Defenders ****. Midfield bang average and after a good fast half, Kane misses a pen, Sterling gets greedy and misses sitters whilst Sancho went missing. More worrying is that Southgate got absolutely outclassed on the touchline.
Didn't watch the game but also didn't blink when I saw the scoreline. We are a team with enough attacking prowess to flat-track bully most opposition, but then when we progress beyond the group stage and meet any nation with a semi-competent defence and a midfield able to dictate the tempo of a game (e.g. Croatia), the wheels come off. Why Southgate has us playing like City, passing out from the back and trying all sorts of piddling around in the middle of the park is bizarre. The squad as it is cries out to be played as a counter-attacking side keeping plenty of men behind the ball to bolster our abysmal defense and calling on the sheer pace of the likes of Sterling, Rashford and Sancho to combine with "quarter chance it's in" Kane and that's a set up which will both suit our personnel and frustrate the stronger teams out there. Leicester circa 2015/16 should be our template for the Euros.
I enjoyed watching it and I'm sure my Kosovan friends enjoyed it tour defence was bloody awful though! It was a case of....would our attack score more than our defence let in?!
I some what agree with you but also think it’s brave of Southgate to demand this style of play because then if England do unearth a world class centre back then the groundwork is already there. England remind me of Liverpool under Rodgers, just need a decent centre back (English Van Dijk) and a bit of tweaking like Klopp has done and the good days could easily arrive.
It's more than that though King, we are clearly deficient at CB and CM. People were raving about Maguire after the WC but he certainly isn't 'world class', at least not yet (he is still relatively young for a CB). Certainly nowhere near the caliber of CBs we've seen down the years wearing the three lions. And the less said about the likes of Keane and Stones, the better, Bang average players for club and country. There is a hope that Joe Gomez will be that Rio-type cultured defender with pace and confidence on the ball but he is so, so young and currently isn't getting a huge amount of game time at Anfield. And then there's CM. Plenty of players who will do the 'donkey' work (Henderson, Winks, Rice, Dier), very few who have the technical ability to dictate the tempo of the game (hence the public urgency to fast-track the likes of Maddison and Mount into major tournaments, a risk which could backfire and destroy their confidence). So the only area(s) we excel in are: pace and work rate. Both key ingredients for counter-attacking football.
I'm predjudiced. I just love cats. I had seven at one time..in the house.All sadly gone now through old age ,cancer,etc. If I was young again,my house would be full of them! A home without a cat is just a house.
Dele Alli has been dropped from the England squad. Quite right and a long overdue decision. How Danny Rose is there given Aaron Cresswell's start to the season is baffling tbh. England squad: Goalkeepers: Tom Heaton (Aston Villa), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley) Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Leicester), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Michael Keane (Everton), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Danny Rose (Tottenham), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid) Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Everton), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), James Maddison (Leicester), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Declan Rice (West Ham), Harry Winks (Tottenham) Forwards: Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Callum Wilson (Bournemouth)
