yellow jumper

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the first xi to start with as likely to be shaped as much by who's there from beginning of pre-season. beyond that, not convinced as others that lallana, firmino, and origi now going to be more regular bench players.

the ordinariness of those midfields is probably overstated anyway. it not being the best midfield in the country, isn't quite the same thing.

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had all that with van gaal, different game in the prem. more like playing Ireland every other week.

the usual thing of pinning hopes on a 18 year old happened here with rashford: get him on, no fear, did more in 10 minutes etc... becomes all about the probably good, but not great individual, which equals increasing and unrealistic pressure every time they perform well (individually), and development of team understanding gets neglected.

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this was holland 74 or brazil 82 in his head.

just when you think he can't say anything madder, he comes up with something. "unfortunately it's results that count."

such amazing integrity.

"i don't really know what i'm doing here." that can't be true, surely. appears it is: paul joyce ‏@pjoyceexpress 8m8 minutes agoRoy Hodgson: I don’t know what I am doing here. I was told by everyone it was important to appear.

i'm brought to wondering just how far he could go before people would actually admit he lacked any "integrity" at all.

that there are no decent english coaches is in no small part down to them. beyond that they make it even harder for themselves by insisting on a fa man. i don't think the aspiration for an english way and national centres and all that is a bad one per se. but they're twenty or thirty years behind and probably not invested in the project in a thoughtful, serious way.

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yeah, in an ideal world they'd have seen the compatibility of shape, approach and number of good players at spurs/southampton/liverpool and gone with that. but even then the manager's all wrong for it.

hodgson is a moron. but the problems are the same. until an England manager puts how he wants to play and the players that fit before the names and some superficial ideas of progress/development, it's the way it'll be. this wasn't hodge ball really, it was a totally misconceived/gutless attempt to play. but more teams are playing in completely different ways with less qualified players in england than anywhere else. it's harder. if you're going to play the hosgson way at least be honest about it... there's plenty of teams achieving things along those lines here. palace got to a cup final. total lack of honesty in the whole enterprise. people pretending to be what they're not, maintaining a facade.

is he f***ing high? https://twitter.com/pieandbov/status/747543886453678080

he's had that resignation speech in his pocket since day one.

did england win the corners?