England v France - Sat 10th Dec, 19:00 | Quarter-final | World Cup 2022

[iTyler]

I can only assume that you're a West Ham fan.

Rice is reactive and gets away with a lot of poor decisions. He doesn't (can't?) read a game, os frequently out of position, and offers little help to the defence.

He's got a lot to learn and is a long way from being an 'elite level' player. He's usually run himself out by 65 to 75 minutes and exposes the defence. As a DM, he's a weak link.

Phillips may not be the finished article yet, but he reads a game well and doesn't waste effort. He should start v France instead of Rice.

A West Ham fan because unlike yourself I rate Rice?

Complete clown. You're probably about 15.

 

[Lavinda Past]

A West Ham fan because unlike yourself I rate Rice?

Complete clown. You're probably about 15.

Great comeback. Be proud of yourself.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

France aren't anything to be frightened of. if you attack them they are really passive and can be got at, the problem is we have waistcoat as manager who is very likely to shit his pants and do the exact opposite to that.

If you're Mbappe you don't even bother coming up against Walker, he was pocketed everytime he's come up against him in the champions league. (all the pundits seem to be oblivious to those games) if you're mbappe you just switch flanks and target Shaw and Maguire.

Were capable of beating them but i expect them to punish us badly from our mistakes, our midfield just isn't capable of not making shitty mistakes to stifle them.

Whilst true; Walker, since the back end of last season has lost a tremendous amount of acceleration and pace. Still very quick, but yet to regain that explosive, unrelenting physicality he once had.

 

[Djibrilshairdo]

The lads just need to turn out in one of the many unused German kits still knocking about and the French will be on the knees arses in the air immediately. 3 - 2 to the rost beoufs.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

All day long France by two clear goals. No contest.

BigJoe; from Scotland, Wales, or elsewhere?

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Keys to winning…

1) Stop Mbappe from turning
2) Defend him high up the field
3) Have RM/RCB support for the ball in behind.
4) Track the midfield runner.
5) Score 1 more goal than them!

 

[yankblue]

Looking forward to this one as a neutral.

I think England has more talent and depth all around, but France has the difference makers, Mbappe is on another level right now.

I'm leaning towards an England victory, but my concern is Southgate will set up too defensively to mitigate France's attack and the team will suffer.

Either way can't wait, hoping for a Spain- Portugal quarter as well so I can watch the world burn.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Well you would think and hope that England will be a bit more switched on from the off against team that can really hurt you like France. England were poor for half an hour against Senegal but I always had the feeling the players knew they were simply better and would start to turn the screw sooner or later. Which they did. We were never in any real danger.

I'm certainly no fan of Maguire but I can almost guarantee you he's nowhere near as slack with his passing on Saturday than he was against Senegal. The players will have a completely different mindset and concentration will be much higher from the off.

In defence of Maguire ( I’ll wash
my mouth out later) sometimes offer very little movement in front of him when he has the ball, so he’s having to try to thread difficult passes or get closed down. Obviously these passes don’t come off sometimes and it comes across as him being sloppy.

Don’t get me wrong, he certainly has a mistake in him as we’ve seen before, but I think if our midfield had better movement off the ball, it would make our defenders life easier when playing out from the back. Look how many often our defence was having to pass it among themselves yesterday. It wasn’t just down to Senegal pressing well, it’s because we were static in midfield for 30 minutes and made it easy for them to press.

 

[Crooked_rain]

I'm leaning towards an England victory, but my concern is Southgate will set up too defensively to mitigate France's attack and the team will suffer.

That’s my concern

If he goes to a back 5, we’ll get overrun in midfield like we did v Croatia and Italy. Plus Griezmann also drops into midfield at times, and that could leave us even more outnumbered in the middle of the park.

If Southgate reverts back to that in this game and goes in with a very defensive mentality , I think that means he hasn’t learned any lessons from those games. You simply can’t allow yourself to be overrun and outnumbered in midfield at this level.

I don’t think you need to play with extra defenders to stop someone like Mbappé, you would be better off being much more competitive in the midfield so they can’t get the ball to him at will because they outnumber you. Then just make sure one of your midfielders can get back and double up when needed.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Rice for weakest link?! On what planet?

I try to get that everybody has differing opinions but I really struggle to see what others somehow see at times. I mean, Jesus Christ.

Rice is rightly one of the first names on the team sheet when fit.

The thing with Rice is that he might be one of the first names on the team sheet but it’s largely because there’s not much real competition in that specific role he being asked to play. We have no outstanding player to play that exact role he is. So he’s just the best choice of what’s available.

I think rice is a good player but I actually think he would be more suited to doing the role Henderson was asked to do v Senegal, covering more of the midfield area. I just don’t think rice excels if he’s asked to shield the defence and also be the player to get things moving after receiving the ball from the back.

That’s not knocking him, I just think the job he’s being asked to do sometimes negates his best attributes and sometimes highlights parts of the game he isn’t quite as good at.