Yeah both him and Gallagher should have been brought on at 3-0 against Wales and Senegal
Day 19: Morocco vs Portugal | England vs France (QF 3&4)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Yeah both him and Gallagher should have been brought on at 3-0 against Wales and Senegal
yeah, true they are gonna be a pain in the ass
They do lack imagination at times but where is the Scholes esque playmaker who could have made a creative difference? Every footballing team left in has a person who can pull the strings and identify the open spaces, Messi for Argentina, Griezeman for France and Modric for Croatia. England don't have a playmaker of that calibre and so despite being a very good football team can sometimes be a little too predictable.
Deal. Cheers.
How I miss those days when the ginger genius won all those World Cups...
England did well to defend for so long against such dangerous opposition but at the end of the day you can`t miss a penalty and win against France when you haven`t scored in open play up to that point. Harry K didn`t hold his nerve but that happens under pressure.
Sad for Harry Mac - he did the right thing with his heading and another defender was not there to stop Giroud. It happens. I thought he shouldn`t have been in the England squad to begin with but he was much better than expected and did the job to the extent that nobody should be abusing him for the loss.
Sad for Harry Mac - he did the right thing with his heading and another defender was not there to stop Giroud. It happens. I thought he shouldn`t have been in the England squad to begin with but he was much better than expected and did the job to the extent that nobody should be abusing him for the loss.
I think they do. Foden. The issue is they insist on using him as a wide player.
The other issue is Kane. He likes to occupy the space that a number 10 needs to operate.
What England really need to a metronome to sit in and pick passes from deep. Instead they rely too much on the CBs (predominantly Maguire), to get moves started.
Not one of the deeper CMs ever takes responsibility on the ball to be progressive. An older Scholes would be great tbh.
Didn't watch the game, how did it go?
Mount should have been that metronome imo but it never got going.
Ha - I notice your location is Croatia, well done to your national team if you are a Croat. I hope they win this World Cup now that England is gone.
He doesn’t have the passing ability or creativity to be the player that everything builds from.
Mount shouldn’t be near the best XI. There’s no clear position he excels in.
Let's no get back to our posts. I drank a bit and I should have not posted that tbh. I mean it's perfectly normal to think one of England or France will win it.
Let's be honest France is the favorite for the whole thing.
If we somehow win it. Uf. Can't imagine it, won't even to try to imagine it.
We're living the dream mate again. Yesterday started to talk to a friend in the sense imagine if we do it and we stopped imidiately. We don't dare to dream yet.
I think he had that potential but it never went of.
I think problem in England is more approach is made to physical strength and speed and less to technical ability in the sense of not producing Modrić type of players.
On the other side of coin we in Croatia don't produce wingers of produce very few of them.
Don't think you necessarily need a player like Modric. Liverpool dominated England and Europe with a midfield of Wijnaldum, Milner and Henderson.
Your username has not aged well, at all.
Football went home tonight 
England won easily
Mount is more of a proactive pressing AM (when fit and on form). He can pass but he doesn’t dictate the match. Ideally it should have been Rice but he didn’t have the best of tournaments.
The problem with our midfield is he religiously stuck to 4-3-3 but didn’t bring enough CMs for the system. I don’t believe Phillips was ever fit enough to warrant a selection. The options we left at home are pretty non-existent. He should have gone with a system more suited to the amount of 10s he picked.. say 4-2-3-1? He could have had Foden as a 10 and played Rashford who didn’t deserved to be dropped. Maybe given some minutes to Maddison? He is completely inept at using systems, he borrows them from other teams and it shows.
Let's no get back to our posts. I drank a bit and I should have not posted that tbh. I mean it's perfectly normal to think one of England or France will win it.
Let's be honest France is the favorite for the whole thing.
If we somehow win it. Uf. Can't imagine it, won't even to try to imagine it.
I hope you do. Mainly because you're not France Argentina or Morocco. Plus I once dated a Croatian. I still know all the curse words
Haha, we have plenty of those, that's the basics.
I think Southgate has taken England as far as he can and its time for a new manager.
The fact that France didn`t play the way as expected for such a dangerous attacking team doesn`t mean they were `very quiet`. Mbappe had an off night but France still won with two goals in open play. That tells us the quality of the France team even while England did make chances that they couldn`t put away.
But you can`t make chances and not score off them and win against a team like France. I thought the players putting in semi-crosses around the box was also a messy tactic.
Yeah true, Kane is a really good passer but I think you need a faster, lower centre of gravity player to occupy that main playmaking role. I haven't seen enough of Foden to know if he would be up to that task, might be worth experimenting.
England never built their team around Scholes though, they were utterly fixated on Gerrard / Lampard who were always a terrible fit and yet still the revisionist historians keep saying how this ridiculous pairing that led to England averaging about 4 passes per possession somehow underachieved. Scholes playing the Pirlo role for England surrounded by workers would have worked a charm, he was victim of a hysterical and clueless media however.
Go Croatia! I`ll happily watch them in the wee small hours of the morning and cheer them on.
True - I should ask the mods if I can change it to keano!keano!
You''re equating "fire" playing football with appealing for a throw in? To be clear, to me bravery playing football is nothing to do with running around like a madman, sticking your head into a melee or throwing yourself in front of a shot. Watch the game back, see how many times Rice feinted, and brought the ball away in a tight spot. I forget what minute it was, Foden had the ball on the near touchline half way inside our half. Rather than playing safe or clearing, he sent one the wrong way and skipped past two and had to be fouled. See how often Stones or Maguire actually step past a pressing attacker and into midfield. Bellingam and Saka play without a trace of fear. I don't see any of this team "damaged" by previous trauma, quite the opposite.
Madly appealing for throws that aren't your's means nothing to me. "Passion" has never in the history of the game won a football match. Its the oldest cliche in the world. When people bang on about "passion" and point to Morocco this tournament for example, its a massive disservice to their players, their ability and their systtem
These were, by a mile, the two best sides left in it, a good team had to lose today. Its a shame it was in the quarters so don't feel like we've progressed, but we have. In my opinion we lost today for a variety of 'smaller' reasons, that have nothing to do with "fire", that just added up against us:
- Kane missed a penalty that he scores 85%+ of the time
- The referee had a pretty poor game (e.g. no fouls on Saka a bunch of times, their first goal should have been a FK, England deserved at least a FK for the Kane challenge, Griezman should have been booked earlier imo etc.)
- I don't think our changes were brilliant. Henderson looked like this game was a yard too fast for him, I was hoping to see Grealish come on and Foden moved into the three because he was struggling to get into the game. I don't see why Saka was taken off unless he got a knock. Sterling should have been nowhere near tthe pitch. Didn't he arrive back in camp on the Friday, how prepared could he possibly have been for a WC QF on Saturday? I genuinely don't know what Southgate sees in Mount. I'm struggling to think of the last telling contribution he's made to this side. Grealish against some of those French defenders would have been interesting, they were leaving legs handing all over the place, Grealish draws fouls against good defenders, let alone that lot today.
- Lloris had an almost flawless game
France should have scored two more. One was a great save by Pickford with only him to beat. Giroud had a point blank volley. He just needed a bit of direction. Mind you both Maguire’s header and Rashford free kick were close too.
Didn't he turn bright red and catch fire if required to go outside in June though?
I agree with much of this, the Saka one wasn't a free kick, he fell over but there were others that should have been, I thought Rice had a great game, Henderson was OK but not as good as the last one, Mount and Sterling should have never been on, Southgate go this game tactically right but he let himself down with his subs
Pressure.
Add Brasil to that list.
Griezmann sensational in that #8 role too. We didn’t get a hold of him all game.
Sterling should have never ever got on, he went home for a while and hadn't been with the squad.
Keep Saka on and Bring on Rashford for Foden.
I was against bringing Ward-Prowse because I don't rate him as a midfielder, but he would have made sense coming in for Rice for the last 15-20 minutes just to take set pieces.
Though Southgate could have just gambled on playing Alexander-Arnold for the final 15 minutes against Mbappe, taken on Stones and you have Walker go out to him and Maguire marking Giroud, basically. Anything to get another killer pass or great set piece or cross.
Whyyyy did he change run up on that second one,damn it letting his club teammate get in his head at the wrong time.
Jeez don't say that I am finding in hard to forget about it. Definitely gonna be a sleepless night thinking what IF