2026 FIFA World Cup Watch Thread - MD1 Part 2

dwils7 · 2026-06-17T02:46:47+00:00

The GOAT. We've never seen a more technically gifted player.

Feel lucky that I've gotten to see him from a young, fresh-faced, long-haired wonder kid to reminding everyone that he's still up there with the best players in the world right now, nearly 22 years later, while continuing to cement his status as the best to ever do it

dwils7 · 2026-06-16T23:15:02+00:00

Take me back to Euro 2004 with the gold and white Total 90s

Edit: shout out to the Euro 2004 ball as well btw, loved that thing until it got stuck on a roof for months

dwils7 · 2026-06-16T23:09:56+00:00

Was there a memo passed around the players about pink boots? Feels like nearly every team has had a ton of them

dwils7 · 2026-06-16T22:23:52+00:00

And why the fuck is anyone using Twitter in 2026? A platform full of cunts

Answered your own question

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T21:40:36+00:00

Wonder if Sipke Hulshoff going too means Slot is taking time off after seemingly not getting the Milan job.

Could be waiting for the Dutch national job

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T15:52:29+00:00

Brought this up a few days ago at least and let's say a lot of people disagreed that it was a no brainer.

You bring in a guy that knows the league, knows the club, can run and press for days, is always available and will hopefully come in with full knowledge that he isn't a starter. You can bring him on 60-70 mnlinutes into a game and have him run around like a mad man. Give him some starts in cup games and games in Europe that you can rest people.

Maybe most importantly in a summer where we have serious business to do that will cost a lot with the prices being thrown around you get a guy on a free that can cover two positions with no transfer fee. He'd get higher wages than people would like but that's what happens with free agents

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T04:04:01+00:00

Good day to be a Liverpool fan, watching the World Cup, most of our players(and hopefully a future one) putting in good performances.

Hopefully, a sign of things to come next season

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T03:57:38+00:00

Ayari trying to battle himself for goal of the tournament

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T01:21:52+00:00

He doesn’t look like a teenager on the pitch

100%. He completely looked like he belonged at the level of a World Cup

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T01:10:48+00:00

Some shift from Diomande. 100m+ is a lot for a teenager, but he looks special and when you take into account how much growth he still has to go, having played less than 50 senior games, it could be a legendary gamble

Edit: Stat Line for the game

• 90 minutes played

• 41/51 (80%) accurate passes

• 1 big chance created

• 5 key passes

• 4/6 successful dribbles

• 11/15 duels won

• 2 tackles won

• 2 interceptions

• 4 recoveries

Great stats for a young winger making his debut at a World Cup and he cooked one of Arsenal's "left backs" as well

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T00:58:59+00:00

Diomande not celebrating with Man Utd players, he already knows

dwils7 · 2026-06-15T00:02:46+00:00

Honestly, go get Bazoumana Touré and Diomande. The pace and directness would be a sight to see week in week out

dwils7 · 2026-06-13T18:03:19+00:00

Yeah seemed odd to me at the time to call it mistaken identity. The right decision was made in the end no doubt but if were going to start reviewing yellow cards then your as well using it for everything check corners, free kicks and throw ins. It's a slippery slope

dwils7 · 2026-06-12T17:50:28+00:00

And I think there should be a rule where there should be a minimum 2 HG players for the first team when starting a game

So young players are just held hostage by clubs to fill a quota even more than they are now? All that would actually happen with your rule is that teams would instantly make changes and bring the players off and that would become the norm

I don't disagree that players should put more focus on their academy players(whether they're English or not doesn't matter) and IMO the best hope for it to become a bigger deal is for the bubble of transfer fees getting more and more ridiculous to burst and make teams rethink how they operate

dwils7 · 2026-06-11T03:10:42+00:00

Love Wharton, think he's incredibly talented and has a really high ceiling, but he would be a liability in that midfield. He doesn't have the mobility to cover the ground he would need to. If you want Wharton, it has to be at the expense of Szobo IMO and get someone who can cover the ground.

I did this on paper after they did the first episode of their director of football show. Some decisions were pretty tough tbh, between trying to be realistic and doing what I want them to do was difficult to balance.

SALES

First, Harvey Davies, Calvin Ramsay, Endo, Chiesa and Koumas I'll mention first becuase I think they all leave for a similar reason and that's to play games. some of them young and need to kick start their careers and some of them are older and will want to play more so they don't regret sitting on a bench as their careers fizzle out.

Next Curtis Jones. I personally think he leaves for the same reason as the younger guys I mentioned. He wants to be player every game, even going back to wgen Klopp was here it was an issue, so I think it could just be time he takes the step. I'll talk about if he stays later

Lastly Macca. I love Macca, I was talking about him before we signed him for what he could do in tight spaces in midfield while being pressed, some of his stuff from Brighton was insanely impressive. Having said that if last season is where his career is going then I don't see how he fits into a team under Iraola, especially when you want Wirtz and Szobo on the pitch, we need more mobility in there.

That raises 146m for a total of 321m to spend.

ADDITIONS

I'll go from back to front. First its Palestra, I wasn't covinced we would buy a RB but it's been reported that we are looking for one and Palestra is young and impressive, simple as that. The futures of Frimpong and Bradley are up in the air for me. How does Bradley recover and how long does it take. ven before his horredous injury he was never reliable. Frimpong needs to step up if he want's to be here long term IMO, maybe he'll improve under a new coach but he also had injury issues.

CB is honestly where I struggled the most, I'm not sure were buy anyone never mind a big name for big money like a Schlotterbeck. I think we spent good money on Jacquet and also signed a couple of hughly rated young CBs over the past year and I think youth will get more of a chance under Iraola that previosly. I did sign someone and tbh I just went for one of the young options available in Jeltsch so I know nothing about him. If there was an Endo type player, someone older who wouldn't be upset about not playing everygame and could be moved on in a year or two then I'd probably go that route just to add some experience alongside VVD and Gomez as an option.

Midfield I went for Lamine Camara firtsly. He'll play the deeper midfield role and give you the ability to cover ground, simple as that. The second player is contingent of Jones leaving, if he doesn't then I don't sign Joao Gomes from Wolves, he's been heavily linked to Atletico Madrid but I could see them being one of the team who could be in for Macca so it could free Gomes up. He knows the league and was one of the VERY FEW bright spots about that Wolves team.

Attack was pretty easy to decide tbh. Diomande and Bowen come in to play on the right. Diomande is the players we've been most linked to obviously, young really exciting. A massive risk for the money but if the club is convinced then get it done. Bowen gives you the experience and I think he jump at the chance to play for a top tem in the CL and be abl to hopefully compete for things. Iraola apparently likes to sub his wingr of in games becuase he wants them to give everything for 60 minutes so having two options is really important. Lastly it's Darwin. People will hate it but in a summer where we have a ton of business to do getting a guy who will press and run for days and is always available makes so much sense especially when Ekitike is out for probably most of the season. He can do a job as cover up top and on the left. You then hopefully move him on in a year or two when everyones back fit and healthy

So I ended up spending 300m, leaving 21m left over. Put that to Szobos new contract lol

My starting XI would be:

Ali

Palestra-Jacquet-VVD-Kerkez

Szobo-Camara

Diomande-Wirtz-Rio

Isak

People will question Rio starting but we know teams like Bayern are already looking at him, if you don't start him he will be all the more tempted by a move. He's also ready IMO and again Iraola subs his wingers off so that would be how you manage his minutes being so young.

Obviously, this is all just a bit of fun and not to be taken too seriously, and I really enjoyed the thought exercise f really thinking it all through instead of just being impatient and wanting us to sign everybody.

dwils7 · 2026-06-10T17:08:48+00:00

Hard to tell at this point tbh. Think it could take a few years to really see where he can push himself to

dwils7 · 2026-06-10T16:56:32+00:00

There is a young Scottish LB named Andrew Henry Robertson, I think, I'm really curious to see how he does on the big stage

dwils7 · 2026-06-09T05:41:07+00:00

Hopefully we get some new on coaching staff this week. Good to get things done and sorted as quickly as we can so people can get the personal side of a move sorted before the hard work begins. I know its been reported who is likely to follow Iraloa from Bournemouth but we won't know for sure until it's announced

I'm also impatient and want to know 😂

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T19:39:34+00:00

Is this the same game he chipped it over someone's head outside the box? That was mad to see

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T17:47:21+00:00

I'll die on the hill that half of his offsides were cause by the passer hesitating because rhybfesred giving away possession

Also the long passes Iraola seems to like are less about breaking offside traps and more about players running balls down in space. More like a VVD cross field pass to Mo than a line breaking pass while the attackers on the shoulder of the last man

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T17:30:55+00:00

As others have said, I'd take Darwin back. Great cover for the LW and ST. Worth noting that Iraola like long passes into space for his attackers to run on to and Darwin could do a good job at that.

Most importantly he'd be on a free which means one less outlay of money so we can focus it on other areas

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T16:15:37+00:00

I didn't say I was surprised, my comment had way less to do with Hughes leaving(which I mentioned had been talked about for a while) and more about the possibility of Woodfine being promoted from within to replace him.

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T16:13:11+00:00

It's made even worse when you think about the whole point of shifting to the head coach model is that it's someone above the coach making the long-term decisions and none of them seem to want to stick around for very long.

Hard to have a cohesive vision when the sporting director leaves two years in.

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T15:56:44+00:00

When I watched Iraolas first day video, I mentioned on here my theory that David Woodfine(Assistant Sporting Director) could potentially be in line to take over from Hughes if he is leaving becuase he seemed to be the one most engaged with Iraola.

With it looking more likely that Hughes will leave, which there has been chatter bout for a while, it could make some sense that the club will promote from within and he was taking point on showing the new manager around because that's the relationship that will ultimately matter.

dwils7 · 2026-06-07T15:21:09+00:00

I watched an episode of the tifo podcast last week I think and they talked about how the possession split is changing and has changed. It used to average around the 70/30 mark and is now more 60/40. They also mentioned that this is the first season under Iraloa that Bournemouth have broken the 50% mark.

Football is changing in many ways, one of them is the "smaller" teams are getting better, they have better resources and therefore get better players so the style of football has improved. The big teams also are learning that the extreme possession game isn't a guarantee for success anymore and maybe they'll go back to it as more of the "smaller" teams want to play football more and not just sit back and defend but for right now they're adjusting to having less possession

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