World Cup 2018 | 3rd July | R16: Colombia vs England Match Thread, KO 19:00 (BST)

Looks like I'm in the minority, but I though penalty aside, Henderson was superb last night. He may be technically deficient, but his job, akin to that of Gareth Barry in his day, was to provide support in midfield and always be available for a pass.

Slogged his guts out in a a thankless role.

Also, I think Loftus-Cheek in years to come, would be incredible at that job.
 
Southbanken said:
  • Sterling has been bang average at best in the WC. Got to applaud his attitude, he has shown up and looked for the ball at every chance and never hidden, fair play to the lad.... but his end product has been rank, 3 - 4 times yesterday he ran up a blind alley, mis-controlled the ball on multiple occasions, it was hugely frustrating to watch. Having said that, we were worse as a team when he went off and i do take the point that maybe sometimes he is too quick some of his team mates. Its a quandry. I would genuinely think of dropping him for Rashford for Sweden.
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I think part of the reason people get hung up on Sterling is they don't understand his role. He's not being asked to play as a striker, the reason he's correctly a dead cert to start games is Southgate realises the complete lack of creativity from elsewhere. Sterling and Kane are the only players in the squad who can hold and use the ball well in the 10 position it's an obvious waste of Kane's finishing for him to do that so Sterling will play and when he doesn't England will 'mysteriously' look much worse without him. It happened yesterday until Kane started dropping off in the second half of extra time.

Rashford and Vardy can't fulfill the same role, if we had a midfielder who could use the ball well you could play one of them, we don't so you can't, or at least shouldn't.
 
Magicpole said:
That’s the spirit, go mental and enjoy the ride. I probably would too, being Scottish and prone to that sort of behaviour.
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It's already much better than most people were expecting.

There was an announcement to bus drivers yesterday afternoon when I was travelling into town "Any drivers not interested in watching England lose tonight, please call us"

That"s been the mentality of most people I know. So this is just fun now.
 
Southbanken said:
Sterling has been bang average at best in the WC. Got to applaud his attitude, he has shown up and looked for the ball at every chance and never hidden, fair play to the lad.... but his end product has been rank, 3 - 4 times yesterday he ran up a blind alley, mis-controlled the ball on multiple occasions, it was hugely frustrating to watch. Having said that, we were worse as a team when he went off and i do take the point that maybe sometimes he is too quick some of his team mates. Its a quandry. I would genuinely think of dropping him for Rashford for Sweden.
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I can't agree with that I'm afraid.

Sterling is a winger being asked to play as a forward. His main strength is running onto balls and running at players, not playing with his back to the goal in a central position with payers twice the size of him on his back the whole game. The problem is that England aren't playing to his strengths. They don't have any players in midfield who are capable of playing through balls for him to run onto.

During the tournament he has made countless runs into good positions that either haven't been seen or the player with the ball hasn't been able to make the pass. He has also on numerous occasions pulled the defenders out of position to give midfield players (usually Lingard) the space to run into and get a few chances.

You mention that his end product has been rank but I don't get what end product you are talking about. To the best of my knowledge he has had 1 chance in the whole tournament. A header that was saved but that Stones scored from, so hardly a disaster. Look at Kane. How many opportunities has he had to score really. He has scored 3 penalties, had a crazy deflection that he knew nothing about, a header from a corner and a tap in from a corner. I can't remember him missing any real chances other than that. Well, Sterling doesn't take the penalties, hasn't had the fortune to have the ball hit against his heel and deflect in and isn't going to win too many headers at corners. If the midfield create some chances for him and he messes them up, then have a go at him for that but when he has been given next to no real goal scoring opportunities, I don't really know what you expect his end product to be.

Play him out wide in his natural position (and/or with players that can play the passes he thrives on) and I think you'll see what a good player he is but in this formation, with the lack of creativity that England have, I think he's doing about as well as can be expected.
 
Salford_Blue said:
Looks like I'm in the minority, but I though penalty aside, Henderson was superb last night. He may be technically deficient, but his job, akin to that of Gareth Barry in his day, was to provide support in midfield and always be available for a pass.

Slogged his guts out in a a thankless role.

Also, I think Loftus-Cheek in years to come, would be incredible at that job.
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Agree Henderson was very good also young to don’t know why Southgate doesn’t try young and rose on that side instead of Ali who was poor.
 
Salford_Blue said:
Looks like I'm in the minority, but I though penalty aside, Henderson was superb last night. He may be technically deficient, but his job, akin to that of Gareth Barry in his day, was to provide support in midfield and always be available for a pass.

Slogged his guts out in a a thankless role.

Also, I think Loftus-Cheek in years to come, would be incredible at that job.
Click to expand...

I actually think Henderson has done very well too. I dont get the hate on here. Maybe because hes a Liverpool man? Or maybe it's how neutrals didnt rate a Barry type player as you say. We know hes not a world beater but hes given 110% and held our bang average midfield together pretty well. I think our spine of Pickford, Stones, Henderson and Kane can leave this world cup holding their head high. Mind you at this moment they all can
 
Salford_Blue said:
Looks like I'm in the minority, but I though penalty aside, Henderson was superb last night. He may be technically deficient, but his job, akin to that of Gareth Barry in his day, was to provide support in midfield and always be available for a pass.

Slogged his guts out in a a thankless role.

Also, I think Loftus-Cheek in years to come, would be incredible at that job.
Click to expand...


Really? Is that why he touched the ball fewer times than the keeper?
 
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