England – Same as it ever was

[Northumbiron]

That and trying to look tough!

[Siderite]

Bellingham is sensational though.

[Awaywego]

Goals change games and by wasn’t we lucky they didn’t score first, once the cloud lifted on 38 mins only one team in it, got lucky as well against the USA, not saying we can’t get lucky all the way to winning it some teams do, but if that 38 mins was against France we’d have been done for. Play at tempo for 90 mins don’t worry about the opposition let them worry about us. Ps would like Scunny to do the same if you don’t set out to win you won’t.

[Iron-awe]

Northumbiron wrote:

That and trying to look tough!

Must be an ex Mackem thing is it NI 🤔

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Northumbiron

[Deereyme66]

Sooner see his and Bellingham’s goal celebration than these ‘aren’t I amazing?’ celebrations Brazil and France do.

[Ferrite]

Another 3-0 win with the manager’s most-discussed selections all paying off in style? At some point, people are going to have to start giving Gareth Southgate some credit.

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Iron-awe, Pat O'Cake

[Deereyme66]

They’re waiting with the ‘told you so’s’ for the first thing to backfire.

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Ferrite

[MK Iron]

As an occasional critic of Southgate on here I just wanted summarise what I have said about him in the past so I am not accused of being smart after the event.

He seems a very nice man and obviously has talent as a man manager and a football coach.

I have no issue with his tactics when we are playing teams we probably should beat. In fact his record in these games is excellent. Other than Ramsey and Robson most previous England managers have struggled to even achieve this. So well done Gareth.

My issue with him is when we face an equal or better team. His inbuilt caution kicks in and he reverts to 5 at the back with 2 holding midfield players and tries to defend his way to victory while snatching a breakaway or set piece goal.

For some quality teams this works but for the current crop of England players all the positives are going forward and most of the negatives are in defence. Asking the Saka’s, Foden’s, Rashford’s, Sterling’s and Grealish’s to act as auxillary full backs focuses them on something they are not very good at and negates what they are good at.

Take the Croatia semi and the Italy final. Both against teams that were good but not really great. In both games he was given a winning lottery ticket with an early goal from an unlikely source. Both oppenents were rocking and shell shocked after conceding. Instead of unleashing the cavalry and getting the goal(s) that would have probably won those matches the team dropped deeper and deeper and barely laid a glove on the opposition after scoring.

To win this world cup he is probably going to have to beat 3 teams that are better than Croatia 2018 and Italy 2021. I don’t think he will do it with the tactics he has employed in the past when it gets to squeaky bum time.

I hope I am wrong obviously but I would rather get beat 4-3 by France, Spain or Brazil having given it a real go that slink out to a low scoring defeat or penalties after a snoozefest.

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Heath, Awaywego, Iron-awe, Siderite

[Ferrite]

MK Iron wrote:

Take the Croatia semi and the Italy final. Both against teams that were good but not really great. In both games he was given a winning lottery ticket with an early goal from an unlikely source. Both oppenents were rocking and shell shocked after conceding. Instead of unleashing the cavalry and getting the goal(s) that would have probably won those matches the team dropped deeper and deeper and barely laid a glove on the opposition after scoring.

I think in both cases the inability of English midfielders to keep the ball was the biggest issue, one which may well arise in the QF against France. Bellingham is a wonderful player but not sure we can expect a teenager to run the game against France.

I can understand where criticism of Southgate comes from at times but let’s be right, his teams are by some distance the most successful of my 40-something summers. Even Bobby Robson only managed it in one tournament, just shows how tough international tournaments are at the back end.

[TwoWrights]

Deereyme66 wrote:

They’re waiting with the ‘told you so’s’ for the first thing to backfire.

Deereyme66 wrote:

They’re waiting with the ‘told you so’s’ for the first thing to backfire.

And again, a successful England team is some ‘supporters’ worst nightmare.

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Ferrite

[Ferrite]

TwoWrights wrote:

And again, a successful England team is some ‘supporters’ worst nightmare.

Particularly the publishers of some of the country’s most popular newspapers.

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TwoWrights

[Awaywego]

I would say that England is most fans second or 3rd team, and we have the luxury of wanting a style of play we want the team to play and if it doesn’t come off so long as they gave it a go all well and good, obviously at club level things are different sometimes winning is everything we all know that over the last 3 seasons, but with the national side being outplayed by the USA and Senegal for 38mins when there was no need for it, it won’t ever endear me to Southgate, unlesss of course if he goes on to win it playing that way at times then he can have the keys to the Kingdom.

[MK Iron]

Slight change of topic but are we seeing the start of the demise of the European heavyweights of football?

Germany and Belgium out at the group stages. Spain booking their flights and Italy didn’t even qualify.

England or France will be home before the semis.

[Siderite]

Belgium have only been ‘heavyweights’ for less than a decade. Portugal will be favourites for their game against Morocco, provided Switzerland don’t stage a miraculous comeback as I type. Netherlands, France, us, Croatia and probably Portugal will still be in it.

South America has always had Argentina and Brazil as heavyweights and they have had a poor 20 years in the world cup. What we’re seeing is a resurgence of them more than anything. Europe still has the most quarter finalists.

These things ebb and flow. Just look at previous world cups. 2002 – France, Portugal out at the group stage, Netherlands didn’t qualify. 2010 – France, Italy out the group stage, England barely scraped through in a poor group. 2014 – England, Spain out of the group stage. 2018 – Italy don’t qualify, Netherlands don’t qualify, Germany out of the group stage.

It’s not much different than normal, except both Brazil and Argentina look like they could make the semi-finals reducing the usual 3+ European teams to probably 2. All 4 semi-finalists could still be European.

[Iron-awe]

Portugal looked to have unearthed another real talent in young Ramos, just in time as Ronaldo calls it a day, probably after this tournament. Wouldn’t surprise me if he jacks in the International scene after this World cup.

[Author]

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