FIFA Rankings-England 4th

[Tangled up in Blue]

http://gu.com/p/3v7z8

Are we really the fourth best footballing nation in the world(on current performances)and better than Brazil? I don't think so.:stunned:

 

[MK Shrimper]

Lies, damn lies and statistics.

We're ****.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I gather the current Brazilian team isn't all that.

And as bad as everyone thinks England are, they sit undefeated at the top of their qualifying group, again.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

http://gu.com/p/3v7z8

Are we really the fourth best footballing nation in the world(on current performances)and better than Brazil? I don't think so.:stunned:

I assumed Spain would be ranked number one?

 

[MrB]

Our record in all games since Summer 2009 is

P22 W12 D6 L4

For competitive games only it's:

P12 W6 D4 L2

Those 6 competitive wins were against:
Croatia
Belarus
Slovenia
Bulgaria
Switzerland
Wales

With draws against Algeria, USA, Montenegro and Switzerland that doesn't seem like the record of the 4th best team in the world to me!

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

44th more like.

 

[Beefy]

The rankings are based on a rolling 4 year period. As YB said, England are currently undefeated and top of qualifying. Four years ago under Steve McClaren we were in deep trouble. We're currently benefitting from the first part of the Euro 2008 campaign no longer counting.

We haven't actually gone up in points more than a nominal amount. We've gone above Brazil simply because Brazil's points total has dropped a lot lately.

 

[Uncle Leo]

The rankings are based on a rolling 4 year period. As YB said, England are currently undefeated and top of qualifying. Four years ago under Steve McClaren we were in deep trouble. We're currently benefitting from the first part of the Euro 2008 campaign no longer counting.

We haven't actually gone up in points more than a nominal amount. We've gone above Brazil simply because Brazil's points total has dropped a lot lately.

Competitive games help too; you get more points for those and Brazil haven't played many of late.

Although I certainly wouldn't argue that England are the fourth best side in world football, the FIFA rankings are generally a better indication of the relative strengths of teams than is widely believed.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I'd be interested in what teams people think should be ahead of England.

England are one of 7 teams who are undefeated in qualifying for the Euros. Spain, the Netherlands and Germany all have 100% records and are ahead of England in the rankings. Of the other undefeated teams, England are ahead of Greece and Montenegro (who have both also drawn twice) on goal difference - but Montenegro didn't qualify for the last WC and Greece were dumped out at the first stage. That leaves Italy who have a better qualifying record but had an even worse World Cup than England and Greece, finishing bottom of their group below even New Zealand.

If we look at Africa, their best team is World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana, with whom we drew recently and whilst we might have been outperformed in 2010 by them, we outperformed them in 2006. Meh. None of South Africa, Cameroon, Algeria or the Ivory Coast got out of their group in 2010.

Neither South Korea nor Japan, Asia's finest, got further than England in 2010. England got further than both in 2006.

It's difficult to compare England and Argentina outside of World Cups. We both got thumped by Germany in the last World Cup, World Cup before we both got to the same stage. One before that we beat them and finished above them in our group and I have a feeling Crouchinho beat them the last time we clashed in a friendly so I don't think it's outrageous that England are ranked above them.

Brazil reached the same stage as Argentina in the last two World Cups. It's not a vintage Brazil by any stretch of the imagination. They've had some truly shocking qualifying results and were about 4th or 5th for a while having lost to Bolivia and only drawn at home to Venezuela. Ouch.

Uruguay looked good in 2010 but did they even qualify in 2006? Ditto Chile.

Paraguay got further than England in 2010, but I think England beat them and finished above them in 2006.

England are a flawed side, but so's pretty much everyone else. The difference is England are judged in England on their performances as well as their results. When Italy or Brazil has a shocking performance no-one in England really notices unless. People in Italy or Brazil probably don't notice when England only play for 20 minutes against Wales and ease to an unimpressive win.

 

[Beefy]

The Elo rankings have England at 6th, with Brazil and Argentina ahead of them. To be honest, as mediocre as England are I don't think think there are that many sides clearly better. I think standards across the board are pretty poor Internationally and domestically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Elo_Ratings

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I assumed Spain would be ranked number one?

Yes they are.

 

[Davros]

I would fancy we would get 'murked' in a match Vs 10th placed Argentina

 

[Beefy]

You'd think so but again as YB said they got 'murked' by Germany worse than we did and almost didn't qualify for the World Cup.

 

[sufc_dave]

We aren't bad at all, top players who just can't play together. Wouldn't agree that we are ranked 4th though, maybe more 7th or 8th.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I would fancy we would get 'murked' in a match Vs 10th placed Argentina

Not really they aren't that good, despite having the best player in the world at the moment!

 

[Reg Martin]

anyone else notice the similarity between andy murray in tennis and england in football? lots of pre-tournament hype which increases as a few ordinary players/teams are dispatched but brought crashing down to earth by defeat against first good player/team they come up against

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

anyone else notice the similarity between andy murray in tennis and england in football? lots of pre-tournament hype which increases as a few ordinary players/teams are dispatched but brought crashing down to earth by defeat against first good player/team they come up against

There's certainly a similarity in that both are ranked 4th in the world and both repeatedly reach the latter stages of the big events. Murray's reached a few more finals and semis though.

 

[Reg Martin]

There's certainly a similarity in that both are ranked 4th in the world and both repeatedly reach the latter stages of the big events. Murray's reached a few more finals and semis though.

That's true though Murray does have 4 major tournaments a year to enter so more likely to reach more semis/finals
If there were four world cups a year and England reached semis or finals regularly without winning I wonder if they would be perecived more as brave but unlucky like Murray instead of provoking the national hand-wringing that biennial (biannual?) performances bring on?

 

[PrawNZ]

It's the average teams England sometimes have trouble beating! Murray's Scottish anyway, scummer!

 

[Grayson]

Having seen both Brazil games in the Copa America (they are 2-1 down to Paraguay in the 70th minute as I type, so nearly 2 games done) they are worse than England, comfortably.

Spain and Germany apart, all international sides are mediocre at best.