Yes and this. We have been a team of two halves and after not taking the many chances created, we have struggled to play with any intensity after half time.
Didn't expect it to be disallowed but I did say to my mate that anywhere else on the pitch that would have been a foul.
The problem is the dribbling and running with the ball often leads to nothing. It’s ok carrying that pace threat, but at this level you need some end product as well. As someone else posted earlier on - we only looked a threat from set plays. It’s great to have that in your armoury, but you need to cause more problems from open play.
Thoughts..... Group stage was simple, in times past wed have drawn with Tunisia but showed great strength of character to win a game against a parked bus, battered Panama and the Belgium game was a non event with 2 reserve teams. Vs Colombia a good performance in the face of the most ridiculous ****housary antics, they should've been down to 9 and were rightly ****ed off in a penno shootout, another bonus winning like that with our history. Sweden largely comfortable but pickford made some key saves too Croatia.... 2nd half out tacticed us, pushing 3 up to press and we couldn't get out, kept going long.... But chances missed at key times was what lost us that, could have been 3 up at half time, should've been at least 2 up Players; I thought Stirling was our most effective player by far, scared the **** out of them and gave us an out ball, for me he had a half decent tournament and some of the criticism he received was ridiculous and shows a lack of understanding of the game. Can't criticise any of the players who played, all did well and did their jobs, some maybe didn't do as well as hoped but no one was ****. With kane.... Not sure this formation suits him, may sound silly given he bagged 6 goals but only one of them was from open play and that a deflection off his ankle, I can't think on many chances other than last night where he missed from open play which maybe suggests we weren't creating enough for him. Manager; my only criticism of Southgate was that he got out thought last night, their full backs were killing us after half time and exposing the weakness in our formation, thought maybe we'd have been better brining on dier for trippier, going to a back 4, 2 dms, alli off kane and stirling and lingard on the wings to nullify their full backs, but what do I know, I'm just some guy on the Internet and he's managed England to a first semi in a generation so maybe he knows what he's doing
Was trippiers man not walkers, he let him go, walker had no idea he was coming..... Trippier other than the free kick had a poor game for me last night, real shame as he'd been great all tournament
I don’t agree on Sterling. I’m not criticising him. His only attribute at this World Cup was he can run fast. He hasn’t been a goal threat or contributed any meaningful assists. Maguire (Not because he’s ex City) along with Trippier and Pickford have been the best England players by some considerable distance.
I think he ended up with 3 or so assists in the end, its all a bit heskey c2000 with Stirling, does so much work that benefits the team rather than himself pushes defences back which creates space for others to drop in to space between the midfield and defence, should clarify was supposed to mean he was our most effective player last night, not all tournament, I just don't think he's been as bad as people are making out. When finishing is mentioned.... Imagine if Stirling had missed kane or lingard chances last night or rashfords against Belgium..... There'd have been uproar!
I think Henderson deserves a mention. I'm not a fan of his but he's been good this tournament. Really sets the tone and keeps everything ticking over nicely.
Sterling seems to have difficulty converting when he's playing for England, but he quite obviously has it in his locker, he scored 18 and had 11 assists in 33 Premier League appearances last season.
It was an enjoyable tournament for me, much better than I expected. Southgate can stay and I like him much more than I used to. I genuinely felt we could have won it. B +
It may be down to the quality he has behind him at Man City. Plus they always have 3-4 players supporting the attack. England often have just 2.
The problem at International level is you get fewer chances, chances are much harder to come by and you really have to make the most of those chances when they come along. Special mention to Southgate as well. I wasn’t impressed with his appointment. But, he’s done a great job. The formation change is a work in progress and is a real positive. He’s worked wonders for rejuvenating waistcoat Sales.
Wasn't it Sterling played that absolute diamond of a ball thru to Kane where he missed a pair of sitters? That was a match winning moment. As said previously you only need see just how poor we are as soon as he comes off, it's not even his direct contribution that's so valuable or invaluable, he's all over the attacking third getting into dangerous positions and making good runs, defenders worry about him and he creates a lot of space for everyone else whether he touches the ball or not. Yes we need to create more from open play but that's not his job alone, I dare say without fact checking that Sterling has created or at least got us into more dangerous positions than any other player by quite some margin.
I think at the end of the day we did great, a young team that hopefully will go on to bigger and better thing's , just one sour note for me with this world cup and with others, why in the hell do we have to have this 3th v 4th play off game, would imagine that both beaten semi-finalist just want to get on a plane and go home, instead FIFA insist on them hanging around to play this pointless game that both team's don't really wants to play.
I I would agree with this, especially about Southgate. I wasn’t expecting too much when he got the job. I feel we were looking for too many free kicks up front last night after the first goal. Every time we attacked we just seemed to spend the time putting our fingers up instead of just getting on with the game.
A simple square ball by Kane to Sterling. With VAR doing it’s job. The referee doing the right thing & booking Lovren & their other player who purposely hacked down Young, both in the first half The Linesman being able to spot when a ball is out of play. Had these things occurred it may well have been a different result. It certainly would have been a different game.
