Germany and Spain looked comfortable against lesser opposition; hopefully we will too. Defence worries me and will probably be the reason we fall short again. We need to be more ruthless in front of goal anarl. Hopefully it will come together. 4-2.
Got to be Bellingham - Rice has a midfield two, then two up top: Kane, Foden, then two wide: Palmer and Eze or Gordon. England have bundles of talent, but using that and ensuring it fires on max power will be tricky. Defence looks the weakest part of an otherwise cracking side. ..............Pickford ..Walker Stones Dunk Shaw or Trippier ......Rice Bellingham.............. ..Palmer Kane Foden Gordon England should have too much for them....2-0 hopefully, though I'd take a 1-0.
Imagine the meltdown the media and the hysterical little flowers on here would have if we had scraped a 2-1 win against Albania. They will have a similar reaction whatever we do tonight. Narrow win and we are crap, convincing win and it will because the opposition were crap,
Can't recall when England beat anyone convincingly in the first game of a major tournament, other than the last World Cup From recent memory WC 2010 Drew with USA 1-1 Euro 2012 Drew with France 1-1 WC 2014 Lost to Italy 1-2 Euro 2016 Drew with Russia 1-1 WC 2018 Beat Tunisia 2-1 Euro 2021 Beat Croatia 1-0 WC 2022 Beat Iran 6-2 a narrow win this evening will be par for the course.
Apparently the main Serbia threat is that their strikers (Mitrovic and Vlahovic) are very good on crosses. Which is also England's weakness with Maguire out. So that makes me think it'll be important for us to stop the supply as much as possible. Do what Germany did to Scotland and Italy largely did to Albania - control the ball, keep a high line where possible and give them no time on the ball to get out. If we're successful in that, they shouldn't be able to get into many crossing positions. And obviously Walker does allow us to play that high line without too much risk of people getting in behind us.
England XI: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Guehi, Trippier, Rice, Alexander-Arnold, Saka, Bellingham, Foden, Kane
Would do these by a few if it was a qualifier. Not sure about tonight though. Different kettle of fish
