I remember a mate coming round to my old house and him & my housemate wanted to watch the Plan B movie - Ill Manors. I was watching Reading v Arsenal in the League Cup and at that point Reading were 3-0 up.
I’d heard the movie was pretty bad, but offered them the TV and carried on watching the football on my laptop. Reading got another not long after, but Arsenal pulled one back just before half time. They pulled another two back in the second half and equalised just before the 90 minutes was up. Arsenal took the lead just before half time in extra time but Reading equalised with not long left on the clock before Arsenal sealed the tie with two more injury time goals.
It finished 7-5 to Arsenal after them being 4-0 down. I had a feeling my decision would pay off and it did, especially when I asked my mates about the movie and they said it was “okay”.
Also, Euro 2016 final, France v Portugal. Not a particularly exciting match in itself, but it was enjoyable for me. Ronaldo went off injured early on and France had pretty much all of the game but couldn’t find a breakthrough, partly because Portugal had everyone but Eder behind the ball. After 90 minutes out of sheer curiosity I checked the first goalscorer odds and saw that Eder was 33/1. If Portugal were going to get anything, it was going to be through him because he was the only one getting anywhere near the France box.
I thought it was worth a punt and stuck a fiver on it and told my mates in a group chat that they should do the same, but nobody else was convinced. I was watching on iPlayer through my laptop (maybe I should watch more games on my laptop) so there was a delay. In the first half of extra time Eder had a point blank header, but directed it straight at Lloris. I thought that the chance was gone.
At half time of extra time I checked again, 66/1 for Eder to score first. Oh well, I’d already put a fiver on it, might as well make it a tenner. As I say, I was watching on a delay and there was not really much going on and then suddenly my phone started going mad. About 30 seconds later Eder hit a daisy cutter from about 25 yards out that squirmed past Lloris into the bottom corner and I was suddenly £495 richer.
Where do you play Ward-Prowse though?
Obviously Bellingham & Rice are the two starters in the middle. If you put someone like Ward-Prowse in there with them, Bellingham can’t take up the advanced positions he does, Rice doesn’t have the freedom to make the surging runs that he does, or both.
I know people don’t like seeing Henderson & Phillips in the squad, but honestly they’re the only two midfielders with the defensive mentality to allow Bellingham & Rice to play to their strengths.
We’ve got set piece takers in the team, Ward-Prowse doesn’t offer us anything that we don’t already have. He’s not going to offer as much going forward as either Bellingham or Rice, and he’s not going to offer as much defensively as Phillips or Henderson. Even Gallagher offers more defensively.
Surely it makes more sense to have Henderson or Phillips doing Bellingham & Rice’s dirty work than Bellingham & Rice doing Ward-Prowse’s.