FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

The 1990 & 1996 teams were not that good.
None of the above teams did anything remarkable, but they reached the semi's so people look back on them with nostalgia and Southgate's teams have utterly eclipsed them.

I would argue the 1998 and 2004 teams were better sides.

 

O'Reilly is a complete defensive liability on that left side and a few of us on here have been warning about this for months now.

If Reece James gets injured and O'Reilly is not trusted at LB in the knockouts, then England are going to be completely screwed in the fullbacks positions.

 

That was the opening game

 

I'd start spence at left-back against Ghana. He's far more dependable defensively. Though we could probably get away with o'reilly against Ghana and Panama. Against the big teams spence needs to start. This is where not bringing in another fullback could bite us on the ass

 

Don’t think he’ll play there in the group stages as I think he’ll want to rest James in one of the games. Probably Panama.

Would be astonished if Spence isn’t our left back for a knockout game against a top team.

 

completely agree

 

Spence looks like a real find for England. But I don't understand why we didn't bring an out and out leftback as cover for O'Reilly. All the people saying Croatia are average should look at their qualifying and there record in world cups. They are probably better than Senegal

 

I think we beat Ghana i suspect it be Spence at left back and Quansah are right back for the Panama match.

 

I think ours was the second best performance of the tournament behind France. I think we'd have struggled a lot more against Senegal than Croatia

 

🚨🚨🎙️| Thomas Tuchel on photographers blocking his view during the national anthem:

“I’m 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 FIFA to 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 the position of photographers during the national anthem. I couldn’t see my team.

“I was waiting for this moment, it’s a very special moment, and I was… pic.twitter.com/iZPPZfdCAK

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) June 18, 2026

 

Congratulations to everyone here on the victory, England's second half is so far the best at this World Cup, I think it's the first time in about 15 years that I've seen England play like this, and of course I want to speak about Kane again, I would trade all of our Brazilian forwards for him alone, yesterday he was the best both in attack and as a box-to-box midfielder and in defensive actions, he dropped deep, played the ball, picked it up, blocked, yesterday he did absolutely everything, and also about Anderson, this is Tuchel's best discovery, since he broke into the starting lineup last year, now it seems like he has already been playing for England in this position for 10 years, if he continues at the same pace, he has very high chances of becoming the best midfielder in England's history, and England have had a lot of great midfielders.

 

Was he more of a defensive liability than Gvardiol on the opposing side? Which full back got ran several times and which didn't?

 

Can he mark Barcola/Dembele/Olise? That's where the back 4 can become an issue.
when it comes to the fine margins of winning a world cup.

 

Difference is Croatia don't have the physicality/pace/power of the England players. If O'rielly was on Croatia and Gvardiol was on England who would have done better? It becomes a hypothetical so we don't know but I don't think either are lock down fullbacks but few are these days. Theo Hernandez is not a very good defensive full back either. Same with Cancelo just about every team makes this trade off.

 

I thought o Reilly was ok but overcommitted

hopefully he will tone it down as he allowed his body position to let the attacker to go past him just by his position

 

This 'heat' thing irks me (petty perhaps I know), its just a VERY poor excuse for a bad performance, Madrid isn't 'hot' during the season so why can't the heat affect the Spanish? Germany is colder than England during the majority of a football season and as for Scotland!

So why do some people go on about 'the heat' and England all the time, why not the Norwegians, the Swedish, the Croats themselves - I've been to Zagreb in Winter time and its frigid there.

The only 'issue' some players may have moreso than others is perhaps sun burn - but even then why would that affect England more than other national teams?

Milan in mid-winter is actually 'on average' colder than London.

 

That's irrelevant.

Gvardiol is not English. My concerns are with Englands defensive frailtys, not Croatia's.
We won't play Croatia again for the remainder of the tournament

 

It semantics isn't it. Rover said Croatia are a top side, I said they're a good side and now you're saying that people have said they're an average side. All three adjectives mean different things. Personally I think they've declined from being a top side and are now a good side, better than average but not elite.

 

O'Reilly's general positioning troubles me more than his actual defensive work. Tuchel is obviously trying to get him to replicate the left-back-as-a-number-8 role he plays for City. But in the games he's played so far, it just seems to leave him caught between two stools - and England light on attacking width down that left hand side.

 

I broadly agree with you on Spence over O'Reilly when it comes to playing elite sides. @Catenaccio88 is right to say that there are trade offs with players like O'Reilly. Whilst he has holes in his game defensively he scored 9 goals for City last season, including 2 in a cup final. He came close to scoring twice last night as well. He's a major threat from set-pieces.

 

An 'average' elite side perhaps? Or maybe an 'elite' average side? Better than average but not elite? Worse than elite but better than average? A once elite side that's now a bit sub-elite or an average side that plays better than the sum of its parts.........the debate goes on :-D

I think they're like a lot of good teams - able to beat anybody on their day but subject to 'off' days. I actually thought they played quite well and looked pretty good in parts of yesterdays game.

 

My biggest 'whinge' about O'Reilly isn't even that he's in the team. I actually rate him very highly and think hes one of our most important players when England have the ball. And with the squad we're stuck with, I would also probably play him on the left over Spence (who's not a LB either).

My issue is that O'Reilly is defensively vulnerable without the ball and and in spite of many of us calling this out for months and Livramento pulling out injured last minute. Tuchel still didn't bring a single proper LB , when Lewis Hall & Luke Shaw were available.

If England were in a position with O'Reilly and Hall/Shaw in the squad, it would have been a game changer as we could have rotated them tailored to the opposition threat down that left side.

 

England have won 4-2 in a World Cup game for the first time since winning the 1966 final 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/L5iMNvnKyF

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) June 17, 2026

first 4-2 win at a world cup or euros since 1966 final.. its coming home?

 

Great analysis by big brad

 

Hope u smash Scotland