Ffs! England's chances don't rest on Southgate not picking an uncapped Palace left back. Your mate Palmer, apart from one good ball to Kane, constantly gave the ball away and failed to convert a sitter by over complicating it. Your mate Foden, playing where you want him, was totally ineffective. Gordon had his full back on toast, but his final ball was terrible. Maybe look at the players letting Southgate down as opposed to forever calling him out. He picked a young, really attacking team tonight. Something that his critics have been crying out for. For me, Pickford doesn't let the goal in. Kane takes that chance nine times out of ten. Bellingham must play at 10. Saka must start on the right and I wouldn't mind Eze starting on the left. Foden, as much as I think he's a wonderful player, just seems to disappear for England. This result and performance can either be a positive thing, where we learn from our mistakes and who should start where, making the players determined to put things right. Alternatively, it could completely drain the squad of confidence. Time will tell.
I said if Foden, Saka, Bellingham and another forward on the left , then the 1 thing that had to happen yo make that work was telling Kane he had to play solely as a striker and not drop deep. Kane is a wonderful player and can drop deep and create from there, but he has to play like Haaland does for City to get the best out of Foden at 10. The same would apply if you play Bellingham at 10 as Kane dropping deep just leaves 2 centre halves plus a holding midfielder picking up the playmaker. I feel sorry for whoever is gonna play on the left against decent opposition, because without anyone making overlapping runs they'll simply get outnumbered and tge attacks will just come to a halt down that side. You may well feel that Southgate is a great manager, but unless he finally wins us a tournament I'll have to differ. Has he learnt from tge past mistakes he's made ? Hopefully, but I just can't see it.
Decent price, if he could be persuaded to take it , then he could be an exciting appointment. Just wonder whether he would take a job which isn't day to day, but after a break he might just be tempted .
Was at Wembley last night, it was a desperate watch, disjointed, pedestrian at times and against opposition that had come for a draw at best. What was concerning was several times a simple ball put their forward clear and only poor finishing spared us a really embarrassing scoreline. Were players coasting it to avoid injury? It didn't work out for Stones and our defensive options are really worrying. It reminded me of the abject defeat by Hungary a couple of years back. Just over a week to the opener, I really hope we are not going to blow it yet again...
I was there aswell, working but watching snippits of the game while avoiding paper aeroplanes. I did wonder how much of an effect picking the squad the day before made. I think there would have been a lot more effort had places been on the line. As it was it seemed the players felt they'd done the hard job and now needed to stay injury free. Some players looked very rusty to me. I know Germany has some good teams but I do wonder if its a bit less physical & whether Kane has been tested as much as he would be in England? Guess we'll find out soon.
As an outsider looking, I, along with many, have often wondered why England, the home of football, struggle year after year in fielding a team that can compete at the highest level. The players picked, are great players, who when playing in the champions league etc ........... are world class. So why can't they perform as a team, for country? Again, just my observation, which means nothing but l could never understand the selection of Southgate. Yes, l get everybody would prefer a 'local' lad but ..... and l say this with no malice directed at Southgate, he is not one to inspire confidence, not one to talk it up or gee a player, supporter and alike, up. He comes across as mud, dire, anything but inspiration and l think half the problem is, this transforms to the players. A manager might not need to be a genius on tactics but it does help of course ............... but he needs to be able to gee a good player up to be a great player when playing for his country. To me, that's what a really good manager can do, lift his team when its needed. Unfortunately, l don't see Gareth ever achieving that, sorry to say. Hey, l'd like to see England, in fact, l'd love to see England win the world cup. Anyway, just my take on it all.
Yeh but when we do win anything just imagine the euphoria all over the country (though Sunak would probably leave before the final whistle).
Sorry you lost me in your 1st paragraph. Since Southgate became Manager at least, England have been competing at the highest level in the World Cup and European finals.
Ok, maybe l didn’t word it correctly. My point was, England get to the semi finals or alike & falter. They have poor losses or drab draws to countries that they should easily beat. Again, just my opinion. Wasn’t looking to upset the applecart.
It has to be in the mind to some extent. Absolutely ****ed it against Croatia and Italy when it really mattered. Kane sticks a penalty somewhere near the Moon against France. We’re quite heavily odds-on to get to the semi-final. Still favourites to win the thing with some pretty huge flaws in the team. I can’t see it happening.
I can see us struggling in the group. We are up against three decent teams with nothing to lose against us and a lot of national pride. Our bunch of fey show ponies and old crocks might be theoretically better players but passion and commitment? Hmm
Yep, that was my point precisely. England have the occasional big win against lessor teams but they should be having them against the best teams. I want to see them win and kick on at the pointy end of the competitions but it just doesn't happen.
Realistically we can win the group without being brilliant. They’re decent sides for sure but we’re United playing West Ham. It’ll be a bit of a slog and there’ll be a lot of pressure on if the first game is like that Russia match in 2016.
Just listening to Sky expert who believes England have to start with its best passer of the ball, Alexander-Arnold in centre midfield, behind Bellingham at 10, Foden left, Saka right and Kane striker.
That's my take on it as well, Southgate will stick with his 4-2-3-1, we'll be dominating possession but finding it tough to break down teams happy to defend and counter quickly. We looked open to this on Friday, better teams could punish us. Also the end of a hard season for many doesn't help. I'd love to see Eze get a start, he can make things happen...
Just a mention for an amazing County Championship match between Gloucester & Glamorgan. Gloucester declared 2nd innings on 610-5 setting a target of 593 for an unlikely Glamorgan win. Reaching the final over they needed 2 runs to win, got a single taking the match to the final ball where last man Jamie McIlroy was caught behind leaving the match tied...
warm up for Riga FS (top of table) v FS Jelgava (second bottom) in a 2 thousand seater stadium with 50 fans in it 30 minutes before kick off. Got here early to avoid the crush. There is beer on sale though, luckily. Its actually a lovely little stadium with great facilities and the RFS are playing Larne in a Champions League qualifier next Wednesday.
