Well its bollocks. Throughout the tournament England tried to play out from the back and make the pitch big. There were times when they actually passed their way through teams that did remind me of City - against Sweden in particular and in the first half against Croatia.
Then in the second half of the Croatia match they started going long. That I thought was a lack of composure not a lack of technique. Either way the ball kept coming back at us, to the point where a second goal was inevitable- the only question being whether we would nick one on the break or they would equalise.
What Souness doesn’t seem to get is that a long pass is part of this game plan, when used properly. If the opposition commit too many men to the press, go long and take them out of the game. We’ve seen many times Sterling or Sane come off the wing to find acres of space in the middle, to re dive a 60 yard pass from Ederson. The problem with the second half against Croatia was that became the default option, and they weren’t long passes, they were ‘hit and hope’ balls.
For Souness to criticise the way we played throughout the tournament based on the one half of a game where we didn’t try to pass our way through seems to me to be either guesswork from him, or - more probably - simple clickbait.
