Yeah they're massively flawed, we were 3rd this time last year, lose 1 game in 15, beat Italy, Brazil & Spain in that run, draw with Italy & Brazil, draw with France, beat Poland & Ukraine, avoid defeat in the Euros... Drop from 3rd to 17th (now in 8th after the new rankings were released). Spain win World Cup... Drop from 1st to 2nd. It's a bollocks system. And of course Brazil were never a 23rd placed team, they got that low because they weren't playing much. Back up now cos of the Confederations Cup.

Teams like USA & Mexico play loads of teams who aren't anywhere near the quality teams in the European & South American confederations, so they pick up loads of easy wins (hence why they're so high in the rankings usually).

South American teams get more opportunities to get points due to the number of games they play for qualification. 16 games vs the 10 that European teams play.

Also, there are a lot of teams that were qualifying with ease in their groups over the last two years which enabled them to climb and maintain high positions in the rankings: Spain, Germany, Argentina, Belgium and Switzerland. Colombia weren't poor at all in their qualifying also.

& Belgium who were beating Croatia and Serbia away, aren't going to have England rise above them who were drawing to Ukraine and Montenegro away.

With a bit of planning England could have been seeded ahead of the Swiss | Football | The Guardian

That is an excellent article explaining why we have dropped so heavily. Also FIFA don't take into consideration the quality of opponent, just the level of competition. So all friendlies, qualifiers and tournament games will have the same rankings points at stake, whether you're playing Brazil or Belize.

I just hope we get Switzerland, Belgium, or Columbia in our group. We have a good chance of winning against all of them, especially Switzerland imo. Then we can finish the group and maybe get an easy(ish) route to the quarter or semi finals till we meet Germany and get thumped.

Beat the other two and it won't matter who the top seeds are.

A good result against Spain/Brazil/Germany in the group will give us confidence for the knockouts where you're going to have to beat teams of that quality to reach the latter stages.

Don't want us to become complacent and arrogant like we were in 2010 when we got the infamous EASY group (England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks).

I'd rather we got top in our group than become a confident side, I am sure Roy Hodgeson will see to that anyway.

:laughing:

Brilliant.

Penalty shoot-outs are life or death... England may need a psychologist to help them get through another one | Mail Online

Sven's advice to Hodgson ahead of the World Cup.

I agree with this to be honest. It's ingrained into the English psyche that we won't win a shootout at a major tournament. Players know they'll end up in one and won't win. It's actually excused now and the norm. I know the pressure is massive in a penalty shootout but it is vital you stay focused and do everything right from body language to the run up, our players look beaten before they've even kicked the ball.

The amount of penalties I see, that aren't struck correctly and are half arsed attempts at placement, is fucking shocking.

If I was the England manager I'd be telling them to walk up to the spot confidently, pick a corner, keep your head down & body over the ball and put your laces through it.

I was in the cup final for my local team and it went to penalties, I volunteered to take one but regretted it. I was so nervous and completely miss-hit the ball. Luckily the keeper must of had Down's syndrome or something cos he didnt even save the worst penalty ever. But never mind my story, Im just saying its scary taking penalties no matter how good you are.
It's more to do with experience rather than actual talent really. Any footballer can score a one on one, even a goalkeeper. I think we have a good set of experienced players that should take the penalties. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Cole, Carrick, Lambert are all experienced and all can sure score penalties for their clubs. With the right mentality, they should all score a penalty.

You say it's down to experience but how many high pressure shootouts have our players actually been involved in?

Gerrard: '04, '06, '12 for England, '06 FA Cup Final & '05 CL Final, 2012 League Cup Final w/ Liverpool
Lampard: '04, '06, '12 for England, '08 & '12 CL Finals w/ Chelsea
Carrick: '06, '12 for England, '08 CL Final & '09 FA Cup Semi w/ Man. United
Rooney: '12 for England but taken off/sent off in '04 & '06, '08 CL Final & '09 FA Cup Semi w/ Man. United

Could go on as well, I mean Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard have taken a ton of important pens for their clubs that weren't in shootouts but you get the point. We've been in more shootouts than anyone so it's clearly not down to experience. It's because it's a mental thing with these lot now and I reckon they aren't practicing them for England either, the preparation and run up is half of the battle. In fact I'm sure under Sven he said they didn't practice pens.

Tbh the only English player I would say revels in high pressure pens is Hargreaves, scored against Portugal twice (Euro's & World Cup) and the CL Final in 2008 and they were all class pens. Funnily enough he was actually trained in Germany :D.

Penalties are a lottery, simple as that.