I didn't watch it, but I had an idea what was going to happen from the lineup. 3 centre-halves and a right-back at left-back, plus no creative midfielders at all. This is in an irrelevant match against the mighty Malta. I'm not sure that conservative and cautious quite covers it.
Big result in today's intergalactic match, with Explosions picking up a comfortable 1-0 win over SpaceX A result that Explosions seems to achieve with alarming regularity
It was a penalty but I think disallowing the goal was reasonable. Kane was very close to the ball and made a distinct movement as it went past him.
It was awful, you made the right decision by not watching it. Southgate makes Conte look Southgate is so far off any resemblance to an elite football manager that I have no interest in any decisions during the game. I would prefer Malta to have won if it had hastened the manager's departure. This is MALTA we have struggled against and played a defensive game. FFS
You and I have had our back and forths about Southgate but I totally agree here. These games are basically friendlies with qualification secured and I don’t see what he’s learning about the group by making these selections.
Always a pleasure to debate with you. Southgate's defensive mind spoils England's play and chances IMO. We have had a similar situation at Spurs. Our main strength for a long time has been in attack and yet we have majored on defence. Ange has already shown why playing to your strengths improves performance and brings results. Southgate is negating the fantastic English attacking strengths with negative football. We have seen the mindset across several tournaments, score a goal and then sit back and defend it. Very frustrating.
Likewise. I just don’t get the approach. You’re at home against a nation ranked about 170th in the world with nothing at stake. Why not try and entertain a bit? Ange would be the first to reinforce the winning imperative but he’ll try and do it the right way at least. Like we’ve gone over before I understand Southgate’s approach more in high-stakes tournament or qualification games (even if it is becoming stale in terms of how watchable it is) but I’d have been livid if I’d paid to to go that Malta game and been served up that.
It'll be interesting to see what stupid nonsense Southgate pulls at the back tonight. Trippier's pulled out for personal reasons, so some wonky bullshit is on the way in.
I don't think England sat back on the 1-0 nil lead v Malta I just think they played badly, Foden was quite bright but no one else was anywhere near the levels needed.
Goal disallowed for Grealish. Why he didn't know he was offside is amazing - no brains. Also why it took 3 minutes to say it was offside is frustrating.
