I don't mind Gary Lineker, and Shearer is definitely already too far up his own arse to be a successful wanker.
Pundits and commentators just get loads of stuff wrong, because most of them have been pro' players and have had the same education and background. They see what they expected to see and continue until major incidents intervene to force them to catch sight of the truth. And fans largely swallow it down with fava beans. Even on here people gulped down Russia suddenly being a decent team and regurgitated the opinion like breeding gannets. In fact they walloped a team of surrender monkeys and pretty much capitulated once they met a team against which they could make no progress. (And I'm not talking about other people here, I mean me too in most instances.)
I may be an old fart but I reckon you can discount Belgium and England from any long-term calculations. Belgium might get through another round as they have accidentally landed themselves the worst side still in the tournament in Japan. But both England and Belgium proved they would have been happy to lose ...... which actually means they weren't confident they'd win playing their best team and wouldn't be able to handle the consequences of such a defeat. Some teams wait for the media and fans to tag them as losers, Belgium and England have conveniently tagged themselves.
Pundits and commentators just get loads of stuff wrong, because most of them have been pro' players and have had the same education and background. They see what they expected to see and continue until major incidents intervene to force them to catch sight of the truth. And fans largely swallow it down with fava beans. Even on here people gulped down Russia suddenly being a decent team and regurgitated the opinion like breeding gannets. In fact they walloped a team of surrender monkeys and pretty much capitulated once they met a team against which they could make no progress. (And I'm not talking about other people here, I mean me too in most instances.)
I may be an old fart but I reckon you can discount Belgium and England from any long-term calculations. Belgium might get through another round as they have accidentally landed themselves the worst side still in the tournament in Japan. But both England and Belgium proved they would have been happy to lose ...... which actually means they weren't confident they'd win playing their best team and wouldn't be able to handle the consequences of such a defeat. Some teams wait for the media and fans to tag them as losers, Belgium and England have conveniently tagged themselves.