International Football Match Thread 2018

cleavers said:
I don't disagree, he'll pick Henderson in the next game.

Good counter attack is what that team can do, he played to the strengths against one of the best teams in the world, who haven't lost a home game for 15 years, and won, its easy to knock it, and I regularly knock England and international football, but they played well tonight, clinical counter attack first half, and mostly solid defending second half.
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The problem england have is that through most qualifying they can’t play counter attacking because we play fodder and the public won’t acceot it. When we get to a decent team(World Cup we had one) we haven’t done it enough. We are bang average but with some useful players. Anyone subjective knows we could play Spain next week and get beat. If we play well over a number of games then get hopeful. But the World Cup and these nation games shows us were a bit a average. It’s not a slight just the way it is.

Good win though.
 
hilts said:
The problem england have is that through most qualifying they can’t play counter attacking because we play fodder and the public won’t acceot it. When we get to a decent team(World Cup we had one) we haven’t done it enough. We are bang average but with some useful players. Anyone subjective knows we could play Spain next week and get beat. If we play well over a number of games then get hopeful. But the World Cup and these nation games shows us were a bit a average. It’s not a slight just the way it is.

Good win though.
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It doesn't matter and anyone objective will recognise we beat Spain tonight.
 
cleavers said:
Its not one game though, its 12 months with a few setbacks.

Southgate, like him or not, has changed the way England play, he's gone to a much younger team (England's youngest starting line up since 1959 tonight), he's trying to change things, it won't happen all at once.

Its worth pointing that out again though, Englands youngest starting team for 59 years, have beaten Spain away, their first defeat at home in 15 years.
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You have just said it’s not one game but highlighted one game. The World Cup was not special in anyway no matter how much people try to convince themselves it was.
 
prestonibbo_mcfc said:
It doesn't matter and anyone objective will recognise we beat Spain tonight.
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Yes we beat Spain I watched it. Are we a good team? No. Will we be a good team? I hope so but we need 4 or 5 players from somewhere to step up. If we played a tournament next week barring a flukey smash and grab we get knocked out. We might even get beat by a poor team.
 
hilts said:
The problem england have is that through most qualifying they can’t play counter attacking because we play fodder and the public won’t acceot it. When we get to a decent team(World Cup we had one) we haven’t done it enough. We are bang average but with some useful players. Anyone subjective knows we could play Spain next week and get beat. If we play well over a number of games then get hopeful. But the World Cup and these nation games shows us were a bit a average. It’s not a slight just the way it is.

Good win though.
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That's why this much maligned competition is better than friendlies, it actually means something, we're not playing "fodder" as you call them.

If England had lost tonight, there was a serious risk they could be relegated to the second level of this competition next time round.

Spain themselves were very keen not to lose their fantastic home record in that second half, but they still did. Its far more than a "good win" for me, its a sign that there is big improvement.

Could we lose to them next week, of course we could, they're Spain, and have a better squad to pick from than we do.
 
hilts said:
Yes we beat Spain I watched it. Are we a good team? No. Will we be a good team? I hope so but we need 4 or 5 players from somewhere to step up. If we played a tournament next week barring a flukey smash and grab we get knocked out. We might even get beat by a poor team.
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But in the last tournament, this year you'll recall, we didn't get beaten by a poor team. In fact they were good teams who were going to knock England out, right up to the point they didn't, then they became poor teams again.
 
hilts said:
Yes we beat Spain I watched it. Are we a good team? No. Will we be a good team? I hope so but we need 4 or 5 players from somewhere to step up. If we played a tournament next week barring a flukey smash and grab we get knocked out. We might even get beat by a poor team.
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I thought we played a lot more football in the middle of the park, than we have recently. Well first half anyway.
We sat back far too much second half and winks and Barkley looked knackered from the start of it.
We need to be able to keep playing, no matter what, for 90 minutes. It looks like there could be the seeds of us
getting a decent side back. That depends heavily on Southgate sticking with the youngsters and not re-engaging with
the experienced donkeys we have. They should be sent to Blackpool, forthwith ;-)
 
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