Sigh That hurts England done us proud Hope Croatia win it or do I want Lloris to be a WC winner, not sure
We failed to create a decent chance from 45 onwards - and didn't look like doing so. But frankly, that was a repeat performance. Young legs and minds didn't last I'm afraid. Although poor officiating certainly didn't help. Well done, lads - you made a WC SF
So...is everyone going to be up at 3am to cheer on London Spitfire in the Overwatch League quarter finals?
I hope we can be a bit braver now and utilise players that England managers wouldn't normally look at. The likes of Maguire have done us proud and more like him will see us be competitive at the QF and SF stages more often (anything else remains a pipe dream for the foreseeable future).
My great grandfather was born in Zardar, my great grandmother was born in Paris. I'll be happy with either result. What I would say is that Spurs should resign Modric before Sunday to ensure Spurs win the World Cup.
For me the main weakness throughout the competition was the lack of support for Henderson in midfield, especially with walker playing in a back 3. We didn’t really need to address it, as our opponents weren’t particularly strong, so we got away with it. But it showed tonight. We looked over run in midfield. Also Alli and lingards very average performances throughout exposed this further tonight. They’ve both felt like luxury players who should have been dropped IMO. - Alli for lack of energy and regularly losing the ball, and Lingard for some very poor first touches, and often going missing. Young also struggled at times, and should have had the game time shared with Rose. Finally, Sterling’s Inability to release the ball. He’s had a lot of energy, but his decision making has been really poor, and it seemed like he was desperate for a goal, and put that first. Lots of positives though. In particular, pickford, Maguire and Trippier. Absolutely superb in every game. I can’t see anything but France winning it though. Croatia are excellent in midfield, but the French attackers will have a field day against the likes of Lovren and Vida.
The best team won, too many of our players were poor tonight, Henderson and Young, were particularly awful, but even there poor performances were good compared to the ref - Modric was superb
No, no, no - Henderson was England's best player since Stevie G. Some bloke stealing my hubcaps told me so.
Six games in 23 days was a factor too. Fatigue eventually became a problem. When your game relies on pace, energy and running, it's difficult to be effective after 30 minutes when the game settles down and teams used to playing at a more sedate pace and controlling the ball take charge. In every game bar Sweden, England became less of a threat as the game went on. Everyone expected Russia to be cool, but it was usually quite hot and humid when the games were played. That saps the energy quicker. We needed to have a game plan for the second half of games but we don't have the players to keep hold of the ball and play possession football. It could have been different tonight had chances been taken in that first half hour when we were dominant and had we been able to sit in and defend stoutly for the rest of the game - but that is a lot to ask of players who are quite inexperienced and not best suited to playing that way.
Regarding Alli, Henderson and Lingard, I was disappointed Delph didn't feature. I thought he did well against Belgium considering and could have offered more.
Thought Dele was decent tonight. Henderson was bang average and Sterling woeful again. Croatia bullied the midfield from halftime and that's when we should have brought Dier on for Sterling and gone 4231. There was no fight and we barely committed a foul when they were leaving a boot in most of the time. They were also in the refs ear all night - far cleverer at that level.
It was a tragic performance from Henderson tonight, half his passes are over hit and sail out of play or end up in the hands of the goalkeeper, and his crosses often end up in the stands. There was a moment tonight when he could of had a first time shot from the edge of the box, but instead chose to try and make a hollywood pass that was never on. I can`t fault his effort though. If England are ever going to improve further we need better in central midfield, options of Henderson and a defender (Dier) simply is not good enough. We lost the game in midfield tonight, the Croatia midfielders are a level or two above ours and it showed as the game went on.
Proud of the boys. Done so much better than anyone expected. Gutted to have gone out but ultimately outclassed by a more technical side. Bring on Euro 2020.
A disappointing end to a great adventure. Unlike 1990, I'm not left with the feeling that the better team lost and that, if we had made it to the final, we were pretty certain winners of the whole thing. I see France as very strong favourites as Pogba, Matuidi and Kante aren't getting the run around that our midfield was given and as crap as Giroud is, Griezman and Mbappe are a proper handful. As a Spur, it had a familiar feeling. It was very much the home game against Juve. We were ahead and let a more experienced, street-wise, physically aggressive team bully us of of it. Gareth Southgate did many wonderful things but waiting much too long to start making changes was something that became a regular occurrence and it definitely cost us. Special mentions go out to Pickford, Trippier and Maguire who were excellent throughout the tournament. Stones played well and only made one mistake and regrettably, it saw us go out. Bonzo did well playing an unfamiliar position but had mistakes in him above and beyond his usual level at right back. He waited for the cross that led to their first goal. A proper centre half would have gone to the ball and got his head kicked by Perisic but not conceded the chance. Young did well enough but a fit Rose would have offered more and could have seen more game time to our benefit. Strangely, the forward line, that should have been our greatest asset, provided precious little. HK looked decidedly below par. For the most part, Sterling, Lingard and Dele were ineffectual, alhough Dele was a lot better tonight. Sterling was crap throughout. Croatia's forwards looked like strong athletes, ours looked like schoolboys in comparison.
The Sterling 'experiment' went on at least a game too long (some would say 6 games) and cost us dear. But as others have said, no regrets about the outcome last night - Croatia made their experience and game 'nous' (and gamesmanship) count. They knew how to win the match, getting stronger as we grew ever weaker. Onwards and upwards. It's Coming Home, someday, just staying out for a few pints more beforehand
