Crouchend_Hammer wrote:
No offence but you do talk a fair amount of tosh sometimes. The panel aren't there for detailed analysis. Newspapers provide that. They are there for a bit of banter, and to provide a bit of flavour. I expect 99% of people watching would prefer ex players who have experienced these big games than journalists who can talk a good game.
Of course there are going to be various pundits that people don't like across the whole selection of about 25 individuals from both channels (for me Shearer) but both channels do a tremendous job of bringing the tournament to life with the best english players mixed in with eloquent foreign players.
Some people like to moan for the sake of it. World Cup coverage is always spot on for me
They aren't there to provide detailed analysis? Surely they are to a degree? A bit of banter? If I want "banter" I'll watch a comedy programme not the World Cup. I have no problem with one or two ex pros but I would like a journalist or a player from that country, who at least knows the players, we've got three people in the studio commenting on players they've barely ever watched or know, at least someone like Tim Vickery, James Horncastle etc could probably provide relative insight for each country's players. Just look at the other year when Zlatan scored that goal against England, it was though the pundits were amazed.
To me the insight should be far more detailed ie x has scored but why has x scored, due to his movement reading of the play and at the same time the defence could've of done x better. This is the big problem with English football and the media they never recognise clever runs or movement off the ball that takes defenders away. I loved Koeman on Sky Sports earlier in the season as he was so detailed, that's the sort of high level thinking I expect instead we get all these highly acclaimed players going yeah good shot by Coutinho, keeper had no chance, I don't know someone to tell me that, I can see it with my own eyes.
Maybe I enjoy the science and logic of sport too much but talking to reasonably good footballers(low level pro/semi-pro) really excites me(that sounds sad) because I really like drilling into the differences that makes them that good. Coutinho for the goal in the first game had three seconds between one touch and top corner which is incredible for anyone. I went to see Trevor Brooking speak and the main thing he said and I've heard it from other good players is the picture theory, when you receive the ball you should have pictures of the game all around you and where you are going to put it. Things like Big Sam POMO, position of maximum opportunity.