Blue Maverick
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 6 Aug 2010
- Messages
- 21,813
Absolutely gutted I’ll probably is the semi as I’ll be up on the moors again, but I think we will get to the final and then it’s anyones to win
I've seen some of the footage of people celebrating around the country yesterday.
Most of it good natured but there's some right bellends out there as well.
Trashing cars. Invading furniture stores. Climbing all over buses.
If it weren't for the scare stories, some of them would be over in Russia now behaving like that.
I don't approve of "we should be happy to have reached a semi-final". With that thinking, we'll never win anything.
A better mantra is "never be satisfied".
I was once in the final of a prestigious TV quiz show, and one of my rivals said "I'm just happy to have got this far", and another said much the same thing. I wrote them off as serious rivals, 'cos they were losers, I could tell. And so it proved, to my advantage.
Anyone "happy" with second or third best will not progress.
bullseye?Er....."prestigious", I said
Match review... it would be easy to say Sweden were just poor but the same team and the same tactics beat Mexico, took Germany all the way and beat France in qualifying. I was really pleased with how well we handled them, it looked like we had a gameplan and the gameplan worked, promising signs.
Our boys all played well for me, Walker's pace has bailed us out at least once in each game we've played, Stones has been our best defender despite all the praise going to Maguire, Sterling to my eyes has started to relish the attention teams are giving him since the Colombia game because he has been causing panic more and more in opposition defences which puts teams on the back foot.
4 none City players that deserve a mention:
Maguire has justified his selection and thensome, seems to have formed a working partnership with Stones at the back. Kind of disappointed we didn't sign him in Jan in hindsight but then again Laporte would walk into this England team for me and I can see Stones forming a similar relationship with him in time.
Henderson had his best game in an England shirt for me, all the criticisms I usually have of him were nowhere to be seen in this game. He made vital tackles/blocks and he didn't pass sideways or backwards when a pass was on for a change, this is the version of Henderson that deserves the praise he was getting in the previous games.
Kane was surprisingly selfless in the game, dropping deep effectively and playing some excellent balls across field to get the team up the pitch. This was a really good, mature performance from him that made a big difference in the match.
Pickford again had the best performance he's had in an England shirt as was the case with most of the team lets face it but his distribution especially was the best I've ever seen from an English keeper.
Lingard... yes he's a rag but today's game really highlighted what he brings, he was tireless right up to full time, always willing to receive the ball and bagged himself an assist when it looked like it was going to be one of those days where the final ball wasn't going to come off in open play.
This was the best performance this England squad has ever produced for me, some may say Sweden didn't show up but I think that's a disservice to England who didn't allow them to play their game, Southgate got his tactics right in this one.