Testing ... aren't England superb tonight !

Well to be fair you should recognise poor when you see it

 

Southgate should be collecting his P45 shortly. The guy is ******* clueless. What the actual **** is he doing?!! No idea how to change a game.

 

...and the weakness to doing that is being hit by long balls. I realise the slow build up is Southgate's plan but if you don't mix it up against a pressing team they will just keep tightening that press and dominating. We saw that time and time again. It is vital you make the pressing team think twice.

 

Getting to the knock out stages of the world cup does not make you a poor team. Not being managed to best effect possibly but not a poor team.

Not qualifying to get there in the first place - that's how you define a poor team.

But never mind - there are going to be that many teams at the next world cup it will be harder to not qualify. Even Scotland might scrape through.

 

Who have you drawn mate?

 

I'm quite satisfied with tonights performance against a spirited USA.

Credit to them (USA) they played well.

As for us we need to lose 0-5 to Wales to go out. I'm shittin' mi' sen.

Another win for our sensationalist media.

What do they, you and them want? Southgate sacked in group stage for not bringing on Foden?

Whisk in Eriksen, Capello, Keegan or Hoddle? Nah dint think so.

Suck it up and get behind them.

We'll bah ter them sheep shagging nobodies.

 

Nobody is giving the USA enough credit. I thought they were excellent. This was always going to be a tough game. Anybody who expected us to steam roller them like we did Iran was not being realistic.

 

Spot on.

 

Of course. Ian follows Barnsley and Dundee Utd

 

imho the USA were good and deserved more than their point.
Before the game i predicted 1...1 and an hard earned point
England were very poor. It looked to me as though we were trying to beat the first high press by inviting them on and passing along the back four and Rice to do so then going beyond that by going through or over the press. It didn't work because we were pedestrian in our play, sloppy in our passing and labored in our overall play. Only Grealish looked like he could break the lines and create something.
I like Southgate but I just don't see what Mount brings (better option Foden by far) and we do have other good options.
Kane looks like he needs a rest and Stirling looked poor.
For next game we need to brighten ourselves up and quicken our passing. There are some very good technical quick attacking players in this squad.....use them and that should start with foden, probably one of the best players in the country who inexplicably can't get a start.

 

We always have one really bad performance in a tournament. It was the Scotland game last year, Belgium in the last World Cup. We'll be fine against Wales.

 

Most of us from our experience kno that the beating of the high press is the ball over the top with pace players running through or the individual skill players beating the back line...so why not start with Foden and Grealish with Saka and Rashford as runners...sadly the best defender last night was Kane

 

Individual performances were below par last night, which isn't Southgate's fault. USA were very energetic and probably edged it but I can't remember them having a shot on target or missing a gimme. Half chances were split about evenly for the two teams.

The criticism of a team that has won 6-2, drawn against a very competitive USA team and all but qualified for the knockout stages is, as ever, crackers, as is the criticism of a manager who has taken us to a semifinal and a final in the last two competitions.

 

They needed Dike to actually put the ball in the net though . Pickford didn't really have many saves to make

 

Kieran "foot on ball and go backwards" Trippier, god we're missing Walker.

 

I have said for some time that we got to the semi and final of those competitions despite him, not because of him.

His weaknesses are obvious and repetitive and he does nothing to alter it.

He picks a team and that’s it. They go out on to the pitch against decent but not great sides in the early stages, sometimes muller teams, sometimes not - and if it isn’t going right, if something needs changing, he does nothing at all to adjust tactically. Then when we come up against better sides in the latter stages we stop playing when getting in front and try to see it out. And fail.

He continually picks his favourites - which would be fine but performances don’t warrant the selection of several. Maguire? Has to play. Was good defensively last night - but his threat from set pieces at the other end is as massive as his forehead. I agree on his selection.

I wouldn’t pick Saka - though I can’t argue he shouldn’t be near the starting eleven. Just wouldn’t be in mine. Though fair enough.

Sterling - way out of form, for club too. He does have some credit in the bank.

But nobody will ever convince me that Mason Mount doesn’t have secrets or evidential photographs on Southgate because he’s absolute garbage four out of five games for England. With much better in the shape of Foden, Grealish, Rashford. Maddison when he’s fit. To be honest I’d even rank Conor Gallagher higher. But he’s always in the team and even with two performances of poor quality in this tournament he’ll still start. I don’t get it.

Trippier, selected due to his superior set piece delivery I reckon. He looked very suspect defensively at times last night, meaning any argument you can’t play Alexander-Arnold is a bit moot, and was both wasteful and negative in possession - he will start the knockout game though, even if not the Wales game.

 

Too many safe passes for my liking. It's football, not chess. Go as far as you can in the tournament by playing positive, attacking, entertaining football, or don't bother at all.

 

I think the mentality must be in the players heads that if we don't actually need to win, why should we?

 

Southgate has held England back since he took over. As troff said we've achieved in spite of him not because of him. Lost a WC SF and the euro final because he is craven and negative.
America were always going to be well organised and we did nothing but pass around in defence and in front of them. No pace, no attempt to break the lines. The US hit the bar and missed two great chances. Every team is allowed a bad performance but to watch a bad performance unfold and do nothing to improve it was shocking.