Bit of a slog watching that first half, not great from either side. Not sure Ward-Prowse, Carroll and Chalobah complement eachother in the middle, I think we'd be better off bringing on Loftus-Cheek and either taking Ward-Prowse off or putting him on the right. Kane's looked a bit lonely up top but he's made himself a handful and fired off a couple of good shots. Don't know how Moore's picked above Dier, he's been an accident waiting to happen so far. I hope Chambers comes on before we're made to pay.
Its been a little cagey but both sides have played some good football at times. The England midfield is set up a little differently to deal with Portugal, and its impacting on the forward play. Normally there are three players (like Carroll, Hughes and Ward-Prowse for example) who work in a 3 with lots of interchange, and one will drop off to receive the ball from the CBs and start moves in possession. With Chalobah purposefully sitting deep nearly constantly in this match its a bit different and the ball isn't being moved forward quite as quickly. The Chelsea man isn't nearly as good playing that role defensively as the big Portugese 6, Carvalho, either. England miss the pace of Berahino too, even though Kane is trying his best to get involved he can't stretch the game quite like the WBA man. Like YV, I think that Chambers would surely be better than Moore at CB, and I'd bring on Loftus-Cheek or Hughes for Chalobah and go back to trying to play England's natural game because this is a good enough team to beat this Portugal side doing that IMO.
Pritchard was excellent but should've been brought on a lot sooner. Lingard might be the like-for-like swap for Berahino but with Redmond preferring to play very wide you need a more dynamic player to either get close to Kane or provide a useful outlet. Pritchard has to start next game. Midfield was terrible, all 4 that played there never looked comfortable and I think that's Southgate's error. Chalobah was probably in there to provide some physicality but it just never worked. Once again I'm left wondering what all the fuss about Hughes is, I haven't ever seen him play well. Carroll needs to work on his closing down, he was very slow and again I'm questioning his timid approach to the game. The goal was a mess, 3 players bunching towards the guy on the ball and whilst the deflection off Garbage... I mean Garbutt, was unlucky it was his man that knocked in the rebound off the post. After that Portugal were so comfortable that it would've been a robbery had if Pritchard's late input had given us a point.
That Carvalho ran the game for Portugal in the second half and looked like a player capable of playing we'll above U21 level, which he is to be fair. England had no answer to him. I think its unfair to call them overrated Luke. Yes some of the papers have been getting ahead of themselves as per, but England have a good team at this level and they've produced performances in the lead up to the Championships to justify that. They just got stymied tonight by a very effective physical presence that the England U21 squad just don't have the capabilities in their locker to match right now, and by the fact that the midfield unit, normally quite effective, was a little out of kilter. Thats probably down to both the Portugese quality and a slight change in selection and tactics. A dominating presence at CB was sorely missed too, due to selection and Stones's concussion.
Maybe a bit harsh, but we look typically workmanlike and struggle against a bit of quality on the ball - just like the seniors.
The strength of the U21 team is the 'team dynamic' - the majority of the players know a way of playing and know each other well within that system, and it's proved effective. There are leaders and 'best players' in the squad, like Butland and Stones and Redmond and Kane and a few others, but there's no one outstanding player. All the other big teams seem to have at least one player getting game time for a serious team - look at Carvalho for Portugal, or their no. 10 who plays for Monaco. Germany and Spain have plenty of players at a high level. Kane got a lot of game time at a good level this year but nobody else in the England squad springs to mind, and when a destructive player of serious quality like Carvalho comes along at this level it can be seriously hard to deal with him. We changed the dynamics of the midfield tonight and it didn't work, from now on I think Southgate should stick with what has gone well for him so far - which is playing the way the team knows, and doing it well. At least they have that team dynamic that makes them play well, unlike the Seniors.
It was laborious at times and I didn't think we were going to do it. Several of our players were very ineffective, but a good strike and we get what is a vital result. Crap goalkeeping though for the goal.
I take back my criticism of him Still think Southgate's not getting the balance right and I just can't see what anyone sees in Will Hughes, he's a total waste of a player on the pitch. We need to sharpen up quickly if we're going to get out of the group and give a good account of ourselves.
I'm not sure either. Everytime I've seen him(only a handful of games) whether it's in midfield or behind the striker, he seems to spend all game with his back to goal or getting marked out of the game.
It was a difficult watch again tonight, very reminiscent of watching the seniors. Too conservative in possession, and no real cutting edge. I will offer Lingard praise for the goal but it really was his only contribution. Of the 14 players on show, only Pritchard and Jenkinson really played well. Kane and Ings offered a threat but had very little service and Loftus Cheek made a difference when he came on. Chalobah and Carrol were poor today. The 2 central defenders really did nothing to inspire confidence I am really at a loss to see how these two were picked ahead of Dier and are now playing ahead of Chambers, I assume Stones will play in the last game, I would be tempted to play Chambers and Targett too.
We play with the pressure of expectation. The England ODI team and Jordan Spieth show what can done if you play sport without feeling shackled and without a fear of losing.
Double ****beans... http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...nder21s-squad-with-ankle-injury-10337268.html
Reports suggest it's an ankle ligament injury, so that's him out of pre-season. Spurs should really consider pulling out of The FA...
