England World Cup 2018 qualifying campaign

(12-10-2016 13:52 )William H Bonney Wrote:  

(12-10-2016 09:38 )sandals1963 Wrote:  The real issue is you have an artifically high world ranking due to always having a group full of lesser teams to play

You badly misunderstand how the rankings are calculated. Beating lesser teams does not help very much, as the rankings formula takes greatly into account the strength of the opposition. A win against a highly ranked team is worth considerably more than a win against a lesser team.

thats why wales are high up competitive matches count more and beating higher opposition like Belguim made it so there ranking was higher

ours is high because we have beaten germany in recent years and drew with Brazil

(14-10-2016 08:56 )HannahsPet Wrote:  

(12-10-2016 13:52 )William H Bonney Wrote:  

(12-10-2016 09:38 )sandals1963 Wrote:  The real issue is you have an artifically high world ranking due to always having a group full of lesser teams to play

You badly misunderstand how the rankings are calculated. Beating lesser teams does not help very much, as the rankings formula takes greatly into account the strength of the opposition. A win against a highly ranked team is worth considerably more than a win against a lesser team.

thats why wales are high up competitive matches count more and beating higher opposition like Belguim made it so there ranking was higher

ours is high because we have beaten germany in recent years and drew with Brazil

would we better our ranking if we beat a team of dustbins?

England won 3-0 against Scotland at Wembley on Friday night - an unconvincing England display but easily enough to beat Scotland.

England created 3 well taken goals .First 2 were excellent .Could easily have had a 4th if Sterling had stooped down and headed his chance instead of spooning it over the bar from TWO yards .
Scotland created a similar amount of chances and fluffed every one .
England will once again qualify with ease , then "freeze" at the finals .

Whether the draw with Spain has raised more questions than answers with Southgate's selections or with England's performances remains to be seen, but when you think back to when we were beating them 4-1 that was probably a one - off win as Spain were going through a transition period and certainly does look as though they are on the way back with their performance last night.
I would like to see Southgate given the job up until Russia 2018 but whether England improved further on from that performance is probably still debatable

hope the Fa make up their minds with Gareth Southgate's position soon

The team selections Southgate has made for the games coming up against Germany and the WC qualifier against Lithuania by not selecting Rooney or Walcott shows he is prepared to pick a squad of players that are performing well I do not expect us to get anything less than a draw in Germany but we should beat Ltihuania comfortably but stranger things have happened in international football
By leaving out Rooney it does seem to suggest that Southgate definitely wants to pick players who are willing to work with him and certainly I don't think we have seen the last of Rooney in an England shirt. If we have it is a brave team selection by Southgate

(20-03-2017 09:14 )babelover48 Wrote:  The team selections Southgate has made for the games coming up against Germany and the WC qualifier against Lithuania by not selecting Rooney or Walcott shows he is prepared to pick a squad of players that are performing well I do not expect us to get anything less than a draw in Germany but we should beat Ltihuania comfortably but stranger things have happened in international football
By leaving out Rooney it does seem to suggest that Southgate definitely wants to pick players who are willing to work with him and certainly I don't think we have seen the last of Rooney in an England shirt. If we have it is a brave team selection by Southgate

Rooney is injured

Yes Rooney injured, also Sturridge and Kane. But still no call up for Andy Carroll, as Jermain Defoe gets the nod.

I Certainly would agree that Carroll deserved a call up I apologise if I didn't know Rooney was injured. I think we should be okay in Germany but what formation do you think Southgate will set up tomorrow or how would you set the team up?