Gareth Southgate

Happy the way Southgate wants us to play but he got lucky with draw we got plus seems like Ali and Kane are the untouchables! Rashdord for Ali Delph for Kane Dier for Henderson.

I'm a little more worried about that idea than anything to do with tactics. I really don't want to see us go into another generation of players with golden boys who are immune to dropping. Kane was incredibly poor over the last 2 games and shouldn't take his place for granted. However, I admit that the quarter and semi finals of a world cup is no time to be changing your main striker, especially with the prospect of penalties.

I think on the whole he did a good job with the players he had. Henderson, Alli and Lingard are just fundamentally limited footballers, nowhere near the class of Modric, Rakitic, De Bruyne, etc. Lingard actually surprised me. By the end of the tournament I warmed to him quite a bit. But as a collective those 3 still never did enough to get the ball up the pitch in a meaningful way, making the right decisions in the attacking third. Not one of them showed any ability to play Sterling in behind, balls he gets about 10 a match of from De Bruyne or Silva. It's no surprise we needed set pieces for so many of our goals. Henderson in particular should be ashamed. A midfield general who never shows for the ball, and when it ends up at his feet he either plays it back to Stones or hoofs it nowhere. Alli I think you could put a bit up to not being fit, as he has at least shown some promise for Spurs, but is he going to kick on? (Perhaps Crouchinho can chime in here). He seemed to get injured (In the first game I believe?), should have come off then but came back out after the break and was poor, and that theme just kinda persisted. A late goal papered over many cracks IMO.

I don't have much problem with Stones and Maguire as our centre backs. Both are young and both suffer from lapses, Maguire slightly more so. But at least he never hid and was willing to bring the ball out. A tremendous amount fell on Stones to start our attacks. Walker isn't a right sided centre back but did alright considering.

Trippier had a good tournament. Not just saying that because of his goal, which was fantastic, but he looked like he gave his all for the team whenever he was on. Did some solid defending and ok attacking. He's no Alves or Marcello but never felt like a weak link.

Young I assume was there for set pieces, because he's not a patch on Delph as a left back, and is showing his age. Other than Delph though who else could we have played there? I'd rather not see him at Euro 2020.

Kane is Kane. He'll frustrate us for 89 minutes and still manage to score. You can't argue with the numbers he puts up really. Would love to know what happened to him in the quarter and semi finals as he never struck me as someone who wouldn't charge themselves out for England.

Sterling, I just wanted him to get that goal. He was so pivotal to whatever open play attacking we tried to muster. His first touch deserted him too often and there were a couple of occasions he should have scored (even if one was offside), but if other fans couldn't see how his mere presence kept the entire opposition back line on watch I really don't know what to tell you. We were noticeably worse every time he was subbed off. Can only hope he continues to impress under Guardiola and goes into the next tournament with even more confidence.

Dier. No. Never again. We *have* to find someone faster of thought and foot to bring on if we want to close out a game. He is at best a 93rd minute sub to waste time/maybe defend one final set piece.

One of the main takeaways from all of that is how desperate we are for at least two very good midfielders. If we swap Henderson for Modric and Alli for Rakitic last night we win that game at a canter.
 
We should definitely stick with Southgate for the next couple of tournaments. The only way we can continue to have this strong epl and combine that with a strong England side is to treat them as separate entities. It is not up to the epl to produce talent, it is up to the fa and St. George’s park. Continue with this England dna and identity, let these players grow up together and bond as a unit. If epl clubs are not going to play them and nurture them ship them out to the top leagues in Europe, it clearly helps every other national side’s players plying their trade in foreign leagues.
 
pretty much agree with most comments on here. GS dignified level headed and appears his own man. did what he could with tools he had although tactically caught out a little last night.
I felt at 1 nil up in second half he didn't know whether to stick or twist. inevitably conceeded territory and possession to technically better players.
personally I would have liked to have seen 4 3 3 with Radford left sterling right and vardy through the middle. the ability to track back and threat going forward would have stopped Croatia camping in our half.
Kane- generally been poor to me all tournament, no leadership that I could see. I think making him captain may well hamstring England going forward. on the basis on this tournamount stones or Maguire stand out leaders for me. captain stones sounds good.
hopefully city offer Gareth a flat at the train ing ground and an opportunity to learn from guarduola and develop some of the kids esp foden.
 
Trying to understand why our midfield was exhausted in 2nd half. Surely Croatia were the ones who played more than we did throughout the WC yet their stamina was never in question.
When we stopped trying to feed RS they could attack in numbers without fear and this lost us the game by surrendering the initiative to a good side,
 
he desperately desperately needs a midfielder who can a) play nice creative stuff going forward and b) put his foot on the thing every so often and move it side to side.

the naivety with which England attacked was a bit jarring and the whole team going forward was a bit piss poor, but defensively they're ok and from set pieces he's got it going.
 
Wolf in a sheep's waistcoat. Led us to believe long ball football was dead, then played long ball football.
 
Last night he let himself and the team down, taking Sterling off was a disaster for a start, playing Kane so deep and hoof ball to nobody, first half was fairly decent but second half was awful in every way??
 
Last night he let himself and the team down, taking Sterling off was a disaster for a start, playing Kane so deep and hoof ball to nobody, first half was fairly decent but second half was awful in every way??
Having thought about it I now think his biggest mistake was not realising/reacting to England losing the midfield battle completely from the start of the second half.

Henderson was back to his overrated self after a good game against Sweden but it wasn't helped by what was happening down the left side of the pitch. On the left side of midfield Alli offered no closing down(nothing going forward either) or much running that I could see. At left wing back Young had his worst game of the WC, it was also the same side of defence which our LCB Maguire was doing the occasional roam forward on so it's no wonder that they started to turn the game around on that side of the field.

Meanwhile on the bench we had Rose and Delph who could have covered LB when Rose went high adding some immediate balance and help for Henderson. What he did was wait far too long to bring Rose on(can't recall what minute that was but seem to remember it being in extra time) and leaving the midfield as it was.

Kane was also poor, he apparently did a lot of running off camera but I can't remember him seeing that much of the ball or doing much closing down even if he was dropping deep. The brave move would have been to bring Rashford or Vardy on for Kane and not bank on holding out for penalties.

The choice to take Sterling off as a solution to what was unfolding infront of him either says:

He didn't have the faith that the team could win it without holding on for a penalty shootout(or a set piece)

Or

That he gave in to the demands of the fans such as "Sterling out Rashford in, is the answer to all our problems" and some of the "star" players' egos such as Alli lasting 120mins because of the tantrum he had when subbed off against Sweden, i.e putting stars players happiness over the good of the team perhaps?
 
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Last night he let himself and the team down, taking Sterling off was a disaster for a start, playing Kane so deep and hoof ball to nobody, first half was fairly decent but second half was awful in every way??
Can’t disagree with any of that
 

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