Nice to see us close the game out. Say what you want about Heaton but he shouldn't be beaten at his near post there IMO (not saying that just to make a case for Pickford mind). Bit of a let down in the end with the result!!
Losing possession twice in seconds caused the breakaway for for their first goal when he had options on for a pass.
How the hell did England do that ? he should have left hart in goal or brought Pickford on, typical England. Best performance for a long time ruined.
He did, however I'd argue that it was at the other end of the pitch and there's plenty of opportunity to do something to stop it happening between Rashford losing the ball and Spain scoring. England thought they had the game wrapped up at half time. They gave Spain a chance to get back into it.
Shame about the result, enjoyed that game though. Lacking experience to see the game out, but overall a good game.
We were committed down the left and that was the space Spain utilised. All their runners were covered through the middle but all credit to the lad that scored. No danger until he gave them the key to open the door. A harsh lesson maybe, but at international level one that should be avoided.
Perhaps if you wanna pick apart the team for faults, but with the amount of subs and changes and line ups etc, all things considered, the negatives are not really relevant in a friendly. I doubt we'd have conceded two if we never changed our back 5, but then at the same time we may have never scored two if Spain started their strongest back 5 also. I just enjoyed the game, it made a change, no bias against players I normally don't like. Probably because I expected us to be poor, it was a nice surprise.
On a separate note, Messi led a boycott against the media for Argentina, on behalf of team mate Lavezzi who has been accused of smoking weed by the media. The news to me here, is that I thought Messi had retired from international football in a big huff last year? What, has he watched Ronaldo do the unthinkable and gone back with his tail between his legs or something? Pathetic.
Can anyone let me know what Stones adds to the defence - a massive liability to me - Wes Brown was better when at Sunderland (liability levels about the same but he was on his last legs) -also prone to being imperious England played well - only short of an exceptionally solid young keeper
So right he was also a massive success at Preston on loan and the confidence oozes out of him in pre game warm ups - a prescence beyond his years - the quality of his game is immense Now for a clean sheet on Saturday and 3pts
Agree totally - not enjoyed an England match as much in years! Think it's very harsh blaming Heaton for the second goal - ball was in the middle of his legs, anyone who played at any point in goal will tell you how difficult it is to stop those when they come at you with pace from around 6 yards away- if you stand with your legs together you have no mobility to dive so it's a catch 22 IMO
Thought Lingard, Rashford and Walcott were disappointing losing the ball far too easily, Spain on the other hand are very good in the final third, and only Hoddle could give mom to Vardy,what a plonker, Captain Henderson was by far our best player out there, and I speak without any bias whatsoever, one of us, young Jordan.
That's possibly the most biased post I've ever read in years on here. Henderson was danced around by Silva, Busquets and Mata every time he put his foot in for a tackle, he was chasing shadows, literally. The link up play between Sterling, Lallana and Lingard was great at times. For me Sterling was probably man of the match, he had them turning on their heels every time he touched the ball, they simply cannot deal with pace. Henderson had a good game as captain, but to say he was our best player is ridiculous given the way Busquets ran that midfield from minute one.
I don't think we can blame anybody for either goal, Spain just took control when Isco entered. They're a better outfit than we are, struggling for similar reasons to us, not being able to find their best squad, missing one or two options. We were taking players off that could have seen out the game, such as Cahill and Rose and replacing them with worse, like Jagielka and Cresswell, but the result is irrelevant to me as the game was good, for once. What would happen if tomorrow we had to face Spain in a WCQ with both our best 11 out? It'd be a completely different game. Pickford will get his shot, he's got 20 years ahead of him in professional football. He's probably gonna have to get used to the competition, there's a lot of keepers that are capable. The stark reality may be that until he's at a top club he'll play second fiddle to one of them.
