The England Thread

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Biggest take away for me - Kane did not look good playing with Foden and Sterling...

 

[Marty]

Doesn't the England group play against the Winners or Runners Up of the France/Germany/Portugal group?

Runner up in the RO16 if we top the group.
Winner of that group in the QF if we finish second.

I'd rather take second in the RO16 as I expect France to top it.

 

[DenverSpur]

It's 28 degrees on the pitch and the players have just finished a grueling season, not sure what you're expecting...

Why not more use of the substitutes then?

 

[NickHSpurs]

I can’t help but feel Southgate’s selections/subs will end up costing us.

Trippier over Shaw/Chilwell is utter madness and blunted any attacks down the left hand side and made that side of the pitch very predictable.

Phillips and Rice were excellent though to be fair and I’m pleased they didn’t both sit and protect the back four.

It was a very promising start to the game and although Sterling took his goal well, he proved what we all already knew, that he needs 3/4 chances before he takes one and that will be costly in the later stages. Grealish should be ahead of him all day long.

Just have to hope we build on the win and we get progressively better if we progress and play better teams.

 

[DenverSpur]

Watched theEngland game late. A win’s a win but that was poor. Gareth Southgate follows a long line of England managers who mistrust flair players. Grealish should be a nailed on starter but for him to not even get any minutes when apart from the first 20 minutes the England front 4, with the exception of Sterling, were ineffectual says everything you need to know about what kind of manager Southgate is. Grealish should have come on for Mount just after we scored to ensure we kept Croatia on the back foot. Instead we just dropped deeper and tried to defend our 1-0 lead. With our main strength being our attacking firepower a negative mindset like this from Southgate will ensure that England will not progress as far in the tournament as we’d all like. Mount has had a good season but today he was invisible and I’m baffled he stayed on for the whole game.

Given the season everyone’s had and with 5 substitutions permitted it was disgraceful Southgate did not use his substitutes better to rotate and rest players.

Watching England at times is like watching Tottenham! Time and time again they fail to live up to their potential a lot of times because of strange negative decisions by the manager.

Everyone’s entitled to their opinions but I’d be interested to know what exactly you disagreed with?

 

[sausage]

Biggest take away for me - Kane did not look good playing with Foden and Sterling...

Does anyone look good playing with Sterling? He's a bit of a clumsy ball hog.

It confirmed to me that Kane may be in for a rude awakening elsewhere - if no one is making him the pivot of the attack, he gets drowned out by dropping back.

 

[Shadydan]

Why not more use of the substitutes then?

Why would you automatically assume that it would make the game more enjoyable?

 

[riggi]

 

[tooey]

I haven't seen much of Phillips but he was real good today. And to think we also have Bellingham.

A bit like our spurs team in our pomp not winning anything, if this england team doesn't win anything, it would be so so poor.

Sort of agree but we've had much better sides in the past and won naff all. How you don't even get to a final with Rio, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and prime Rooney is mind blowing. Any one of those would waltz into this side.

 

[Shadydan]

I can’t help but feel Southgate’s selections/subs will end up costing us.

Trippier over Shaw/Chilwell is utter madness and blunted any attacks down the left hand side and made that side of the pitch very predictable.

Phillips and Rice were excellent though to be fair and I’m pleased they didn’t both sit and protect the back four.

It was a very promising start to the game and although Sterling took his goal well, he proved what we all already knew, that he needs 3/4 chances before he takes one and that will be costly in the later stages. Grealish should be ahead of him all day long.

Just have to hope we build on the win and we get progressively better if we progress and play better teams.

Think he got everything right today bar Trippier at LB, didn't understand that one - maybe he went with more defensive solidarity and experience, I dunno - it's not like it impacted us.

Can see why he picked Sterling and it was justified, not just for his goal but his direct running causing absolute havoc, people are gonna keep asking for Grealish to play but against teams that leave space in behind Sterling is a huge asset. I actually reckon Grealish will start against Scotland and Czech Rep cause I don't think they're likely to be as open as Croatia.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Sort of agree but we've had much better sides in the past and won naff all. How you don't even get to a final with Rio, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and prime Rooney is mind blowing. Any one of those would waltz into this side.

The main problem with that side was the years of insistence on playing 4-4-2 with Lampard and Gerrard trying to perform similar roles. It's not about individuals. It never is. That wasn't an effective team and successive managers were unwilling to bench a superior player in favour of one who was not such a star, but would have created a better team (no specific candidate - there were plenty).

This lot show signs of becoming a team.

 

[Saoirse]

Sort of agree but we've had much better sides in the past and won naff all. How you don't even get to a final with Rio, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and prime Rooney is mind blowing. Any one of those would waltz into this side.

Maybe a hot take but I genuinely wouldn't have Beckham (doesn't really fit any modern/good system) or Rooney (inferior version of Kane).

 

[sausage]

Maybe a hot take but I genuinely wouldn't have Beckham (doesn't really fit any modern/good system) or Rooney (inferior version of Kane).

Beckham is, imo, one of the more under-appreciated players of that era. He was well thought of, don't get me wrong, but I think people generally think of him as less of a player than he really was (mainly due to the Simeone incident, and his sarong, and the lifestyle). Such an incredible passer of the ball.

One of those where I wish I'd taken time to watch him play live more.

 

[mpickard2087]

Sort of agree but we've had much better sides in the past and won naff all. How you don't even get to a final with Rio, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and prime Rooney is mind blowing. Any one of those would waltz into this side.

The old adage of the 11 best individuals never making the best team comes to mind. Yet they doubled down and kept trying this approach every tournament. Plus most of those involved now freely admit they couldn't and wouldn't put club loyalties to one side and try to function as a collective.

I suspect if we'd gone with, say, a secure and selfless base of Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves in midfield and selected two or three of the golden boys, rather than as always tried to shoehorn in half a dozen of them with their egos and expectations to be the main man, that we may have done a lot more. But no, we just repeated the same failed script ad nauseum.

At least now Southgate has moulded this lot into a proper team with a decent spirit and bond and togetherness. No club rivalries getting in the way, very few "stars", players who seem to want to play for the shirt... Actual foundations to build from.

 

[bubble07]

What was the reason why Southgate had Johnstone on the bench instead of Sancho or Chilwell?

 

[Typical Spurs]

You know what i found so odd? The fact Kane got subbed. Not because I didn't think he deserved to. I thought I was poor all game. But I've got so used to him never ever getting subbed for us, that to see it happen shocked me a bit.

 

[DenverSpur]

Why would you automatically assume that it would make the game more enjoyable?

I’m not assuming it would make the game more enjoyable I just feel on a hot day you should make full use of the 5 substitutes in order to give some players some rest and others some game time. I always feel that in tournaments you should always make use of all your substitutes so that your “first choice” players don’t get burned out and the others are made to feel like they can contribute. This is especially true after the grueling season they’ve all had.

 

[sim simma]

There's not a single player for this team that I dislike. This crop of players seem like proper decent chaps. Get it gelling it's pure havoc.

 

[dickieven]

Rice is massively overrated. Phillips v good.

Interested in your reasons for the Rice view. Obviously everyone has an opinion. Is it because he plays for West Ham?

I think Rice is very good. He does the job that will often not attract headlines. He is better than Henderson in that role, better than any other English player at the moment. Today, in 28 degrees heat only two players ran over 10km. Rice & Phillips.

That midfield pairing worked perfectly I think. Appreciate they will come up against much better teams and players but for balance with Rice staying deep and Phillips making the runs forward, I think we need to stick with these two.

 

[Saoirse]

What was the reason why Southgate had Johnstone on the bench instead of Sancho or Chilwell?

You have to have two keepers