The 2018 World Cup, for us England fans

Here you go Sawmiller, Ive created this thread for us and anybody else who is genuinely an England fan, and who is looking forward to this tournament. :)

I understsand why some fans are so critical of our national team when it comes to constant failures in these summer tournaments. But Im a glutton for punishment and I will support my country every single time, and I like to see other fans think the same when it comes to a World cup.

Now then Saw, Im going to change my avatar to another England badge sticker.. watch this space kid. ;D

I think we'll win it..

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Originally Posted by Hazza Has A Gazza

I think we'll win it..

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Of course we will Hazza, and it will be 10-0 on penalties in every single knockout round. ;)
None of us expect a 'win' do we here, but its our team at the end of the day and its a World cup, so theres every reason to be excited again. England will do what they usually do, but Im going to enjoy the tournament as a fan either way.

To be honest when fat sam did his usual money first thing It worked out pretty well for the national team .

I wasn't entirely convinced Southgate was all that but to be fair he's gone about his work pretty well .

The current squad look together and want to do well , that seems to come across .

We do have some very talented players and if they perform to their abilities then nobody can ask anymore than that .

We won't win the tournament in my opinion but if they do themselves justice perhaps go a bit further than the quarter final perhaps then everyone should be happy at that .

Then again I don't think the germans are as good as 4 years ago , the brazillians have their usual number of superstars but then again they did four years ago in their own tournament and were humiliated .

No Italy or Holland in a northern hemisphere tournament , France and Spain don't convince me and Belgium never seem to fulfill their potential at tournaments , if Messi turns up for Argentina then they could progress but it looks to me anybody's tournament .

England are very much under the radar , nobody really fears us , if they start well and build the confidence and progress through to the knock out stages and then lets say knock out the Poles then who knows .

Actually win a penalty shoot out in the quarter final and get that monkey off our back it could get interesting .

Lots of if's and buts but this is football , owt can happen .

I had the same feeling back in '12 Animal, when we were virtually new recruits under Roy Hodgson at the Euros, and I didn't expect much from us then in Poland/Ukraine.

I do like Gareth Southgate's style and he really does seem to have a passion for this role, which we have always doubted to begin with haven't we. He covers himself well and I appreciate him now as our national coach/manager, best of luck to him and our lads in this tournament.

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Originally Posted by Acido

I had the same feeling back in '12 Animal, when we were virtually new recruits under Roy Hodgson at the Euros, and I didn't expect much from us then in Poland/Ukraine.

I do like Gareth Southgate's style and he really does seem to have a passion for this role, which we have always doubted to begin with haven't we. He covers himself well and I appreciate him now as our national coach/manager, best of luck to him and our lads in this tournament.

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The defence does worry me in all honesty , I love our John Stones but sometimes he scares the shyte out of me .

Our keeper is young and relatively inexperienced , two areas there that are concerning .

That said we can create and Kane is a top draw finisher of chances .

Sterling doesn't do it for me but Rashford does , the young Manc has to play before Sterling in my opinion .

Could be a very interesting tournament this .

Hey, can I be honest here Animal and say I don't actually rate John Stones for England, in that role.
How many times have we talked about experience is important eh, as Barnsley fans, and I like Gary Cahill as one of our CB's.
Think back to Terry Butcher & Tony Adams etc, have we really had a big name England CB since them ?. :O

Yes I agree fully that the sacking of big Sam was a blessing in disguise. He was ready to tear up the DNA process that England have been working on for a few years, which has worked very well so far for the youth teams, and stamp his own 'none-of-this-tippy-tappy-bowlax' brand of hoofball and probably set us back years.

I like Southgate, I like what he and his team of coaches are trying to do. I like that there is now a clear route for young players to progress from the youth teams to the first team. We're better at keeping the ball (until Sterling gets it) than we've been for a long time and I honestly see some light at the end of a long long tunnel.

The days of chest beating before tournaments is a thing of the past, thankfully. I don't think we'll win this world cup but I think we have some real talent and as a team, can be greater than the sum of its parts. Keep developing and improving these players and the younger players at youth level and maybe we might reach a final or even win a final in the next six years?

It's astounding that we haven't reached a semi final for 22 years, discounting Le Tournoire which we won.

Hey lads, am I being controversial here when I say I like, and I do appreciate Raheem Sterling for what he does for us.
But I do also like Adam Lallana and think he can do a similar and maybe even a better job to be honest. And what happened to Andros Townsend after he broke into the England scene ?.

Finally we have a group of young good players at an age where they are at or before their peak before the next world cup.

Putting a group together and dismantling it every 4 years hasn't paid dividends in the past.

I don't think we will win this time and we'll need to be lucky to ever win it again but every country is the same.

It's going to be a competition of surprises with shock results at every stage.

Personally I think France will win it.