Modric-Are bad winners worse than bad losers? | Vital Football

Modric-Are bad winners worse than bad losers?

GillsBluenose

Vital Football Hero
Has anyone else been reading the rubbish Modric has been coming out with.

He has picked up earlier comments in the English press and some pundits saying that it could be possible that the Croatians may be tired after two bouts of extra time and that may give us a better chance. He somehow twists that to say we did not give them respect.

Well, I don't know anyone that before the game thought or said that we would match their technical skill so was it not unreasonable to speculate on any advantages that we could have? Would anything else have been regarded as defeatist?

Respect is going round congratulating the winning players when you have lost which Southgate duly did. That man has class and is due respect. Neither applies to Modric.

Oh, and by the way, Lovren insists he is world class now. Have a quick look in your Liverpool medal cabinet, son.

Normally, I would want anyone to beat the French but in this case I hope they drub the ill mannered Croats.
 
Yes, thought those comments were a bit strange, not least because the fact that they were tired was pointed out by their own manager

"We’ve played five difficult games, they’ve taken their toll,” Dalic said. “We’re tired but there can be no excuses. We’ve come to the semi-final. We’re here to play football, enjoy ourselves and give our all. We do not want to say we are fatigued. We have not been exhausted. There is still opportunity for us to exhaust ourselves."

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...red-england-zlatko-dalic-world-cup-semi-final
 
Lovren stating he is now world class made me spit my tea over the computer closely followed by me nearly pissing myself.

Has he forgotten his own club manager giving him the hook after 30 minutes against Spurs at Wembley this season, when he got turned round so many times he nearly cork screwed himself into the Wembley turf . The guy is deluded, and a bang average defender at best.

As for Modric and his comments he maybe has a point in some circles where some in the media got a bit flippant about us reaching the final, but in general I think most people I know thought it was going to need a very good 90 (or 120) minute performance from England to get us through, something that was sadly just beyond us.
 
Hang on. Has Lovren really called himself "now World Class"?

Wtf??

Even if you think you are good it is up to other people to say so. Not big yourself up.

And imho he was lucky to to stay on the field in the semi. Couple of very cynical fouls that on another day (or in any EPL game) would have been bookings. Besides, what exactly in that game (or the previous ones) made him stand out?
 
For those that haven't seen them the Lovren comments are half way down in here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44804874

Considering Kane was largely starved of a supply, and Croatia had more possession, he still got behind Lovren once to take on the goalkeeper, who spread himself well. Kane will probably still think he should have scored.
 
Maybe he was just being honest. Having the likes of Rio and Shearer predicting we would win 3-0 got them riled.
 
Maybe he was just being honest. Having the likes of Rio and Shearer predicting we would win 3-0 got them riled.
Yep. I thought the press, pundits, and pur fans were already licking their lips. Sorry but for me Croatia are a quality team. Nowhere near as good as France will be, but still a quality team well worth taking seriously. There was no way we were going to beat a team that beat Argentina 3-0 as easily as some thought we would.

The English allowed themselves to get ahead of themselves for the first time in the tournament, I feel, and as we usually do in major tournaments, paid for it.
 
The English allowed themselves to get ahead of themselves for the first time in the tournament, I feel, and as we usually do in major tournaments, paid for it.

Strange. I could've sworn there was someone on here a couple of weeks ago who was weighing up potential QF opponents before we'd even played Belgium, and saying we should lose to get on the "easy" side of the draw :unsure:
 
I didn't know Shearer and Ferdinand had made those predictions. The game was on ITV so I did not pick them up. I would understand why Croatia could have been upset by an insulting prediction but Modric specifically mentioned the tiredness issue which was more logical and, to my mind, was not insulting.

There was a Croatian journalist talking before the game on Talksport who explained that Modric is often booed by his own fans due to some corrupt figure who he defended in court. It looks like coming back to bite him on the bum in a perjury trial although, like in Messi's and Ronaldo's tax hearings, his money will save him going to jail.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/world-cup-...-2018-luka-modric-croatia-england-hated-fans/
 
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Strange. I could've sworn there was someone on here a couple of weeks ago who was weighing up potential QF opponents before we'd even played Belgium, and saying we should lose to get on the "easy" side of the draw :unsure:

Glad you brought it up. You'll also remember then that I literally did that to maximise the chances of getting to the semi, assuming we'd lose in the semi. Are you suggesting youd rather we played France in the semi?

Almot all my posts were explicitly lined with a disclaimer of "winning the games still wont be easy". If you missed that then I cant help you there, sorry.
 
No, I'm not suggesting that at all.

But if you can't see that wanting England to get a theoretically tougher 2nd round opponent (Colombia rather than Japan) on the basis that it'd give us an (again theoretically) easier opponent in the QF is getting ahead of yourself, then I can't help you there either.
 
Seeing his post match comments on the late news Federer wasn't very gracious in defeat.
 
If we had played the same style s we did for the first 80 minutes against Columbia, we'd have wiped the Scroats out.
 
Has anyone else been reading the rubbish Modric has been coming out with.

He has picked up earlier comments in the English press and some pundits saying that it could be possible that the Croatians may be tired after two bouts of extra time and that may give us a better chance. He somehow twists that to say we did not give them respect.

Well, I don't know anyone that before the game thought or said that we would match their technical skill so was it not unreasonable to speculate on any advantages that we could have? Would anything else have been regarded as defeatist?

Respect is going round congratulating the winning players when you have lost which Southgate duly did. That man has class and is due respect. Neither applies to Modric.

Oh, and by the way, Lovren insists he is world class now. Have a quick look in your Liverpool medal cabinet, son.

Normally, I would want anyone to beat the French but in this case I hope they drub the ill mannered Croats.
Great comeuppance for disrespectful Modric and deluded Lovren. Adrian Charles your boys took a hell of a beating.
 
Yes, I have to confess that I was fully backing Croatia after they lost to us (can’t stand the French and Deschamps - not saying he hasn’t done a great job), but after Croatia and especially Modric and Lovren getting all chippy and undignified in the past few days I have as mixed feelings. Modric is a great player and Croatia’s one world class
Player (I think Rakotic is over rated). However, his issue and offence at England being arrogant and under estimating Croatia,
which mainly seems to centre around the “coming home thing”, which is tongue in cheek and been our mantra for over 20 years. And anyway, why shouldn’t England be confident? Modric aside, we are a better team than them with better players and should have put them to bed on Wednesday, before letting them get back in to the game and kill the match with their slow passing game. Other than losing to them twice in qualifiers about a decade ago when we had a woeful team under McClaren, I don’t believe we have lost to them and have thrashed them on at least two occasions previously. So it is right that we were confident.

Lovren’s comments are laughable. He seems to have got all offended as he has been taken to pieces a couple of times last season and wasn’t rightly critcicised. Like England, Croatia got very very lucky with the draw and were even luckier as they were outplayed by a poor Denmark time in the last 16, could have lost on pens to a spirited but weak host nation and should have lost to a young England team. They were very lucky to make the final and largely did so due to the keeper and Modric - for some reason, Lovren thinks that renders him a World class player!

So it sickened me to see France win, but I didn’t shed too many tears for Croatia.
 
Modric wasn't very happy about France having shirts made before the game with two world cup stars on them and changing into their new shirts for the presentation, shirts which had two stars above the badge, instead of the one star on the shirt during the game.
 
Modric wasn't very happy about France having shirts made before the game with two world cup stars on them

What the f*** has it got to do with him??

If France lost he could trot it out and say they were arrogant. But otherwise, what does it matter?

Is that right he's up in court for perjury?