You know what England could have used in the second half? Someone like Madders. He may have been poor after the injury, but Foden was poor, Alexander Arnold in the midfield? Get bent Gareth.
It's not uncommon for teams that go far in tournaments to look suspect in the groups. And, of course, they got the result, so I don't want to come off melodramatic, or anything. But England are shite.
I never judge after the first match of a tournament. I always wait until the second match to get an idea of form. On that particular performance it seems to be same old England, not being able to hold good form for a full 90 minutes and hanging on at the end. Lets see how the next match goes. Both matches were low scoring, 1-1 and 0-1 so let's see if the group continues like that. Hopefully we'll do a Germany but I doubt it. Has Kane lost some pace, seems like it to me?
Let's experiment and drop Kane. We scored more when he was injured and we scored more after he left and I feel the same would happen with England, the others would step up.
Southgate has lost the plot and England once again look to believe they should win tournaments just by showing up. It’s a shame, after three tournaments where the players showed up like they had something to prove it’s back to service as normal.
In England's defence for me we have to look at the other results in the group and in our group all of the results have been mediocre haven't they which often happens in these tournaments? It seems that we're following the trend of the group. We've had a 1-0 and a 1-1. Slovenia and Serbia had a 1-1, Denmark had a bore draw in the first match. Our result was in keeping with the others. Last time we drew our second match in the Euros we reached the final and if you look at England's recent scores against Denmark then everything's normal. We still top the group even though we're playing badly. Why didn't Denmark press home their advantage? We will get through and let's see what we do after the group stage, things just might improve.
England don't have a functioning midfield. TAA isn't the answer. Gallagher needs to start as he's the closest to Henderson and Phillips in the squad.
A pundit said he's no good where he is, can't remember who he recommended though but he said TAA should be played elsewhere. I'll see if I can find the thread as I'd be interested in the thoughts of the posters on here.
What do you do with midfield? Could Alexander-Arnold play left-back? It seems to be baffling Southgate, who said after the game that this was not part of the plan. "No,” he said, when asked whether he tells the team to drop deep after scoring. “I think we've played teams that are quite fluid in back threes and it's not easy to get pressure on them, but we've got to do that better than we have in these last two matches. Not keeping the ball has been another problem." When it comes to England keeping the ball, Southgate’s selection will be questioned. Trent Alexander-Arnold struggled to impact play against Serbia, and was utterly swamped here. Absent were the quarterback passes Southgate would have hoped for - instead he was overwhelmed and eventually withdrawn after 54 minutes for Conor Gallagher. If the Trent project has failed, Southgate must assess options – Gallagher to start against Slovenia? Bellingham to drop deep? Time to trust Kobbie Mainoo or Adam Wharton? Here it is and yes jumhead, you're right. What about TAA at left back as is suggested?
Not to mention the complete lack of a left side. Really unbalanced team, though hugely talented, I feel we will lose to the first top team we play. What you ascribe to arrogance Barney Ronay calls fear. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...rrified-and-they-have-no-functioning-midfield
That article was so good. It’s mad so many pundits and punters can see the obvious misjudgments of Southgate, but he can’t. I’ve been a fan of Gareth since he took over. He wasn’t the most tactically brilliant, but he was able to mostly put together the right players to play well. I sincerely don’t know what’s happened in the last 3 months (and probably longer).
Remember the casual ease with which you said, 'drop Kane'? You can just apply that to Alexander-Arnold, you know, and you'll save yourself a bit of time and effort.
I have the time and I don't mind the effort. I know a little more about forwards than I do about midfield and defence and this pundit who, undoubtedly knows more than I do, hasn't suggested dropping TAA has he? So it seems keeping him in the team is a good idea only in a different position. Now, both Shearer and Linneker criticised Kane's effort and presence in the two matches thus far and, whilst they haven't gone as far as suggesting he should be dropped..................I have. Ok. Now, if I shouldn't have a casual attitude towards dropping Kane tell me exactly what sort of attitude I should have if you would. I said we wouldn't miss him at Spurs and we didn't, the others stepped up and so will The England forwards without him in my casual opinion. He isn't undroppable, he isn't a god. Now pooks, if you look at my first post in this thread after the first match you will notice that I suggested the second matches would follow a similar pattern as the first, low scoring etc and lo and behold they did. I'm not looking for a medal but it proves I know a little about this subject called football doesn't it?
On a lighter note, I'm hearing Chelsea have put in a 100m bid for the tournament top scorer, Own Goal.
Interesting the other co-favorite, France have also underwhelmed having scored a single goal across 180 minutes and an own goal at that. The difference being France never stopped playing football.
Can't win without Mbappe can they? Better England gets the bad football out of the way early on. Surely this can only get better.
Bah. Donnaruma starts again for Italy vs Croatia, was hoping for a Vicario sighting. Having lost to Spain they need at least a draw to be safe so I guess I can understand it. I missed noting that Hojbjerg got the MotM award for the England-Denmark game. Though this is akin to getting an award for being the least itchy STD.