Tragic Football Stories - Let us Kick Around the misshapen Jabulani that is English football right here

Hard to see how putting I dunno Smalling or Cahill or ShawX in there would have helped.

too easy to say that theyd have won both headers! but even in the first half walker and stones were blind/short passing themselves into trouble.

theres more than maguire had earned a shot in a 3 and theyre ahead of the lads in your post above on merit (even just on the merit of havent been proven not to work, at least).

dyou think dele was a) injured all tournament or b) is not very good lately, and especially without eg eriksen?

not sure england alli is england level tbh.

There were plenty of occasions last night where Walker was there, outpacing the Croatia attackers and able to get to the ball ahead of them, snuffing out the attack in the process. I thought the back three in general moved the ball around well under pressure and helped turn defence into attack. Its significant that England didn't really resort to just lumping it upfield at any point.

We needed high ball playing defenders because what England transparently lack are central midfielders capable of moving the ball around quickly under pressure and really controlling the game, let alone a playmaker or anyone capable of playing a really incisive final pass. An energetic but limited player like Henderson was hopelessly overworked and I don't think Alli had a very good tournament.

Sterling's final ball was often bad but he was England's best attacking outlet and they were blunted when he went off. Croatia were struggling to deal with him.

ts significant that England didn't really resort to just lumping it upfield at any point.

breaking character to say, eh, that's what they did for the entire game. even when they were playing well. if you did a stastical analysis of pickford's kickouts i'd say he had about 30 and played 28 of them long, as long as possible. in the first half england bypassed midfield and pressed croatia's defence into having to lump it past midfield also.

i thought walker had a poor game. sterling looked extremely dangerous first-half but he makes such consistently awful decisions on the ball he might as well be aidan mcgeady sometimes. got that maddening thing where he shoots the time he should pass then next time passes the time he should shoot to make up for it.

Pickford's the exception there I think, his distribution was extremely wasteful - TBH I don't really have any major arguments with Southgate's tactics or starting XI decisions, it's more about the players who aren't there because they just don't exist in this country.

OTM about that particular habit of Sterling's though.

i think it's fair enough whatever way they want to play, but there looked to be a really determined long ball plan in the first half. sterling was way advanced and they kept hoofing it to him. it was working for a while but as croatia dropped deep the signs were there, even after a forty minutes or so, that they were going to dominate the ball and control the game. loftus-cheek might emerge and improve that side in the next few years, he uses the ball a bit better than some.

Also I think there's a difference between a decisive direct plan based on long passes (and they played plenty of short ones in tight situations as well) and ignoring the coach's instructions and just hoofing it because you can't think of anything else to do. Previous England defences would have been doing that pretty much from kick off.

I didn't know Fernando Hierro was Irish till this morning.

his mother was a gaeilgeoir from rossnowlagh

Have England got any youngsters coming through who are creative midfielders?

Grealish maybe?

Wilshere

winks isnt that but he is imo a possibility as a decent metronomic passer in a different formation

Phil Foden

arent there other injuries affecting that team reasonably significantly, tbf, tbf

rose fit for a start really changes things ito energy, ground covered and opposition stretched

lallana not the messiah but def the closest ye have to that missing player

AOC prob takes a sluggish Alli out of the running two games in, if hes not a starter in the middle

Lewis Cook could get there or therabouts in time maybe.

foden is the great hope but when I've seen him play he's been more of an attacking mf

dele knows how to milk moments perfectly and get an edge. won the fk last night.

think cook, winks, ward prowse prob more in the henderson role/area than any putative luke modrich

dele is a good deal better than a moments player, but hasnt been for some time now.

agreed that in those moments hes quite advanced for an english player in getting the required result

I keep forgetting that Harry Winks exists and he plays for us. If he'd been able to keep up the momentum from the first half of this season he would probably have been in the squad.

havent seen enough of (AM)RLC to know where he might sit

rashford development in the short term also dictates how the team might set up

course the next tournament will have a first xi full of players weve never heard of tbf, sean dyche probably working on the next england back four as we speak

xp no doubt at all winks makes the squad, quite possible he makes the first xi given injuries besides, but tbh youd need to see if he kicks on next year or not. still absurdly light on games.

for now hes prob best put down as dier-level option but in a cm passing role as opposed to enforcer

whens the season start lads my bloods up

heh

ross barkley lads

heh

dele's got that delish contempt and guile. I think the best thing about the england team has been the positional play and the runs. they were uncharacteristically fluid for a lot of the tournament & the maguire-stones-walker defence performed much better than I expected

all fair as is what most of matts been saying tbh

but stones walker fears arent based around the most of what they do, its the two things a game they do.

sean dyche probably working on the next england back four as we speak

He's got that Andrei Tarkovsky guy in this team already.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiAbbQOX4AEvE45.jpg

LOL

says more about shots on target than england, but lol nonetheless

How does that stat even work when England have scored 12 goals in 6 matches?

That’s from open play so free kicks, corners and penalties excluded, I guess. That’s how England scored most of their goals.

Not coming come but breaking records nonetheless.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44898458

Southgate so desperate to not pick Connor Coady that he reverts to a back 4

uh

winks

poch 4 england

i presume replay will show that as absolute thuggery

the fuck do refs still ignore this cunts violence

nonsense

pretty undignified stuff this from whatdyoucallhim

mind u losing 3-1 to an eric dier team must sting

seems a bit harsh moaning about this Rooney cap from anybody who didn't quibble about 50-odd before it

12 goals and 9 assists in 19 starts this season.

legend.

hello england's rose

is every BBC journo being bunged by UEFA to pretend this nonsense "competition" is good now?

England are celebrating this as though it's a World Cup semi-final.

It's their World Cup semi-final.

dont grouse lads if this young english team was anyone else we'd love em

Love Dele Alli? Like that's going to happen.

You have to admit there's something brilliantly batshit about a competition where if you win you go through to the semi-finals and if you lose you get relegated.