Group I Matchday 9-10 - 12-15th November, 2021

[Smiley Culture]

Job done. Professional. Not a lot you can say really. San Marino are terrible, England did their job, some standout performances there. 

Shame though, we’ve qualified for that sham of a World Cup but almost certainly won’t make any noise about the farce. 

[Guest]

@Smiley Culture england are shit anyone could have scored ten against them and southgate should be sacked 

Anyway great performance tonight. Not many teams score ten against them. We score ten for the first time since 1964. Its these little things that southgate doesnt seem to alot of credit for. We have smashed teams that we struggled to before. I mean we struggled to beat Trinidad and Tobago  in 2006 and drew with Algeria in 2010. 

[Guest]

For me this is the best chance we have had in my lifetime  of winning the world cup. We've got the talent, we've got the  big match experience, we've got the team togetherness(which I think is because of southgate) I really think it could happen  this time. I'm not saying we will but we have a good chance 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

If I scored an international goal against San Marino I wouldn't celebrate. And I don't exactly play for Manchester united. I play for an indoor team called 'always on top'

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

If I scored an international goal against San Marino I wouldn't celebrate. And I don't exactly play for Manchester united. I play for an indoor team called 'always on top'

You wouldn't score against them though. Even san Marino are still at  a level which most people cant get to. Most people who play football cant get to semi professional level. They are at about the 7th or 8th tier of english football which is more than what most can get to. They dont  normally get beat this heavily. 

[Guest]

Even roy keane is saying England can win the world cup now. I'm  not particularly keen on him but he doesn't say he thinks teams are good enough unless they are very good 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

1 minute ago, Gunnersauraus said:

You wouldn't score against them though. Even san Marino are still at  a level which most people cant get to. Most people who play football cant get to semi professional level. They are at about the 7th or 8th tier of english football which is more than what most can get to. They dont  normally get beat this heavily. 

If I played through the center, with the england team around me for 90 minutes, you know what? I'd not hate my chances. 

[Guest]

Just now, Devil-Dick Willie said:

If I played through the center, with the england team around me for 90 minutes, you know what? I'd not hate my chances. 

I'd very surprised if you were good enough to get a game for san marino mate 

[RandoEFC+]

The qualifiers for these tournaments have to be the most pointless and tedious fixtures in football. Literally half of the teams have no chance whatsoever of qualifying. You could halve the number of fixtures and get to the same destination if the cannon fodder had some sort of pre-qualifying process and the qualification groups had 4 teams each or something.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

The qualifiers for these tournaments have to be the most pointless and tedious fixtures in football. Literally half of the teams have no chance whatsoever of qualifying. You could halve the number of fixtures and get to the same destination if the cannon fodder had some sort of pre-qualifying process and the qualification groups had 4 teams each or something.

Personally for me there are 4 teams that stand out. San marino, andorra  Gibraltar and Liechtenstein. Those teams hardly ever win and san marino have never won a competitive fixture. Teams like malta, Luxembourg, faroe islands do occasionally win and dont always finish bottom of the group. For me I would have a pre qualifier with maybe 6 teams in played in neutral territory and the top two go through. The other teams I mentioned do sometimes win and can influence a group so I'm  not against them being in it. But the four teams I mentioned dont have an impact on a group because they alwys loose. 

[RandoEFC+]

Just now, Gunnersauraus said:

Personally for me there are 4 teams that stand out. San marino, andorra  Gibraltar and Liechtenstein. Those teams hardly ever win and san marino have never won a competitive fixture. Teams like malta, Luxembourg, faroe islands do occasionally win and dont always finish bottom of the group. For me I would have a pre qualifier with maybe 6 teams in played in neutral territory and the top two go through. The other teams I mentioned to sometimes win and can influence a group so I'm  not against them being in it. But the four teams I mentioned dont have an impact on a group because they alwys loose. 

I can say without any hesitation whatsoever that the following teams will not qualify for a major tournament in my lifetime under the current rules: Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Moldova, Latvia, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Armenia.

These teams may get the odd win against each other or even against the occasional Montenegro or Albania but they aren't going to qualify. They also shouldn't be denied the opportunity to host an England or Italy or France forever. An elegant solution would be to use the Nations League standings to phase out the bottom 12 or so teams from the actual major qualifiers so that you could have about ten groups of 4. Give these sides a chance to play at their level on a regular basis, get some idea of their strengths and weaknesses and allow them to develop an approach beyond sitting behind the ball and trying to keep the score down. Doing something like this also reduces the international schedule by probably two international breaks a year. It's a win win overall because those teams still have the opportunity to increase their ranking in the bottom tiers of the Nations League and make the cut for the next set of qualifiers.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I can say without any hesitation whatsoever that the following teams will not qualify for a major tournament in my lifetime under the current rules: Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Moldova, Latvia, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Armenia.

These teams may get the odd win against each other or even against the occasional Montenegro or Albania but they aren't going to qualify. They also shouldn't be denied the opportunity to host an England or Italy or France forever. An elegant solution would be to use the Nations League standings to phase out the bottom 12 or so teams from the actual major qualifiers so that you could have about ten groups of 4. Give these sides a chance to play at their level on a regular basis, get some idea of their strengths and weaknesses and allow them to develop an approach beyond sitting behind the ball and trying to keep the score down. Doing something like this also reduces the international schedule by probably two international breaks a year. It's a win win overall because those teams still have the opportunity to increase their ranking in the bottom tiers of the Nations League and make the cut for the next set of qualifiers.

They wont qualify I know. But they have occasionally had results against teams that have ended up in the play offs. And if they had beaten them they would have won their group. So they can influence a group. I know what you mean I just personally dont  mind having those teams in the qualifiers as I'm happy to have 5 teams in a group. For me it's not all about club football international football is important as well .I dont like having teams in a group that are guaranteed to be beaten though. Also Estonia did get to the play offs in 2012 and Kosovo came close to the play offs in the euros so sometimes small teams do better than expected. 

[Smiley Culture]

Yeah, I wouldn’t be against a tougher qualification process, which included a qualifying round(s). We have a qualifying process in the FA Cup, other countries domestic cup tournaments have similar whether it’s the need to win a regional cup or high domestic league finishes and international football for World Cup qualifying in Asia and Africa. I think the problem we have in Europe is we get 13 places in the World Cup so if we went to, say, 40 nations, cutting 15, nearly a third of those qualifying makes for as many meaningless games when that many are qualifying. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Yeah, I wouldn’t be against a tougher qualification process, which included a qualifying round(s). We have a qualifying process in the FA Cup, other countries domestic cup tournaments have similar whether it’s the need to win a regional cup or high domestic league finishes and international football for World Cup qualifying in Asia and Africa. I think the problem we have in Europe is we get 13 places in the World Cup so if we went to, say, 40 nations, cutting 15, nearly a third of those qualifying makes for as many meaningless games when that many are qualifying. 

What would be your preference?  Like I said mine would be drop the bottom 4. Have a 6 team pre qualifier . Top 2 go though. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

2 hours ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I'd very surprised if you were good enough to get a game for san marino mate 

Not what I said. Most of them play 3rd and 4th division football in Italy. 

I was saying that if I played striker for England for a game against San Marino I'd not hate my chances of getting on the score sheet. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

2 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

I can say without any hesitation whatsoever that the following teams will not qualify for a major tournament in my lifetime under the current rules: Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Moldova, Latvia, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Armenia.

These teams may get the odd win against each other or even against the occasional Montenegro or Albania but they aren't going to qualify. They also shouldn't be denied the opportunity to host an England or Italy or France forever. An elegant solution would be to use the Nations League standings to phase out the bottom 12 or so teams from the actual major qualifiers so that you could have about ten groups of 4. Give these sides a chance to play at their level on a regular basis, get some idea of their strengths and weaknesses and allow them to develop an approach beyond sitting behind the ball and trying to keep the score down. Doing something like this also reduces the international schedule by probably two international breaks a year. It's a win win overall because those teams still have the opportunity to increase their ranking in the bottom tiers of the Nations League and make the cut for the next set of qualifiers.

Armenia NEARLY qualified recently.  

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Not what I said. Most of them play 3rd and 4th division football in Italy. 

I was saying that if I played striker for England for a game against San Marino I'd not hate my chances of getting on the score sheet. 

Fair enough 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Armenia NEARLY qualified recently.  

Was that through a nations league or through a qualifying group 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

2 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Was that through a nations league or through a qualifying group 

In the 2014 world cup qualifying. They finished on 13 points, with Denmark going through with 16
They also finished 3rd in their Euro 2012 qualifying group, above macedonia and Slovakia (and andorra) 4pts behind Republic of ireland. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

In the 2014 world cup qualifying. They finished on 13 points, with Denmark going through with 16
They also finished 3rd in their Euro 2012 qualifying group, above macedonia and Slovakia (and andorra) 4pts behind Republic of ireland. 

To be fair until recently alot of people would have said the same about north Macedonia. Admitly they did qualify through the nations league but they are in the play off for the world cup and finished ahead of Romania. 

Like i said for me personally the only teams I would want to not have in the groups are the teams that never have an affect on it. Teams like san Marino and Gibraltar loose every game, teams like Lichtenstein and Andorra loose almost every game. You can be fairly certain that the top 3 in a group will beat them twice. So they dont influence who qualifies. However teams like Armenia, Moldova, Lithuania can sometimes get results and if a team had beat them they may have qualified. So although they probably wont qualify they still have an influence. 

Personally I don't mind the really poor teams in it but I do admit it could be better for everybody if there was a pre qualifier. Although I dont think it should be done just to suit the big teams. If a lot of smaller nations objected I dont think it should happen 

[Reluctant Striker]

Surely it's a case of whether Kane just about gets to the top of the scorers list, or gets way out ahead.

If he stays fit, stays as 1st choice striker through 2022 World Cup & onto Euro 2024, which seems totally possible, it surely has to see him smashing the record. Perhaps only injury could prevent him at this stage.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Reluctant Striker said:

Surely it's a case of whether Kane just about gets to the top of the scorers list, or gets way out ahead.

If he stays fit, stays as 1st choice striker through 2022 World Cup & onto Euro 2024, which seems totally possible, it surely has to see him smashing the record. Perhaps only injury could prevent him at this stage.

To be honest only dying would stop him not breaking it. But I agree he should smash it really. Interesting thing is he has  not played in a few of the games against really weak opposition. He probably would have broken it by now if he had.