acrossthepond

Ashley has shown he'll spend what he thinks it takes to keep us in the PL and no more. He reckons Rafa has it sorted this season so no need to spend beyond the barest minimum. The inevitable result is that the teams around us continue to spend, strengthening their position, while we stand still over the course of the next 2-3 seasons (or less depending on who replaces Rafa after he goes) until we go down again, then the cycle will repeat.

Came apart a bit in this game I'm afraid. We should've put them to bed in the first half, from that point on we never had a look in. Vida was utterly immense btw, I'd sign him in an instant. The ginger prick makes a few good points. There was no plan B for this tournament, Kane filled his boots by beating an absolutely shit team in Panama and with a couple of penalties but contributed very, very little to open play, the game against Colombia also masked many of our shortcomings (since they weren't trying to play football) and we were beaten by both halfway decent footballing sides we played. That said, this is miles better than England have been for a very long time and I think Southgate deserves credit. The last pack of England managers we've had have been dogshit to a man. We finally accomplish something, easy route to the semi-final or not, and now we need to build on that.

I wouldn't spend more than 10m on Rondon, I certainly wouldn't go close to matching our transfer record let alone breaking it. He is a bog standard PL striker.

How long was Sanchez going to argue that blatant penalty? Fuck knows what he was thinking, it was clear as day. I see Falcao has been studying at the Neymar school of theatrics as well, what an odious cunt as well as going to complete and utter shit over the past 4 years.

If anyone's interested in a translation of that tweet, here you go:

Harsh on Japan, but Honda should've delayed the free kick and then the subsequent corner longer than he did. He's been around long enough to know that. I feel a bit foolish criticising Martinez a moment ago and then his subs both score to win the game. France and now Belgium have shown a lot of resilience that the other big teams didn't have.

Why did Belgium hire this chancer? With the talent available to them there'd have been tons of top class managers panting for it. I don't see why they'd want some bloke who once managed Wigan.

The new rules state that deliberate fouls should still merit red cards even if the penalty is awarded. I think that qualified as a deliberate foul. Of course Jorgenson was trying to get the ball, but he launched himself recklessly into a tackle he had almost no chance of winning and I feel it was every bit as much a professional foul as Solskjaer's against Rob Lee, i.e. a desperate attempt to prevent a certain goal. Even more certain considering the keeper was already beaten in this case. Red card for me.

What a save. Jorgenson should've walked for that though, I can't believe he received only a yellow. That was the clearest red I've ever seen.

This has been a proper game. Very little dirty fouling, fake crying, rolling around on the floor, making the VAR sign, and other bullshit. I like the look of Poulsen too, he's a player who causes a lot of trouble and covers a lot of ground.

Really hope the French put it up them. I'm sick to my back teeth of Argentina and Messi.

Nowhere close to good enough. If Serbia had a quality number 9 they might've scored 3 in that game. Instead Mitrovic spurned 3-4 good chances including one true sitter. He looks good against awful teams but he's simply not up to enough against top sides where you could only get one or two chances.

That was supposed to be a dig but you only showed yourself up. Xhaka and Shaqiri are both ethnic Albanians and in the Balkans fucking everything is about ethnicity. The gesture was 100% intended to stir shit. Here is some history:

If Mitro's work rate isn't good enough for Rafa, Shaqiri's certainly isn't. That's before you add on what a shit-stirring piece of work he is (he was trying to provoke the Serbs last night by making an Albanian eagle at them with his hands after he scored the winner.) But then, all that aside, if the price was right I'd take him. Shelvey apart, quality on the ball is in short supply in this side and he chips in with a fair few goals from midfield.

Come on man, that was contact only of the "Close Encounters" kind. That was a stone cold dive, a blatant attempt to win a late, likely game-winning penalty in a game Brazil have been poor in. I'd like to see a retrospective ban for that, it brings the game into disrepute.

Get fucked Neymar, that was an absolute dive. Where was the card? That was as textbook a bit of simulation as you'll ever see.

Very flat game so far, I'm not sure why Brazil persist with these two defensive midfielders. They should be taking the game to Costa Rica.

I think both of those were penalties. Poulsen is not a mug, he knows that when you jump with your arms up in the box you're risking giving away a penalty and that's exactly what happened. And as Andrew says, it's still up to the man in the middle to give the penalty or not.

I think that might be all of Russia, like.

Christmas in June.

VAR has been incredibly effective so far. How many penalties would NUFC have won if that system had been in use over the PL era?

Hell of a match, here's to many more like that one.

Jordi Alba must be up there with the best defenders. He has been absolutely brilliant. The iberian mackems up to their usual bullshit, aided by a horrifying clanger from de Gea. Spain will score again I think.

This would be a fiscally prudent time to try to sign those Portuguese internationals who just jumped ship, if we were interested in any of them. If they have even a vaguely successful WC as free agents their wages will be stratospheric.

There is a good striker inside Mitrovic, I think it's undeniable. But it's a good striker we saw all too rarely during his time here. He was given multiple chances to impress and never really shone even in the Champ. Daryl Murphy looked a better option, if you've forgotten already, and that says it all about Rafa and his system and where a lazy, occasionally brilliant, lunatic frontman fits into it, which is to say, he doesn't. I also want to add what I've always said about Mitro: he doesn't work at all as a lone striker. He doesn't make the kind of pointless runs that open up space for the wide players and he throws a tantrum when the ball isn't played into feet. He's not suited at all mentally to ploughing a lone furrow up there. Best of luck to Mitro wherever he ends up playing, I think it's clear it's not going to be at SJP. Like a lot of you, I have a soft spot for the mad Serb, but he just isn't good enough at Prem level and he doesn't work hard enough for Rafa, and at the end of the day the manager sees the players every day in training and knows who best fits his plans. We all thought Rafa was barmy for persisting with Diame and look what happened there. "In Rafa We Trust" - so trust him then.