Trippier 9.5/10 - a great find, solid defender & strikes a good dead ball Maguire 9/10 - can't see him staying at Leicester long. A monster. Pickford 8/10 - mainly answered the doubts. Walker 8/10 - unbelievable pace, faster than Elfs chasing a GILF. Stones 8/10 - same as Pickford, looks a player there. Lingard 7.5/10 - the best our our creative trio, would persevere with him. Kane - 7/10 - faded after scoring against minnows. Golden Boot winner? Henderson 6.5/10 - a water carrier at this level, but had the vociferous Scouse media lobby with him Young 6/10 - average, poor last night defensively. Last cap. Alli 3/10 - a horribly overhyped footballer. Poor man's Peter Beardsley. Rashford 2/10 - little boy lost. Raw pace but not much else. Sterling 1/10 - no composure in front of goal, & didn't create much either. His pace gets him a 1. Thoughts?
Trippier ... 10 ... Could not ask any more of him. Maguire ... 9.5 ... Fantastic, can be very proud. Pickford ... 8 ... Did better than I thought he would. Very positive attitude. Walker ... 7.5 Stones ... 7.5 Lingard ... 7.5 Kane ... 7 ... Not his fault he was built up into a super-hero by the media. Carrying an injury maybe last night? Henderson ... 6 Young ... 7 ... Better than I thought he would be. Alli ... 2 ... Waste of space. Legend only inside his own head. Rashford ... 4 ... Added almost nothing. Sterling ... 3 ... for effort alone. Failed to do the job he was there for.
Cannot understand why all the euphoria; same old story, cannot win a competition Who remembers coming second or third, fourth? A average team, playing below average football; devoid of ideas. Kane scores 3 against Panama, and did very little else. Alli, as mentioned, highly over hyped. In summary, back to the drawing board. The only player who came out of this with any credit to his name; Pickford
Very proud of the team and being English. I know that is not very fashionable but there we are. By reaching the semi finals we massively overachieved. The squad is average at best. Gareth Southgate did a wonderful job. Croatia were just better than us, it happens.
We only just managed to beat a very organised Tunisian side. Destroyed the worst team in the competition. Our subs then lost to Belgium's subs. Beat a very average Columbian side but needed penalty's to do it. No problem disposing of a Swedish team full of Championship players Nearly beat a very good Croatian team but legs and ideas went. Southgate - was very disappointed when he got the gig - he has proved me wrong - excellent throughout and probably our best manager since Bobby Robson - but that's not hard when you look at whose had the job in between. Probably too many youngsters on the pitch - needed more experience for that 2nd half last night. Overall - far exceeded expectations and under Southgate that team can only get better
But it's not the same old story. The same old story is being knocked out early. Our players, with a couple of exceptions, are not World class. Southgate got them playing as a team and playing above their limitations and for that he and the whole squad deserve praise.
