Football (Soccer) Thread

[celedhring]

He was saying that the Mexican coach should either man up or resign.

Thanks.  Can you give me the exact expression for man up please.

He said "ponerse los pantalones", but I had never heard it before, must be Mexican slang or something. Man up is a free translation, you can say "walk the walk", "get real", or something to the same effect.

"Take charge". It's derived from the more familiar expression "llevar los pantalones".

Also, it's now written in the stars that Mexico will beat the US in the WC.

[katmai]

Pfft I'm not sure that team can even beat New Zealand.

[mongers]

The statistics are 'loaded' against England, in their home league, one of the 'best' in the world, Englishmen play for only about 1/3 of the player minutes, a figure of 32.8% rings a bell. 

You could say that means Englands best players play all season against some of the best of the ROTW talent, but I'm sceptical. 

Also I'd like to see the stats on percentage of goal scorers/attacking players/forwards are English in the premiership.

[Warspite]

Don't buy the too-many-foreigners argument.

The best English players still rise to the top, even in clubs like Arsenal where Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson feature regularly enough even at a very young age. John Terry and Frank Lampard have been the core of a successful Chelsea side with millions to lavish on the best foreigners. I could go on.

Having more mediocre English players in the PL would not make a better England team. The English problem has been a combination of relatively poor technical skills, poor tactics, and a lack of tournament mentality. It's also plain difficult to win major international tournaments.

[FunkMonk]

This Guardian article from 2010 also highlights a huge coaching shortage in England as compared to their continental counterparts. Englanders, what do you make of this disparity?

Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges
Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/01/football-coach-shortage-england

[Warspite]

This Guardian article from 2010 also highlights a huge coaching shortage in England as compared to their continental counterparts. Englanders, what do you make of this disparity?

Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges
Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/01/football-coach-shortage-england

I've seen it argued elsewhere that you can't look at just UEFA qualifications as there are lots of coaches in England with FA qualifications, don't know how true this is.

The problem, however, is not how many coaches there are in England, it's how the game is taught at a young age, It's changed now for the better. But the generations of players plying their trade as seniors now learnt in a very different system that prized physicality and commitment over technical skills at a very young age. There's also an actual suspicion of anything too tactical in British football, hence the periodic debates over whether the England team should ever play anything other than 4-4-bloody-2.

[Josquius]

I'm all for foreign player quotas in the premier.
It does hinder English players from emerging. Some like Rooney are awesome early and they will always ride to the top. A lot of players though are late bloomers, mediocre into their 20s when they really take off: the current system hurts these guys.

Of course there's always thproblem of cap English players bing there just becaus teams have no choice but pick them to make up the numbers. That is a rather iffy situation, but hopefully fixable by improved development of Brits....
Which is an issue I have. It should be a Brit quota, not an English one- if at least for the Swansea/Cardiff factor , but for other reasons too.

I also wonder about the legal issues. Doesn't it go against eu law?

[celedhring]

Spain, Italy and Germany don't have quotas and they are doing quite fine in the national team front. I think that's a bit of an excuse.

Actually, given the work permit system in the UK, it's harder to sign foreigners in the PL than in the other European leagues.

[Viking]

With the exception of Eiður Guðjohnsen and a few older guys the bulk of the present Icelandic National team (and Aron Jóhansson in the USA) are the same age plus minus a few years and they are the first generation of a new mindset i icelandic youth football. That is professional coaches for young talents. The general youth sports coaching was reduced and the best coaches went to the best players, in addition to a concerted effort to increase the qualifications of coaches. The result was 11 quality players on the U21 side all of which graduated pretty much immediately to the national side when they came of age.

I think the guardian might be on to something there.

[FunkMonk]

What about the recent batch of young Belgian superstars? How has little Belgium managed to produce so much talent? Their league obviously isn't top tier. Is it coaching? Has the Belgian FA changed their national youth set up?

[Liep]

What about the recent batch of young Belgian superstars? How has little Belgium managed to produce so much talent? Their league obviously isn't top tier. Is it coaching? Has the Belgian FA changed their national youth set up?

Luck? Every once in a while a country gets a golden generation. I'm quite sure we didn't change much when we had Elkjær, Laudrup, Arnesen, Lerby, Mølby, Simonsen, Olsen, etc. in 1986.

A quick google later reveals that Marouane Fellaini thinks it's luck, and the head of Belgium's FA thinks it's because of the changed guidelines for the development of talents that the FA send out in 2001.

It's likely both.

[FunkMonk]

Yeah there's certainly a degree of luck in it. I think that might be really important for positions as well. Your national team may have a wonderful group of world class midfielders but what if you have a subpar striker?

[Zanza]

Supposed to be the top 8 in the rankings as of tomorrow. I don't think Italy have a chance.

Just shows up how crap the rankings are.

I predict that Italy will do better at the world cup than Switzerland or Columbia.

[celedhring]

Yeah there's certainly a degree of luck in it. I think that might be really important for positions as well. Your national team may have a wonderful group of world class midfielders but what if you have a subpar striker?

I don't think there are many teams that have the complete package. I.e. Spain have loads of great midfielders but our strikers aren't as good as when we had Villa and Torres in their peaks. Brazil's midfield isn't very creative, Italy's defence (strangely) isn't as good, etc...

Supposed to be the top 8 in the rankings as of tomorrow. I don't think Italy have a chance.

Just shows up how crap the rankings are.

I predict that Italy will do better at the world cup than Switzerland or Columbia.

Indeed the FIFA rankings are a complete laugh; they could give us some pretty fun WC groups though, given the amount of top teams that won't be seeded.

[Sheilbh]

Luck? Every once in a while a country gets a golden generation. I'm quite sure we didn't change much when we had Elkjær, Laudrup, Arnesen, Lerby, Mølby, Simonsen, Olsen, etc. in 1986.

Yep. I read an article in the Guardian about 'golden generations' and there was a quote from a Serbian tennis coach who basically said they had no idea how they suddenly had a raft of highly talented players. Very little had changed in the set-up. Sometimes I think it just happens.

I don't buy the lack of English players (or coaches) argument.