The World Cup qualifiers have dominated the football landscape over the past week and England will have little trouble to qualify. Of course this is good news to see England at the 2026 World Cup in America given their infamous no show in the last one held there in 1994. Manager Thomas Tuchel has had a really easy ride though. England's group is like pairing Barcelona with a couple of Scottish League Championship sides and a side from a lower ranked eastern European league. There's just no competitiveness. England faced Andorra at the weekend and should have had the capabilities to score 4 or 5 goals, they ended up winning 2-0 and one of those goals was an own goal. Especially being at home it was devastatingly poor. But Tuchel's side made up for it a couple of days later by beating Serbia 5-0 away from home. Serbia are currently ranked outside the top 30 let's remember. Tuchel is doing the job, but you feel England are stuck in third gear at best. True they can only beat who is put out in front of them but this is about an easy draw. It doesn't matter which manager was in charge England would be qualifying and that is why caution should be laid at Tuchel's door, he has faced zero quality and it seems a dream, a big dream to think that in under 12 months he will have the strategy and a team to win the World Cup. In some quarters the praise continues for him and that is the baffling element in a society where we are so quick to praise the mediocre.
When England are playing the likes of Andorra you have to wonder about the sanity of calling off an entire Premier League weekend so this game can take place, it makes little sense. It may be a cynical view to think that qualifiers now only exist for money and have nothing to do with sport or entertainment. Gate receipts including food and drink at Villa Park were close to £2 million and for what? Everyone knew the outcome before a ball was kicked. People will argue you need qualifiers in order to be good enough to play in the main competition. However with 48 teams allowed in the next World Cup that's more than enough to include all the brilliant footballing nations- little has changed in the last 100 years apart from a blip by Hungry in the 1950s, so we know the nations that should be going. People will then argue that qualifiers are needed so that the team plays together. However most matches are dull and uncompetitive so how much do players really learn? Can't they just be content with the Nations League for that instead? Ultimately nothing will change as most fans want the qualifying stages to happen but it feels like fans' hard earned money in FIFA's backpockets is masquerading as authenticity for qualification to the biggest tournaments.
Nuno Espirto Santo has been sacked as manager of Nottingham Forest. The firing reminds one of Claudio Raneiri at Leicester almost 10 years ago. Both managers have gone under the radar, both went to clubs not familiar (at least in recent times for Forest) with success and both did spectacular jobs then got sacked. Granted Santo did not win the league and that can't be compared to Ranieri"s incredible feat but for much of last season Forest sat pretty in the top five and ended up qualifying for Europe. However, maybe it is wise not to feel sorry for Santo. He signed a 3 year extension in June, had a falling out with the owner and then went to the press about his relationships with the board. It was always going to end the way he wanted it to end and the Portuguese manager one assumes will walk away with quite a bumper pay packet. Ange Postecoglou has been drafted in to take over. It will be interesting to see how Ange fares with Forest and if he will be a good fit with them. Despite winning the Europa League with Tottenham last season the club finished in 17th place.
© Copyright topfootballtipster.com 2019
