Engerlund v Slovenia ..MDT

Well done Slovenia for making the knockout stages!

 

So Gordon comes on, stretches the game straight away and creates our best chance, despite having only six mins. What am I missing here? I'm a Southgate supporter but I think he's making life hard for himself.

 

I just think there's not remotely enough jeopardy to make the group games really interesting. Personally I'd expand it to 28 teams. 7 groups, top 2 plus best two 3rd place teams. Would make it a lot more exciting. Obviously it would make it nearly impossible not to qualify for the stronger nations, but I think it would definitely be worth it to see a group stage where getting 3 points is almost certainly not enough. Imagine how much more exciting tonight's game would have been if Slovenia had actually needed to win.

 

At one stage we had 3 number 10s on the pitch and no natural width.

Bellingham Foden Palmer.

I feel sorry for Foden having to play left hand side with no natural left back.

We are mid tournament and Southgate still does not know his best 11.

 

I'd have it down to 16. There's already way too much fodder involved.

 

You forgot to mention that our 2 goals both took deflections that could have gone anywhere and I agree that it must be galling for our young players to watch Slovenia celebrating when we have won the group. Southgate is holding us back.

 

I agree but our young lads should also be celebrating winning the group but that got totally lost in the negativity of Southgate's tactics.

 

But nobody's really taken a spanking so far, apart from the obvious. Most teams have looked pretty evenly matched, in a mostly mediocre fashion.

 

It really angers me seeing Foden out wide, and always having to run inside like he does, to try and create something.
Giuseppe (Pep) Guardiola must be laughing his ar*se of, at how Southgate plays one of his best Man City players!.

 

Imagine how the players feel leaving world class managers to then play under Southgate's tactics.

 

Fans literally asked for this.

I think Southgate has done this to prove a point.

Never mind though, we’ve won the group. We go again Sunday.

 

Fodder? The kind of fodder that England couldn't beat tonight?

 

No you must be taking the Mick, I refuse to believe people have such a lack of knowledge.

You're honestly taking the piss if the only thing you can take from that your love child is beating (drawing) a national league side. He's got the best national team in the world and Mr Southgate's "England DNA" is the reasons why many competent coaches bin it off, "oh you aren't playing to our DNA",. I'm sorry but you perpetuate the issue in our country with football, same people that haven't got a clue when it comes to the numbers placed in front of them. Move forward or die, you my friend are dead in the water

If you genuinely believe that it what constitutes coaching then you my friend are the problem

 

I agree but how do we qualify for these tournaments so easily playing against lesser sides? Things just don't seem right this time but luckily for us we might not have the toughest path.

 

Despite his record proving ( with all his perceived faults) that he is the best manager we've had since Ramsey...and arguably including Ramsey.
You obviously aren't old enough to remember when we regularly failed to qualify for the World Cup and Euro Championships...and sometimes didn't make it past the group stage.

 

How did England suddenly become the best team in the world?

 

I'm fascinated by the way you wrote his name. The unnecessary italics, the brackets, the way that you got his first name completely wrong, the fact that you could have just written his surname and everyone would have known who you meant. It's a postmodern masterpiece.

 

It really shouldn’t be that hard to take a core of talented English players from Man City & Arsenal - play them in the same formation and positions with many of the same teammates, and get them to look like they’ve some idea of what they are doing.

 

Southgate has upped expectation levels greatly from what we were like when he took over. We qualified with a game to spare topping the group and only conceding one. Only 7 more teams have done the same. I think people expected us to win all 3, which very few teams have managed.