I loved that they were out of France 98 before that even charted.
He's so ridiculously out of his depth at this level but the manager loves him.Any moment now this O’Donnell bloke is going to rip off a Scooby Doo mask to reveal Tony Hibbert.
If that Stones header went in you’d have played the exact same game 3 times.Not sure this England performance has been any better than before. They just made the one moment of class count.
Set piece delivery has been universally atrocious. Not great since it's usually one of our better chances for a goal.
The defense was exposed a fair few times in that second half. Somehow with two deep central midfielders we'd left gaps everywhere.If that Stones header went in you’d have played the exact same game 3 times.
The defence gives you a chance against anyone tbf. I don’t mean to be constantly negative about England but I just can’t really get over the pre-tournament favourites tag.
Should be better next week with half capacity and knockout tension. 5pm KO a downer thoughYeah just incredibly dull rather than actively bad.
I guess it is at least in part because of the capacity percentage allowed but the atmosphere feels so flat compared to other teams that are hosting matches. Obviously Denmark has been a special case but Italy have really felt like a home side in a major tournament. England's games feel a bit like qualification matches.
Yeah this is the thing. All properly good defensive teams now are good at retaining the ball.For me, the problem wasn't so much the dullness (which doesn't bother me so much) as the inability to retain possession for much of the second half, and better teams will punish us for that. I don't know whether that was due to Rice coming off, or whether that was coincidental. The plusses were Saka being much better than I had realised and most of the back four playing well; Shaw the exception, and I wonder whether Trippier will return next time. I thought Grealish was increasingly anonymous in the second half, so I wouldn't blame Southgate for taking him off.
If Mount can’t play for the last 16 we will move to 343 with Sterling, Kane, another (not Sancho) as the front three. At every decision point Southgate chooses the negative/conservative/defensive option. Would never be happier to be proven wrong, we aren’t good enough defensively to just be able to sit back.
Seemed as if Sara and Grealish got an earful at half time for being to progressive.
I actually wouldn't hate us playing a 343 in theory because you'd think it'd at least force the wingbacks to get forward. I've banged the drum a few times in this thread already but the few spells we've been dangerous so far have generally coincided with the full backs getting forward in support, as they did for the first 30 minutes or so of both this and the Croatia game.If Mount can’t play for the last 16 we will move to 343 with Sterling, Kane, another (not Sancho) as the front three. At every decision point Southgate chooses the negative/conservative/defensive option. Would never be happier to be proven wrong, we aren’t good enough defensively to just be able to sit back.
Seemed as if Sara and Grealish got an earful at half time for being to progressive.