It's just so Spursy. Dominate and you can't even see a goal coming and then inevitably they score. Even being the pessimistic fan I am I really did not see that coming.
Bit harsh on lallana as he did play well overall. Take that late goal away and that was a great performance. Very Tottenhamesque!
First time I've seen both Rose and Walker push forward in such a consistent manner in the same match. More of that that please in the PL next season.
Dier, rose and Walker were excellent. Alli was probably a 6 out of 10. Kane wasn't awful but probably only a 5. Definitely not one of his better games. I sometimes feel he tries too hard to score a goal and then he gets a bit selfish and almost gets blinkered into shooting from anywhere.
The fact is our defence is utter ****e. We knew it before the tournament began. If Smalling and Cahill is the best we've got!....
I totally agree Dier was immense the goal was a bonus he was MOTM by a mile. Walker superb, Rose not far behind Alli was a bit sporadic, did some very good things, then went missing at times, but I think that was true of everyone else. I don't often agree with Roy, but do on this occasion their goal was very good but I live in hope that, that maybe the last time we see Milner in an England shirt
Agree with all the comments. The thing most Spurs of all is that Spurs in general played well, with the exception of Harry, who had an off game--and yet we get the collapse at the death anyway, and everyone blaming Spurs for it. On further review, it was Rose who let the first player head the ball. Not good from him, no doubt, but if you’re relying on him to mark the key target man, something else has gone terribly wrong. How about we have the tall fellows try to score and prevent headers, and the little fellows take the corners next game. On second viewing I blame Hart almost completely. He positioned himself poorly. Even so, I thought a strong effort could have gotten a hand on the tying goal (subject to further review). Instead he decided to try to beg the linesman for an incorrect offsides call. FFS you can fing well try to keep it out, at least. It was similar to the first France goal in being perhaps the most unforgiveable GK mistake: a lack of determined effort. Same goes for Smalling. He didn’t have a play, but should have tried, on general principles, I thought.
Seriously gutting result for England given how we dominated the game. Kane was below-par but the service from Sterling was poor throughout to be fair to him. Lallana had some good movement in the first half but faded a bit in the second. The game was crying out for a bit of a shift with Vardy coming on to change the style a bit but of course we saw mostly defensive and conservative subs from Roy when only 1 goal up which with England in a tournament game is never safe. On the plus side, both fullbacks were excellent, Rooney adapted quite well to his midfield role, and Dier was quite assured. On another day you might see more from Kane and Alli - there were a good few situations that nearly came to fruition to be fair. What was odd to me was that Kane was allowed to drift out of the box when he's the only real box-effective forward on the pitch. Roy needs to be braver and play Kane and Vardy in a proper 2 (not like what we saw against Portugal) if he's really going to go for it. Keep the back 5 as is, then Dier Rooney Wilshere Alli Kane Vardy Otherwise play a defensive game properly instead of shoehorning 5 attacking players into the lineup because you feel you should. Also, Kane on corners. Just, why? With Rooney, Alli, and Lallana also on the pitch. Why?
I think yesterday was an excellent example of the fine lines that separate success and failure in football and how along with playing well you also need the assistance of lady luck. If we look at the 2 matches in Englands group, and the performances of the 4 teams, England played the best football and Wales got the best result. We created a number of good chances and on a number of occasions we almost struck the ball too well and too often gave the Russian keeper a relatively easy save to make. The Russians scored a good goal to equalise but it was one of those headers that could have drifted over or wide but dropped in. Compare that to Wales who also played well, but could easily have been a goal down in 3 minutes, but for Bens brilliant clearance, the game then ebbs and flows between the 2 teams with both sides having periods in the ascendency, but with 10 minutes to go Ramsey completely miss-controls the ball and it all falls into the path of Robson Kanu who miss hits his shot and it rolls into the bottom corner and Wales have a winner, then in possibly the best Slovakian move of the match they create a headed chance that flies past the keeper hits the inside of the post and stays out. I am not knocking Wales or their performance I think that they shaded the match, but they also got good luck at vital points in the match, which England didn’t. Some say that you make your own luck, but in tournament football England are massively overdue some. I don’t know how many mirrors have been broken at FA HQ but I really don’t recall a lucky England win in a tournament since Spain on Penalties in 1996.
I think England did create their own luck, in all of the chances and shots on goal that they had. At this level though, you have to be clinical and at least hit the target. In truth the game should have been a done deal by half time, such were the quantity and quality of opportunities created. It's killer, sniper instinct that is missing. You don't get 38 matches, you get 7. We see this flapping of chances all of the time as Spurs fans, and we forgive it because over a whole season we see 'improvement' or 'progress', and there is always next season, right? Sterling and Lallana give me a new found level of respect for Eriksen and Lamela, and that's saying something. Both them should have had a goal each at least, and lets not even talk about Kane. On the plus side, Rooney put in a Pirloesque performance. Hats off to him, shutting the mouths of those, me included, who questioned his position in the squad. I also think Pochettino should rethink how we approach free kicks, after Dier's bullet!
I totally agree. Stirling had the look of someone who would have preferred to be on the bench. A decent manager would help him to realize that. Lallana just doesn't do anything with total conviction. Wales are going to get in our faces. Okay, pick that team and let's go at them.
None of the teams in England's group have players capable of retaining possession for long periods. They are all organised, physical teams who are stronger defending than creating. Russia conceded a lot of space and possession. It doesn't bode well that England did nothing from open play despite having decent possession against a team they were more skilful than. England should scrape through this group, but then it already looks like it will be the same old story against one of the better teams. What can we do when we get only 30 or 35% possession?
Was astounded to see BBC describe Rooney as man of the match. I thought he was England's worst player by some margin ! Views ? I thought Dier and Walker were outstanding btw.
