verlaine1979

Thinking about it, the two note-worthiest teams making a success of playing 5 at the back do both have Eden Hazard in them. Maybe there's something in that.

At the absolute peak of his performances for us, he only made the 2014 French squad as a standby after Grenier was injured and only made 8 starts across the 2.5 years he was in the squad. Deschamps clearly never really rated him.

Much as I like having a genuine flair player in the squad, I'd swap Boufal for Lookman in the squad without much regret.

Fonte was a liability our first season back - remember a particularly egregious howler for Wigan's second when they schooled us at home soon after we came up. He got better, but the idea that he made the likes of VVD, Toby and even Lovren look better than they were is just mental. Moreover, during his last full season with us, but for a few very generous refereeing decisions, I think he'd probably have set a single season record for penalties given away. He led a very charmed life during that period from what I remember.

Even in his pomp the only player in their squad he could've hoped to edge out would be Nzonzi, and assuming they picked him in part because of his physical presence (he's 6'6) I doubt it. All old news now, but none of the French people I used to work with thought Schneiderlin was anything to write home about.

Croatia harshly treated, but felt that France had more goals in them if they'd needed them.

Needed anyone alongside Henderson once the midfield battle started to turn. Neither Alli nor Lingard were able to respond to the change in dynamic - both continued to play as if their main responsibility was being alive to turnovers up the pitch that never came.

Hard to win football matches without a midfield.

Nice turn of pace and finish from Gallagher.

According to Transfermarkt he's played a total of 10.5 top level games over the past three full seasons. Would be an absolutely insane transfer for a position where we really need a reliable addition to the first XI.

Wouldn't have Griezmann there either.

After the world cup he's had, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a bidding war if he became available.

Is Kane the only player whose instinct isn't to look for Pickford as soon as he doesn't have a clear sight of the opposition goal? We give up so much momentum and position playing like this.

If you were saying it another way, you might have said 'a good manager will train his team to work around the fact that Redmond is an attacker who has no real ability to attack.'

Hmm are you trying to hipster this by claiming that he's an attacker whose great strength is playing short backward passes so as to not lose the ball under pressure? Also, I think the whole 'Pep likes him' thing is absurd. Pep was annoyed that his team almost dropped 2 points because we didn't attack, so he grabbed one of our notional attackers and more or less asked him to question his life choices. It wasn't because he was robbed of the footballing joy of seeing Redmond in full majestic flight for 90 minutes.

I think you've mistaken 'skipping towards the opposition and then stopping when you reach them' with 'running with the ball and taking on the opposition'. Redmond only has average pace, which is probably why you almost never see him trust his acceleration and try to take the ball beyond a defender once he's stood them up.

Hmm, obviously recruitment work still ongoing, but the squad definitely still has a relegationy stench over it.

Refusing to warm up is just a rumour that Boufal has flat out denied. As far as I'm aware, the club have never said anything official on the matter. I'm sure there was an argument about Boufal's attitude that got him into trouble, but the whole refusing-to-do-his-job thing just sounds like catnip gossip designed to excite the bigots among the fanbase.

Colombia were very lucky against Senegal earlier. Really struggled against the pace of their attack, but Senegal just couldn't find a final ball. Obviously England could easily come a cropper in the knockouts as they have so many times before, but Colombia without a fit James Rodriguez are a pretty mediocre side and England have the right style of attack to worry them.

That's also covered in their disclosure about the signing. 11.9m euro (£10.45m) rising to a possible 13.7m euro (£12.07m) with bonuses. In other words, the most we'll get is a good £6m shy of the quoted £18m.

Embolo looks decent for Switzerland.

Ajax can't lie to the stock market. If they say they've handed us 11.9m euros, then that's exactly what they'll have done.

Football commentary is almost never insightful or original. In fact, due to their commitment to always sticking with their first reaction to an incident regardless of what subsequently becomes clear, much of what commentators say bears almost no relation to what's taking place on the pitch, making questions of authority and experience pretty moot. If you don't like listening to women's voices while watching sport, at least have the balls to be honest about it.

Great result, but Maguire has looked very dodgy on the ball in both games, and Sterling contributes almost nothing. There are better players on the bench who'd improve that team.

She didn't, she made about a quarter of that.