clearly offside for our goal and there was no reason for the lino to stick her flag up on their goal.  It’s been attritional and not very good from us.  Jones makes just one change at halftime with ABK coming off to be replaced by Caleta-Car.

This means that Lyanco is now on the right of the three so has slightly more license to get forward, which he does after we create an opening courtesy of winning the ball back, counter-pressing after a shocking bit of control by Adam Armstrong. It bounces out to Lyanco about 40 yards out and he just let’s fly about three or four yards wide.  He will score one day and it will be biblical.

After that bright start, it begins to meander a little bit.  Lincoln are settled in for penalties and the keeper is wasting time like a bastard.   The referee, Jarrod Gillet warned him in the first half without booking him and is now doing fuck all about it so I ask, what is the fucking point?  Anyway, Jones makes three changes in quick succession with Edozie, Walcott and Stuart Armstrong replacing Salisu, KWP and Adam Armstrong.  With AMN now at right back where he can cause less damage, we have now gone 4-3-3 and we look better straight away.  It's not so much the formation but the fact that we have got AMN and Adam Armstrong out of the way and have replaced them with players who can actually play.

Good work straight away by Edozie as he cut scene from the left hand side and finds Stuart Armstrong and with his hair looking fine, he works the ball onto his right foot before lashing it narrowly over the bar.

Adams knocks the ball out wide to Walcott on the right hand side, who shows the remaining vestiges of his pace before clipping the ball over to where Elyounoussi volleys it, it hits a defender and Adams has got himself into the middle and as where the ball drops and he bundles it into the net. Scruffy as fuck but we’ll take it.  Having provided an assist, Walcott has had enough so he’s injured and gone, probably til about March.  Enter Djenepo.

Edozie then begins to absolutely take the piss out of the right hand side of Lincoln’s defence, turning three players inside out before finding Adams on the edge of the box but the move peters out. Regardless, what we have now is that Lincoln are actually worried about one of our attackers doing something on an individual basis.

As time runs down, Lincoln have a little bit of possession and curling shot from the edge of the box produces a decent save from Baz.  In the 92nd minute, Lincoln have over-committed and Djenepo picks up the ball in midfield chips it over the top and Elyounoussi is clean through. He draws the keeper and unselfishly passes at square for Edozie to tap into the empty net… Only he fucking misses from 5 yards. Oh no that’s horrible… and you have to laugh because he’s a youngster.

Yeah, About That Open Goal

Not content with that, Armstrong wins the ball in midfield and knocks forward to Adams who bundles past the last defender and literally has half the pitch to himself and the Lincoln goalkeeper to beat.  Instead of knocking at square to Elyounoussi or Armstrong he just dribbles, dribbles, dribbles and the goalie dives three times and gets back to his feet and eventually Adams runs out of space and hits it and it bounces off the keeper and fucking hell.  Selfish to not pass it but unselfish in taking the heat off of Sam Edozie.

Final whistle.  Well that was a very mixed bag. The initial formation of 3-1-4-2 didn’t work at all and we didn’t give Lincoln any real problems playing that way.  The problem with it as I saw it was a lack of progression from midfield. Maitland-Niles was being asked to do that job and it was a bit like asking a one-legged man to win an arse kicking competition.  He played like he was drugs – totally blissed out, no urgency, concrete boots on, unaware of anything and not in control of his limbs. Consequently, if we managed to retain possession it eventually ended up back with the centre-backs, who pumped it long.  Not pretty.

Nathan Jones to his credit did recognise that it wasn’t working and when we changed to a back four and got some of the better footballers on the pitch, then we looked like a different side. Stuart Armstrong and Samuel Edozie may not be the best defensively but at least made us look like a Premier League team playing against League 1 opposition because they can actually do something with the ball.  Quality on the ball is required.

If we go through the team, Bazunu was not strong enough on the goal that we conceded but he was played right into the shit by a shocking clearance up in the air by Maitland-Niles. The starting back three all acquitted themselves fairly well with Lyanco being the standout with his willingness to attack the ball. A lot of the passing out of defence by all three of them was very hit and miss.

Saints were trying to get JWP further forward but we’re failing to get him the ball in decent areas as touched on earlier. Elyounoussi is the strangest player.  He had a hand in both of the goals but was otherwise painfully average - so what do you do with that?  I guess that goals and assists are what we need right now.  Up front, Che Adams battled away, looking like he was up for the fight and wanting to make a difference and he was rewarded with his two goals. I have absolutely no issue with his miss in the last minute and he needs to be more selfish more often. He should have squared it of course but for now, I’m happy with him trying to add more goals to his game. We did have another striker up front of course but we may as well not have done. Adam Armstrong again proved that it’s not lack of effort - he simply isn’t good enough. If he’s not giving the ball away with poor passes or heavy touches, he’s failing to hold off defenders and seemingly having a lack of determination to do so. He doesn’t even stand in the way of the defenders and draw fouls, he kind of just lets them have it.  Any starting 11 but has AMN in midfield and Adam Armstrong upfront is going to struggle.  As I said earlier, out of the substitutes, Stuart Armstrong added a touch of class and Samuel Edozie was brilliant apart from missing the rather embarrassing open goal, which put me in mind of one that Nathan Redmond produced last season where it’s just too easy.

Nathan Jones came out swinging his post-match interview, asking what everyone expected because after all, he’s only there because we don’t win many games. He is right of course and cup football is all about winning and today has to be taken into the context of not having played for six weeks.   On the other hand, Jones has to realise that we've been dreadful for he best part of a year and a lot of fans are very underwhelmed by his appointment so they want encouragement that things will get better.  It wasn’t the most encouraging of performances but the next few weeks are going to be very strange with some strange performances being thrown in by every team.  It will be all about results but today provided little evidence that results will be coming our way and we will undoubtedly need to be much better against Brighton on Boxing Day.

I will say that in order to win the game, Jones went big with attackers on the pitch.  When the second goal went in we had Edozie, Adams and Walcott up front with a midfield three of Elyounoussi, Stuart Armstrong and JWP.  No matter what you think about the overall performance, you have to applaud the fact that he went for it with the substitutions and got the reward because we won the game. We of course, should’ve scored two more goals in injury time and it’s not Nathan Jones fault that we didn’t.  If it had been 4-1 then whilst it would’ve papered over the cracks a little bit, people who don’t think further than their keyboard, wouldn’t have had as much to moan about.

Jones may want time to turn this into a decent team but he doesn’t have time because we need results in the short term and it needs to start on Boxing day. Defeat is not an option.

World Cup 2022 Part 4 - The Knockouts

 

Qatar Making Sure It's Not Just About the Winners

3/12/22 – Round of 16
Netherlands v USA
The last 16 got underway with the Netherlands playing the USA. It never ceases to amaze me how much the Americans annoy me when it comes to football. From the insistence of calling it soccer to the U.S.A. chants, which remind me of shit behaviour of their fans in the Ryder Cup. Today on social media I managed to see a clip of Joe Biden, the current president saying “it’s called soccer”, whilst pretending to receive a pass. I wonder what the chances are of him being around when the next World Cup, overbloated to 48 teams, is held in a combination of Canada, Mexico and the good old U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A, I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN…. Fuck off!.

Anyway, hopefully the Netherlands would turn up and sort them out and the first half went exactly according to my plan with their ridiculous full back Denzel Dumfries, setting up the first goal for Memphis Depay and the second for Daley Blind on the stroke of half-time. The second half saw the Dutch butchering any number of opportunities, usually through trying to give the ball to Stephen Bergwijn or receive it and it looked for one horrible moment like the USA would somehow snatch something from the game when Wright, their substitute scored quite possibly the luckiest goal in history as it hit his heel and looped up over the goalkeeper and dropped into the far corner of the net. That will have had the nurses a bit worried in the Biden Carehome.

Anyway, the Dutch then decided to stop pissing about in the final third and with Blind having the ball out on the left and Dumfries completely unmarked on the right hand side of the penalty area, it was just a case of if the cross had enough quality on it and it did and the right back buried it and with it, all the USA chants and Star-Spangled Banner and all the fancy dress dickheads In the crowd can go home. With that, Louis Van Gaal’s orange army went through to the quarter-finals.

Argentina v Australia
Argentina against Australia is one of those games where you want both teams to lose but before the kick-off I was expecting the most one-sided game of the tournament. Didn’t exactly turn out that way because though Argentina dominated pretty much from the start, all they had to show for it was a brilliant goal by Messi and they went in 1-0 up at half-time. It looked like it was all over at the start the second half when Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan pissed about, took a horrendous touch and was robbed by Julian Alvarez who turned in the simplest goal he will have ever scored to make it 2-0. The Aussies had spirit though and had a stroke of luck when a shot was heading for the corner flag but instead of going onwards towards the corner flag it hit an Argentinian defender who was just trying to get back in position and flew in the far corner of the net. The Aussies actually had a chance to send it into extra time but Aston Villa’s Emi Martínez made a decent save to preserve Argentina‘s place in the quarter-finals. They will of course play against the Netherlands.

4/12/22
France v Poland

Giving the Keeper 'The Eyes' From 25 Yards is Taking the Piss

Last 16 day 2, started with France taking on Poland. Again I was expecting this to be one-sided and theough Poland probably should’ve taken the lead in the first half, once Olivier Giroud put the French ahead just before half-time then it was pretty obvious what was gonna happen in the second half. Incidentally, Giroud, often a player ridiculed his now France’s all-time record goalscorer, ahead of Thierry Henry, Zidane, Platini and all those other great players that they’ve had. Respect.

The story of the second half was that it was time for Mbappe to do his thing, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way from open play, flashing one into the net from the edge of the box and then repeating the trick as the game ran down. Poland got a penalty in the last minute which was converted by Robert Lewandowski in what will probably be his final act at a World Cup finals.

England v Senegal

Seems That Jordan Henderson is Cool Again

England were next up Next against Senegal and Southgate decided on just one change with Marcus Rashford being unlucky to drop out and Bukayo Saka coming back in. The first half an hour was very ropey with England being very pedestrian and coughing up a couple of chances that a better team would’ve taken. We were indebted to a very good save from Pickford to keep the game goalless. He might have short arms but it’s a good job one of them was long enough to get in the way of a shot from Sarr. On 35 minutes, it all changed though as Jude Bellingham broke down the left and superbly picked out Jordan Henderson with his pullback and the Liverpool captain made no mistake. England were going to be slightly fortunate to be going in one ahead at half-time but he got even better in injury time as another break inspired by Bellingham, saw Foden square to Harry Kane on the edge of the box, with just the goalkeeper to be and there’s only one place that’s ending up. Game over.

England are clearly just concentrating on keeping it tight for the opening of the second half but managed to pinch another goal as it was Foden this time in getting away on the left-hand side and crossed it for Bukayo Saka to produce a lovely finish past Edouard Mendy to make it three and it meant that the rest of the game was much like the Wales game, with England emptying the bench and resting players and get into the final whistle with no alarms whatsoever.

Again, it has to be said that Gareth Southgate got a completely right but now comes the real test as we play our first really good side in the shape of France. I really hope Southgate sticks with the back four but I suspect he won’t and that he’ll go with a back five which basically means that one out of Henderson, Bellingham, Saka or Foden will be left out. Be brave Gareth. If we go super defensive and get beat then it’s not gonna be a good look. If however, we have a go and get beat, most people will forgive it.

5/12/22
Japan v Croatia

Can Yoshida Take a Pen?  No

Japan and Croatia are up next, in a meeting of the universally loved Japanese and Dejan Lovren.  It was all Japan in the first half and they took the lead just before half-time when the corner dropped to Celtic’s mahi to put them in front. Unfortunately, the Japanese could only last 10 minutes of the second half before a Kramaric cross from the right is superbly headed in by Ivan Perišić.  Neither team could find another goal in normal time or in extra time so for the first time in this World Cup, we had a penalty shootout.  As a Southampton fan, it was somewhat strange to see the two captains shaking hands for the coin toss, seeing as they were both once Southampton teammates. One of course being a very popular Maya Yoshida and the other one being the twat Lovren, who admittedly was Croatia’s third choice captain as the other two had been substituted.

Unfortunately, the Japanese basically shit the bed with three of their penalty takers, including Yoshida, taking one pace run-ups and hitting the kind of penalties that if the keeper goes the right way, then he is going to save it. Croatia went through with comparatively little fuss or tension. The only consolation was that it was not Lovren who scored the winning penalty.

Brazil v South Korea
This game of course should probably have been Brazil against Uruguay which would’ve been an interesting test for the South American favourites for the tournament but as it was, South Korea were in town and it wasn’t a test at all.

Four goals in the opening half an hour meant that the rest of the game was like a training game with South Korea making the store slightly more respectable in the second half. Not that you can be too much into it because of the standard of the opposition but Brazil looked very impressive in the first half with goals from Vinicius Jr, Neymar, Richarlison and Lucas Paqueta. They still haven’t been tested though and will probably only marginally be tested more by Croatia in the quarter-finals.

6/12/22
Spain v Morocco

Morocco Officially Goes Mental

In all the games in this round, there was a clear favourite and so far, every favourite had gone through with the minimum of fuss but now it was time for Spain against Morocco.

A team that passes the ball to death against a team were quite happy to sit in and defend and have so far in this World Cup, looked very adept at doing that. The game went exactly as suspected with Spain having a ridiculous amount of possession and then getting to the edge of the penalty area and then passing it again. Morocco took every chance they could to break on Spain with pace and they looked the better side throughout the first half. On the left wing of course they had Sofiane Boufal, Southampton nearly – legend who is such a ridiculously fun player to watch even though the end product isn’t often there.

Anyway, the second half went on with Spain again passing instead of shooting and Morocco got more and more entrenched and it was pretty boring and we reached 90 without any real chances for either side. In extra time it got marginally more interesting as the jeopardy increased and the best chance felt of the Spanish right back in 120th minute as he was picked out at the back post but managed to volley against the far post from a tight angle and so we went to penalties. Spain clearly don’t practice shooting because they don’t do it so why would you practice something that you don’t do but unfortunately that extended to penalties with three of the worst penalties that you could possibly pull out at this time. One against the post and two absolutely shit ones that the keeper just fell on. It eventually came round to a Hakimi who had the opportunity to take the winning penalty against the country of his birth and like a complete shit house he just dinked it down the middle with the goalkeeper diving the wrong way. Every Moroccan in the stadium went absolutely bat shit mental and as the news filtered around the world, it seems that every Moroccan in every major city went absolutely mental as well. Spain it seems, will never learn. They can however, think about it on the way home.

Portugal v Switzerland
The last game of the round was Portugal against Switzerland and this was actually the one that I thought beforehand that the underdog might win. As I’ve said before, there’s not much point to Switzerland in these tournaments but here they are with a genuine chance against a team that hasn’t looked that good but the Portugal boss had an ace up his sleeve having seen Manchester United become a much better side once they dropped no club Ronnie. So, the main prima-donna was on the bench and his replacement Gonçalo Ramos, smashed in a hat-trick as Portugal absolutely buried Switzerland by 6-1. The annoying thing was the Portugal actually looked really good which is a shame because even with No-Club Ronnie not featuring until the last few minutes, they still have Bruno Fernandes and that’s enough for anyone to hate them. Through they go to play Morocco in the next round and it’s kind of hard to see lightning strike in twice with that one.

9/12/22 - Quarter Finals
Brazil v Croatia

Brazil: not Dancing

Quarter-finals in Brazil against Croatia was first up in a game that would provide the first test of any sort that Brazil have had. Whilst Croatia are more workmanlike than inspiring, they are considerably better than anything Brazil have played so far. First half boring….but Brazil had a better chances with the excellent Livakovic saving everything, second-half also boring And much the same as the first, first period of extra time also boring and then Neymar picked up the ball, set off on a run, played a couple of 1-2’s, kept on going and ended up firing Brazil into the lead. The second period of extra time began with Brazil being far too attack minded than they needed to be given the situation and they eventually lost the ball with five men in front of it and only one of the five decided to try and run back as Croatia broke up the left wing, crossed low and there was Petković to score with the aid of a deflection to send the game to penalties.

Croatia keep her Livakovic had already proved he knew what he was doing in the shootout win against Japan and he did it again saving the 1st two Brazilian penalties. Croatia did the business and it eventually fell to Marquinhos with a penalty to keep Brazil in it and he twatted it off the post. Neymar, who saved himself for the glory fifth penalty, didn’t get to take one. How many fucking times have we seen the world’s biggest players fail to step up with it matters.

Croatia march onto the semi-finals where they will play the winner of the Argentina and Netherlands match and Brazil go home after flattering to deceive yes again. Some blame must surely be placed on the manager for playing four forwards, none of whom are interested in tracking back or doing the dirty work when they haven’t got the ball and when one of your two holding midfielders is Lucas Paqueta then you are always going to struggle against a well organised team like Croatia are. Neymar has unfortunately spawned a collection of similar type of players. They are similar in that they are not really interested in doing the hard part of the game and incidentally, they are all Neymar blonde and they are all covered in tattoos right up to the chins. Players like Anthony, Pedro and Rodrygo, really have a long way to go.  They should start with being individual, rather than being a poor copy of someone else.


Argentina v Netherlands

The Shithouse Derby

This game was going nowhere really.  In a poor first half, Argentina took the lead thanks to ridiculous pass by Messi which sent right back Molina through to pass it into the net. The second half saw Messi convert a penalty just after the hour mark after Denzel Dumfries had clumsily brought down the Argentinian left back on the edge of the penalty area. The game seemed to be meandering towards a routine Argentina win until Louis van Gaal pressed the ‘Route 1’ button, sending on Wout Weghorst and Luuk DeJong and launching it. Weghorst pulled one back with a really good flick header, being marked as he was by Manchester United midget Lisandro Martinez and with Argentina losing their discipline and giving away loads of free kicks around the edge of the box, the Dutch came up with something wonderfully inventive and rather than a direct shot, just rolled the freekick into Weghorst on the penalty spot who held off a defender and turned and equalised to send the game to extra time.

It was remarkable that given the Dutch had so much success with playing Route 1 in the last 10 minutes, they then stopped doing it and the game meandered through extra-time and despite Argentina hitting the post, we ended up with penalties again.

Virgil van Dijk stepped up first and saw his effort easily pushed away by Emi Martínez. Messi scored and then Berghuiss saw his penalty saved as well so the Dutch were already in the shit. Argentina did miss one which meant it went right to the end with Lautaro Martinez converting the winning penalty. There was so much shithousing, dreadful tackling and fucking bizarre refereeing in this game the both teams had about eight players booked, courtesy of a ridiculous Spanish referee who desperately wanted it to all be about him.  It was great fun to see players losing their shit and launching into tackles and smashing the ball at the dugouts and all this sort of stuff. When Edgar Davids, complete with sunglasses and wearing a suit, tries to start a fight on the bench, then you know it’s gonna be entertaining. Argentina are basically a team of uncompromising thugs and players who run all day. There is very little in terms of creativity in the team but of course, they have Messi and there are echoes of Argentina‘s 1986 which was very very similar but they had Maradona. Messi 2022 isn’t quite as good as Maradona 1986 but it will be interesting to see whether it’s enough.

Anyway, after all that it’s Argentina against Croatia in the first semi-final.

10/12/22
Portugal v Morocco

It's All About Me

Whilst the world is media focused on No-Club Ronnie, those who are interested in team sports focused on Portugal against Morocco for a place in the semi-final. Morocco have of course exceeded everybody’s expectations so far and Portugal have been a bunch of twats. I think everyone knew how this game was going to go from a stylistic point of view, lots of possession by Portugal with Morocco defending deep and then hitting them hard on the break and that’s how it turned out Joao Felix had a couple of early chances and bought a good save out of the Morocco keeper and U2 singer Bono, before a break up the left wing saw a cross lobbed into the box and the Portuguese keeper came out like an absolute fucking idiot and got completely out jumped by En-Nesyri to give Morocco a one nil lead. What everyone has learnt from this World Cup is that you do not give Morocco the lead.

Bruno Fernandes hit the bar with a cross as the first half drew to a close and the second half just saw Portugal in the ascendancy without really testing the keeper. No-Club Ronnie made his way onto the pitch for the last 35 minutes but looked like a player who has gone over the hill and is cart-wheeling down the other side.  In the end it all became about Portugal histrionics in front of the referee and even a late red card from Morocco couldn’t derail them and they became the first African country to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. No-Club Ronnie predictably disappeared down the tunnel, barely acknowledging anybody. It was all about him of course. Bye Portugal.

England v France

Projectile Launched into Qatar Sky

The only game that mattered as far as we were concerned was England against France. Would England and Southgate show they had truly come of age and turned a corner or would France show that they are just a class above. Would Southgate go super safe and pick a third centre back. The signs were very encouraging from that point of view as Gareth had his big boy pants on and picked exactly the same team that played against Senegal.

An early Giroud header was easily saved by Pickford before we got the first look at what was going to be a very difficult afternoon of trying to understand what the fucking referee was doing.  Bukayo Saka clearly had his legs wide away from him at the French end of the pitch but I wasn’t given as a foul and so France built up and eventually the ball was squared to Tchouameni, 30 yards out and he absolutely arrowed it into the corner.  Debates as to whether Pickford should have done slightly better but a great strike.  Fuck.

Harry Kane spun onto a Saka pass and saw his effort beaten out by Lloris as England tried to hit back before Kane again got away from the clumsy Upamecano, who brought him down on the edge of the box for the referee give fuck all anyway. Kane then tried from the edge of the box and saw his effort deflected and his Spurs teammate and goal pull off a ‘one for the cameras’ save.

The second half began with an England corner been cleared out to Bellingham on the edge of the box and his superb effort was unfortunate a little bit too central and again the keeper knocked over the bar. England got the break they needed when Saka played a 1-2 with Bellingham in the penalty area and Tchouameni clumsily took down the Arsenal man. Even this rather random referee couldn’t not give it and Kane stepped up to send Lloris the wrong way.

England seemed to take their collective foot off the gas a little bit having equalised and Rabiot bought a good save out of Pickford but England was still the team in the ascendency and Maguire was unfortunate to see a header flick the outside of a post.  Pickford was called into action again to beat out an Olivier Giroud volley but it was a temporary reprieve as the former Arsenal man, who everyone used to disprespect, including some of his French teammates, was there to bullet a header into the net from Griezmann‘s cross after getting there ahead of Maguire.

Southgate hadn’t made any changes at this point and having gone behind, decided now was the moment so I came Henderson and Saka and on came Sterling and Mount to my great personal deflation.  However, a bit of a hopeful ball into the box towards Mount brought maximum reward as Theo Hernandez absolutely brainlessly barged him in the back. Fucking ref didn’t give it of course but VAR got this one right and having had a look at the slow motion, there was again, no way he couldn’t give it as Hernandez was not looking at the ball at any point. Kane versus Lloris part two. Up steps England’s captain and puts up a fucking balloon.

Rashford and Grealish came on for Foden and the injured Stones for the last few minutes and we want a free kick on the edge of the box with more brain-dead French defending. It was Rashford’s moment and he had to score but he put it over the bar and out England went, once more.

Bollocks. The wait goes on. In the past two tournaments, though we’ve got further in that we got to a semi-final and then a final, I don’t feel as much disappointment with this exit as I did with those. With those other two tournaments I felt that we just shit the bed when it mattered and I put a lot of that down to Gareth Southgate‘s conservative approach to things. There are things that in hindsight didn’t work out today. He left it too long to make the changes and I’m not sure that bringing on a very out of form Mason Mount and a very jetlagged Raheem Sterling was really the right thing to do. If it worked however then Southgate would be the hero and that’s the way it works. Personally, I feel that as a manager, Southgate is getting better and for me he’s earned the right to carry on. Whether he will want to carry on or not is the question now.  He immediately spoke of the amount of stick he got after the 4-0 home Nations League defeat to Hungary.  I don’t feel that it’s particularly realistic to complain about getting battered after a defeat like that but maybe it’s a sign that he’s had enough of the scrutiny that comes with being the England manager after six years and three major tournaments. It may well be that he decides that this is a good time to bow out because his reputation is intact and there’s not many managers who get to choose their future.  This seems like the FA want him to carry on though so we’ll just have to wait until the dust settles. I will say that there does seem to be a lack of obvious candidates to replace him.

Some solace can be taken in the fact that the average age of the squad is pretty low and players like Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice are only going to be getting better. The detractors will say that we have done what we always do and there is an element of truth in that. We’ve beaten all the teams who are comfortably ranked lower than us in Iran, Wales and Senegal but we could only draw with the USA and we got beaten by the first elite team that we came up against. It always seems to be the same way. You can argue it either way, maybe it’s time for a change to give us that extra kick to get us over the line or maybe we should be careful what we wish for.

Today there have been a lot of fingers pointed at the referee and he was truly shocking. There was no way that it wasn’t a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build up to their goal but we had the players back by the time France scored but no one was close enough to Tchouameni. The referee gave us a penalty at the start the second half which he couldn’t really not give and after viewing the monitor, decided to give us a second one as well. The reason we lost is because we missed a penalty and we missed the last minute free-kick. If you want to win tight games against the opposition, then you cannot afford to miss chances like that. France didn’t create many openings but they scored two goals and the bottom line is that is why they are going through to the semi-final against Morocco and that is probably why they will win the whole tournament, again. The good news is that we can look forward to another fucking re-release of Three Lions in 18 months time.

13/12/22 Semi-Finals
Argentina v Croatia

Alvarez Celebrates Messi Beating Half the Team

Whenever England go out, what follows has a certain apathy about it all, as far as I’m concerned. I looked at the two semi-finals and saw two traditional heavyweights against two teams who have over achieved so far and the question would be whether this semi-final was going to be a game too far for either Croatia or Morocco. Croatia against Argentina started off looking like it was going to be a decent close game with Croatia dominated possession but having absolutely nothing upfront.

Eventually the deadlock was broken with Álvarez, how shall we say, winning a penalty by knocking the ball past goalkeeper and then crashing into him. Could argue this one both ways but it was given of course an up stepped Messi to spank it into the top corner. Álvarez scored at start the second half to put the game to bed but there is still time for the coup de grace from Messi as he turned the otherwise excellent Gvardiol inside out on the right wing before driving towards the goal along the by-line and knocking it back for Álvarez to sweep into the net. 3-0 to Argentina and Messi and his supporting cast get through to the final. In some ways it’s an absolute fucking travesty that Argentina have got there because they literally are a goalkeeper, a bunch of thugs and one special player.

14/12/22
France v Morocco

Boufal Booked for Getting in the Way of Hernandez

Morocco had trouble before the game against France even started with Aguerd, one of the starting centre backs, pulling out just before the game. They were a bit of a shambles has the game started, far removed from the well-oiled defensive machine that they’ve been so far and went 1-0 down after a bit of pinball resulted in Hernandez putting them ahead after four minutes. Morocco then lost Roman Saiss after about 15 minutes because he couldn’t run but once they got their fit defenders on the pitch they looks a lot better.

Morocco started playing really fast paced counter-attacking football and were denied what  looked like a clear penalty as Hernandez played the ball, clattered Boufal and somehow Boufal got booked for being fouled in the penalty area. Absolutely fucking bizarre. Anyway, for all Morocco’s endeavour, like Croatia they have very little up front and went in at half-time 1-0 down. The second half had more or less exclusive Morocco pressure for the first 20 minutes before France scored again on the break during the small part to a very lucky deflection that took the ball into the path of substitute Kolo Muani, who couldn’t miss. Morocco kept going to be fair, but all they did was illustrate their inadequacies at the top end of the pitch, managing to miss ridiculous chances and so the game eventually petered out to give us an Argentina against France final.

From an England point of view, I was watching it thinking that if we had beaten France, we would’ve struggled against this Morocco side who played with no fear and fair play to them for a great tournmanet.

17/12/22
3^rd Place Playoff
Croatia v Morocco
Croatia beat Morocco 2-1 and no one outside of those two countries gave a shit.  Seriously, no one.

18/12/22
World Cup Final
France v Argentina

The Key Moment in the Final - 123rd Minute

To the final and the build-up has been nauseating with everyone forgetting that they would be 20 other players on the pitch apart from Messi and and Mbappé. Gianni Infantino opened his big fat fucking mouth again and declared it as being the best World Cup ever, which it clearly isn’t if you use metrics like the number of fans attending or the quality of the football. What it probably means is that FIFA have made the most cash out of it. He also spoke about wanting to create a club World Cup with 32 teams in it, which I guess is because FIFA don’t like the success of the UEFA Champions League and what their own piece of the action. Another horrendous idea.

He did say one thing that was welcome though and that was that the 48 team World Cup with the 16 groups of three would be put in the bin where it belonged and though it will still be 48 teams, it is now almost certain that it will be groups of four so we won’t have any corrupt games in the first phase. He said it was because the four-team groups were incredibly exciting in this World Cup and to be fair, he has a point but I do wonder about the real reason he has backtracked.

To the final and Argentina tore into France in the first half with the French barely seeming able to raise a jog, let alone compete with the intensity of the Argentines. France seemed to be half asleep and Dembélé was certainly asleep as DiMaria went round him and waited for the faintest of touches which Dembélé duly provided and over went di Maria, which allowed Messi to stroke in the penalty and the worlds media to stroke themselves into a frenzy.

Going behind didn’t wake France up at all and from their first real attack, Argentina won the ball, broke and via Messi, Álvarez, McAllister and superb finish provided by DiMaria, Argentina went 2-0 up and seemingly coasting. French manager Didier Deschamps decided that he had had enough of the shit he was watching and Dembélé and Giroud were hooked before half-time to be replaced by Thuram and Kolo Muani.

The opening of the second half was pretty dull until Deschamps went for broke, sending on Camavinga and Coman and taken off Griezmann and defender Fernandez. With more attacking players now than you can shake a stick at, Mbappé woke up when Kolo Muani got behind Otamendi who predictably hauled him back for an obvious penalty that Mbappé easily converted. Within a minute it was level as Messi was dispossessed by Coman, who went forward and fed and Mbappé.  Mbappé flicked the ball up to Kolo Muani’s head and went for the return and volleyed it first time across Martinez and into the far corner. Fucking ridiculous goal. France have been utter bollocks but once they’ve woken up, they were amazing. France looked the more likely in normal time but an extra half hour it is.

France are Awake

As the Dutch did when they completed a similar turnaround against Argentina, France then went back into their shell a bit and allowed Argentina to work themselves back into the game. Into the second half of extra time and Argentina got themselves in front again as Lautaro Martinez actually managed to shoot towards the goal for once, forcing Lloris into a decent size before Messi bundled the rebound over the line. With Argentina once more thinking they had won it, the referee then stepped in and gave a penalty for handball when Montiel charged down an Mbappé shot with his elbow clearly moving towards the ball. Excellent refereeing and the correct decision.  Mbappé again, no problem and a hat-trick in a World Cup Final.

We were well past 120 minutes when Kolo Muani found himself clean through after a mistake by Otamendi, but with just Martinez to beat he managed to hit the outstretched leg of the goalkeeper. Argentina broke and a perfect cross was right onto the head of Lautaro Martinez who proved once again that he is absolutely fucking shit by producing a 50p header of the worst kind.

Penalties and there was only ever going to be one winner and that was always going to be Emiliano Martinez. Absolute shit house goalkeeping of the best kind and even managed to get himself booked during the shoot out for throwing the ball away. This was after he’d already saved Kingsley Coman‘s kick it was no surprise when he picked Tchouameni for his main shithousing, throwing the ball away so the French youngster had to go and get it and put it back on the spot.  Yellow card in the bank and Martinez watched Tchouameni’s klick pull wide. Eventually it fell to Montiel to send Hugo Lloris the wrong way from the spot to give Argentina their first World Cup since 1986. Lloris had given off Peter Shilton 1990 vibes by basically collapsing in the goal for every penalty and France had done an England Euro 2020 and sent up kids to do an experienced players’ job.

The final provided great theatre and it was a ridiculously exciting game once France started their comeback in the end but I feel that when the dust has settled, people look at this Argentina side and wonder how on Earth they managed to win it. Personally I don’t feel the standard of this World Cup has been particularly good, with a number of teams seemingly having no striker. Argentina have won this through being hard uncompromising bastards with the sprinkling of magic that Messi provides. It was enough and and now, the fanboys of No-Club Ronnie can shut up. At 35, we are probably seeing the last of Messi in the World Cup. It wouldn’t surprise me if he retired altogether at the end of the season after he inevitably signs off with winning the Ballon D’Or.

So, the latest corruptly awarded World Cup finishes.  FIFA and Infantino got out of jail because in the main, the football was decent, which it was always going to be.  The hosts got what they paid for, a wave if positivity washing over their country. They dressed Messi in some sort of Qatari cloak for him to receive the World Cup – what the hosts and the like of Infantino fail to realise is that it isn’t about them.  It’s about the football and it always will be.  The World Cup would happen without FIFA but could FIFA exist without the football? I found myself less invested with every passing World Cup to be honest and there will come a day in to not too distant future where the Football Associations of the various countries get together and break away.

For now though, we’re all off to Mexico, Canada and the good ol’ U, S of A, the latter of which is of course a country with no human rights issues if you don’t count women of course… and they clearly don’t.

No Caption Necessary