Jude Bellingham ‘better than Mbappe and Vini’; England fans are weird | OneFootball

Jude Bellingham is one of the best footballers in the world and some England fans are plain weird for wanting him nowhere near the team.

We also have some World Cup draw chat in and amongst. Now let’s talk Premier League; who is your club’s overrated player? Mail us at theeditor@football365.com

England fans are just plain weird

Jude Bellingham belongs in the top 3 of the world’s best. People who disagree probably don’t watch him every week. He walks into any club or international side. Any other country would be on their knees to have such a player. And you want him out of the side? No wonder England doesn’t win anything, such undeserving fans. As a fan you should know when to indulge a player, and you have the timing absolutely wrong.

And, let’s get this straight. Tuchel didn’t drop him. He was coming back from injury, and Tuchel and Alonso thought he would be better served staying back in Madrid building up his fitness than playing half fit and further complicating the team composition. It also gave Tuchel an opportunity to motivate the back-ups, and try out different things to settle on the squad. Bellingham injury was convenient for everyone. Forget England, you think Madrid fans would have spared Alonso if he had dropped Bellingham?

And you can’t even accuse Bellingham of the usual things that luxury players can be accused of – not tracking back, not running enough, doesn’t show up in big games etc.

If Southgate had a couple of players like this, that man would have been on his toes instead of putting the team to sleep.

If we think big players having a big ego is a natural consequence, and in fact one of the things that keeps them at the top, why not Bellingham? Jeez, he’s better than Mbappe and Vini. He can make a team tick. Madrid fan

…The Republic are only in the play-offs – as are Northern Ireland and Wales.

Scotland only just managed to sneak in due to two injury time goals.

England qualified ages ago and did so with no goals conceded.

And yet, England is obsessing over Jude Bellingham’s behaviour.

When Arsenal steamrollered Leeds in the run-up to becoming invincible, my Leeds-supporting mate told me that we didn’t deserve that team.

He was right, but England fans don’t deserve this team either. Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

…Simply lining up caps/goals between players is primary school playground levels of discussion. Leaving aside the frequent comparisons with midfielders and forwards in there, Bellingham is only 22 years old. The much lauded Xavi did not win anything with Spain until Euro 2008 when he was 28. Give the Brummy Zidane time to flourish, he has 6 years left before we can draw meaningful comparison.

For all his faults, what he has achieved at both club and country level at 22 is nothing short of astonishing (Champs League, la liga, german cup, euros final). He’s at a world-class club with the world’s most promising manager. Long-term he is in a good place.

In six years time, he will be in an England side that will boast two of the world’s best midfielders; Bellingham and JJ Gabriel (yes that’s right, bring it on).

Let’s not knock the guy just yet. For what it’s worth, agree with F365 that Tuchel made a mountain out of a molehill by digging him out, but that is very much calculated and I think long-term a good move to keep a 22 year old egotistical wonderkind in check. Jonas, MUFC, Enfield

No, Jude Bellingham is overrated

The pro-Bellingham media have decided that there is a massive overreaction to his arm waving over substitution. It’s a false narrative. The “over reaction” is to the media’s obsession with this footballer.

The English press have a long history of over-hyping individuals who supposedly hold the key to England’s inevitable triumph. Rooney, Gascogne, Beckham, Hoddle. All were heralded as generational talents who would single handedly drag England from mediocrity to trophy winners. None of them did. But still the story gets re-told. The English press seem obsessed with the idea that England cannot win a tournament without one superstar.

Bellingham is a good footballer. Probably a very good one. A superstar? Where? When? I cannot recall a single occasion when Bellingham has demonstrated superstar talent in an England shirt. He has had good touches. He has scored good goals. He has had positive impact. But superstar? Generational talent? Come on….

Against Albania, he was named POTM by the press. For what, exactly? He lost the ball a number of times. He made a few stray passes. No problem with that. He also had good intervals. It’s football and perfection is difficult. But how did that performance rate so highly? As a substitute against Serbia – same thing. A mismatch of good and poor. After the match, the press lauded how England’s game improved once Bellingham came on. Well, yes. But he didn’t come on alone, did he? Foden and Eze both injected energy and trickery. But somehow it was only Bellingham who transformed England.

In the past, we’ve witnessed some appalling things from Bellingham. He’s been guilty of taking the glory options too many times. Deliberately overlooking colleagues in great openings, in favour of taking an extra dribble himself. He is an ego player who can make poor choices, clouded by his ego.

I love the way Tuchel has handled him. I want Bellingham in that squad. He is a very good player. But it is no coincidence that England have performed just as well without him as with him. Tuchel is an experienced manager who is not bullied by the press. He knows that Bellingham is not a generational talent. He is one of many good players who can make a good contribution to the campaign. He needs Bellingham to see that too. AND he needs the press to see it.

Stop talking this player up into something he is not, and England’s path becomes clearer. Greg Metcalf

The World Cup draw pots are quite something

Having seen the Projected Seed Pots for the World Cup Draw on the BBC site, there could be some wonderfully imbalanced groups.

This is likely as a result of the absolute bloating of the tournament to 48 teams.

Obviously, we should take these with a whole barrel of salt but they read as follows:

POT 3: Norway, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Ivory Coast, Tunisia Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Panama, South Africa

POT 4: Curacao, Jordan, Haiti, Cape Verde, Ghana, New Zealand + Six teams TBC (Four from European play-offs, two from Intercontinental play-offs)

The usual rules of no more than one of each confederations teams per group will apply, barring groups being allowed to have two UEFA teams.

A Group Of Death could be Argentina, Morocco, Norway & Italy. Scotland would fancy Canada, Australia and New Zealand as opponents, no doubt.

I’m sure accusations of phuqery will be levied if old Trump oversees a group of USA, Iran (I know), Algeria and New Caledonia emerging from the bowls.

I can’t see exactly that happening, as surely there will be at least one European representative in each of the 12 groups.

Also, what’s happened to Ghana as of late? Pot 4 with the scrubs! Mumm-ra: The Ever Living, Tomb of the Ancient Spirits Of Evil, Third Earth

…I, like I am sure many Scotland fans, I woke up this morning feeling giddy. A first cup in 28 years will do that to you. That’s still many months away, but in December we have the draw, and I am already getting giddy about that. I was wondering about potential opponents. Who might we draw and what would our chances be of a first ever major tournament knock out game?

As in 2022, the draw will be seeded with 4 pots. I am working under the assumption that as last time, the teams not known yet (playoff teams) will be in pot 4. The rest of the pots should be determined by world ranking, save for the hosts who will be top seeds. I used a friendly AI tool to work out the potential pots, based on world rankings as of today. They would be as follows:

Pot 1: United States (28), Mexico (14), Canada (48), Spain (1), Argentina (2), France (3), England (4), Portugal (5), Netherlands (6), Brazil (7), Belgium (8), Germany (10)

Pot 2: Croatia (11), Morocco (12), Colombia (13), Uruguay (15), Switzerland (17), Senegal (18), Japan (19), Iran (21), South Korea (22), Ecuador (23), Austria (24), Australia (25)

Pot 3: Norway (29), Panama (31), Egypt (32), Algeria (35), Scotland (38), Paraguay (39), Ivory Coast (42), Tunisia (43), Qatar (52), Uzbekistan (55), Saudi Arabia (58), South Africa (59)

Pot 4: Jordan (66), Cape Verde (71), Ghana (73), Curaçao (82), New Zealand (85), Haiti (88), Euro Playoff Winner 1-4, Inter-confed Playoff Winner 1 & 2

The rules are maximum 1 team per confederation in each group,with the exception of Uefa who can have 2. As a result, here are our dream and nightmare draws:

Dream Draw: Canada Australia Scotland New Zealand

As tempting as Curaçao or Haiti, they could not be in the same group as Canada. Australia play in Asia, which makes it ok to have them and NZ. I was between NZ and Cape Verde but just going on world ranking. Fair to say, if we didn’t qualify from that group, we never will.

Nightmare draw Argentina Japan Scotland Italy (through the playoffs)

Fair to say if we get that, we’re going home early again.

Whatever happens though, its exciting. Bring on December! Mike, LFC, Dubai

Gabriel probably wants to play for Brazil

Hmmm. Okay George, Infantino and FIFA are deffo corrupt (sue me if you dare Gianni, you ghoulish, money-grubbing, slaphead c**t). That much I’ll grant you.

But Brazil are desperately looking for WC prep games with any sort of competition (with limited success, admittedly), largely since the advent of The Nations League on top of WC qualifiers tying up all the top European sides in recent times. According to Tim Vickery anyhow. So cast iron, copper bottomed, info.

Also, it may be possible that Gabriel may actually WANT to be there. I’ve heard them Brazilians are mostly quite keen on donning the shirt.

Don’t be so parochial (oh, and ta for correction last time Bobby D, always had a mental block with this particular word 😉) RHT/TS x

…Feel like I have to respond to the Arsenal fan talking about Gabriel getting injured for a “pointless” friendly. The World Cup is next year and they have a new manager who will want the players to get used to his style of play and develop chemistry within their team. It’s absolutely not pointless. It’s annoying as an Arsenal fan but I completely understand it. They’re hardly going to just field their reserve team. What would the point in that be? Gabriel has only played 17 games for Brazil. He’s only recently established himself. Dion, Arsenal