March 22, 201312 yr Looks like it. Not a problem against San Marino but I wouldn't be confident in that team against Montenegro - I'd play 4-3-3 with Rooney in the middle.
March 22, 201312 yr England: 1 Joe Hart, 2 Kyle Walker, 3 Leighton Baines, 4 Tom Cleverley, 5 Joleon Lescott, 6 Chris Smalling, 7 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 8 Frank Lampard ©, 9 Jermain Defoe, 10 Wayne Rooney, 11 Ashley Young Substitutes: 12 Scott Parker, 13 Ben Foster, 14 Ashley Cole, 15 Steven Taylor, 16 Steven Caulker, 17 James Milner, 18 Steven Gerrard, 19 Michael Carrick, 20 Leon Osman, 21 Daniel Welbeck, 22 Daniel Sturridge, 23 Fraser Forster
March 22, 201312 yr A walk in the park this is more like a warm up for the Tueday match against Montenegro, so boring in places.
March 22, 201312 yr San Marino FA are (rightly) unhappy with the pundits and commentators on ITV 1 acting like San Marino doesn't deserve to be a country.
March 22, 201312 yr They didn't say San Marino doesn't deserve to be a country (unless they did so after the match). They just questioned whether they should be in the qualifiers. I think there should be a preliminary round involving the lowest ranked teams before the main qualifying groups. San Marino haven't inproved since they started taking part 20 years or so ago and I don't think they will unless they start playing matches against teams of a similar standard to themselves. Europe is the only confederation apart from S America (where there are only nine teams) where all teams enter at the same stage.
March 22, 201312 yr The lowest ranked teams in Europe should just not play in these qualifiers at all. Ridiculous, I mean what is the gain really that in MARCH we play these ridiculous international games. Beats all logic. ITV's commentary team is embarrassing. So cringey, easily the worst commentary team about. They have no clue.
March 23, 201312 yr I'd be in favour of preliminary qualifiers, I would imagine a lot of coaches in the weaker countries would be as well - although their football associations less so.
March 23, 201312 yr Was bored and came up with an idea for pre-qualifying. There are 53 teams in UEFA - this is on the assumption that they all compete so only works for tournaments that don't have a European host. The bottom 24 ranked teams play in 6 groups of 4, with the group winner progressing. These 6 winners join the 29 top teams in 7 groups of 5. The top two in each group progress (we usually have about 14 European teams in the World Cup now, yes?) It works out with Scotland and Wales being top seeds in prequalifying and Northern Ireland second seeds, so all with a good chance of making it through. The Republic are fourth seeded in the second phase, so have a chance if it's a weak group. England are top seeds and have a cushion with the top two going through.
March 23, 201312 yr That's roughly the sort of format I would like to see. It has the added benefit of having a simple two qualifiers from each group rather than worrying about "best second placed teams". The European Championships would require a different format as there are 23 qualifiers to be found.
March 23, 201312 yr That's roughly the sort of format I would like to see. It has the added benefit of having a simple two qualifiers from each group rather than worrying about "best second placed teams". The European Championships would require a different format as there are 23 qualifiers to be found. Top three from the group in a tournament with two hosts? Fuck knows how it'll work with Euro 2020.
March 23, 201312 yr Top three from the group in a tournament with two hosts? Fuck knows how it'll work with Euro 2020. Two hosts means 22 qualifiers to find (it's 23 for the next tournament as France are the only host nation). For Euro 2020 they could have eight groups of five (after a preliminary round) with the top three qualifying. There would need to be a distinct advantage in winning the group (perhaps playing group matches at home) to avoid a lot of dead matches.
March 23, 201312 yr That is as reasonable as anything I've seen but the next one and previous two have all been with 13 European teams (plus the host in 2006).
March 24, 201312 yr Team to play Montenegro? I'm expecting: Hart Johnson Smalling Lescott Cole Gerrard Carrick Cleverley Milner Rooney Welbeck San Marino FA are (rightly) unhappy with the pundits and commentators on ITV 1 acting like San Marino doesn't deserve to be a country. I saw a twitter account acting as San Marino FA, but it looked a little suspicious to me considering the account had only been made a week or so ago
March 24, 201312 yr The above seems right. I do think he might be tempted to go with Defoe and Rooney up top though.
March 25, 201312 yr That team doesn't seem bad provided it's a loose 4-3-3 rather than shoving Cleverley out wide. That is as reasonable as anything I've seen but the next one and previous two have all been with 13 European teams (plus the host in 2006). 13 is a pain as you end up having to do silly maths with the groups like they do now over who makes the playoffs. I know it's against the principle of global inclusion and expansion that I largely agree with, but quality-wise having 14 European teams makes more sense than 13.
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