The reality is that this was another bore-fest. But I guess winning is all that matters. I do wonder though, that if this had been the style of football I had been introduced to all those years ago, whether I would have become so attached to it. Watching a plank warp springs to mind.
We have simply got to come good at some point. If we can fluke a borefest in the semi, I'll take coming good in the final
I’ve been a big critic of Southgate this tournament, but no complaints today - the Swiss are a difficult team to break down, they didn’t create much going forward, England’s switch in formation worked. I think we shaded the game overall, another improvement no doubt needed in the semis but we’re starting to see some players showing the or form - starting to hope?
I definitely get what you're saying, but at this stage it's knockout football. Winning is the only important thing really. Wednesday is another game.
Kids at school are absolutely loving it. I particularly enjoyed after the Denmark match when a group of year 7 lads were pretending to reenact the Denmark goal and one of the lads said excitedly ‘we should have had Earps in the net, she would have saved it’. It made me laugh because obviously the goal wasn’t the keeper’s fault and I really enjoyed that he knew the name of the women’s team goalie and clearly thinks highly of her.
Results trump performance but I can't help feeling tactically he's still falling short. The subs were too late but he was rescued by a great Saka strike. Maybe we're going to win the tournament playing this way, but I still think we're short upfront due to the way we're set up.
We're a lucky team and Southgate is a very lucky manager, that'll do for me if it lasts 2 more games.
Well that’s good to hear. Perhaps it’s simply that some of us think that football should be played at pace, and that this incessant passing but getting nowhere is just plain boring. But that’s probably just me being curmudgeonly.