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UEFA Nations League

Kandi1977 said:
Why not make it even more exciting, like the CL, and just have the same 4 teams every time and go straight to the semi final....

Football is more than the fudging premier league!! if it's so terrible, just turn it off and go have a toss!
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While I totally agree with your sentiment the viewer may be viewing this in a public house ;)
 
You know what, the nations league isn't such a terrible idea - I think I finally understood it yesterday (having tried to understand it a couple of times earlier). I still don't see what's in it for the big teams, except they get a chance to play each other on a regular basis, which is much better than them having to play the Lichtensteins and Gibraltars on a regular basis. I guess I just wish there were fewer international breaks, and more chances for our players to get fully restituted in between the massive amount of league and cup games the play for their clubs (who, you know, pays them). Athletes need to rest to reach their full potential afterall, and the amount of matches these guys play a season are insane.

But hey, I'm speaking from the perspective of a Norwegian who's mostly into football for Tottenham, and maybe watch 5 non-Spurs football matches a year these days - the Norwegian national team has been garbage and not worth watching for years. I can understand other people enjoy them (especially if you're following a team like England these days, for instance). Nothing smug about wanting to reduce the amount of internationals, in my opinion, but self-centered, certainly! :)
 
Daisuk said:
I'm speaking from the perspective of a Norwegian
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Do you watch your Norway team?
They got a 1-0 win against Bulgaria and you are the joint top I believe.

Yesterday I watched the England U21's and France game and enjoyed both if we just follow/focus on Spurs how the feck can we compare and evaluate our performances.
Spurs have no bearing on my enjoyment of the rest of football other than the normal reveries with our personal and usually quirky likes and dislikes.
 
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StephenH said:
Do you watch your Norway?
They got a 1-0 win against Bulgaria and you are joint top I believe.
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Yeah, I watched the first half, but find myself not very interested, and watched with one eye while doing something else in the second half. I reckon if Norway win their group they'll have the best chance of getting to a major tournament for the first time since 2000. Watching the national team used to be a big thing back in the day, people talked about it at work, gathered in each other's homes to watch, I'd often watch with my brother and dad, and if you'd get tickets to a match at the national venue, it'd almost always be packed.

Nowadays most people don't really give a brick, it seems. We've finally gotten a good coach in, and there are some decent players in the team - but we're not playing particularly well, in my opinion, and there just seems to be a lack of effort from a lot of players - maybe because there's been a lot of negativity surrounding the team for many years now. Getting to a major tournament would probably make the interest go a bit up again, but overall, I think Norway is really back to where we "should" be in terms of quality compared to the size of the country - it seems the team of the 90's was an anomaly (with lots of Premier League profiles), but it's also kind of the benchmark still (maybe unfairly so).

Still, it's a bit of a bad feedback loop. The media over here writes a lot of brick about the team, the players complain about that, the "fans" don't really give a brick and blame players for not putting in an effort. So ... break that circle somewhere, get a team that pulls in the same direction and give an effort, a media that will support the team, and fans that will support the team, and I reckon it'll be another kettle of fish. Not there yet, though.
 
You could have written the above about England for the last 30+ years.

Maybe we all just need to turn the cynicism down and all follow/support/get behind all our national teams.
All this constant bleating and malevolence towards the non-Spurs players on here in e.g. the England team is bloody childish.
When they are waring the England/Nowegian/??? shirt, that is who they are. When Hendo puts his Liverpool shirt on that's who is, when he shopping in M&S food hall with the kids, that's who is.
This tribalism is banal in the extream.
 
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Daisuk said:
You know what, the nations league isn't such a terrible idea - I think I finally understood it yesterday (having tried to understand it a couple of times earlier). I still don't see what's in it for the big teams, except they get a chance to play each other on a regular basis, which is much better than them having to play the Lichtensteins and Gibraltars on a regular basis. I guess I just wish there were fewer international breaks, and more chances for our players to get fully restituted in between the massive amount of league and cup games the play for their clubs (who, you know, pays them). Athletes need to rest to reach their full potential afterall, and the amount of matches these guys play a season are insane.

But hey, I'm speaking from the perspective of a Norwegian who's mostly into football for Tottenham, and maybe watch 5 non-Spurs football matches a year these days - the Norwegian national team has been garbage and not worth watching for years. I can understand other people enjoy them (especially if you're following a team like England these days, for instance). Nothing smug about wanting to reduce the amount of internationals, in my opinion, but self-centered, certainly! :)
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No it's not. Compare that with Hockey for instance!! And that's a sport with much higher intensity too. You can compare football to a lot of sports, and you will find that the total amount of training/competition is far less than many other athletes.
 
Kandi1977 said:
No it's not. Compare that with Hockey for instance!! And that's a sport with much higher intensity too. You can compare football to a lot of sports, and you will find that the total amount of training/competition is far less than many other athletes.
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I agree that hockey is crazy too. Especially the NHL with the amount of travelling and getting used to time zones those guys have to endure. They play 82 matches a season before the playoffs, so the total could well reach over 100 if you're good. I think it's ridiculous, to be honest, but whatever you have to do to squeeze the most amount of money out of it. Having said that, at least in hockey there aren't a single player who plays every minute of every game, and they very rarely have to travel to play international matches (but agreed, the intensity when the game is on is on another level entirely).

I'm sure there are a lot of other demanding sports out there, it's obviously demanding to be in the elite of any sport - my argument is simply that I think we'd get a better Tottenham if there weren't so many (pointless) international matches, as many of our players would get more time for restitution.
 
Daisuk said:
I agree that hockey is crazy too. Especially the NHL with the amount of travelling and getting used to time zones those guys have to endure. They play 82 matches a season before the playoffs, so the total could well reach over 100 if you're good. I think it's ridiculous, to be honest, but whatever you have to do to squeeze the most amount of money out of it. Having said that, at least in hockey there aren't a single player who plays every minute of every game, and they very rarely have to travel to play international matches (but agreed, the intensity when the game is on is on another level entirely).

I'm sure there are a lot of other demanding sports out there, it's obviously demanding to be in the elite of any sport - my argument is simply that I think we'd get a better Tottenham if there weren't so many (pointless) international matches, as many of our players would get more time for restitution.
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Well, the idea of the Nations League is that the friendlies are gone, so they aren't pointless anymore. Add to that, for many footballers, arguably most, playing for your country is an honor and something most of them really enjoy! That you don't find it interesting is besides the point. The footballing world would be a worse place without national sides competing against each other! If there were no international games, that period would be filled with other competitions, so there would be no break anyway. At least with international games, not ALL the players are involved, as would be if they were replaced with domestic games (which they would).
 
Kandi1977 said:
Well, the idea of the Nations League is that the friendlies are gone, so they aren't pointless anymore. Add to that, for many footballers, arguably most, playing for your country is an honor and something most of them really enjoy! That you don't find it interesting is besides the point. The footballing world would be a worse place without national sides competing against each other! If there were no international games, that period would be filled with other competitions, so there would be no break anyway. At least with international games, not ALL the players are involved, as would be if they were replaced with domestic games (which they would).
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Yeah, you're right, of course. What I think is absolutely besides the point, and players do indeed seem to enjoy playing for their countries. I can still say that I think it sucks, and have a bit of a childish fit about it on here though, I think. :p
 
The worst thing about the Nations League is they reduced it to 3 subs rather than "go nuts, it's a friendly"

Thus certain players getting knackered in a high profile match against top quality opposition.

Maybe they should make it 37.2 mins each way or "you have to sub all 11 players at half time so nobody can play more than 45 minutes" so everyone gets a game and nobody gets knackered
 
Kandi1977 said:
No it's not. Compare that with Hockey for instance!! And that's a sport with much higher intensity too. You can compare football to a lot of sports, and you will find that the total amount of training/competition is far less than many other athletes.
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In hockey there is hardly an outfield player who plays more than 20 minutes per match. And the playing surface is half the size of a football pitch.
 
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