Mixed fortunes for Blues in international action

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/45201526

Someone wanted us to be sponsored by Adidas and have them make the kit. I'm glad they don't.

Siggy's Iceland thumped 6-0 in Switzerland.

I mean they are all established international footballers. I wonder if their zonal system, like ours, needs tweaking a bit, or not, according to what expert you listen too.

I don't watch TV except for the occasional sports event. I decided to not watch the match but did listen to a little during a quick drive to a friend's place - where I discovered it's not being shown on UK mainstream television.

Secondary tournament or not, even a friendly, is everything getting the monetize treatment? Can't watch an England match, even on a minor free-to-air channel...

Dele Alli is a waste of space at this level, as is Henderson, but playing a defence like that is bananas.

He's moved England forward lightyears. Let me explain how.

Between 2006 - 2018 England put in truly abysmal tournament performances against:

Paraguay
Trinidad and Tobago
Ecuador
Algeria
Slovenia
USA
Germany
Costa Rica
Uruguay
Italy

I'm not talking results. I'm talking games where we should've at least been on top and probably should have out performed our performances. I guess that's 80% of our tournament games in that time

My point is this. We performed to our ability under GS and that is all you can ask for. Failing that you need the opposition to under perform. Belgium didn't against us (twice) and neither did Croatia who got unbelievably more strong as the game went on.

Do we have better players than Belgium? No

Do we have better players than Croatia? Maybe.

Do we have better players than Costa Rica? Yes. But we couldn't beat them.

USA? Yes but we couldn't beat them

Etc etc

For me, Lingard is the current David Platt; mainly very ordinary and ineffectual but has an annoying habit of producing just enough eye-catching moments to make it look like he is contributing more overall than he is. Absolute waste of space when the opposition are controlling the possession.

Didn't look like they were ‘controlling' any aspect of that game.

He was also apparently conscious and able to move his arm to the top of his head straight after the fall. A definite head-ringer with a bit of a a neck wrench thrown in?

If you tank a cycle on the new UEFA nations league and get yourself down to the lowest tier then it's easier to qualify for the World Cup in the next cycle. One of the weakest 16 European sides on rankings will go to the World Cup.

The new system sees lots more England v Spain games, but it ends the monopoly of the big European powerhouses qualifying for World Cup after World Cup.

Me, I can't see it lasting. No one realises what it is yet, once half the biggest European nations miss out on World Cup, they'll scrap it. Who cares about winning the UEFA nations league anyway?

It hadn't occurred to me that anyone would set up a competition that guarantees a place for even one of the lower ranked teams, so I assumed it was meant to give national teams more properly competitive games so that they would have a better chance to improve.

Make it easier for them to improve through competitive well matched games = sensible / give them a guarantee of a place in the finals by merely being the best of the minnows = barmy.

I just checked a brief explanation of this competition. Does seem like a major flaw in the plan and something wholly against the ethos of any serious sporting competition. It is like the people who advocate non-competitive sports days are now in charge of major sporting events as well. However, does the back-door qualification route apply to the World Cup as well as the Euros?

If they want to freshen things up why not have an All-Stars team from the non-qualifiers (with a neutral manager) so that those great individual players from weaker national teams get to play at the highest level as well?

Classy lad this Ramos

So often the unlucky losers, the "Tim, nice but dim" characters — as soon as a sprinkling of optimism started to shine through, some ruthless master puts them back in their place, yelling to be quiet; we've had our bit of fun... now, back to reality.

Football changed a long time ago but England, like Everton, are playing catch-up. We hope to unearth a few diamonds but realistically we know they are very rare.

We have some lesser jewels, we can plan, be organised, work hard, but it will be a very long time before we are are considered worthy of a place next to the elite, never mind joining in.

In the meantime, I dream but keep my expectations realistic. Therefore, I'm left with little else but to hope for effort and entertainment. The fact Everton have now overtaken England on this front too is a sad indictment of the national team.

I'm British Irish and although I've talked about England it's simply because words fail me when talking about the shambles of Ireland and Scotland. Northern Ireland are at least making a fight of it and Wales have a diamond that they allow to shine but one diamond is no longer enough on the world stage. However when talking Europe, they are certainly in with a better shout as long as they look after it well.

Everton have Richarlison and I'm hoping a couple of others will soon be confirmed as real and not zirconias.

They are not bad but definitely not Tier 1 material at the moment.

Suppose thats all saved ME posting then.. not like I could say it in any way better, anyway.. so, cheers, chaps!!!

2-0 down at one stage, Turkey scored two in the last 2 minutes to win 3-2. And - no! - Cenk Tosun did not score, although he played the full 90 minutes.

In other international news, Richarlison will START for Brazil against El Savador today. He will play alongside Neymar and Douglas Costa up front.

A really nice shot of Richarlison receiving a bib in training from the manager Tite. Richarlison's face absolutely lit up with a broad smile.

Why? Because the bib's were being handed out to today's starting XI. Tite even made a comment on this small gesture in a press conference. "If I give you a bib this means that you have my confidence."

Richarlison will be enriched by this experience and encouraged, I have no doubts.

Neymar passes Pele's number of caps for Brazil with this game - 93. Still got a way to go to beat the great man's record number of goals for Brazil - 77 - but given Neymar's age, you'd probably back him to pass 'O Rei'.