England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:19 am  

I'm a bit disappointed to read Wayne Bennett's comments this morning. He stated he'd be happy to lose the opening game against Australia as long as we're competitive. Whilst realistically I think that what we should expect, I want to hear the coach building confidence and going into the game telling the players we expect to win. There's no point going into a World Cup satisfied with an opening game defeat. I accept there has to be an element of managing expectations but surely not by telling the world he'd be happy to lose? I can't see an English coach having that attitude. http://www.skysports.com/share/11084676

I'm a bit disappointed to read Wayne Bennett's comments this morning. He stated he'd be happy to lose the opening game against Australia as long as we're competitive. Whilst realistically I think that what we should expect, I want to hear the coach building confidence and going into the game telling the players we expect to win. There's no point going into a World Cup satisfied with an opening game defeat. I accept there has to be an element of managing expectations but surely not by telling the world he'd be happy to lose? I can't see an English coach having that attitude. http://www.skysports.com/share/11084676

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:34 am  

Bigredwarrior wrote: I'm a bit disappointed to read Wayne Bennett's comments this morning. He stated he'd be happy to lose the opening game against Australia as long as we're competitive. Whilst realistically I think that what we should expect, I want to hear the coach building confidence and going into the game telling the players we expect to win. There's no point going into a World Cup satisfied with an opening game defeat. I accept there has to be an element of managing expectations but surely not by telling the world he'd be happy to lose? I can't see an English coach having that attitude. http://www.skysports.com/share/11084676 England do not need to beat Australia in the first game. This is the football teams issue thinking win every game. Only game England need to win is beat France to get out of the group. I think this is England's best chance to get into a final. After all did NZ do that in a world cup lose first game to Australia but then did them in the final. If he went around saying we will win this and that puts added pressure on the players.

Bigredwarrior wrote: I'm a bit disappointed to read Wayne Bennett's comments this morning. He stated he'd be happy to lose the opening game against Australia as long as we're competitive. Whilst realistically I think that what we should expect, I want to hear the coach building confidence and going into the game telling the players we expect to win. There's no point going into a World Cup satisfied with an opening game defeat. I accept there has to be an element of managing expectations but surely not by telling the world he'd be happy to lose? I can't see an English coach having that attitude. http://www.skysports.com/share/11084676 England do not need to beat Australia in the first game. This is the football teams issue thinking win every game. Only game England need to win is beat France to get out of the group. I think this is England's best chance to get into a final. After all did NZ do that in a world cup lose first game to Australia but then did them in the final. If he went around saying we will win this and that puts added pressure on the players.

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:58 am  

I get what he is saying, that putting in a good 80 minute performance is most important in that first game. Obviously a win would be ideal, but I'd still be feeling pretty positive if we have a good dig at them and lose by 0-6. They normally blow us away in a purple patch of 20 mins or so, that's what we need to avoid.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:42 am  

tank123 wrote:

England do not need to beat Australia in the first game. This is the football teams issue thinking win every game. Only game England need to win is beat France to get out of the group. I think this is England's best chance to get into a final. After all did NZ do that in a world cup lose first game to Australia but then did them in the final.

If he went around saying we will win this and that puts added pressure on the players.

And that attitude is why we are perennial losers!

Do you this Australia go into any game thinking it doesn't matter if they get beat?

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:46 am  

TimperleySaint wrote:

And that attitude is why we are perennial losers!

Do you this Australia go into any game thinking it doesn't matter if they get beat?

We're perennial losers because they're better than us, and have been better than us for a long time.

Tournaments are a different gravy. Of course we want to win, and given the choice between winning and losing I'm sure he'd opt for the former, but his point isn't without merit. Just don't get battered for a change.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:27 am  

Well there is that too.

Maybe it's just me but I don't like the fact that a coach of a professional sports teams comes out and says it's OK to lose a game - going in with that mindset is just wrong IMO. I could maybe understand it a bit more in a qualifier situation, but in the actual tournament, the goal and the mindset should be to win every single game and walk away with the trophy.

What happens if we take the loss to Australia, and then go into the other games thinking well it's ok, we'll just turn up and beat this lot, and they have the game of their lives and turn us over??

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:53 am  

Bennet has said on many occasions he does not care what fans & media think and say. What he says to the players in private and what he says in public are very different.

I think he is merely trying to take the pressure off and get the players to simply concentrate on their own game.

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:27 pm  

Beating them in the final is more important than winning a group game,a group we should qualify from anyway,besides I’m in Auckland where our semi-final will be if we do lose to the Aussies

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:12 pm  

I don't see the words 'I'd be happy to lose' in that article anywhere. He says he'd accept a close defeat and that it would give them some confidence to take through the rest of the tournament.

As somebody who was sat at the Olympic Stadium and Anfield last year watching the Aussies take apart both England and New Zealand, I don't think he's far off the money.

Re: England v Australia : Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:46 pm  

TimperleySaint wrote:

And that attitude is why we are perennial losers!

Do you this Australia go into any game thinking it doesn't matter if they get beat?

How do you work that out. England are perennial losers in football and quite a few sports as they have to win every game. You need to pick your games. For me seriously I would play a reserve side v Oz first game take the beating go into the next game with a fully fit side.

Australians as in most sports care about wining the world cup rather than winning every game. England need to win 5 games to win the World Cup and 2 should be gimmies. Its a question of priorities for me get out of the group then win every game. Win 2 group games and then avoid Tonga. England should walk into the semi and hopefully get NZ who are rather weak.

Problem is England's squad is not deep enough to go through that competition and not pick up injuries. England for the good of the game need to make the final.