England - Euro 2021 Discussion | FA chairman: Southgate to be offered new contract until Euro 2024

Good/decent performance I thought, if a bit dull at times. Heat probably played a part in that. Should win the group comfortably.
 
Seem like a win, but the performance was complete crap. After we scored one goal, we went ultra defence mode. Horrible performance.

Fortunately, Croatia were trash. Play like that against any decent team, and we will get hammered.
 
Comfortable but Croatia were very poor. Aside from Modric and occasionally Kovacic they could barely pass the ball. Loosing Mandzukic, Rakitic, Lovren etc is just too much for a team like Croatia that doesn't have replacements.

For England when they run into a team like Germany or France (possible in the next round if they top the group) this team won't cut it, defensively it's good but in attack it'll struggle.
 
Jordan Henderson has time to learn some new card tricks.
 
Southgate, for all his faults, clearly got the tactics right today. Not at any point in the game did Croatia look threatening, and that was down to the system 100%.

Also, footballs coming home.
 
It’s coming home. Nice to start with a win. But Croatia looked poor and we looked pretty average with a moment of quality.
 
From the POV of someone who doesn't want England to win this tournament, the best outcome is probably that England crawl through the group stage like this with Southgate learning all the wrong lessons from his team selections. Because those aspects need to improve before they encounter the likes of France or Portugal. If he were to pick this side against one of the better teams...
 
Pretty comfortable win. I'd bring Grealish in for Foden and an actual left back against Scotland and Czech. Credit to Mings and Philips today.
 
Mixed feelings. Obviously the 3 points are huge but I’m not so sure about the performance, we started well but dropped off massively. Just not sure about the overall line up either.

Philips looks like a top player, every time I watch him he’s good. Would love him at United.
 
Should be a confidence boosting win, but also there's some pretty obvious changes that I'm not sure Southgate will make. Would take out both wingers and both fullbacks for Shaw, James, Rashford and Sancho in the next one.
 
Football's coming home! Frank and David mean it this time!
 
Apart from the first 20 minutes, Croatia were the better team imo. I sincerely hope this team stacked with so much talent isn't hindered by terrible management. I would take Sterling off for Rashford, drop one of Rice or Kalvin (even though the latter was my MOTM for this game), to bring Grealish in and play Shaw as LB.

I don't think going with two defensive minded players in the middle of the park, when this squad is so stacked with incredible attacking talent is the right move. Its clear where England's strengths are.
 
Don't know what to say about that performance. Guess I will just call it a professional one.
 
Apart from the first 20 minutes, Croatia were the better team imo. I sincerely hope this team stacked with so much talent isn't hindered by terrible management.
I don't think so. They didn't have any decent chances or test Pickford at all.
 
Apart from the first 20 minutes, Croatia were the better team imo. I sincerely hope this team stacked with so much talent isn't hindered by terrible management.

Did you rewatch the WC semi-final by mistake..?
 
Apart from the first 20 minutes, Croatia were the better team imo. I sincerely hope this team stacked with so much talent isn't hindered by terrible management.

Absolute bollocks, you're welcome to have an opinion, but England were never remotely in any danger, and barely had to get going. Croatia look very much a spent force.
 
Croatia looks abysmal, it actually says a lot that England should have done better
 
England on for another rousing display of barely scraping past the shite and getting knocked out by the first half decent team they play, then.
 
What was the reasoning for dropping both of his natural left backs to play a right back at LB? Surely that's got to be a bit of a slap in the face to Shaw and Chilwell.
 
Such a conservative setup. Why is trippier left back when Shaw would offer so much more?
Why do you need 2 DMs?
Foden at right wing?
Pickford looks like a Sunday league keeper
Finally still can’t get over that Mings is an international player
 
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Absolute bollocks, you're welcome to have an opinion, but England were never remotely in any danger, and barely had to get going. Croatia look very much a spent force.

England did feck all after that first 20 minutes, had less posession and created the same amount of chances as Croatia as a whole. It was a very uninspiring performance for a team so gifted. The goal was very scrappy and gifted to them too. They need to severely improve if they want to stand a chance of winning this tournament based on that showing.
 
Disagree he had an okay World Cup but it took him years and years of shocking displays in an England shirt. He’s been given more chances than anyone else bar Kane and has delivered the bare minimum.
Still, you can only judge on recent history and, since 2018, he's been up there with Kane for us. Helps a tonne with his press resistance and has started scoring for us. How many did he score in qualifying again? It was a lot!

As expected, he delivered again today.
 
Even though this'll probably end the same way it usually does, I bloody love an international tournament with England :lol: there's something so heart warming about it all.
 
I'm sorry but today has not convinced me at all. It was a genuinely dreadful Croatian performance and yet England well full-defensive in the 70th minute. Any better opponent (France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium) and they will get slaughtered with the same starting 11.
 
Croatia were poor, and England were.....okay verging on good, but let's not underestimate how good a win this was. We didn't allow them to control the midfield, as seemed likely beforehand. We look a more mature team now and we could go far in this tournament.

The good -

The shape of the team was mostly right, in terms of controlling the match. Philips playing more advanced was a solid move that worked

Mings, Philips, Foden, Mount - all good performances

The bad -

Full backs - Walker was poor and Trippier was okay, but I didn't see any point in being 'creative' by not playing Shaw or Chilwell. I still think a Shaw/Rashford left side is how we win this thing

Sterling - scored the goal but thought he was poor overall. We won't win the tournament with a Sterling, Foden wing duo


Overall though this is a huge win. We should beat Scotland and the Czechs and if we do then we go into the knockouts with some momentum, but as said i dont think this is the team to win this thing. Kane needs more service, but an encouraging start
 
Winning the game is all that matters, if anything coming out and winning 3-0 would start the hype train way too soon. Plenty more to come from this lot.
 
Such a conservative setup. Why is trippier left back when Shaw would offer so much more?
Why do you need 3 DMs?
Foden at right wing?
Pickford looks like a Sunday league keeper
Finally still can’t get over that Mings is an international player
Sometimes you can't question a genius

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We were pretty rubbish and didn’t really do anything. All the pundits are going on and on like we won 4-0. The performance was really lacking in my opinion.
 
It's a shame he'll play that exact team against Scotland now, but oh well. We are the best.
Foden will definitely come out, but I see few changes other than that.