I thought Rashford looked better but yeah he's quite a useful player. Lot better for his club but he's not the only one.
Of course he’s better for his club mate, they play and train together every single day and they don’t have to select from a pool of players, they buy the very best to fit a system. I thought him and Lingard looked likely to rip a hole in them every time we broke. Yes, end product wasn’t there, but in the first 10 mins alone the 2 could have had 2 goals. That’s EXACTLY what you need in tournament football. A threat, people looking like they’ll make it happen. Let’s let the lad play instead of tearing them down. We’ve won, he’s had an impact. Look on the BBC at the ratings our fans have given throughout the team bar Kane and I tell you what, most of these ****s don’t deserve a World Cup winning side. Almost the entire team 4-5 rated in a tricky game we won. ****ing sad ****ers. Same ****s who say BMW drivers can’t drive and people who post pictures of good times on social media are bragging. Go and make your own.
Well you're not wrong, getting behind them is the way forward and they did play well tonight. Could have been a bit of a goal fest if it wasn't for a few nerves maybe. Just felt the need to pipe up that I think Sterling is a **** haha
He may well be a **** mate, but there’s a tournament on so he's our ****. What’s without question is he is a talented and d agerous footballer. We need those. We were superb first half, we could have scored 6. We looked far better than the much hyped Belgians against stronger opposition, I’ll be surprised if we don’t get more than 4 v Panama. Kane is a beast of a player but without he creativity behind him? We were good tonight, Southgate got it spot on, and I’ve criticised him often, he nailed it. We were flat for a long period of second half but always on top, always looked likely. Only Spain and Serbia have looked as sharp to me. People are overlooking how superb that Serbia midfield looked.
The first part of the first half until just after the goal, England looked really up for it with the kind of drive, passion, and intensity that could send them far in this tournament. After that they reverted to the England of pretty much every friendly and qualifier, devoid of ideas, lacking in intensity, happy to knock the ball around at the back with the forward players not showing enough and not looking to get in to the positions to hurt the opposition, and England not looking to move forward with any urgency. Then Rashford and Loftus-Cheek came on and it looked a little more urgent, a little more like they wanted it. On that showing, we could have a brilliant world cup. But they'll have to play like they did in the first half, not the second half.
Stirling often does something tricky and useful, holds onto the ball that little bit too long, runs into a dead end, then ends up on his arse. If hed just let go of the ball sooner. I must jinx him cos I've never seen him play well. First 20 minutes I felt sorry for Tunisia. I thought they were gonna get whopped.
....and therein lies the problem. Sterling is ball greedy. Keeps the ball far too long and gets robbed every time.
I would use him as a sub, bring him on when the opposition is lethargic and he is full of energy, when he'd be able to get away with his style of play more often.
It was a very good performance - obviously the 1st half was much better than the 2nd half. I agree with Southgate doing really well, and some players really manned up - Maguire, Lingard, Trippier, Ali (in the 1st half) and Henderson I thought the humid conditions led to us slowing things down a bit in the 2nd half (Keown said in commentary that the conditions there were the warmest and most humid that he'd encountered so far) Also I thought Sterling was poor. There is a good player in there, but he didn't show it last night. Also, a better side will target Walker at Centre Half, but that is (hopefully) a concern for later in the tournament. Its a squad game
I thought that Sterling was excellent for the first half hour but faded badly. I thought Alli was poor throughout and that Henderson, although solid initially, was also poor for most of the game. Those two are the players who should be setting the tempo for England and controlling the game but Alli faded in and out of the game and Henderson failed to move the ball forward quickly enough (although there wasn't much happening ahead of him to move forward to) or, in fact, at all. Alli should have been taken off sooner than he was.
I agree the Ali should have been subbed earlier, but given that Delph was the sub to be used, I was happy when Ali stayed on. I thought he was playing very well until he got the knock though - getting in to pockets and being really unpredictable. I disagree about Henderson. I thought he had a good solid game as an anchor, and opened the pitch up whenever he could
We need to keep switching the front guys around, as we have lots of talent up top. Despite a promising start we have to show far more clinical finishing. Kane is the only want I’d want on the pitch all game, and not just coz he’s captain. Lingard, Rashford, Sterling, Alli, Loftus-Cheek should be fighting for places , and I’d be drilling all of them hard to stop fanning around in the box, take your chances - not an extra touch - and know how to play better with each other. The Radhford dummy for Lingard second half was ****ing ridiculous.
I think Lingard called it cos Rashford seemed to react is if he did, in frustration and disgust at him.
I think Tunisia should have been given some credit cos they allowed us to play well in the first half, they frustrated us more in the second.
Thats the word and you have it in spades with both Rashford and RLC, two game changers at this level, Lingard and Sterling are quick, rash and profligate, still think Southgate will go with the same line up next game though, just hope that if he does he uses his subs much quicker, those two should have went much earlier along with Alli, this is a pressure tounament and every game is vital with little time for dithering. Overall happy with the result but we will struggle to get any further than the last 16 on this showing.
Certainly looked that way. Awful call from Lingard who had 3 players on him. Rashford should have just smashed it first time
