Logic

Average 12.7, median 12.

That'd be great!

Keep a winning XI and formation as much as possible. Rather switch it around if it isn't working or if we need a goal during the game.

It has been altered. But not that much:

Based on Rory's intro I'd ditch the 3-4-1-2 for this game. (and I'm actually a fan of that system for the players we have. If they play one up front with one deeper we have one man too much in central defence and no one to pick up the deep lying forward. I want Rodgers to go back to the system he appears to like the most - 4-1-2-3. Do that but with a few changes (mad or out of the box options in () ). Mignolet Johnson - Kolo - Sakho - Cissokho Lucas (Agger) Stevie - Hendo (Alberto) Moses - Sturridge - Suarez Something like Martino's Barcelona. But a few rules need to be enforced. Lucas (Agger) should always hold his position in front to he CB's. No chasing or pressing the opponent until the team has regained the defensive shape. Meaning fb's need to be back level with the cb's before Lucas can move up and when he does that the whole backline needs to follow him to keep the space between Lucas and Kolo/Sakho at a minimum. Another thing would be to try to hit our front three early if possible. Those three with one runner from midfield could cause havoc. If that pass isn't on slow the game down and be patient with short passes moving the ball (and their defence around).

It would be absolutely mental. If (and it's a big if) we make it through these two games there will be one of the biggest party ever around here. And we have a reputation for partying excessively just over the regular weekends. Having made the play-offs have made most of us absolutely ecstatic as it is probably the biggest sporting achievement in the history of our country (world-wide popularity of sport and other factors taken into account)... getting through those... sh*t that'd be great! Just think about it - we have the same population as Wigan, Wirral or Coventry. And we are two games from making it to the World Cup.

Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson. One of the talents coming through the system recently. We've got a bunch of young lads making the step up recently and he's one of them and then our youth teams are all performing very well so the future is bright considering we are only a nation of 320000 people. http://www.whoscored.com/Players/41868/

Since I know you are all really excited about the chance of Iceland getting to Brazil... http://youtu.be/TiA4mxemStQ

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=worldcupcentral&id=992 Most important part: I'm afraid their prediction is off though. This will probably be one step too far for the Icelandic team.

Portugal - Sweden Ukraine - France Greece - Romania Iceland - Croatia For the play-offs.

Ferdinand has 'a genuine grudge' hasn't he? So which manc could possibly 'not have understood the joke'? (Rooney?)

The rankings are based on the last 4 years. http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/ http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/procedureandschedule/menprocedure/index.html

The four other teams are (or rather will be) higher in the FIFA rankings. http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/

Indeed! According to kicker.de the seeded vs unseeded for the playoffs will be: Seeded: Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Ukraine Unseeded: Sweden, France, Romania and Iceland The new FIFA rankings are published tomorrow and will decide upon those two groups. Icelanders (all 320 000 of us) will feel confident playing against everyone except Portugal if those are the groups.

Yes. Worse than Iceland. Just thought that needed to be said. * Disclaimer: I'm a euphoric Icelander enjoying the fact that Iceland got further than both Denmark and Norway.

Denmark doesn't have to worry about playoffs either.

Brothers.

Kolbeinn Sigþórsson at Ajax (Finnbogason doesn't make the starting XI at the moment because Eiður Smári Guðjónsen is playing instead) is probably the other really big talent. Then we have a group of players that are decent enough and are playing at a decent level. Players like Aron Einar Gunnarson at Cardiff, Birkir Bjarnason at Sampdoria, Jóhann Berg at AZ and Ragnar Sigurðsson at FC Köbenhavn. We had another talent (Aron Jóhansson) but he chose to play for the U.S.A. instead. But probably most importantly we have Lars Lagerbäck as manager which has completely changed the organisation of the team for the better. We might not have the greatest players but the frontline is very good and that is what is getting us this far. Decent article about what has changed in Icelandic football: http://www.footandball.net/can-iceland-make-world-cup/ It does help that our group wasn't the strongest as well (but don't tell anyone )

None of you will probably care but... Iceland made the playoffs! F*ck yeah!

For some reason I thought that would be a new format for the qualifying... I'm an idiot.

Iceland is one game away from securing a place in the play-offs (after today's game) for the world cup. That's Iceland, a nation of 320k people, which was ranked 121 in the FIFA rankings that decided the seedings for this WC qualification. We were lucky with the teams we got in our group but it's still quite an achievement. The effect something like this can have on a nation like Iceland is remarkable. It's not just about football it's about national pride. According to that article we'd be playing in the 7th division according to this proposal. Just do away with the friendlies. You don't need to kill football in the smaller nations just because the bigger nations find it irritating having to play against "unworthy" opponents. (that is if I understood this correctly )

Yeah, I was more meaning we'd rather go for a 4-2-3-1 than the 442 (IMHO). Most likely we'll line up in the 3-4-1-2 as we've done in the last few games.

More likely to be a 4-2-3-1 though isn't it? With Suarez as the nr 10? If we don't go with the 3-4-1-2.

When we get the three missing from the starting XI (Agger, Coutinho & Johnson) there's one massive weak link in the team - Enrique. He was terrible today. When is Aly back? But, three points and second place in the league. Things are starting to look good.

Both.