England v Belgium thread

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No Kane No Gain said:
Hopefully we've finally confirmed that RLC is two bob after the last couple of starts he's had. He'll come good with time but people have massively overhyped him for very little prior to now.
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Spur of the Moment said:
RLC flattered to deceive at times, Rashford is an enigma and is over-hyped, Vardy chased and harried but didn't have a shot all game, Delph looked out of his depth at this level and Dier had one of his 'strolling around' afternoons that we saw a few times last season.

Rose did ok other than their goal and Maguire looked assured although his arseing around at the back will all end in tears. TAA will no doubt get lauded as a WC debutant teen, but he fell a long way short of Tripps on all fronts and his set pieces were ****. Is he angling for a move to N17?? <laugh>

But it matters not a jot as long as we manage to progress through the next 2 games.
<cheers>
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Let's hope RCL isn't dyslexic otherwise he'll be quite upset about these comments.
 
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Spurf said:
I don't really want to agree with McNumpty but I have to say that IMO Dier has had a poor season and been a shadow of the player I was predicting as future England captain. He did struggle and he did giveaway possession. What has happened to Dier?
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I was expecting him to be much more involved yesterday, particularly as captain, but he was practically invisible. In truth, apart from a couple of misplaced passes and not closing down a shot in the first half he didn't have a bad game. Just not good enough to influence the match and certainly not enough to shut up the pro-Henderson brigade. Every possible error was highlighted, but a great ball to release TAA not a mention.....
Unlike Henderson, he also didnt have the advantage of playing with the first team. Can't help thinking having Tripps available on the right would have helped - he looked for TAA to be available and make those runs but 9/10 times he was not there.
Oh well.......
 
vimhawk said:
I don't have much hope that Young would have stopped that goal either...
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Yesterday's game was definitely one to miss. There's nobody coming out well from playing in a scratch team against decent opponents. By contrast, Young's reputation is enhanced, as he did nothing wrong.

Colombia will be praying that Southgate picks Young, as Cuadrado will torture him defensively and he offers nothing as an attacking threat, lacking pace and a left foot. We'll just have to hope to get away with it and exploit Trippier's game on the other side. I just don't see Southgate going for it with Rose but we'll have to see.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
Yesterday's game was definitely one to miss. There's nobody coming out well from playing in a scratch team against decent opponents. By contrast, Young's reputation is enhanced, as he did nothing wrong.

Colombia will be praying that Southgate picks Young, as Cuadrado will torture him defensively and he offers nothing as an attacking threat, lacking pace and a left foot. We'll just have to hope to get away with it and exploit Trippier's game on the other side. I just don't see Southgate going for it with Rose but we'll have to see.
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Young is another Stirling and they both resemble Francis Lee, remember him? Most of their runs end up producing nothing they are literally a waste of space. We cannot afford players who have no end product. Rose has been poor since he came back from injury and newspaper fame but he offers a lot more than Young who has been out of his depth since he left Villa.
 
Spurf said:
Young is another Stirling and they both resemble Francis Lee, remember him? Most of their runs end up producing nothing they are literally a waste of space. We cannot afford players who have no end product. Rose has been poor since he came back from injury and newspaper fame but he offers a lot more than Young who has been out of his depth since he left Villa.
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I agree on Rose over Young. Sterling is more of a problem. I really hoped Rashford would take that place away but he went from anonymous to poor (unless he was instructed to miss). Perhaps Dier to replace Henderson, Henderson to replace Alli and Alli to replace Sterling?
 
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SpursDisciple said:
I agree on Rose over Young. Sterling is more of a problem. I really hoped Rashford would take that place away but he went from anonymous to poor (unless he was instructed to miss). Perhaps Dier to replace Henderson, Henderson to replace Alli and Alli to replace Sterling?
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Rashford makes things happen so I would stick with him. Wouldn't Dier and Henderson just get in each others way? just like Lampard & Gerrard did.
 
Spurf said:
Rashford makes things happen so I would stick with him. Wouldn't Dier and Henderson just get in each others way? just like Lampard & Gerrard did.
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I don't see Henderson as a defensive player, left alone he'd play further forward than Dier. In a midfield with Henderson, Alli and Lingard, I don't see anything defensive at all.
 
SpursDisciple said:
I don't see Henderson as a defensive player, left alone he'd play further forward than Dier. In a midfield with Henderson, Alli and Lingard, I don't see anything defensive at all.
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As much as Liverpool's central defenders are poor, there's little defensive nous in their midfield options, Henderson's very much part of that failure. He goes missing regularly, doesn't read the game very well and certainly doesn't know how to make those fouls that stop attacks before they get really dangerous.

Columbia's attack is based upon Falcao, who doesn't have the pace to get behind our central defence, so they're going to try and get at our full backs. I'd really rather that we went for 2 centre halves and put Dier and Henderson together to try and ensure we get enough ball to win the game but we won't. We'll need to rely on Lingard, Alli and Sterling's pace to hit them on the break, which may get us home.

If it does in that game, against Switzerland/Sweden it certainly won't. They'll sit back and play on the counter and 3 centre halves will definitely be one too many, then.
 
Spurf said:
I don't really want to agree with McNumpty but I have to say that IMO Dier has had a poor season and been a shadow of the player I was predicting as future England captain. He did struggle and he did giveaway possession. What has happened to Dier?
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if rumours are to be believed his head was turned last summer with the prospect of a huge money move to United.
I agree that he was poor last season...had a mistake every game which gifted the opposition glorious chances.
 
Spurf said:
I don't really want to agree with McNumpty but I have to say that IMO Dier has had a poor season and been a shadow of the player I was predicting as future England captain. He did struggle and he did giveaway possession. What has happened to Dier?
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Played too many games and hasn't had a real break, in my opinion.
Wanyama's injury meant that we had to keep playing him every week and he's put in about 170 appearances in three years.
The system that England are using doesn't suit him at all, either.

Dier's at his best now when he's used as a holding midfielder in a four man midfield and he's told to drop into the defence to let the fullbacks get forward.
It doesn't leave him isolated against pacy frontmen very often, which he struggles with at centre-half.
He can just concentrate on filling in gaps and giving possession to creative players.
 
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Spudulike said:
**** PA or not, I saw some of the best gigs of my life there. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
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Bastion of the Rave scene too.
Never cared for the bouncers with the rottweiler
though in the late 80s at the Hip-Hop gigs I went to.
 
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