Imo we need to stop being nice and start a witch hunt here.
it's all Harry Kane fault.
should have had a hat trick last night OR should have passed in excellent positions to make sure of 2nd and 3rd goal in that first half.
he was dog ****e and should be the scapegoat.
Whilst I think it was a great achievement that we made it to the semis, and it’s great experience for the young squad, we shouldn’t get too excited.
1) it was the easiest route ever. We didn’t play anyone who should pose a threat apart from Belgium and a decent Croatia team, both of which we lost. Colombia were missing their main man. Sweden are Sweden.
2) All performances, bar Panama, were a bit underwhelming. We didn’t play good football. We mainly scored from set pieces - we were playing like United. We tried to play it out from the back which is easy when not pressed but when a team actually puts pressure on us, we launched it.
3) Kane - I think Kane stifled us. Yes, he scored 5/6 goals but I thought he had a poor tournament all around. 3 goals against Panama and 2 goals against Tunisia. Tap ins or penalties. His contribution in open play was minimal and is clearly a selfish player, who you need to build your attack around. If not, he’s simply not in the game.
4) Midfield - yet again, when the going gets tough, we had no midfield. It was like watching Liverpool. I’ve seen the love in for Henderson over the last two weeks but it’s not different to the **** he serves for us week in week out. Ping a few diagonals and people say he plays positively and plays it forward all the time. We need someone to get on the ball, dictate the tempo and control the game. Once modric and rakitic found their feet, they ran the show and our midfield hid.
5) Southgate - he’s not tactical genius. As per part 2, our tactics were simply long ball, set pieces, penalties. We rarely played through teams. Again, we weren’t really challenged until Croatia and when the pressure was on, he didn’t know what to do.
