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The England Thread

fridgemagnet

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2009
2,410
2,864
Ridiculous opinion to be honest, theres a game to be won and we're talking about sentiment. If anything its poor from Sancho to put doubt in Kane's head by asking for it. If kane has been designated penalty taker then it's his responsibility. If he chooses to give Sancho the penalty at 4-0/5-0 thats up to him but Sancho shouldnt be asking.

Did he ask? I missed the whole thing as I was yelling down the throne, although I did think Kane was odds on to not score one as the run he was on it was due. I'm just glad it was in that shirt and not ours.

How does Kane remain so calm at Sancho/Rashford many others tonight when he made acres of space for an easy cutback and they either lashed it at goal or tried to put an impossible ball in?

Kane put some great passes around too.
 

theShiznit

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2004
17,800
23,813
Maguire is a bugdens Van Dijk. (although Van Dijk may struggle next to Keane)

And if Man Utd want Declan Rice for £90+m in Jan then Wet Sham should bite their arms off... Just another average player classed as a CDM due to lack of mobility.
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,261
21,760
Entertaining game but England, front 3 aside, were poor and very, very poor in areas.

The entire defence and midfield need upgrading based on that! Keane and Maguire look like a couple of donkeys, with king donkey Rice sitting in front of them and TAA was poor going backwards and surprisingly average going forward.
Rice is just such an example of England and how we get it wrong. Every top side plays with a quality defensive midfielder...thesedays quality defensive midfielders are mobile, good on the ball and can pass the ball forwards with purpose when needed. We select a lumbering ( relative ) giant, average technique and only really ever looks to go sideways or backwards.

Michael Keane is quite possibly one of the worst players I’ve seen represent England in years. He has no obvious quality to suggest he should be good enough to play for England, even if it’s in this era of weak options in that position. I’ve never seen him have even half a decent game!

Still, hopefully it’s more of a case of them switching off given the opposition.

Fair play Kosovo, they went for it.

Considering centre back was a strong area for England for years we have a real dearth of quality there at the moment.
 

Cochise

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2019
4,763
12,519
TAA still looks rough around the edges defensively, it's just at Liverpool he doesn't have to defend as often as he did tonight. Chilwell was piss poor for most of the first hour. If he played for Spurs, there would be a bloodbath, the same goes for Barkley too. If Dele had played as poorly as he had tonight, there would be a witch hunt on.

I thought Rice carried out his defensive duties well, but yeah he was poor with the ball at his feet. Henderson did an alright job tonight too and I'm normally one of his detractors. Winks or Dele would probably be in competition for his spot as I don't think we could play a 3 containing two from Barkley, Mount or Maddison. On that note, Maddison must be really really bad in training for Southgate not to give him a chance in either of these games.

Mount looked really good in both cameos, but Maddison has surely earned at least 10 minutes for what he has been doing at club level.

I do think Mount could actually play like Bernado Silva as one of a front 3. He's got a good turn of pace, tidy feet and knows how to get into the box. Sancho and Sterling are probably my first choices on the sides, but I reckon Mount would be a better pick than Rashford against teams that won't venture out of their own half.
 

DogsOfWar

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2005
2,293
3,603
I've never understood why we perservere with players who are fundamentally not good enough.
Rice, Henderson, and Barkley are a 7th/8th place Premiership trio.
Sterling, Kane, and Sancho are a 1st place Premiership trio.

We need to accelerate the development of Maddison, Winks, Foden, Mount etc to match the front three in terms of quality.
Or get Alli playing just behind Kane.

Even the justification for playing Rice and Henderson (defensive strength) is flawed as we showed very little of it.
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
TAA still looks rough around the edges defensively, it's just at Liverpool he doesn't have to defend as often as he did tonight. Chilwell was piss poor for most of the first hour. If he played for Spurs, there would be a bloodbath, the same goes for Barkley too. If Dele had played as poorly as he had tonight, there would be a witch hunt on.

I thought Rice carried out his defensive duties well, but yeah he was poor with the ball at his feet. Henderson did an alright job tonight too and I'm normally one of his detractors. Winks or Dele would probably be in competition for his spot as I don't think we could play a 3 containing two from Barkley, Mount or Maddison. On that note, Maddison must be really really bad in training for Southgate not to give him a chance in either of these games.

Mount looked really good in both cameos, but Maddison has surely earned at least 10 minutes for what he has been doing at club level.

I do think Mount could actually play like Bernado Silva as one of a front 3. He's got a good turn of pace, tidy feet and knows how to get into the box. Sancho and Sterling are probably my first choices on the sides, but I reckon Mount would be a better pick than Rashford against teams that won't venture out of their own half.
Rice is a real talent. But he made more than a few mistakes today. I think ideally you give him a few more years before pushing him into the main team, but England have no DMs, particularly when Dier is unfit and not playing, and the CBs are not strong enough for a Winks or Henderson there.
 

ohtottenham!

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2013
7,497
13,029
Just a few observations apart from the general team set up, questions about the defensive frailties, lack of MF creativity and the positives re our attack; I thought Barkley initiated the lead up to that early Kosovo goal with his poor, short pass to Keane, who obviously didn’t deal with the situation well.

Some of Barkley’s short-range passing throughout the game was dodgy and put us under unnecessary pressure. He has his strengths, but has some real costly lapses in concentration.

Sancho was impressive with his pace, movement and intelligence. Having Sterling, Sancho and Kane as a front three will unnerve any defence, but Sancho made a couple of wrong choices imo by not feeding Kane when Kane was in an attacking position and had space.

Frustrating to see, but it’s just part of Sancho’s development as a young player with huge potential. That’ll improve as he develops, and the more he plays with Kane and Sterling, and understands the strengths of each player, he’ll see and make the right choices.

TAA looked really leggy and weary in the 2nd half, often out of defensive position, not tracking attacking runs.

Finally, think Harry Kane had a great game. Loved that he scored the goal with his left, and just the shift with his movement to score it was good to see. Took up some great positions with intelligent movement. When he got into deeper positions, his incisive passing was the best of any player on the park. Stay fit and injury-free, Harry!
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
Why is VAR not in use? If you're going to hail it as the new standard of officiating you shouldn't be chopping and changing the fixtures/comps you use it no?

At a guess I'd say it's because the smaller footballing countries don't have the system in place yet. It would be even worse if you had it in some qualifying games and not others.

I've never understood why we perservere with players who are fundamentally not good enough.
Rice, Henderson, and Barkley are a 7th/8th place Premiership trio.
Sterling, Kane, and Sancho are a 1st place Premiership trio.

We need to accelerate the development of Maddison, Winks, Foden, Mount etc to match the front three in terms of quality.
Or get Alli playing just behind Kane.

Even the justification for playing Rice and Henderson (defensive strength) is flawed as we showed very little of it.

Henderson is the captain of the team who finished second in the Premier league and who lifted the Champions League. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's proven at the highest level so I don't think he's the issue. Rice I'm really not convinced by at this level yet and Barkley is too inconsistent. I was really surprised that Winks didn't get a chance last night. We needed to calm the game down in the second half - I'm not sure why he wasn't given a chance.

I think a few players blew their chance last night. I think Walker, Dele, Stones and Dier walk back into that team if they're fit next month. Sancho took his chance though - he deserves to start the next game.
 

Riandor

COB Founder
May 26, 2004
9,414
11,621
Whilst I think Sancho is a real talent, he was actually pretty average for most of the game.
He looks like he should play for Spurs, with that run forwards, come up against opponent, pass backwards mentality, and his two goals aside (which were handed on a plate), I expected more from him against this type of opponent.

Nothing particularly wrong per say and its very early in his international career, but he should be daring to pass players more, like he does for Dortmund. I am sure some of that is nerves, some of that is managerial instruction perhaps, but still.

Sterling was unbelieveable for one half and then a bit average the second half, but then England as a whole were piss poor 2nd half due to the utter dross served up all game by their defensive players. All 3 goals were abominations and must be stamped upon by Southgae beforte the serious stuff starts.

Kane was so so, good passing, good finish, poor penalty, good movement, bit lacklustre in running back. Too few times the AM's lookd to play him in.
 

McFlash

In the corner, eating crayons.
Oct 19, 2005
12,740
45,363
Chilwell was my biggest disappointment of the night, I think.
I expected more of an attacking threat from him but everytime he burst forward, and I use the term "burst" loosely, he'd just stop and pass backwards.
I can only really remember one cross from him, and it was terrible.
 

Riandor

COB Founder
May 26, 2004
9,414
11,621
Chilwell was my biggest disappointment of the night, I think.
I expected more of an attacking threat from him but everytime he burst forward, and I use the term "burst" loosely, he'd just stop and pass backwards.
I can only really remember one cross from him, and it was terrible.
True, though I recall a few times he made the runs and Sterling or Barkley rarely looked to use the runs of the wing backs. Hard to criticise Sterling when he can single handedly destroy teams, but he can be selfish.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,827
...

Sancho was impressive with his pace, movement and intelligence. Having Sterling, Sancho and Kane as a front three will unnerve any defence, but Sancho made a couple of wrong choices imo by not feeding Kane when Kane was in an attacking position and had space...
Just to pull this bit out, but the former is proven not to be so by the latter. He's young and has promise but he has a long way to go.
 

HildoSpur

Likes Erik Lamela, deal with it.
Oct 1, 2005
8,958
28,086
Chilwell was my biggest disappointment of the night, I think.
I expected more of an attacking threat from him but everytime he burst forward, and I use the term "burst" loosely, he'd just stop and pass backwards.
I can only really remember one cross from him, and it was terrible.

Incredibly average player.
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,261
21,760
Winks is better than the three midfielders playing, he suits international and champions league football so well.

Will be good to see how Loftus-Cheeks does when he is fit too.

I hope Southgate won’t just stubbornly stick with Henderson when others available as he is so average.
 

McFlash

In the corner, eating crayons.
Oct 19, 2005
12,740
45,363
Incredibly average player.
Yeah, I'll admit to never really paying much attention to him really, but always thought he was supposedly pretty decent. Cant judge too much on what was a pretty disjointed team performance but for all his faults, I'd much rather Rose in that position.
 
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