England Men disappoint

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Just wondered what went wrong with England's Men losing 1-3 to Serbia before a sell-out crowd, missing an opportunity to inspire. Why was no 1 player Liam Pitchford not playing? Paul Drinkhall lost to a lower ranked player. Not a good advert for the sport in England.
 
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I think the England team have performed above expectations in the team events recently albeit not at this event. It’s a bit harsh to judge the England team on this one event as not having Liam playing would have put them at a disadvantage straight away due to him currently being England’s best player . No idea of the reason behind him no playing but I presume it’s due to an injury.
I think the sport in England has been positively influenced by the teams previous results.
 
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don't you think an explanation was due as to why Liam didn't play? This was passed over in silence on the TTE web-site.
 
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John,
I agree an explanation should have been forthcoming. Maybe it’s for personal reasons .
 
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Always keen to support them, but this was publicised as a flagship event, "Support your Commonwealth Games heroes", and I don't agree that Serbia are a top team - just look at their world rankings - top player around 150! I never saw the announcement that Liam wouldn't play owing to his professional obligations elsewhere. Where was this posted? On the day our best player and only winner was Tom Jarvis. All credit to him, but all round quite a disappointment.
 
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Look at Pistej from Slovakia...

I saw him live in 2017 Los Angelas Legal Net Open kick serious azz to win the final and defeat a former sparring partner of ZJK... In WC he made quarters, right? He was WR150 or worse when he entered LA Legal Net Open and at time of 2017 WC... yet he took down Korea's JYS (WR11) and a few others before falling narrowly to Harimoto…

In TT, some losses to under-rated WR150 can happen.
 
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Always keen to support them, but this was publicised as a flagship event, "Support your Commonwealth Games heroes", and I don't agree that Serbia are a top team - just look at their world rankings - top player around 150! I never saw the announcement that Liam wouldn't play owing to his professional obligations elsewhere. Where was this posted? On the day our best player and only winner was Tom Jarvis. All credit to him, but all round quite a disappointment.

This sounds like typical English arrogance to me. Don't underestimate Serbia. Forget the world rankings hey can play.
 
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I started this thread (my first ever) mainly to discover why Liam had not played and I have been pleased to get so many replies. The GB players who took part are world-ranked 77, 93 and 233. The Serbians are 178, 248 and unranked! I suppose you're now telling me that the Serbians are underrated. On the basis of this match I have to agree. Perhaps we should pay less attention to the ITTF rankings. But I still can't get away from my original reaction of disappointment for a sell-out crowd.
 
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This sounds like typical English arrogance to me. Don't underestimate Serbia. Forget the world rankings hey can play.


FruitLoop,

Whatever your opinion of the English is I don’t think it has anything to do with a TT forum.

The fact is Serbia are not a ‘top team’ regardless of ranking. If England played a full strength team they would be expected to beat them .

Before you go off on one I don’t think England are a top team either and I’m English !
 
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FruitLoop,

Whatever your opinion of the English is I don’t think it has anything to do with a TT forum.

The fact is Serbia are not a ‘top team’ regardless of ranking. If England played a full strength team they would be expected to beat them .

Before you go off on one I don’t think England are a top team either and I’m English !

Really well put starsky. I didnt take too kindly to what Fruitloop said either - but couldnt put together a diplomatic response without the entire thread going on a tangent.
 
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I started this thread (my first ever) mainly to discover why Liam had not played and I have been pleased to get so many replies. The GB players who took part are world-ranked 77, 93 and 233. The Serbians are 178, 248 and unranked! I suppose you're now telling me that the Serbians are underrated. On the basis of this match I have to agree. Perhaps we should pay less attention to the ITTF rankings. But I still can't get away from my original reaction of disappointment for a sell-out crowd.

I don't know neither teams players, but I can tell you the world ranking is not a true ranking of players potential, but rather a "participation" ranking
If you not sure what i'm saying, there is tons of tread and examples in this forum on how a weaker player can be ranked higher, or a stronger player ranked lower due to the new "clever" system.
 
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This sounds like typical English arrogance to me. Don't underestimate Serbia. Forget the world rankings hey can play.


FruitLoop,

Whatever your opinion of the English is I don’t think it has anything to do with a TT forum.

The fact is Serbia are not a ‘top team’ regardless of ranking. If England played a full strength team they would be expected to beat them .

Before you go off on one I don’t think England are a top team either and I’m English !
Really well put starsky. I didnt take too kindly to what Fruitloop said either - but couldnt put together a diplomatic response without the entire thread going on a tangent.

Ah, trying to understand the English psyche!

I'm English. (At least, I was born and raised there, been back and lived there, and next year moving back again for a while.) Many, many of my friends were/are English. Over the years I've worked with loads of English people. All of which qualifies me (I believe) to define the English as arrogant, humble, overbearing, unassuming, dismissive, helpful, cold, kind, aloof, warm, humourless, funny, quirky, conventional, unrealistic, down to earth, obnoxious in victory, unbearable in defeat, and generally nice people (apart from the ones who're not).

And I suspect my assessment is rather more accurate than FruiLoop's typical American ignorance. Whoops! Did I just make an uninformed sweeping generalisation?
 
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