The England Thread

hughy said:

Now that we've qualified, I hope none of our players play on Sunday. It would be typical that Kane, Dier or Alli would pick up a long-term injury in what is effectively a dead rubber.

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Danny1 said:

Well that was absolutely horrendous haha! What the hell has Oxlade-Chamberlain done this season (or ever) to deserve a starting spot in the England team? How can Southgate pick him, honestly he should have his job in question for doing so.

The Ox is just pure and simple a dreadful footballer who has conned everyone into thinking he is good as he was signed by Arsenal early. He cannot do anything, ever, 30 goals in his entire career to date......he is utter garbage and surely he has run out of chances now.

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Mornstar said:

I was at the game last night and by far and away the most exciting thing was seeing a few paper planes launched from the top tier landing on the pitch. One just missed southgate by a whisper.

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Gbspurs said:

Feel bad for Kane that in his first game as Captain England are going to get booed off the pitch.

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Flynn said:

And Liverpool paid £40M for him! a squad player at best with just a year left on his contract.

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montylynch said:

I know we'd never hear it but i'd love to hear what the players think about it all......

It's just so boring, so ponderous, every man and his dog knew what to expect from last night, how southgate can hold his hands up in the air like some messiah after that lot is frankly embarrassing. My nan could have got this team out the group. I feel sorry for our boys involved, however much of an honour it is to play for your country they probably can't wait to get back to spurs and get away from it.

Think i'll change my name to Montio Lynchio and support Spain......

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mpickard2087 said:

This was just a typical round of England games on repeat. Nothing changes, nothing will change until a) the players start coming through and b) Southgate and the FA get rid of their muddled thinking.

As I keep saying, I do have sympathy for whoever is in charge as their options to pick from are severely limited. In some positions, like attacking/central midfield, cerebral players who control the game and can pick the lock, established options are almost non-existent. Lallana is one (even then he isn't one of the truly elite PL players in that position), then you're a bit stuffed - Barkley has some of those qualities, Wilshere likewise, but both are not ideal/injured/in a rut. Injuries to these meagre options just compounds it. After that you've just got raw, erratic, wide players (Sterling, Ox, Rashford, Lingard), Someone who is more a finisher than creator and we know doesn't run a game (Alli), and then all the strikers.

But Southgate has got to be smarter with his selections and more realistic, consistent, and/or more logical. His comments last night about playing like Spain give away what the FA is thinking and what they are doing - basically just trying to copy what another country has done. Alright, if that's how you want to play then fair enough... But selecting three of the aforementioned raw wide players across the attacking midfield positions isn't going to get you playing fluid pass & move football. Always selecting two limited holding midfielders, no matter who the opposition, doesn't help and is just a handbrake on the team. It seems like copying for the sake of it with no thought.

If that is the way they want to play, then it would make sense to scratch around for players that at least try and play in that way. It might mean recalling someone stuck in reserve football like Wilshere, or someone like a Tom Carroll, or players even more unheralded, or plucking them from youth football like Winks, and binning more established ones. Or you look at the squad and play to its strengths - You look on paper at last nights team and, whether it's your ideal way of playing or not, you'd think it's best bet would be to sit deeper, draw them out and then counter them at pace. And indeed amongst all the sterile boring possession-ball last night the best moments came on the transition when there was space to run at and attack them, the goal then basically came from one of these moments. There's got to be more joined-up thinking and playing to the strengths of what you have available.

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mpickard2087 said:

This was just a typical round of England games on repeat. Nothing changes, nothing will change until a) the players start coming through and b) Southgate and the FA get rid of their muddled thinking.

As I keep saying, I do have sympathy for whoever is in charge as their options to pick from are severely limited. In some positions, like attacking/central midfield, cerebral players who control the game and can pick the lock, established options are almost non-existent. Lallana is one (even then he isn't one of the truly elite PL players in that position), then you're a bit stuffed - Barkley has some of those qualities, Wilshere likewise, but both are not ideal/injured/in a rut. Injuries to these meagre options just compounds it. After that you've just got raw, erratic, wide players (Sterling, Ox, Rashford, Lingard), Someone who is more a finisher than creator and we know doesn't run a game (Alli), and then all the strikers.

But Southgate has got to be smarter with his selections and more realistic, consistent, and/or more logical. His comments last night about playing like Spain give away what the FA is thinking and what they are doing - basically just trying to copy what another country has done. Alright, if that's how you want to play then fair enough... But selecting three of the aforementioned raw wide players across the attacking midfield positions isn't going to get you playing fluid pass & move football. Always selecting two limited holding midfielders, no matter who the opposition, doesn't help and is just a handbrake on the team. It seems like copying for the sake of it with no thought.

If that is the way they want to play, then it would make sense to scratch around for players that at least try and play in that way. It might mean recalling someone stuck in reserve football like Wilshere, or someone like a Tom Carroll, or players even more unheralded or plucking them from youth football like Winks, and binning more established ones. Or you look at the squad and play to its strengths - You look on paper at last nights team and, whether it's your ideal way of playing or not, you'd think it's best bet would be to sit deeper, draw them out and then counter them at pace. And indeed amongst all the sterile boring possession-ball last night the best moments came on the transition when there was space to run at and attack them, the goal then basically came from one of these moments. There's got to be more joined-up thinking and playing to the strengths of what you have available.

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Bus-Conductor said:

I didn't hear Southgate say that last night, but it's the kind of whimsical bullshit he's been trotting out on behalf of Dan Ashworth for years. Southgate is such a weak character. He was spouting this kind of before the U21's WC two years ago, but just like now with the seniors, his arse lacks the courage to cash the cheque's his mouth keeps writing. He would talk about wanting to play a passing, possession based game but the first sign of trouble it was out with the Carroll's and Will Hughes's and football, and in with the big units and fast legs, and passive aggressive crap football.

This is why I wasn't opposed to Allardyce getting the job. At least his ethos matched his rhetoric, the football might have been unimaginative, but it wouldn't have been this abject, confused, insipid mess.

It's absolutely ludicrous to pick Spain as your template when you don't have the coaching ethos or coaches, at any level, who can deliver anything close to that philosophy. They can't even deliver what French or German coaches can. Because inherent in English coaching is a massive lack of innovative thinking and a huge risk averse mentality. Every tournament we see the same thing, abject fear. And who as a manager encapsulates this more better Southgate, a man who embodies timidity and trepidation.

They would be better off getting someone like Bielsa or Sampaoli in and trying to emulate a nation like Chile, who have overcome a deficiency in personnel quality with a ferocious work ethic and blitzkrieg football. At least go out of tournaments with some pride, give the fans something to get behind.

Instead England fans are probably getting the worst brand of football of any major nation and many minor ones. If it wasn't for last minute goals by Kane, England would now be second in this group to fucking Scotland. Fucking Scotland FFS, a bunch championship/League 1 grade platers.

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spursfan77 said:

People will probably laugh, but I think this England team misses Lallana. He's the only attacker we have with any real guile or ability to play a killer pass other than Alli. Plus he's really good at defending from the front.

We should line up with 3 at the back to get those two in the team behind Kane. We'd look so much more dangerous.

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Bus-Conductor said:

One of the reasons England are ponderous is because having Dier and Henderson in a cm2 is as ponderous as when we have Dier with Dembele or Wanyama in our cm2.

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TheHoddleWaddle said:

Sterling kept dropping back too. Which made no sense to me. It was a ponderous set up. I lost track of how many times an attack was possible, but the ball was played backwards. Total lack of adventure and creativity. Desperate for a Carrick.

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spursfan77 said:

People will probably laugh, but I think this England team misses Lallana. He's the only attacker we have with any real guile or ability to play a killer pass other than Alli. Plus he's really good at defending from the front.

We should line up with 3 at the back to get those two in the team behind Kane. We'd look so much more dangerous.

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