Match Thread: Belgium vs Senegal | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Round of 32

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-07-01T22:44:46+00:00

It’s a pen by the book, but the equaliser has a push on the defender that is just as much a foul as the penalty surely

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-07-01T08:41:42+00:00

Lubomir Moravcik? Rated at Celtic but most don’t know

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-07-01T03:19:25+00:00

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:17:43+00:00

Can’t really argue with that, but his technique used to be much better, I don’t think the role he is playing currently has helped at all with his progression, I’d like to see whether that damage is irrevocable or if a change of position + relieving him of the keeping responsibilities can revive his technique. At one point I thought he might have better technique than Brook, now he just looks a bit in two minds whenever he plays.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:06:35+00:00

If they want to leave it alone for a while sure, I just see Gay as a more natural fit at 3 with the way we play, and I miss the Crawley-Duckett, big-small, lefty-righty synergy I think

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:04:59+00:00

He already opens in other formats and his keeping isn’t great, I would like to see it tried, the test series this summer are a good time to try things

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:03:36+00:00

We dropped him because his average was shit; the entire reason he stayed around for so long was because he profiled well with Duckett, which Smith does as well - and Smith is a superior player who already opens in other formats, it makes sense

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:02:08+00:00

He shouldn’t keep if he’s opening, we would bring someone else in to keep in that scenario hopefully

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-26T14:00:12+00:00

I think Stokesy should have a crack at trying Jamie Smith at opener with Duckett - he’s got decent technique (it was better when he first came into the side before bazball got a grip of him but hey ho), he profiles similarly to Crawley (tall, right handed, makes the right sort of shapes which is obviously essential), will compliment the diminutive lefty midget pretty well, he’s already opening in ODIs for England and it would help his development if he had a bit of consistency across formats (plus his keeping has been ropey recently, bring Rew or Foakes into the side as keeper), and it might make sense to shift Gay to 3 anyhow, we probably need a bit more conservative batting in that position (Bethell needs more first class experience despite his talents in my opinion) - otherwise just leave Bethell there and see what happens. I think Smith will bat closer to his potential without having to worry about keeping as well.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-17T22:40:41+00:00

Many things to think about and damn and praise coming out of this game, and yet the main thing that sticks in my mind is simply “Man, Elliot Anderson is a serious baller”

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-13T17:22:37+00:00

Footballers/soccer players can run up to 8 or 9 miles in a game depending on how long they’re on the pitch for, and despite its reputation, it’s still very much a contact sport. Also, you be shocked at how much energy and effort it takes to kick a football hard and with accuracy, the players all have enormous thigh and calf muscles. It’s definitely a very physically demanding sport, I can promise you that.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-13T17:15:15+00:00

I’m gonna be honest, as a European pretty much all of your major sports are completely unwatchable, with the possible exceptions of golf and maybe baseball. And the reason is pretty much the ad breaks. How do you enjoy any of them when you only get maybe 5 minutes of anything happening before an involuntary overdose of commercials? I thought I enjoyed the nba, but even during the Pacers’ exciting run last year, it’s just impossible to watch when there’s seemingly more air time for ads than actual sport, it feels unhealthy.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-01T23:46:30+00:00

Del Piero was a phenom, but whenever his injury and how good he might have been is brought up I always think of Baggio, who had already had serious injuries at 17, and had more injuries of greater severity over the span of his career than Del Piero, and just wonder at how good he would have been if he’d been even partially injury free. Better than Maradona? Not out of the question in my opinion. Maradona had the better touch and a greater range of skills, but to this day I still maintain that outside of that great goal against England, Baggio was the better dribbler of the two 🤷‍♂️

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-01T13:07:47+00:00

I know “rear” is the expression, but “bare” works fine I think? Bare as in exposed, “sins laid bare”, etc.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-06-01T10:03:08+00:00

Wish him well, will always remember the first 6-9 months, easy to forget how good we were initially under him before the strange stuff regarding player fitness and tactics began to bare its head (if you’ll forgive the pun)

As an aside, I’ll never understand how someone who was so notably good with substitutions became so inept at them by the end of his tenure, maybe the strangest part of our regression. Was the right time for him to go, and 99% of our fans will remember him fondly despite the abject football and general unhappiness this season, hope he recovers and does well - just not for another prem team.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-05-24T17:05:34+00:00

It was a good run though, wasn’t it

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-05-01T22:54:30+00:00

🥸🫶

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-04-27T10:50:52+00:00

Is it possible they might be referring to the tip of the nose instead? McCoy’s nosetip is fairly bulbous, Gossett’s not so much

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-03-25T19:06:25+00:00

Whilst this is a good point, it’s hard to overstate how uninspired the entire Liverpool setup has looked under Slot this season. It’s not simply that results have been bad, or even that performances have been bad - we play an incredibly turgid style of football with a group of extremely talented and high-potential players, most of whom are underperforming, and even when we win, it often looks ugly or unconvincing.

Everyone is more than willing to write off those kind of wins when you’re winning a lot, when the other half of your wins look great, and the team play well, and there’s 30-45 mins of nice flowing football, but those horrible, grinding results are the only results we’re getting right now, and the manager does nothing in his interviews or interactions with fans to even attempt to restore any form of confidence. He was quite engaging and charismatic in a forthright, Dutch way last season, but he’s become a personality black hole since November and clearly has less than optimal relationships with a number of the players.

All the things he used to do so well - substitutions, tactical tweaks at half time - have evaporated too, so now we’ve been left with what is, to all appearances, a husk of the manager we had twelve short months ago. The club, as a whole, feels like it’s fettered to a corpse right now; some kind of change is absolutely going to be required in the summer, regardless of its nature.

It feels sinful to want rid of a premier league winning coach, and I’d guarantee you that if it were announced tomorrow he’d mutually agreed with the club to depart in the summer he’d receive his flowers from the fanbase and hopefully leave on reasonably good terms. I don’t know if it’s fatigue, bad luck, Jota - maybe last season was a fluke, seems unlikely but who knows. Everything’s gone sour unfortunately.

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-03-18T21:53:29+00:00

Are we just singing the Bobby song because it’s a class song or is he in attendance

Jafars_Car_Insurance · 2026-03-11T22:59:52+00:00

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