Luck doesn't have anything to with Tunisia, Panama and Sweden dropping back because they HAVE to because it's their best way to succeed. If Tunisia attacked us we'd have picked them apart and the same goes for Panama and Sweden.
My main worry for England against Croatia is Jordan Henderson . People are saying he is having a good tournament but to me he hides from the ball which results in Kane and Sterling dropping to deep to receive the ball and then England have no attack . Yes Henderson can play a good ball over the top and has decent vision . But for the most part he runs around chasing shadows . He is suppose to be a defensive midfielder but I never see him break up play or dispossess someone when they are about to score . I really think he could be badly exposed against Croatia . I can see the Croatia manager specifically targeting him as a weakness.
With our system we do well against sides who employ 4-2-3-1 and that's what Croatia does. Loveren and Vida aren't great defenders. I dunno, but we could have a field day against them. Kinda excited.
I don't think this team likes to play teams who sit back. On the contrary, this team's real strength is pace, when Sterling and Lingard can ran to the defenders, and we rarely saw this in this tournament. Hopefully Croatia will be not that defensive.
If you press croatia . I feel that will give modric and rakitic room to get there passing game going . If you give those guys space they will tear you apart . I think you need to keep things tight and hit croatia on the break .
Just reading about how people avoided certain 'issues', (shall we say), when the match was one... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44752923 It reminds me of when I was watching England lose to Romania in the 1998 world cup with the family... http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1990-00/1997-98/M0748Rom1998.html When Dan Petrescu managed to out-muscle his Chelsea team-mate, Graeme le Saux, and stick the ball in the net I banged my hand on the floor in front of me and shouted 'BOLLOCKS!!!' which didn't go down particularly well with the people assembled. The argument I used later in my defence, (that I'd had 12 pints), apparently wasn't sufficient excuse for my actions. Now, that may have been just them being picky but, to be fair, it might also have been that I was at the mother-in-law's funeral at the time. Of course, that was when I was young and stupid, (well... 43, anyway), as opposed to now, old and stupid.
Remember the Sven days? we got tired after 45 minutes because of the complete lack of any physical prep.. and never practised pens. the squad was talented but had joke preparation .
keeping the ball was also an issue, Lampard - Gerrard - Beckham all played very direct and struggled to string 3 passes together in the opposite half, which made the team spend a lot of energy to win back possession. Too bad Carrick was barely used and Scholes was isolated on the left wing.
Scroll up to my last post. Yes, we understand your theory. You've said it like 6 times now. So which one is it? Man United or Chelsea?
I think Henserson is a terrible player and has been having a terrible tournament . I do not understand why Henderson has been getting so much praise . Do people not understand the basic function of a midfielder The job of a midfielder is too link the play from the defenders to the strikers . Henderson does not do this and it results in kane and sterling etc having to drop deep to receive the ball . Therefore England have no attack , hence why they can't create goals from open play and nearly all their goals have come from set pieces. Am I the only here who understands the basic role of a central midfielder . It seems so with all the praise that Henderson is getting from you all.
Which do you believe is more likely, that you alone - quite apart from the bulk of fans, pundits and analysts - can see that Henderson is not performing well enough his function in the team, or that you simple don't fully understand what that function is?
He used to, which was highly annoying, but he did improve recently. His game vs Sweden was by far the best i've seen from him in an england shirt (74% pass completion still not good enough for the position though, IMO).
I understand the basic function of a midfielder which is to get the ball to the attacker players which Henderson isn't doing
The hatred on this site is bloody hilarious! :-D, and all of it written in.......English! Oh the irony! Unlikely I know but it would be so funny if we actually won the World Cup. You could almost imagine Argentinian/Columbian heads exploding! Anyhow, I think whatever happens next at least Southgate has ironed out the 'mess' English football had found itself in, with the youth teams being world champions and now the senior team back where it (lets face it) should be (competitive at least) the future looks bright, the 'meltdown' across certain other parts of the world makes it all so much sweeter.
The thing is if we lose against Croatia I'll be disappointed but not gutted. Whatever happens now I'll look back on this as a great World Cup and a tournament that has put the pride and enjoyment back into supporting England. No doubt loads of these anti-England people will be crowing and trying to rub it in but it won't matter. We have got back to somewhere I feared we might never reach again. In a way football has already come home. The England team is back at the centre of our national life and people are smiling, joking and laughing. It has been great. Everyone together. If we win on Wednesday then WOW!
I don't mind if you win the world cup if it means you finally put to bed that three lions on a shirt song?. You have been singing that damn song since 96 and its getting old man.
Yep, I agree with all this as the team has already surpassed my expectations even if we have had an easier ride which to be frank I don’t really care about. There has been plenty of teams that have had easier rides than others in previous World Cups, is: Germany 2002, it just goes like that sometimes. At least us making the Semi finals will be remembered for all the young kids around the Country that will leave a feel good feeling like it did for me after 1990 World Cup and that’s probably a reason that I’m a massive England fan.
Do you a deal. We'll retire our boring old songs around the same time you guys stop singing Fields of Athenry, The Irish Rover, Whisky in the Jar, and oh God I'm losing the will to live just typing these up.
Post world cup I want to see the likes of Sessegnon and Grealish in the side. I bet Grealish would do well in this cup had he been selected. Would have been a nice option instead of wasting a pick on someone like Jones .
I wish they would too . I am no lover of any of those songs especially the fields of athenry which should not be sung in any sports stadium . I cringe every time I hear it in sung by my country men at sports stadiums . I mean do any of the idiots who sing it every stop to think what they are actually singing . Its a very sad song .It should never be sung at international matches ever.
It would be interesting to see the distance covered by some of the 2006 squad and compare it with, say, Lingard. I wouldn't mind betting it's a LOT less.