I thought Lingard did ok. He was Messi compared to Delle who, imo, simply isn't an international footballer and he either gives away possession or slows everything right down. Henderson hasn't played much for Liverpool and it showed as he didn't look match fit at all. He's never good enough in ability but he makes up for that with his athleticism and energy which were sadly lacking tonight. England may have to switch to 3-4-3 as they are too open down the sides.
Didn’t see the game but am pretty sure one of the issues which Uber raised during the World Cup, is our complete lack of a proper creative player, with vision. We just don’t have any that I can see. Thought Wilshire might be in the frame but he seems to be going backwards. It’s a hard one, as you can’t really blame the players we have got for not being what they are not equipped to be or Southgate, who has still made a team greater than the sum of its parts in my view. How was Gomez, seems to be the flavour of the moment.
Gomez is there to stay imo. I agree about not having that creative midfielder (Delle was ****ing awful!), but it's not like we're not creating chances. We should have been 3-0 up at half time in the world cup semi and we missed more clear cut chances again tonight. We need to be more clinical and Kane needs to sharpen up, although it was Rashford who missed the chances after scoring the first. We were also robbed of a last minute equaliser!
I don't think we can have Alli and Lingard in the same team with what Southgate is trying to develop. Henderson is too isolated and overloaded in midfield, he needs a lock picker beside him ( Wilshire / Shelvey? ) or do we even possess one? If you play a three at the back you need to shut down the space in the centre of the pitch in front of the back three, especially when the high press breaks down. Having Lingard and Alli inside of the wing backs and in front of Henderson weakens us. The Spanish controlled the game tonight because they had a player with the calibre of Busquets, he strolled through the game and controlled it without breaking a sweat. I think we're ok going forward and in defence but we lack the midfielder who can control the ebb and flow of the game. What I'm effectively asking for is a Paul Scholes.
Sorry but Kane has "gone". The times did an article on him last week. Since his ankle injury. All his metrics have deteriorated markedly. He doesn't run as much, his conversion rate is much poorer, his movement is more central and he is far less involved. He is living on reputation imho. He needs to be dropped as a wake up call....and hope he gets back to where he was... Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
We certainly need the holding player you describe but our biggest problem is the gaps down the sides. We must switch to 3-4-3 to solve this imo. The two forwards play narrow and this leaves the opposition full backs complete freedom. Top teams see this and exploit it. You could also then have your expansive midfielder alongside a Henderson type player. England have come a long way and are now playing very good football at times, but they now need to tinker with the formation and find that Gazza or Scholes to be really top drawer imo. Oh, and I agree with Beth, there's definitely something up with Kane!!!
The problem is he is solely relied on by Spurs and his 'workload' means he often comes back from injury too soon. England are, in a way, placing the same pressure on him, cumulatively this is taking it's toll...
What last night did expose was the fact we were very lucky with the way the draw turned out in the World Cup - if we'd ended up in the other half of the draw we would have been found out far earlier than the semi-final.
never understood the over the top praise lavished on our World Cup exploits. Every time we come up against a decent side we are found wanting. Totally agree with the opinions on Ali, Henderson et al. Average at best
Before ....about March or April...but he had his share of penalties at World Cup.. Kane played in meaningless matches...where others were dropped/rested (1stBelgium match)...in order to get the golden boot. It is not a total criticism. If I or my team had a chance of being/having the golden boot..yes I would take it... But at points we were pandering to Kane's desire...and a couple of times Kane was a little greedy to England's detriment... I particularly remember against Croatia he shot when a pass was a far better option. Centre forwards have to be greedy Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
To be fair I don't remember anyone going over the top during the world cup about England being better than they were. The country understandably got very excited as we got all the way to semi. I haven't heard anyone say that we were better than France and that would have beaten them in the final. However, the fact remains that, had we taken the excellent chances that we created in the first half against Croatia, when we totally outplayed them, we would have at least had a shot at a world cup final.
Scotland would struggle in our Championship, sad to see all the Home Nation teams miles away from the likes of Spain and France
How can Holland be a group 1 nation in this nations league thingy? They didn’t qualify for a Euros that everyone but San Marino got into.
