England Ratings

My opinion of England's World Cup run.

Goalkeepers:
Jordan Pickford 8/10 Maybe not the greatest goalkeeper but performed really well on the big stage, certainly more confident with the ball at his feet than the others.
Jack Butland 0 Did not play,  
Nick Pope 0 Did not play

Defenders:
Kyle Walker 7/10 Got the pace to cover which has been lacking in England squads of the past, but still lacks composure under pressure. Could have been better.
Kieran Trippier 8/10 Hardly put a foot wrong in defence and was our best set piece taker and crosser.
Harry Maguire 7/10 Stepped up to the mark and doesn't lack confidence, needs to improve his passing and have a little bit more confidence when he takes the ball upfield.
John Stones 7/10 Apart from the error against Croatia he has been excellent, should be nailed down as a starter for many years.
Ashley Young 6/10 Did a job, the fact he doesn't like crossing with his left foot is the biggest downside to his game.
Danny Rose 5/10 Has the pace and talent to replace Ashley Young but still makes bad choices as a defender.
Eric Dier 6/10 Not really a fan but his versatility earns him a place in the squad. Looked better in the final game.
Phil Jones 3/10 No idea why he is in the squad?
Gary Cahill 6/10 Experienced and reliable.
Trent Alexander Arnold 7/10 The fact he's behind Trippier is the only reason he won't be an England regular for a while, Bags of confidence and ability.

Midfielders:
Jordan Henderson 5/10 Did a steady job but the Croatia game showed he doesn't have the ability to create chances where he just played a stream of long passes without picking out a player.
Dele Alli 6/10 Not at his best, didn't get forward enough. Most Tottenham fans will tell you he gives the ball away too easily but makes up for it with his ability to get in the box at the right time.
Jesse Lingard 7/10 Tried hard but things didn't really come off for him this time.
Fabian Delph 6/10 Has been used as a wing back by Man City but his cameo appearances at this tournament have been in midfield where he is very average. Played the wing back roll in the 2nd half against Belgium and should have moved in front of Young and Rose.
Ruben Loftus Cheek 6/10 Has potential but needs to work harder.

Forwards:
Harry Kane 7/10 Looked good in the early games but looks to be carrying an injury, hasn't been the same since the Colombia game where he appeared to be struggling.
Raheem Sterling 6/10 Does not deserve the criticism he receives, always a willing runner but confidence seems shot when he gets near the goal. Poor last game.
Jamie Vardy 5/10 England don't play to his strengths and struggled to make an impact.
Marcus Rashford 6/10 Will get better, has the pace and skill to be a big player in the future. Hopefully he will get more game time for Man Utd this season.
Danny Welbeck 2/10 Too many injuries and a lack of game time have blunted his instincts, might come back better if he can get regular football.

Gareth Southgate 7/10 Great to have an England boss who seems to care for a change, he got them all playing as a team and motivated them at the right times, showed some inexperiece with his substitutions in the Croatia game where it was obvious Kane was struggling and Rashford instead came on for Sterling who was still fun of running, also Trippier was left on despite being injured for the whole of extra time and Walker replaced instead?
The one big criticism you can level at Southgate is the original selection, Jack Wilshere and Jonjo Shelvey are both the type of creative midfielders we were missing throughout the tournament and especially against Croatia.
Why he couldn't find room for them in the squad is a mystery when he chose players like Phil Jones, Fabian Delph, Danny Welbeck and Ruben Loftus Cheek who weren't trusted to come on and make a difference.

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 6)

Only a week to go and the World Cup is over ... boo hoo!!
I like many others thought a World Cup in Russia could be a disaster with predictions of Russian hooligans, heavy handed police, racist chanting, VAR etc?
But from what I've seen it has been brilliant so far and not just because England have performed, the VAR has mostly been done really well, weeding out the cheating b'stards and letting teams get on with playing football.

Final Rounds of Predictions (please fill in teams for final and 3rd place)
(90 Minute rule again - extra time and penalties don't count)

Semi Finals
Belgium v France
Croatia v England

3rd Place
Belgium v England

Final
France v Croatia

Thought I was running away with this, but Paulo has put the pressure on ...
60 Games - Lee 43, Paulo 40, Paul 31, (Lawro 42)

Good Luck All :)

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 5)

Starting to get our hopes up, I think every English footy fan wants us to win the World Cup but after all these years of disappointment we've kept it in check :)
Injuries permitting we should be able to compete against Sweden, Croatia or Russia, but then the big 4 in the other half of the draw come into play.
Of course our history suggests we'll get a dodgy red card or one of our top players inured before then so don't count any chickens :)

8 Games left and it's Quarter Final time, games on Friday and Saturday.
90 minute rule applies for predictions.

France v Uraguay
Brazil v Belgium
Sweden v England
Russia v Croatia

Good luck All, and England :)

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 4)

Last 16 time, 2 games a day from Saturday till next Tuesday.

France v Argentina
Uruguay v Portugal
Spain v Russia
Croatia v Denmark
Brazil v Mexico
Belgium v Japan
Sweden v Switzerland
Colombia v England

Rules for the knockout stages:
Prediction result will be the score at the end of normal time (90 minutes + injury time).
Extra time and Penalties will not count.

World Cup Last 16

France - 2 wins 1 draw, quality team who have yet to really get going.
Argentina - 1 win 1 draw, lucky to scrape through but they have Messi.
Uraguay - 3 wins, great defence and Suarez, one to avoid.
Portugal - 1 win 2 draws, they've got Ronaldo so will always have a chance.
Spain - 1 win 2 draws, not at their best but will still be hard to beat.
Russia - 2 wins, badly beaten by Uruguay, home crowd won't be enough.
Croatia - 3 wins, looking very good so far just lacking a top quality striker.
Denmark - 1 win 2 draws, looking like one of the weakest teams through.
Brazil - 2 wins 1 draw, not the best team but have some top quality individuals who can win a game on their own.
Mexico - 2 wins, looked great in the first 2 games but thrashed by Sweden.
Belgium - 3 wins, top squad if they all perform but always get the feeling they will bottle it?
Japan - 1 win 1 draw, helped by playing 87 minutes against Colombia against 10 men, lucky to get through
Sweden - 2 wins, unlucky to lose to Germany but were very good against Mexico.
Switzerland - 1 win 2 draws, not impressed with the Swiss but keep getting results, although thanks to dodgy V.A.R in the Serbia game.
Colombia - 2 wins, unlucky against Japan but have been good in the last 2, will be hard to beat.
England - 2 wins, hopefully Harry Kane won't get injured.

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 3)

Part 3 - The final group games being played from Monday to Thursday.
At the moment (Sunday morning) only 4 teams are definitely through - Croatia, France, Russia and Uruguay.
6 teams are already knocked out - Costa Rica, Egypt, Morocco, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

Saudi Arabia v Egypt
Uraguay v Russia
Iran v Portugal
Spain v Morocco
Australia v Peru
Denmark v France
Iceland v Croatia
Nigeria v Argentina
Mexico v Sweden
South Korea v Germany
Serbia v Brazil
Switzerland v Costa Rica
Japan v Poland
Senegal v Colombia
England v Belgium
Panama v Tunisia

Last 16 games to come on Thursday or Friday.

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 2)

The 2nd Round of group game start on Tuesday through to Sunday.
A few of the big names need a win, Argentina and Germany have a couple of tough games.

Russia v Egypt
Portugal v Morocco
Uraguay v Saudi Arabia
Iran v Spain
Denmark v Australia
France v Peru
Argentina v Croatia
Brazil v Costa Rica
Nigeria v Iceland
Serbia v Switzerland
Belgium v Tunisia
South Korea v Mexico
Germany v Sweden
England v Panama
Japan v Senegal
Poland v Colombia

Good Luck All :)

World Cup 2018 Predictions (Part 1)

The World Cup is here again, so here is the World Cup predictions competition.

Usual predictions rules - 3 Points for a correct score, 1 Point for a correct result.
Overall winner will be decided on the total points at the end of the competition (64 Games).

Extra rules for the knockout stages:
To stop all confusion and arguments the prediction will be the score at the end of normal time (90 minutes + injury time).
Extra time and Penalties will not count.
So if a game finishes 0-0 and goes into extra time and one team has 3 players sent off and lose 7-0 it will count as a 0-0 draw, Hopefully that makes sense :)

All welcome to join in, plenty of time to catch up if you miss a few games.

Here's a list of the first round of games in the 2018 tournament.
Will post the rest in stages a few days before they are played.

These games are being played between Thursday 14th June to Tuesday 19th June

Russia v Saudi Arabia
Egypt v Uraguay
Morocco v Iran
Portugal v Spain
France v Australia
Argentina v Iceland
Peru v Denmark
Croatia v Nigeria
Costa Rica v Serbia
Germany v Mexico
Brazil v Switzerland
Sweden v South Korea
Belgium v Panama
Tunisia v England
Poland v Senegal
Colombia v Japan

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football

To complete the info from the 2017/18 season here was the final table from the Telegraph Fantasy Football version of the NBTF League.

Congratulations to Richard with his team RR5 who led from the start and held on to win this, and finish in the Top 100 :)
I had a very poor year with none of my teams even making the Top 1000, after 2 years of having multiple teams near the top :(
Thanks to all the others who played - 88 teams from 24 different players (Alexandre, Allan, Billy, Colin, Darren, David, Jake, James, John, Lance, Leslie, Matt, Michael, Mike, Nicola, Paul F, Paul M, Richard, Rob, Ryan, Simon, Sue, Terry and Me)

Here is the medal won by Richard.

He kindly said I could keep it, as I had not claimed the one I won in his league last season .. thanks Rick :)

Depending on the prices I might go big next season?
I did have 17 teams this season but usually go with about 30.
In previous seasons there was usually a good offer near to the season start, but last year it was expensive even though the prizes seem to get less every year? (maybe they are trying to kill this off?)

Winners And Losers

Champions, Promoted, Relegated and Cup Winners from the 2017/18 Season.

Premier League
Winners - Man City
Champions League Qualifiers - Man Utd, Tottenham, Liverpool
Europa League Qualifiers - Chelsea, Arsenal, Burnley
Relegated - Swansea, Stoke, West Brom

Championship
Winners - Wolves
Promoted - Cardiff, Fulham
Relegated - Barnsley, Burton, Sunderland

League One
Winners - Wigan
Promoted - Blackburn, Rotherham
Relegated - Oldham, Northampton, MK Dons, Bury

League Two
Winners - Accrington Stanley
Promoted - Luton, Wycombe, Coventry
Relegated - Barnet, Chesterfield

National League
Winners - Macclesfield
Promoted - Tranmere
Relegated - Woking, Torquay, Chester, Guiseley
Promoted to National League - Salford, Harrogate, Havant & Waterlooville, Braintree

F.A Cup Winners - Chelsea
League Cup Winners - Man City
Charity Shield - Arsenal
EFL Trophy Winners - Lincoln
F.A Trophy Winners - Brackley Town
F.A Vase Winners - Thatcham Town

Champions League Winners - Real Madrid
Europa Cup Winners - Athletico Madrid
UEFA Super Cup Winners - Real Madrid
World Club Cup Winners - Real Madrid

The Big Match(es)

The Big One: Fulham 1 Aston Villa 0
Congratulations to Fulham getting back into the Premier league after 4 years away.
Villa used to be one of my favourite teams, but I can't cheer for any team managed by Steve Bruce so was hoping Fulham took their deserved 3rd place.
Nervous end after the sending off but held on.
Shahid Khan is going to have to put his hand in his pocket to buy some players as Fulham had 6 loanees in their squad today, but he has big pockets as he plans to buy Wembley Stadium for about a Billion.

Euro League Final: Real Madrid 3 Liverpool 1
Great start from Liverpool who looked the most likely to score, until Ramos did a job on Salah forcing him off with a dislocated shoulder after dragging him to the floor with Salah's arm locked.
The first goal was a complete fluke, clever by Benzema but disastrous by Karius.
Liverpool equalised with a terrific Mane goal from Lovren's towering header, but then Gareth Bale came on for Isco and a couple of minutes later scored one of the best goals you'll ever see.
Then Bale hit a shot from about 30 yards straight at Karius who fluffed it into the net.
Real probably deserved the win but it might have been different if Salah hadn't been injured, or maybe if Simon Mignolet had played?

I reckon Joe Hart should get himself to Anfield, Karius made even calamity Joe look good :)

England Songs

Every four years (if we qualify) we get a ton of dodgy World Cup records, now and again there might be a decent one? Heard a few and they aren't the best :(
This one is the best so far, it's actually a Charity record to build a school in Nepal which explains the video.

New Manager

They have announced today that Manuel Pellegrini will be the new West Ham boss.

Can't deny he is experienced and a winner, so seems a bit of a coup to get him here especially as I've read he took a big pay cut from his last job in China.
Hopefully he feels he has something to prove?

Got to wish him well having to deal with Sullivan and Old Lady Brady who keep sticking their nose in when it's not needed.
He's going to have to work on a much tighter budget than his last English job, but the records say he has achieved that in the past.
Wasn't someone I was considering, I thought we would waste most of the summer trying to get the Fat Spanish waiter, who would then turn us down just before next season started leaving us to make a panic appointment at the death.
So he has 3 months to try and recruit quality bargain buys and get rid of the chaff.
Worrying that he liked Joe Hart during his time at City, but hopefully we won't go back there.

Good Luck Manuel ... you'll need it :)

Footy News

Sadly former England full back Ray Wilson died at the age of 1983.
A member of the 1966 England World Cup team, R.I.P :(

Also former West Ham youth and Aston Villa player Jlloyd Samuel died in a car accident at just 37 years of age, R.I.P :(

The managerial casualties are stacking up.
David Moyes - West Ham (Contract not renewed)
Sam Allardyce - Everton (Sacked)
Carlos Carvalhal - Swansea (Contract not renewed)
Paul Lambert - Stoke (Left Club)
Arsene Wenger - Arsenal (Left Club)
 + Any of the following could be going as well for various reasons? Antonio Conte (Chelsea),  Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham), Claude Puel (Leicester), Rafael Benitez (Newcastle), Javi Gracia (Watford).

F.A Cup Predictions

Chelsea win the Cup, decent game with Hazard starring.
Man Utd probably had more of the game but apart from Pogba's miss they never really looked loke scoring.
England Watch: Just 6 English players on view (5 in the England squad), Rasford, Jones and Lingard had games to forget, Young defended well but can't cross the ball, and only Cahill comes out with any credit.

Anyway Congratulations to Longy for winning the 63 game prediction competition :)

Final Table

So here is a virtual Cup for Longy :)

England World Cup Squad

Checked through all the "expert" pages about likely players to make the England World Cup Squad, and came up with this list of names.
We really shouldn't get our hopes up about making the next round as it doesn't look that good whoever goes.

Goalkeepers:
Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland, Joe Hart, Alex McCarthy, Tom Heaton, Angus Gunn, Fraser Forster, Nick Pope, Ben Foster (Retired)

Foster and Pope are the only ones in form, but I can't see either making the squad?

Defenders:
Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Ryan Bertrand, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, John Stones, Phil Jones, Harry Maguire, Aaron Cresswell, Alfie Mawson, Ben Gibson, Chris Smalling, James Tarkowski, Luke Shaw, Michael Keane, Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez (Injured), Kieran Gibbs, Phil Jagielka, Callum Chambers, Ben Mee (Injured), Ryan Sessegnon, Lewis Dunk, Trent Alexander Arnold, Jamaal Lascelles, Ben Chilwell

Hard to pick any that have had a really great season, maybe Walker, Maguire and Alexander Arnold. The rest have had injuries and been off form or are just too inexperienced.

Midfielders:
Jordan Henderson, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain (Injured), Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling, Jesse Lingard, Fabian Delph, Ashley Young, Adam Lallana, Andros Townsend, Danny Drinkwater, Harry Winks (Injured), Jack Cork, Jake Livermore, James Ward Prowse, Theo Walcott, Lewis Cook, Michail Antonio (Injured), Nathan Redmond, Ross Barkley, Ruben Loftus Cheek, Nathaniel Chalobah (Injured), James Milner (Retired), Tom Cleverley, Jonjo Shelvey, Wilfred Zaha (Plays For Ivory Coast), Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho

Raheem Sterling is having a great season, Dele Alli is getting back to form, Lingard, Shelvey and Young have been playing well. The rest have been in and out.

Forwards:
Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Dominic Solanke, Jermain Defoe, Tammy Abraham, Wayne Rooney, Charlie Austin, Peter Crouch, Glenn Murray, Andy Carroll, Dominic Calvert Lewin, Rhian Brewster

Kane not quite back to form, Vardy looks good, Rashford deserves a squad place but then we are struggling.

Squad of 35 to be announced tomorrow.

Prediction Facts 2017-18

2017/2018 Predictions League - All The Facts and Figures.

Most Wins: Paul 10, Lee 8, Paulo 7
Most Predictions: Lee & Paulo 386, Paul & Lawro & Lawro's Guest 384
Most Correct Scores (3 Pointers): Lawro 51, Paulo 43, Paul 37
Most Correct Results (3+1 Pointers): Lee & Lawro 196, Paul & Paulo 190
Most Points: Lawro 298, Paulo 276, Lee 268
Highest Week Score: Paulo 16, Paulo (Twice) & Lee 14
Lowest Score In A Full Week: Longy 1, Biopunk 2 (3 Times), Lawro's Guest 2 (Twice), Lee & Longy & Paul 2 (Once Each)
Best Points Per Game: Lawro's Extra Guest 0.82, Lawro 0.776, Paulo 0.715
Most Predictions Of 0 to 3 Goals: Lawro 379, Paul 358, Lee 334
Most Predictions Of 4 Or More Goals: Lawro's Guest 97, Biopunk 76, Paulo 57
Most Predictions Of A Single Score: Lawro (2-0) 181, Paul (2-0) 116, Biopunk (2-1) 114
Most Predicted Scores: (2-0) 766, (2-1) 578, (1-0) 498
Highest Scoring Correct Prediction: Paulo (5-0), Loads of 4 Goal Correct Scores.

Did I forget Anything?

Final Premier League Prediction Table

The Table If The Guests (Lawro, Lawro's Guests, The Model) Were Included?

Congratulations to Paul, Here is Your Virtual Trophy :)

Fantasy Football

The final table for the "Nothing Better Than Football" FPL League is as follows.

At least I won something :)
Managed 5 wins this season with this one, Rick's Footy Challenge, The Last Leg and 2 of the 3 open Classic leagues I entered (lost the other by 3 points) :(

Keep trying to get more people to enter but only 6 this season.

Telegraph Fantasy Football has another week to run, so will put the final table up after the Cup Final, I think Rick has his revenge by winning that one.

Premier Predictions (Week 38)

Sadly it's the last week of the season :(
Not much left to play for, Tottenham and Liverpool are chasing 3rd, Chelsea need to win and pray Liverpool lose to grab 4th.
Swansea need to gain 10 goals on Southampton to stay up, not totally impossible as they play Stoke who are already relegated and fighting amongst themselves, while the Saints play Man City who just might give someone a real hammering? very unlikely though :)

Burnley v Bournemouth
Crystal Palace v WBA
Huddersfield v Arsenal
Liverpool v Brighton
Man Utd v Watford
Newcastle v Chelsea
Southampton v Man City
Swansea v Stoke
Tottenham v Leicester
West Ham v Everton

Just for Cup completion (not included in week score) the F.A Cup Final next week.
(90 Minute Score only)
Chelsea v Man Utd

Good Luck All :)

World Cup Predictions coming soon, or hopefully see you in August :)

Premier Predictions (Week 37)

Here we go with a "mega" week of football, sorry it's late just realised it starts on Friday night?

* Thinking out loud time*
Just watched two cracking Euro Cup games this week where defending seems to be "a dying art", should be a great final with a ton of goals (or 0-0 and pens?).
Raises the question?? "if Tottenham and Chelsea overhaul Liverpool for the top 4, and Liverpool win the "Champions" League final, and Arsenal win the Europa league, who qualifies for the Champions league next season" ???

Anyway on to this week :)
Games spread over 7 days!! - 1 Friday, 6 Saturday, 3 Sunday, 0 Monday, 1 Tuesday, 4 Wednesday, 1 Thursday.
Still loads to play for with realistically 7 teams still in danger of the drop, West Brom need a miracle, Stoke need 2 wins to have any chance, if Southampton pull off a win at Everton it's "squeaky bum time" for Swansea, Huddersfield, Brighton and sadly West Ham :(
Making next weeks Swans v Saints game a huge match.

At the top Sunday's Chelsea v Liverpool match could be vital with Chelsea still having an outside chance of making the top 4, unlikely as Liverpool play Brighton at home on the last day needing just a point .. probably.
Tottenham have it in their own hands to finish 3rd with 3 "easy" games.

 - - -
Brighton v Man Utd
- - -
Stoke v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v Swansea
Leicester v West Ham
Watford v Newcastle
WBA v Tottenham
Everton v Southampton
- - -
Man City v Huddersfield
Arsenal v Burnley
Chelsea v Liverpool
- - -
Swansea v Southampton
- - -
Chelsea v Huddersfield
Leicester v Arsenal
Man City v Brighton
Tottenham v Newcastle
- - -
West Ham v Man Utd

As for the predictions competition, we are just going through the motions :(
Still with 16 games this week there is a chance for a record score?
Good Luck All :)

Phew!!!! :)